Episode 31 of Dragon Ball Super, first broadcast in Japan on February 14, 2016, is a comic detour devoted to Bulma and Jaco. While Goku and Vegeta train, the pair fly off to the planet of Zuno, a being who knows the answer to any question, to find out everything about the Super Dragon Balls.
Summary
On his way to Earth, Jaco vents his anger at Bulma for ruining his day off by shooting at asteroids. One of them, a crystal, turns out to be a Galactic Natural Monument. When headquarters calls, the patrolman pins it on Burpman, a wanted criminal who eats at restaurants and skips the bill, and vows to catch him. At Capsule Corporation he explains that reaching the center of the universe is impossible and that the Galactic Patrol only operates in the Milky Way. Goku cannot locate the Supreme Kai's energy either. Then Jaco remembers Zuno, who lives nearby and truly knows everything.
During the trip, Jaco recalls a young Bulma who could already fly his ship and tells her she would have made a fine patrol officer. She replies that being Vegeta's wife and Trunks's mother is enough for her. At Zuno's, however, the waiting list is seven years long. The next appointment belongs to none other than Burpman, who takes one of the attendants hostage. Jaco takes him down in an instant and, out of gratitude, the two are let in right away.
Zuno's price is a kiss on the cheek. Being a man, Jaco gets one question and wastes it embarrassing Bulma. She gets three and throws one away complaining. The second is the right one: the Super Dragon Balls were made by the Dragon God Zalama, they are perfect spheres 37,196.2204 kilometers across, and there are seven in all, scattered across Universes 6 and 7. The dragon is summoned with a phrase in the language of the gods, and after the wish the balls scatter again. Bulma uses her third question to confirm the total, and her time is up. Back home, Vegeta draws the obvious conclusion: if Champa has six, he must have taken some from Universe 7.
Our take
Pure entertainment that, for once, puts Bulma at the center. Her rapport with Jaco, built on age jokes and old familiarity, works well and gives her some depth: the Bulma who picks family over a career in space is a small, honest portrait, not a throwaway line.
Zuno is a very Toriyama-style creation, half oracle and half clerk, and his monologue stuffed with useless figures is irresistible. Not every joke is in the best taste, but the episode does its job: it lays out the rules of the Super Dragon Balls and sets up the revelation about Champa.
Trivia
- Written by King Ryū and directed by Ryōta Nakamura, with storyboards by Hiroyuki Kakudō and animation direction by Yūichi Karasawa, Francis Canēda and Noel Añonuevo.
- It drew a 6.6% rating in Japan.
- Burpman's Japanese name is Geppuman, from geppu, the Japanese word for a burp.
- According to Zuno, Zalama created the balls in the 41st year of the divine calendar and patented the red stars, visible from any angle, the following year.
- Funimation's dub renders the honorific in the title as "Master Zuno".
Did you know? Before leaving, Jaco receives a cartload of milk and cheese from Bulma, and we learn he is still wondering how to make up for the monument he destroyed: a written apology, he admits, probably will not cut it.