Episode 111 of Dragon Ball Super, first broadcast in Japan on October 15, 2017 and titled An Extra-Dimensional Ultimate Battle! Hit vs. Jiren! in Funimation's dub, belongs to Universe 6's assassin. Hit throws his whole arsenal of time-skips at Jiren, while Frieza surprises everyone with a gesture nobody saw coming.
Summary
In a hidden corner of the arena, Frieza points his hand at an exhausted Goku and fires. It is not an attack: he is passing along some of his energy, just as Goku did for him on Namek. Now they are even, he says, and besides, he needs the Saiyan to keep working for him, because he has no wish to face "that monster" himself. Before leaving, he tells Goku the gods called his new form Ultra Instinct.
Meanwhile Hit takes on Jiren. Time-Skip is not enough, Jiren's blows still land, and not even the technique that hides Hit in another dimension behind an illusory double fools him. Yet Hit keeps using it, as if he were after something. Elsewhere, Universe 6's two Namekians, Saonel and Pilina, try to ambush Goku and are intercepted by Gohan and Piccolo; Vegeta corners Ribrianne until Roasie pulls her away and restores her faith in the power of love.
Hit, it turns out, has been studying the rhythm of Jiren's attacks. Once he has it memorized, he lands a punch to the chest that drives Jiren to the edge of the ring, and from there locks him in a time cage that paralyzes him. This is his trump card: stopping time for Jiren and Jiren alone. He asks Cabba, Caulifla and Kale to handle everything else, but soon realizes he cannot hold out until the end. So he gambles everything on one strike, something an assassin normally never does. Jiren stops him with a glare, shatters the prison and blasts him off the stage.
Hit's elimination marks the halfway point: twenty-four minutes remain, and the Grand Minister turns the sky of the World of Void green. Convinced nobody left is worth his time, Jiren leaves the field to Toppo and Dyspo and sits down to meditate. Biarra and Catopesra of Universe 3 try to take advantage and bounce off the wall of energy surrounding him.
Our take
The episode does two important things in a few minutes. The first is to settle a debt more than twenty-five years old: Frieza gives back the energy Goku once gave him on Namek, and does it his way, with a gesture disguised as an execution and a cynical excuse. It is not redemption, it is bookkeeping, and that is exactly what makes it believable.
The second is to give Hit a professional's exit. The assassin does not win, but he fights with a plan, takes a risk against his own nature, and loses only to a power that, in the words of the onlookers, surpasses time itself. His defeat measures Jiren better than any explosion could: if not even control over time works, what is left?
Trivia
- Written by Atsuhiro Tomioka and directed by Toshiaki Komura, with Yasuhiro Namatame and Chihiro Tanaka as animation directors. It drew a 4.2% rating in Japan.
- At the halfway mark the sky changes color, and from the next episode on the title card background switches from black to green.
- In the TV broadcast of the English dub, the Grand Minister calls Hit a Universe 11 fighter; the line was fixed for the Blu-ray release.
- In the manga, Hit faces Jiren before Goku does and briefly fights alongside him, only slows Jiren down instead of freezing him, and is knocked out by a punch.