Episode 50 of Dragon Ball Super, first broadcast in Japan on July 3, 2016 and titled Goku vs. Black! A Closed-Off Road to the Future in the English dub, brings Goku face to face with his evil double. The first clash is brief, but it leaves behind a destroyed time machine, a mystery about Black's ring and a surprise tucked away in one of Bulma's drawers.
Summary
Black realizes he followed the trail Trunks left through time, and recognizes Vegeta and even Beerus. Whis and Beerus immediately notice the ring on his right hand. Before Vegeta can step forward, Goku flies up to take him on. Black calls it an honor, since he wanted to try fighting Goku "with this body", and does not explain what he means. Krillin asks who he is, and Bulma replies that he is her murderer, leaving him even more confused.
They start in their base forms, then Goku goes Super Saiyan 2. Black is thrilled, and Goku recognizes in him his own hunger for strong opponents. Trunks cannot understand why Goku is not using the power he showed in their sparring match, and Vegeta explains that Goku has a bad habit of never fighting seriously at first. Meanwhile Beerus and Whis find it odd that Black's energy does not feel quite the same as Goku's. The fight gets rougher, and with every hit he takes, Black's power seems to grow. When the time machine is knocked over, Black hears Trunks call it by name, works out how he traveled, and blows it up. Moments later he is dragged back through the rift he came from.
Whis explains that Black came here thanks to the time distortion left by the machine, and that the distortion, like a wound healing, pulled him back. In the future, Black gets up, sore but satisfied: Goku's fighting style has been engraved into his body. In the present, Trunks despairs. The Time Ring is reserved for Supreme Kais, only lets its wearer travel to the future and back, and Beerus has none. Whis can rewind time by three minutes at most. Vegeta tells his son not to give up; Beerus retorts that sometimes giving up matters too. Then Bulma returns with a capsule: inside is the old time machine Cell used.
Our take
The first clash between Goku and Black is more a taster than a real duel, but it is carefully written. Every detail, from the phrase "this body" to the not-quite-identical energy, is a clue about the enemy's identity, and the show scatters them without hurry.
The final twist is a gift to longtime fans. Bringing back Cell's time machine, left in a drawer for years, links the new saga to the Android arc in a clever way and gives Bulma the role she deserves: once again, she is the one who reopens a road that seemed closed.
Trivia
- Written by Atsuhiro Tomioka and directed by Ken'ichi Takeshita, with animation direction by Yūichi Karasawa, Kaori Takamura and Setsuko Nobuzane.
- It drew a 7.0% rating in Japan.
- Whis specifies that Time Rings only allow travel to the future and back: going into the past is forbidden even to the gods.
- The matching part of Toyotarō's manga is chapter 16; there, Black never comes to the present.
- Kanzenshuu's summary simply says Goku turns "Super Saiyan"; English Wikipedia and dragon-ballwiki specify Super Saiyan 2.
Did you know? In the future, as Black returns, Mai's hand moves: the girl everyone believed dead is still alive.