Episode 60 of Dragon Ball Super, first broadcast in Japan on October 2, 2016 and titled Into the Future Once Again: Goku Black's True Identity Revealed! in Funimation's dub, delivers exactly what it promises. After a long buildup, Goku Black reveals who he really is: not a copy of Goku, but Zamasu himself, living inside the Saiyan's body. It is the twist that redraws the whole saga, and it lands with a chilling final line.
Summary
Beerus is annoyed that nobody believes Zamasu's death has fixed the future. Trunks decides to go and see for himself, but dinner comes first. Beerus enjoys a soup that, he says, looks like the dragon vomit of Planet Gaspa; Goku announces he is going too and swears he will not get motion sickness this time. Vegeta warns they will need a strategy, not just senzu beans. Beerus, when invited, declines: a god cannot break the taboo on time travel.
Young Trunks wonders whether his future mother has come back to life. The adult Trunks explains parallel timelines to him: in this world Goku and Vegeta are alive, in his they are dead, and saving the present-day Goku did not bring his own back. The very fact that he is still here suggests nothing has changed, yet part of him hopes a god destroying a god might truly alter things. Before leaving, he entrusts young Mai to his younger self, embarrassing them both.
Bulma gives Trunks a new denim jacket just like his old one and squeezes aboard too: if Trunks stays in the future, someone has to fly the machine back. In the time vortex Goku is sick as usual. On arrival the city is still in ruins: nothing has changed. At the hideout, Mai has been hurt helping others escape from Black, and Trunks gives her a senzu bean mouth to mouth, to Goku's bafflement. Four beans remain. Bulma hands out food, water and supplies.
Then Goku and the others sense Black and Zamasu approaching and fly out to meet them. Vegeta has a bare-bones plan: beat Black first, not for revenge but for Trunks and for this world, which strikes Black as a very un-Saiyan thing to say. Goku announces they have figured it all out: Zamasu used the Super Dragon Balls to become immortal and create a fake Goku. Black corrects him. He is no fake: that is Goku's real body, with Zamasu's mind inside. His first wish was to swap bodies. And the Goku of that world? He killed him with his own hands.
Our take
The reveal is set up patiently and pays off in full. The series had been dropping clues for about ten episodes, from Zamasu's energy to Black's fascination with Goku's body, and the answer ties them together without strain. That Black has Goku's voice and mannerisms suddenly becomes the most disturbing thing in the saga.
The first half is lighter but useful: the explanation of timelines between the two Trunks is one of the clearest Dragon Ball has ever offered, and the senzu kiss gives Mai and Trunks a moment fans had been waiting for.
Trivia
- Written by Atsuhiro Tomioka and directed by Takahiro Imamura; its 5.0% rating is the lowest among episodes 54 to 79.
- From this episode the ending theme becomes "Chao Fan MUSIC" ("Fried Rice Music") by Arukara, which runs until episode 72.
- The end credits misspell the name of key animator Saki Ishimoto with the wrong kanji.
- Goku claims he has never kissed anyone, which Vegeta finds hard to believe from a married man.
Did you know? The jacket Bulma gives Trunks recalls the one with the Capsule Corporation logo he wore on his very first appearance in Dragon Ball Z.