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.
The gloves finally come off for Goku and Vegeta in their battle against Jiren in the Tournament of Power in Episode 123, but is it more then enough to tip the edge in their favor? And what about Gohan and 17’s battle against Top and Frieza being treated like a bulldozer by Dsypo? Well, let’s not waist away in the introductory paragraph any longer, we got an episode to review!
Episode 123 is primarily a Goku and Vegeta centric episode that picks up immediately after Vegeta fell to Jiren in the last episode. It was up to Goku to stall Jiren long enough, just so Vegeta can have time to recuperate from the nasty Ki bomb blast he took. Its at this point, Goku did something shockingly unlike him, he crept up to Jiren and played it safe since he knew Ki Blast attacks are nothing against the Pride Trooper. What Goku was actually doing was setting up Ki Mines all over the arena floor, just to stall Jiren. However, Jiren being as powerful as he is, just walked right through them all without a dent. Goku then switched it up and used Distructo-Discs instead, but Jiren literally grabbed them and broke all of them except one which he flung back at Goku. Thankfully Goku dodged it and it went flying off into a boulder. This boulder, now pillar, then started to fall and tip over the arena and into the empty null realm. It is here where Goku and Jiren fought, until an errant Distructo-Disc cut the pillar in two, sending Jiren out of the ring! But Jiren, being super powerful, used each of the crumbling parts of the pillar to jump back onto the arena proper. It’s at this point Jiren began using just a sliver of his actual power and wrapped himself in a red/white hue.
Photo Source: Funimation/Toei Animation/Cartoon Network
Thankfully though, this was enough time that Vegeta needed to get his strength back and he got up. Talked some smack to Jiren and both him and Goku powered up to their most powerful forms yet. Goku took on his Super Saiyan Blue/Kaioken form and Vegeta tapped into something unseen of until now, Super Saiyan Blue Evolved! Vegeta’s appearance was almost a blue variant of how Goku went Ultra Instinct, but now which a much more vibrant blue that pops out.
The other side stuff that went down is Gohan and 17 trying to use team moves, but 17 admitting that he just doesn’t gel well with Gohan and that he should instead stay out of the fight until the moment is right. This was actually a ruse by 17, who’s grand plan against Top was to trap him in a green barrier and sacrifice himself alongside Top with Gohan’s Super Kamehameha launching them out of the ring. However Gohan stopped short when he saw 17 in pain after Top squeezed the Android too much, dropping the barrier and taking the full force of the Super Kamehameha. Frieza on the other hand was still getting dragged through every single rock formation in the arena by Dsypo, well that is until Frieza just shrugged it off and mocked the speedy Pride Trooper, firing off Death Beams at him.
Photo Source: Funimation/Toei Animation/Cartoon Network
The episode was actually really fun, especially seeing the new transformation for Vegeta — that I believes brings him on par with Goku’s Ultra Instinct — and also seeing Goku get crafty with trying to eliminate Jiren in various means since he knows that he can’t beat him directly. The only thing I hated with the episode is the dip in animation quality, it went back to how it was two episodes backs and not like how it was when Vegeta took the fight in Jiren just one episode ago. The sharper animation style that they tried out just worked better and suits the tone of the Tournament of Power now. Here’s to it hopefully coming back in Episode 124?
