Dragon Ball Super — Episode 77 Review

Slight spoilers may be talked about below, so please be sure to watch the latest episode before reading on! This review is based off of the dub version of Super that currently airs on Toonami.

It has begun! We’re finally in the final arc of Dragon Ball Super, “The Tournament of Power” or as some people like to call it, “the Universal Survival” arc. In Episode 77, all the key players are present and we get to see the genesis of the tournament and how it all comes together. Ironically Goku has a heavy hand to play in this.

We start off with a little prelude of the two Zenos, current Zenos and Future Zenos playing a marble like game inside their palace located somewhere in the depths of the cosmos. They are bored out of their minds as they keep playing their marble game, that suspiciously uses marbles that look like planets. They sigh and keep on playing, we then cut away to two randoms planets in space colliding into each other confirming that the Zenos were in fact destroying planets by colliding them into each other for whoever knows how long!

Shifting gears to Goku, we catch up with him and finally see all that handwork at the farm of his paying off with him dropping off vegetables at a farmer market. This is mostly cause of Chi Chi, ordering him to go out and make a living for the rest of the family. Goku gets paid by a few vendors and he drives off in Bulma’s Capsule Corp van. Next Goku is driving in the desert and see’s a guy stranded on the side of the road, he pulls up and fixes the guys car but immediately the guy pulls out a gun and the rest of his gang comes out of hiding pointing all their guns at Goku. Goku being completely clueless at first is wondering what’s happening and even says that he can’t give the van away otherwise Bulma is going to get mad at him. But then Goku’s demeanor changes instantly the moment they start firing at him, but Goku being as overpowered as he is makes super-short work of the bandits. Yet in the process of not having anyone tough to fight, Goku actually gets careless and a bullet does graze him in the scuffle.

Later Goku being Goku then gets the itch to train again. First he calls up Krillian but Krillian is being a cop at the moment so he can’t train with him, then he calls up Whis who agrees to train the Saiyan but under one condition. That is Goku bringing his master some delicious food, Goku settles for rice balls that have a special filling in them which both Whis and also Beerus agree too. Goku then heads back home and quickly walks to his room and changes into his actual fighting uniform. Goten sees what’s up and wants to go with his dad to train too, but Chi Chi interjects herself and wants Goten to stay home. Yet while in her heavy monologue, the father-son duo sneak out of the house and head to Bulma’s house where Whis will pick them up.

At Bulma’s house, Goku and Goten find out that Bulma is actually pregnant and due at any moment now, much to the shock of everyone. Including me! We next pick up with Bulma, Goku, Trunks, Goten and even the Pilaf gang out on the balcony. Trunks objects to Goten going to Whis planet and instead wants his friend to stay on earth and train with him. Goten tries to get Trunks to go with them, but Trunks says he can’t leave cause of his sibling being due at any moment. So Goten agrees to stay and this causes Bulma to say that she’ll tell Chi Chi that Goten didn’t leave earth with Goku, saving everyone from Goku’s angry wife.

Next Goku finds Vegeta in the backyard garden and tries to get him to go to Whis’ planet to train too, but Vegeta objects and says that he wants to stay behind and be there for Bulma’s childbirth. Goku being an idiot as always, says that Vegeta’s not the one pregnant and that he can still train, but Vegeta fires back that Goku is truly a clueless idiot when it comes to adult situations. At this moment Whis arrives near the two and also asks if Vegeta is coming to train, but Vegeta doubles his rebuff and says no. Whis then takes Goku back to Beerus planet.

On Beerus’ Planet, Whis and Beerus both try out the rice balls that Goku brought, but Beerus notices the grazed wound that the bullet gave Goku and begins to question him why he let his guard down. Goku says that he has had no one tough to either train with or fight against ever since Hit tried to kill him and without that experience, his body starts regressing. Goku starts training with Whis briefly but then Goku stops and starts wondering about Zeno’s tournament that the supreme being mentioned episodes ago.

