Episode 34 of Dragon Ball Super, first broadcast in Japan on March 6, 2016, is Piccolo's turn, and he takes on Frost with a strategist's plan. It works almost perfectly, until the Namekian collapses exactly as Goku did. That is the moment the Universe 6 hero's mask starts to slip.
Summary
After Goku's defeat, Piccolo wonders if he took too many hits to the head, while Goku himself cannot work out what technique Frost used. Beerus is furious that Goku did not fight at full power, but when Champa comes over to enjoy the show, the god grits his teeth and declares that it is how you play the game that matters. Piccolo asks Goku what chance he has: none, Goku cheerfully replies, but he can wear Frost down for Vegeta. Vegeta, meanwhile, is convinced there is more to Goku's collapse than meets the eye.
Piccolo begins charging the Special Beam Cannon. Frost recognizes the technique at once and peppers him with blasts to break his concentration; hit in the leg, Piccolo keeps charging and creates a crowd of afterimage copies. Champa demands a disqualification, but the referee rules it a legitimate technique, and Beerus reminds his brother that in a sporting event the referee outranks a god. With the copies gone, Frost ends up wrapped in the Namekian's stretching arms, his hands pinned pointing down.
Just as he is about to fire, Piccolo wobbles and blacks out. The blast flies upward and cracks the arena dome, and Frost punches through him with a beam and knocks him out. Then Jaco speaks up: he saw a tiny needle and asks for Frost's right arm to be inspected. Champa threatens to destroy him if nothing turns up, and Cabba defends the hero who once helped him protect Planet Mayonna. The needle is there. Frost is disqualified, and Vados reveals the truth: he starts the wars he ends, then buys the devastated planets cheap and sells them rebuilt. Beerus notes that this is rather like what Frieza used to do. Champa wants him destroyed, but Vegeta asks to fight him instead: Piccolo forfeits his win, and Frost stays in.
Our take
Piccolo is at his best when he fights with his head, and this episode makes the most of it. The Special Beam Cannon charged under fire, with decoys and traps, is a small lesson in tactics, and Frost's needle-assisted comeback stings precisely because the plan was a good one.
The reveal about Frost is predictable but well written. The sharpest touch is Cabba: his betrayed trust gives the discovery emotional weight and sets the boy up for the role he plays next. Bulma sums up what everyone is thinking: it is the first time Jaco has ever looked cool.
Trivia
- Written by King Ryū and directed by Takao Iwai, with storyboards by Hiroyuki Kakudō and animation direction by Yoshitaka Yashima.
- It drew a 5.7% rating in Japan.
- Vegeta's closing line, that he finds Frost's voice grating, is a dubbing joke: in Japanese Frost shares Frieza's voice actor, Ryūsei Nakao.
- In the Italian title Piccolo is called "Junior", the name he had in Italy's first Dragon Ball Z dub.
- The matching part of Toyotarō's manga runs from chapter 10 into chapter 11.
Did you know? Before the fight Piccolo calls himself "the strategist of Universe 7". After the disqualification, Frost throws the line back at him: he lost because he did not know his opponent's fighting style.