Episode 104 of Dragon Ball Super, first broadcast in Japan on August 20, 2017 and titled A Transcendent Light-Speed Battle Erupts! Goku and Hit's United Front! in Funimation's dub, puts Universe 6's most famous assassin to the test. Hit finds in Dyspo, the Pride Troopers' speedster, an opponent who can anticipate his Time-Skip. Pulling him out of trouble is Goku, with a transformation we had not seen in a long time.
Summary
Dyspo introduces himself to Hit, declaring he will beat his Time-Skip for the sake of his universe. His first blow lands, and so does the second. Champa notices that Dyspo looks like Beerus, and takes offense when Vados points out that this means he looks like Champa too. Top brags about his comrade's speed, faster than sound and light, and the Zenos rewatch the blows in slow motion on their tablets. Hit soon figures out the trick: Dyspo is not faster than Time-Skip, he simply strikes an instant before it, because he can hear Hit's muscles tense.
So Hit gives up on Time-Skip and fights hand to hand. He seems at Dyspo's mercy, but Top notices he is adapting and may be setting a trap, so he sends his comrade K'nsi to help. Pushed to the edge, Hit turns intangible: Dyspo passes right through him and falls off the arena, but K'nsi saves him with his energy ropes, which do not count as weapons because they are made of his own ki.
Just as the two Pride Troopers are about to win, Goku steps in as a Super Saiyan God: faster than regular Super Saiyan, but less draining than Blue. Hit protests that Dyspo is his prey, but Goku is set on facing such a fast opponent. Dyspo is too quick even for Instant Transmission, but he always moves in a straight line, and Goku learns to counter him by flashing into Super Saiyan Blue for an instant. Hit, meanwhile, attacks K'nsi from a distance, since the Pride Trooper has covered the ground with explosive ropes.
Then the two swap opponents. Hit mimics the sound of Time-Skip to confuse Dyspo and catches him with a different attack; Goku, in Super Saiyan Blue, walks right over K'nsi's mines unharmed. A battered Dyspo refuses to surrender, and K'nsi saves him once more before sacrificing himself: Hit knocks him out. Universe 11 is down to three fighters, but two of them are Top and Jiren. Top tells Dyspo to drop the hero act: there is no good or evil here, only survival. Hit lets Goku go to repay the favor, and the two agree to settle things at the end of the tournament. Thirty-five minutes remain.
Our take
The episode is a little treatise on strategy, and it plays like a mystery: how can Dyspo beat Time-Skip? The answer, the sound of tensing muscles, is elegant, and Hit's counter, fooling his opponent by faking that sound, is the kind of clever solution the tournament delivers at its best.
The return of Super Saiyan God, now used by Goku alone as an in-between form to save energy, is a sensible choice that finally gives the transformation ladder some logic. But the most important line belongs to Top: dropping the rhetoric of justice for pure survival foreshadows his evolution later in the saga.
Trivia
- Written by Toshio Yoshitaka and directed by Takao Iwai, with Chihiro Tanaka and Hiroyuki Itai as animation directors. It drew a 5.0% TV rating in Japan.
- It is the second time Super Saiyan God appears in the anime, and the first time Goku reaches it without the help of other Saiyans.
- In the manga, Hit and Dyspo never face each other: Goku fights Dyspo and Top together as a Super Saiyan 2, and K'nsi is eliminated by Kefla.
- In Funimation's dub, Goku calls Dyspo a "silly rabbit", a nod to the Trix cereal ads.
Did you know? Without its aura, Goku's Super Saiyan God form leaves his gi in its usual colors, rather than changing hue as it did in the Battle of Gods saga.
Characters
- Goku and Hit
- Dyspo, K'nsi, Top and Jiren
- Champa, Vados, Caulifla and Kale
- Khai, Supreme Kai of Universe 11
- Zeno, Future Zeno and the Grand Minister