Beerus and Goku then get at it with an argument as Goku gets cocky, wanting to go visit Zeno but Beerus objects to it, saying that a being like Zeno is unpredictable and can instantly wipe Goku and everyone else out just like that. It gets so heated that Beerus raises his arm up at Goku ready to perform the Harikai — the same move he used to kill the present day Zamasu. But Goku does a slight of hand trick and instantly presses the button that Zeno gave him, that not only brings Zeno to him but can also warp anyone to the supreme being with another button on the backside. Beerus get’s pissed off, as Whis just laughs at his friend.

At Zeno’s palace, the two Zenos are still playing their planetary marble game when Goku shows up unannounced to the shock of the palace guards. One thing leads to another between the three and the Present-Zeno actually ends up remembering his promise he made to Goku episodes back and then informs the Future-Zeno of the Tournament, who in his joy of hearing something that sounds exciting knocks over all of the planets off of the board that they were playing, causing them all to disintegrate — where in actuality, they just killed a galaxy, thanks a lot Goku! Whis’ father then appears and tells Goku that the tournament will be planned upon and that once the date and location is agreed upon, he will inform all of the Supreme Kais of each universe.

Goku then travels back to Beerus and Whis and gets scolded on by a very angry God Of Destruction who slaps him. Beerus then ask Goku if he knows what he has done, to where Goku says that this is the only way for him to fight and get stronger by facing the most powerful fighters from the other universes like Hit, Cabba, Frost, etc. Beerus then reminds Goku that Zeno is unpredictable and then becomes curious over how they were announced the tournament. Goku then says that it would be through all the different Supreme Kais and that he wants to be there when the announcement is made.

So the three of them travel to their Supreme Kai’s world where the two Kais (Current and Elder Kais) along with Kabuito are shocked to see Beerus and Whis. They greet and Beerus being Beerus asks for some tea. As they are drinking a rift in space is opened and Whis’ father, Zenos attendant appears which spooks the Kais, Kabuito and even Beerus who run up and nervously bows to Whis’ father. Whis’ father then announces all the details while Goku stands next to Whis, much to the dismay of Beerus who orders Goku to bow with them but Goku doesn’t due to how relax he is with beings like Zeno, etc. Whis’ father then says the date of the tournament along with the rule that each universe should have ten fighters to participate. Beerus then wonders how they would find them all. We then finally cut to the shows narrator talking about the tournament as we cut to the likes of Piccolo, Krillian with his wife Android 18 and even the very much alive, Android 17!

It was honestly refreshing to get into the core story again after so many weeks of just filler episodes thrown at us. While those filler episodes were good at adding some much needed depth to unused characters, a lot of that could have been streamlined into single episodes like for Gohan and Krillian’s ones or cut out entirely like that Dr. Slump crossover episode. Episode 77 was all plot set up and for once it felt good to do so, since Dragon Ball at it’s best is whenever it’s focusing on the main story. It’s the thing that works.

Some interesting tidbits in here is the fact that Bulma and Vegeta are having another kid, and I have a feeling that’s going to be Bra from GT just because we have Pan as well from Gohan and Videl, who debuted in GT first. I could be so wrong though and Bulma ends up having another son instead! Also the most notable difference is the fact that the anime has a new opening that highlights the Tournament of Power/Universal Survival arc with quick cuts and battles featuring the likes of the Pride Troopers, Cabba, Hit, the Z Fighters who would be in the tournament itself.

We also get a good luck at Android 17 in that new intro compared to the distant shot of him staring off a cliff at the end of the episode. Android 17, is the one that always confuses me post-Cell Saga in Dragon Ball Z since he died once Cell died due to being inside the villain, yet there is never a concrete explanation over how he returned in either Dragon Ball GT and now in Super. Was he wished back by the Dragon Balls off screen? Maybe we’ll find out in next week’s episode?