Episode 57 of Dragon Ball Super, first broadcast in Japan on September 4, 2016 and titled A God with an Invincible Body: The Advent of Zamasu in Funimation's dub, demolishes every theory the heroes had in one stroke. Zamasu and Goku Black are not the same person, they are partners, and one of them cannot be hurt. For Goku, Vegeta and Trunks, it ends in retreat.
Summary
Zamasu descends from the sky in front of everyone. Goku asks if he is Black's comrade, and he clarifies that they are merely kindred spirits, united by the dream of a just world without mortals, above all mortals like Goku who dare to challenge the gods. Vegeta, run through in the previous episode, passes out; Trunks can still sense his energy.
The battle becomes two on two. Black wants Goku for himself, because "this body" craves him, while Zamasu dismisses the Saiyans as creation's greatest failure: powerful, but without any spiritual growth. Black even uses Goku's Instant Transmission. Trunks takes on Zamasu and manages to slash him with his sword, but the wound closes at once; his Final Flash, the strongest attack he has, does not even scratch him. Zamasu gloats that his immortal body is truly worthy of a god.
Then the god grabs Goku and Trunks and holds them in place while Black fires a Kamehameha that hits all three. Zamasu walks out unharmed, the other two do not. Black and Zamasu charge a combined attack to finish them, but a blast from the side knocks it away: it is Vegeta, who collapses again right after. When the smoke clears, Goku and Trunks are gone, carried off by Yajirobe, who could not manage the prince as well. Mai and the resistance take care of that, snatching Vegeta from under the villains' noses.
While Black searches for their energy among the survivors, Mai pulls the time machine out of its capsule. She loads the three Saiyans aboard and stays behind: Trunks must live, for the world's sake. The machine leaves moments before Black arrives. In the present, Bulma panics at the sight of Vegeta. And in Universe 10, this era's Zamasu watches the Universe 6 versus Universe 7 tournament on "GodTube": a mortal wielding divine energy and, above the arena, the Super Dragon Balls. Soon after, he storms into Zuno's home, demanding to know everything about them.
Our take
This is where the saga plays its best cards. Zamasu does not shout or bluster: he explains, in the tone of a disappointed teacher, why mortals deserve to vanish. His immortality makes him frustrating in the right way, because it strips the heroes of the weapon they have always relied on, raw strength.
The closing stretch in the present is a small piece of clever editing: while the wounded are counted in the future, the past shows us the seed of it all, an apprentice Zamasu stumbling onto the Super Dragon Balls by chance. The audience understands where the catastrophe comes from before the characters do.
Trivia
- Written by Toshio Yoshitaka and directed by Ryōta Nakamura; it drew a 6.8% rating in Japan.
- "GodTube," the site where Gowasu watches the tournament, is a parody of YouTube, and Gowasu even jokes about becoming a "GodTuber."
- In one shot Trunks is holding his sword, in the close-up that follows it is back in its sheath.
- Funimation's dub has Goku mutter "crap" just before Black's attack, one of only two times the dub lets a swear word through in the series.
Did you know? Yajirobe, usually mocked for his cowardice, rescues two Saiyans at once here: arguably his finest moment since he cut off Vegeta's tail.