Episode 42 of Dragon Ball Super, first broadcast in Japan on May 8, 2016, is a comedy of errors set at the party celebrating victory over Universe 6. Everyone finds out that Monaka is a delivery man with no strength at all, everyone except Goku. To keep the secret, Beerus has to do the most humiliating thing of his divine career: wear a costume.
Summary
Bulma invites Whis and Beerus to the party at Capsule Corporation and asks them to bring Monaka. For Beerus that is a problem: if Goku sees him again he will want to fight, and the truth will come out. Whis suggests confessing, but Beerus fears the Saiyans will lose their drive and that the lie will hurt his reputation, maybe even with Zeno. At the party the next day, a spaceship arrives with the space sweets Jaco ordered. The delivery man is Monaka. Mr. Satan renews his offer to make him his gym's mascot, and has already had a life-size Monaka costume made.
Roughhousing, Trunks and Goten hurt Monaka, who bursts into tears. Just then Beerus and Whis arrive, and Bulma puts it all together. Beerus orders everyone to keep quiet, but Goku teleports in at that very moment. Chi-Chi sends him off to change out of his farm clothes, and meanwhile Vegeta explains to the others why the bluff was useful. Whis adds that Goku needs to get even stronger for Zeno's tournament, because the gods of other universes are violent. Beerus buys time by ordering Goku to do a hundred trillion sit-ups, and Goten and Trunks have the idea: Beerus will wear the Monaka costume.
Goku is back in no time, because he counted each sit-up as a trillion. Chiaotzu freezes him with telekinesis and Krillin blinds him with a Solar Flare, just long enough for the swap. Goku notices that Monaka is taller and has Beerus's energy, but concludes he can change size and has godly power. The fight begins, Beerus struggles to move in the costume, which rips until the mask ends up on backwards. Piccolo and Vegeta cover for him, claiming Monaka can control people like puppets. When the fight threatens to flatten the city, Whis stops it on "Beerus's" orders, actually Puar in disguise. Goku then sees the real Monaka passed out and decides he can split into copies too.
Our take
This is filler in the best sense: it does not advance the plot, but it takes a misunderstanding built up over the whole saga and pushes it to its comic peak. Beerus forced to play a weak mortal is an irresistible reversal, and his growing irritation, which slowly turns into enjoyment, gives him a new shade.
Goku's obliviousness is taken to the point of paradox, but it is true to the character: for him every oddity is just proof that the opponent is even more interesting. The result is light and well paced, though anyone hoping for a real fight will come away empty-handed.
Trivia
- Written by Toshio Yoshitaka and directed by Ken'ichi Takeshita, with storyboards by Yoshitaka Yashima and animation direction by Masahiro Shimanuki and Kaori Takamura.
- It drew a 5.0% rating in Japan.
- It is an anime-original episode with no counterpart in Toyotarō's manga.
- Mr. Satan's Monaka costume is first worn by his manager Pizza, who finds it unbearably hot.
- Puar transforms into Beerus but does not even try to imitate his voice.
Did you know? Before the festivities start, Vegeta insists they wait for Beerus before beginning the bingo tournament: nobody wants a repeat of the disaster at Bulma's birthday party.