Episode 70 of Dragon Ball Super, first broadcast in Japan on December 11, 2016 and titled A Challenge From Champa! This Time, a Baseball Game!! in Funimation's dub, pits Universes 6 and 7 against each other again, this time on a baseball diamond. It is a comedy built around a single character: Yamcha, the only one in the group who actually knows how to play, and for once the hero of the day.
Summary
Champa calls Beerus and challenges him to a baseball game between their universes, "to cultivate friendship." In reality he just wants to get his hands on Earth's food, and have others play for him. Vados talks him into joining in: exercise makes food taste even better. On Earth the teams line up. Universe 7 fields Goku, Gohan, Yamcha, Piccolo, Krillin and Trunks, with Beerus as a coach determined to win at all costs. Universe 6 has Champa, Cabba, Botamo and Magetta, plus Vegeta and Goten filling in for the absent Hit and Frost.
It quickly turns out that only Yamcha knows the rules. Goku opens as pitcher in Super Saiyan Blue: the ball gouges a trench in the field, disintegrates in Gohan's mitt and blows out the backstop. It counts as a strike, but Whis and Vados ban destroying the field. The second pitch is so slow everyone dozes off, Champa sends the third toward space, but Trunks knocks it down with a ki blast and catches it: no rule against that.
Yamcha takes over on the mound and, with perfectly judged curveballs, strikes out Botamo and Cabba without either touching the ball. Then he steps up to bat against Vegeta, who beans him with the pitch: a free base, to the astonishment of both Saiyans, who assumed hitting your opponent was allowed. Goku and Vegeta face off in Super Saiyan Blue between bat and ball; Yamcha uses the distraction to steal second and, between wild throws and a knee from Champa, ends up safe, his body imprinted in a crater.
Gohan hits toward Magetta, who cannot fly, but Botamo catches the ball in midair after Magetta launches him. Champa hurls it into Yamcha's back and is corrected by Vados: to get a runner out, you have to tag him while holding the ball. When he insults Yamcha and his coach, Beerus loses his temper and the two Gods of Destruction brawl, endangering reality itself, until Whis and Vados stop them and call the game. But in the chaos Yamcha has stolen home: Universe 7 wins by one run. A defeated Champa wants only to train for a rematch and forgets about the food.
Our take
Yamcha has been the fandom's favorite punching bag for decades, and the show knows it. This episode is a small, affectionate rehabilitation: the fighter everyone surpassed finally finds a field where he is the best, and plays with real know-how. His final pose in the crater, identical to the one after the Saibaman, is perfect self-mockery.
The rest is a comedy of rules, with Saiyans and Gods of Destruction baffled by a game where you cannot hit the other team. It is not as memorable as the Arale episode, but it is light and well paced.
Trivia
- Written by Toshio Yoshitaka and directed by Kazuya Karasawa; it drew a 6.2% rating.
- Krillin recognizes Yamcha's pose in the crater: it is the same as when a Saibaman killed him in Dragon Ball Z.
- Yamcha says he did not invite Tien and Chiaotzu because they "couldn't keep up with this kind of battle," flipping the excuse Tien used during the Resurrection 'F' arc.
- Goku and Vegeta trade lines that reference the video game Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden 3.
Did you know? Bulma remarks that Yamcha will make a fine captain, since baseball is the one thing he is truly good at, or at least the one thing nobody else understands.