Spoilers will 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.
With Universe 3’s climatic elimination at the hands of Universe 7, we’re now finally down to last two universes of the Tournament of Power. On one side we have Universe 7 which consists of Goku, Vegeta, Frieza, 17 and Gohan; and on the other we have powerful Universe 11 Pride Troopers: Jiren, Top and Dsypo. What exactly went down against two of the most powerful universes? Well, lets get right on down into it.
Photo Source: Funimation/Toei Animation/Cartoon Network
The episode was split amongst three different fights. On of them had Gohan and 17 against Top. Another was Frieza vs. Dsypo and their battle of wits. And then the main one was initially Goku vs Jiren but then switched midway between Vegeta vs Jiren.
Photo Source: Funimation/Toei Animation/Cartoon Network
We didn’t spend much time with Gohan and 17 as they battled Top, instead we just got a quick glimpse of it with 17 throwing one of his green energy attacks as a decoy and Gohan firing a Super Kamehameha at the Pride Trooper. Instead though, Top just shrugged it off. As for Frieza against Dsypo, it was mostly Dsypo using his speed to try to confuse the Evil Emperor but thanks to Frieza’s tail, he was able to capture Dsypo. However, Dsypo started flinging Frieza around and then rammed his head into the side of a boulder, dragging him around it. This then all brings us to the main event of the episode.
Photo Source: Funimation/Toei Animation/Cartoon Network
At first it’s the clash we’ve all been waiting for ever since Jiren went into his mediative state episodes back, Goku vs. Jiren. And we got that, with Goku actually able to keep up with the powerful Pride Trooper this time due to his Saiyan nature of getting stronger with each battle. Jiren even wonders why Goku craves this, the constant fighting and it’s something that Goku can’t honestly answer. His best response is that he just wants to get stronger and stronger by fighting powerful and more powerful beings.But before Goku can do anything of substance against Jiren, after one of Jiren’s rapid fire punches, Vegeta interjects himself into the fight and wants to face Jiren all by himself.
Photo Source: Funimation/Toei Animation/Cartoon Network
Vegeta at first actually has a weird advantage against Jiren. It’s guessed by Whis and the others in the stands that Vegeta is slowly achieving Ultra Instinct for himself, but in actuality it was just Vegeta reading Jiren’s movements really well. This only got him so far, especially after Jiren launched a point blank blast on Vegeta that sent him almost over the edge of the arena and eliminated! Vegeta then shrug it off and then got really pissed at Jiren who mocked the Saiyan Prince due to be full of arrogance and pride. However Vegeta countered back, saying that it is this pride of his that gives him his strength and then channeled all of his remaining energy/rage into a super powerful Final Flash directed head on to Jiren.
Photo Source: Funimation/Toei Animation/Cartoon Network
When the smoke clears, Jiren is down. But a few seconds later Jiren vanishes and pops up in front of Vegeta and traps him into an energy bomb that blows up seconds later! The episode then ends with Vegeta lifeless in a small crater as Goku and everyone else looks on and our narrator saying only 9 minutes remain.
Photo Source: Funimation/Toei Animation/Cartoon Network
This episode was actually better then last week’s episode — which I actually thought was good in of itself. It’s just that with this episode you can actually tell the sakes were raised when you see the fights themselves. Each of the fights had a weird quality change compared to past episode fights, they felt more like the Broly movie that came out a few months ago. Even the animation was bumped up in quality with some impressive shading techniques used. Well okay, that one scene that shows Goku’s reaction to Vegeta jumping into the Jiren fight may be wonky, but everything else just felt way more sharper watching it. Did they use a different animation team to make these Universe 7 vs Universe 11 episodes? I can’t say for sure, but hope it lasts until the end. More please!
