Episode 77 of Dragon Ball Super, first broadcast in Japan on February 5, 2017 and titled Let's Do It, Grand Zeno! The Universes' Best Tournament!! in Funimation's dub, opens the series' last great saga. Goku feels rusty, remembers an old promise from Zeno and, against everyone's advice, presses the button. That is how the Tournament of Power is born.
Summary
In Zeno's palace, the two kings of everything, present and future, play a game of smashing planets together on a tiny model of the universe. Each has won and lost one hundred and one games, and they are getting bored. On Earth, Goku sells his vegetables at the farmers' market; driving home, he stops to help a stranded motorist who turns out to be a robber. Goku handles the gang easily, but a bullet grazes his arm: he is rusty. Krillin is busy on duty, so he calls Whis and promises him mame-daifuku sweets in exchange for training.
Chi-Chi wants Goten to study, but father and son sneak away. At Capsule Corporation they are greeted by Bulma in a futuristic wheelchair: she is pregnant with her second child and due any day. Goku, who assumed she had simply eaten too much, is stunned. Goten stays behind to spar with Trunks, while Vegeta turns down Goku's invitation: with Bulma about to give birth, he is not going anywhere. Whis arrives and at first thinks it is Vegeta who is pregnant.
On Beerus's planet the sweets go down well, and while sparring with Whis, Goku suddenly remembers the multiverse tournament Zeno promised to hold. Beerus and Whis strongly advise against bringing it up: Zeno has the power to erase universes. The button has two sides, one to summon Zeno and one to go to him. Beerus even raises his hand as if to destroy Goku, who pretends to throw the button away and presses it the moment the god lets his guard down.
At the palace, the Grand Minister escorts him to the two Zenos, whom Goku cannot tell apart. Present Zeno had forgotten the promise, but both like the idea better than their current game. Back on Beerus's planet, Goku gets a smack from Beerus and is taken to the Sacred World of the Kai to wait for news. Soon the Grand Minister appears with the decree: everyone bows except Goku and Whis. At the 157th hour of day 3,135,500,603 on the royal calendar, a Tournament of Power will be held between teams of ten warriors from each universe. Goku is thrilled: a new adventure is beginning.
Our take
The episode shifts tone and pace with ease. The first half is pure everyday life, from the market to kids who need discipline to an unexpected pregnancy; the second puts Goku back in front of his biggest flaw, his blindness to risk when a worthy opponent is at stake. The scene in which he tricks Beerus into lowering his guard says everything about him.
Vegeta as an expectant father is a lovely touch too, giving up training without a second thought. After years of obsessive rivalry, it is the clearest sign of how much the prince has changed.
Trivia
- Written by Atsuhiro Tomioka and directed by Kazuya Karasawa; it drew a 6.0% rating.
- It debuts the new opening theme, "Limit-Break × Survivor" by Kiyoshi Hikawa.
- From this episode Toei applies a post-production filter that mimics the look of old cel animation.
- When Goku catches a robber's bullet and flicks it back, the scene mirrors Raditz's first appearance, minus the fatal outcome.
Did you know? It is the first time the series shows a visibly pregnant character: Videl's pregnancy with Pan, back in the Battle of Gods arc, was still in its early days.