Episode 56 of Dragon Ball Super, first broadcast in Japan on August 28, 2016 and titled Rematch with Goku Black! Enter Super Saiyan Rosé in Funimation's dub, is the one where Goku Black reveals his most famous form. Vegeta, determined to settle things alone, learns the hard way that his enemy has been a quick study.
Summary
The moment they arrive in the future, Goku, Vegeta and Trunks come under fire from the resistance, who mistake Goku for Black. Once the misunderstanding is cleared up, the fighters recognize Trunks as the hero who landed a blow on Black at the battle of Mango Hill and ask for his autograph. More importantly, they already know about the time machine plan: they heard it from Mai, who survived.
At the new hideout, Trunks and Mai are reunited, each having believed the other dead. Mai feels guilty about the people she could not save, but Vegeta tells her there is no shame in doing everything she could. The prince hands out food Bulma packed into capsules, and Goku spots a familiar face in a corner: Yajirobe, pulled back from the brink by Korin's last senzu bean. One resistance member grumbles that he hides during fights and only shows up at mealtimes.
Vegeta wants to face Black alone and beats Goku at rock-paper-scissors for the right. He asks Trunks to stay back: he has to survive, for Mai's sake too. Above the ruined city, Black admires a view free of mortals and is surprised to see them again, having thought he destroyed the time machine. Vegeta goes straight to Super Saiyan Blue and overwhelms him, but Trunks notices that the villain is not the least bit surprised by the form.
Black praises the warrior clad in divine energy, calls him a mortal all the same and, "as a reward," transforms: his hair turns pink and he names the form himself, Super Saiyan Rosé. He runs Vegeta through the chest with an energy blade and calls him an appetizer. Goku steps in at Super Saiyan Blue, but Vegeta can tell he is outmatched too. Black charges a Kamehameha until a voice from above stops him: it is Zamasu, reminding him that finishing Goku off is his job.
Our take
Super Saiyan Rosé is a simple, effective idea: the same power as Blue, in a color that feels like a taunt. The scene lands because Black names it himself, with the vanity of an artist signing his work, and because it comes right after Vegeta has dominated for a few minutes. The prince's humiliation stings twice as much.
The quieter first half matters just as much. The hideout, the children scared of Goku's face, a surviving Yajirobe: for the first time Trunks' future becomes a place where people live, not just a backdrop of rubble. And Zamasu's arrival at the end overturns every theory made so far.
Trivia
- Written by King Ryū and directed by Kōhei Hatano; it drew a 5.7% rating.
- Due to an error, the episode opens with the Universe 6 Saga opening sequence instead of the Future Trunks one.
- The Japanese name of the form, "Sūpā Saiya-jin Roze," comes from the French rosé, the color of pink wine.
- In the Japanese original Goku Black shares Goku's voice actress, Masako Nozawa, who plays him with a cold, theatrical edge.
Did you know? Future Yajirobe had never appeared before: in Trunks' timeline everyone believed the androids had killed him.
Characters
- Goku, Vegeta and Future Trunks
- Goku Black and Zamasu
- Future Mai, Future Yajirobe and the resistance fighters