Episode 29 of Dragon Ball Super, first broadcast in Japan on January 31, 2016, puts the clash between the two universes in writing. Venue, date and rules are settled, Shenron admits his limits, and Beerus drops the name that will haunt Goku for the whole saga: Monaka, supposedly the strongest fighter the god has ever faced.
Summary
Champa and Beerus pick a nameless planet floating in neutral space. Goku suggests World Martial Arts Tournament rules: you lose by surrendering or falling out of the ring, and killing is forbidden. Weapons and performance-enhancing drugs are banned too. Vegeta adds a written test to keep out anyone too dim to follow the rules. The matches will start in five Earth days. As he leaves, Champa tosses Goku one last egg and, watching him fumble the catch, decides the win is already his. With Vados he arranges his six orbs around the planet, renames it the "Empty Planet" and has a dome built, along with a fifty-meter arena and two giant portraits of the twins.
On Earth, Bulma comes up with what sounds simpler than any radar: gather the Dragon Balls and ask Shenron where the last Super Dragon Ball is. Vegeta, unusually eager to please with Beerus around, collects them in no time. The dragon gives up, though: finding a single object in another universe is beyond him. Beerus dismisses him by declaring that his only wish is for Shenron to get lost, and Goku realizes he has once again forgotten to bring King Kai back to life.
Over dinner, Beerus reveals that the third member of the team will be Monaka, the strongest opponent he has ever met, with Goku a distant second. Before leaving he jokes about what he might wish for, perhaps the destruction of the world. Bulma takes him seriously and builds a Super Dragon Radar overnight. From Earth, however, it picks up nothing, because the planet sits on the edge of the universe. Reaching the center will take a spaceship, so Bulma asks her sister Tights to send Jaco over.
Our take
A transitional episode, but one with good comic timing. The Shenron scene is the highlight: the dragon who has granted impossible wishes for decades confesses he cannot search another universe, and the gap between him and the Super Dragon Balls becomes obvious without any lecture. Beerus's dismissal, a wish that consists of sending the dragon away, is a little gem.
Monaka, meanwhile, is a perfect narrative hook. We never see him, we only hear him described as stronger than Goku, and the Saiyan's curiosity becomes ours. Bulma, finally, reminds us that this tournament is not a game for everyone: a wish in the hands of a God of Destruction is a genuine danger.
Trivia
- Written by King Ryū and directed by Hideki Hiroshima, with storyboards by Yukio Kaizawa and animation direction by Osamu Ishikawa and Yukihiro Kitano.
- It drew a 5.3% rating in Japan.
- The matching part of Toyotarō's manga is chapter 6.
- This is where we learn that Jaco was given a new spaceship as a reward for his part in the Frieza crisis.
- The arena Vados builds on the planet is a square fifty meters per side.
Did you know? Before vanishing, Shenron is startled to find Beerus still on Earth, and the god explains that the planet now matters to both Universe 7 and Universe 6.