The sixteenth episode of Dragon Ball Super, broadcast in Japan on October 25, 2015, reshuffles the series' pecking order. Vegeta discovers that Whis, Beerus' attendant, is actually his martial arts master, and decides to become his student. Winning him over takes no speeches: it takes the tastiest thing on Earth.
Summary
In the Sacred World of the Kais, the two gods puzzle over the sudden disappearance of some planets, vanished "as if by magic": it does not look like Beerus' work. Kibito Kai suspects the Elder Kai is using his divine sight to peep on women, but he is just watching two beetles wrestle.
On Earth, Goku is back on the tractor when Krillin drops by. The two reminisce about training under Master Roshi, and Krillin, curious to know how strong his friend has become after standing up to a god, asks Goku to hit him. Goku hesitates, then obliges and sends him flying across half the countryside; he tries to catch him with Instant Transmission but misses, and Krillin slams into a boulder. At the Son house, Android 18 treats his bump while Goten and Marron play. Alone again, Goku checks that nobody is around, goes Super Saiyan and trains in secret.
In a barren wasteland, Vegeta endures a storm while thinking about how to surpass everyone, but is disappointed in his own level. Meanwhile, at a tempura restaurant, Whis tries Japanese frying for the first time with Bulma: for a while now she has been taking him to the best restaurants, to make sure he will save her family if Beerus ever threatens Earth again. When the two return to Capsule Corporation, Vegeta runs into them and demands that Whis take him to Beerus so he can show the god the true power of the Saiyans. Bulma pulls him aside: if even Goku lost, he has no chance. Vegeta is ready to use force, but he senses an intangible aura in Whis that will not even let him get close. Whis explains that he is Beerus' martial arts teacher.
To get Whis to train him, Vegeta promises to treat him to the tastiest food on Earth. He takes him for tempura, but it is the same restaurant Whis just visited with Bulma; the same goes for every place he can think of. That leaves cooking, and it is a disaster: Vegeta cannot crack an egg and one hatches in his hand, leaving him with a chick. After bickering with Bulma, he asks Whis to list everything he has tasted and realizes what is missing: his wife has been hiding instant ramen from him. Whis tries it, is left speechless and takes Vegeta with him across space to Beerus' planet.
Our take
It is a transitional episode, but packed with ideas that matter going forward. The most important is the revelation about Whis: the courteous, food-loving angel who seemed like a butler is stronger than the God of Destruction, and Vegeta is the first to realize it. This is where the master-student relationship that will carry all of Super begins.
The rest is well-measured domestic comedy. Bulma bribing a divine being with dinners, Vegeta losing a battle to an egg and instant ramen as the key to the universe prove the show can laugh at its characters without belittling them.
Trivia
- Written by Yoshifumi Fukushima and directed by Masato Mikami, with Shūichi Iseki as animation director. It drew a 5.5% rating in Japan.
- On Vegeta's table sit cream, yogurt, milk, cheese and butter: the Japanese names of the Ginyu Force are puns on these dairy products, and Vegeta killed every one of them.
- It mentions more Japanese dishes than any previous Dragon Ball episode: tempura, grilled eel, oden, sukiyaki, crab shabu-shabu, motsunabe, ramen and kaiseki cuisine.
- To describe Whis' aura, Vegeta uses the expression mu ki no ki, an energy that seems not to be there.
- In the film Resurrection 'F', Goku and Vegeta are already training together with Whis; the TV series shows how they got there, with Vegeta going first.
Characters
- Vegeta, Bulma and Whis
- Goku, Krillin, Android 18, Marron and Goten
- The Elder Kai and Kibito Kai