Episode 32 of Dragon Ball Super, first broadcast in Japan on February 21, 2016, finally brings everyone to the Nameless Planet. It is an episode of introductions: the fighters of both universes size each other up for the first time, Goku meets Monaka and a young Saiyan who has never heard of Frieza, and the Universe 7 team loses a member before a single punch is thrown.
Summary
Inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, Goku and Vegeta wrap up their training: sparring with each other helps them see their own weaknesses. On departure day, Whis arrives at Capsule Corporation with a large transparent cube whose walls can be walked through as if they were liquid. Jaco shows up with the Galactic King, whom Bulma mistakes for his new girlfriend. Goku and Vegeta are the last to appear, sporting long beards: they got the time difference wrong and trained longer than planned.
On Beerus's planet, Monaka comes aboard, small and thoroughly unimposing. Goku cannot resist throwing a surprise punch, certain he will dodge it: it connects, and Monaka seems genuinely hurt. On the trip he does not touch his food. At the venue the six planet-sized Super Dragon Balls come into view, along with the stadium built for the occasion. Whis conjures up better seats, and in come Shin and Kibito, separated again thanks to the Namekian Dragon Balls, the Elder Kai and the gods of Universe 6.
Then the opponents arrive: a robot, something like a bear and a fighter who looks exactly like Frieza. A polite boy approaches the two Saiyans: he is one too, but he has no tail, has never heard of Frieza and comes from Planet Sadala, which in Universe 7 was destroyed by infighting. In his universe, Saiyans earn a living fighting criminals. Next comes the written test, ten questions with fifty points needed to pass: Goku struggles with the math, while Majin Buu falls asleep and is disqualified. Beerus's team is down to four. Monaka will fight last, and rock-paper-scissors settles the rest of the order. After a universal anthem that lasts a single line, the first match is Goku against Botamo.
Our take
A waiting-room episode, but the wait is well handled. Arriving at the stadium has the feel of the old World Martial Arts Tournament build-ups, with friends, gods and oddballs in the stands, and nearly every gag lands, from the Saiyans' beards to Monaka's failed dodge, which hands attentive viewers their first clue about the true nature of the "strongest warrior".
The best moment is the conversation with Universe 6's Saiyan. In a few lines the show sketches what the Saiyans might have become without Frieza and conquest, and Vegeta's reaction, reassuring the boy that they do not steal planets anymore, is sweet without being saccharine.
Trivia
- Written by King Ryū and directed by Masanori Satō, with animation direction by Naoki Tate, Akira Kano and Kaori Takamura.
- It drew a 7.3% rating in Japan.
- The Galactic King comes from Toriyama's Galactic Patrol manga: mentioned in Jiya and shown in Jaco the Galactic Patrolman.
- The young Saiyan never gives his name in the episode, but the credits list him as Cabba.
- Longtime series writer Yasunori Masutani provides the uncredited voices of the anthem singer and Universe 6's Supreme Kai.
Did you know? Piccolo is amazed that such an elaborate stadium was built for a one-off event. Beerus replies that Gods of Destruction do not create anything, and that if Champa had built it, it would look far tackier.