Episode 81 of Dragon Ball Super, first broadcast in Japan on March 5, 2017 and titled Bergamo the Crusher vs. Goku! Whose Strength Reaches the Wild Blue Yonder? in Funimation's dub, closes the Zeno Expo with its headline bout: Goku against Bergamo, the eldest of Universe 9's three brothers. On paper, the stakes are the abolition of the rule that dooms the losers. Then the Grand Minister lays out the rules of the Tournament of Power, and Top leaps into the ring to punish the Saiyan.
Summary
The gods are reeling: losing the tournament will mean ceasing to exist. Bergamo the Crusher says it out loud in front of everyone. Universe 9 may rank last, but the real enemy of the multiverse is Goku, who suggested this madness. So he asks that, if he wins, the erasure of defeated universes be scrapped. The two Zenos reluctantly agree, and the Grand Minister adds a condition: if Goku holds back, Zeno will erase everything on the spot. The Saiyan is fine with that.
The fight starts evenly, then Bergamo reveals his power: he absorbs the blows he takes and turns them into strength, growing larger and larger. Goku keeps hitting him anyway and clearly enjoys it, as Gohan points out: the stronger the opponent, the more fun his father has. Once Bergamo is a giant, Goku goes Super Saiyan Blue, adds the Kaio-ken and fires a Kamehameha that overwhelms Bergamo's Wolfgang Penetrator. Bergamo shrinks back to normal size and collapses. Universe 7 wins.
Before leaving, Bergamo warns Goku that every universe will be gunning for him. Goku responds by inviting the strongest to come at him, earning furious glares from the gods. The Grand Minister then explains the rules. The fight takes place in the Null Realm; anyone knocked off the ring is out; weapons and killing are banned, and nobody can fly. There will be a single forty-eight-minute battle royale between eighty fighters, ten per universe: the winner is the universe with the most fighters left at the end, or the last one standing before time runs out. That is when Top, leader of Universe 11's Pride Troopers, jumps into the ring and challenges Goku, convinced that his heart is evil.
Our take
Bergamo is a better antagonist than his bit-part role suggests. His accusation is simple and, from the other universes' point of view, entirely fair: Goku is the one who put everyone in danger. For the first time the series looks at its hero through the eyes of people who do not know him, and the result is unsettling. Goku does nothing to prove him wrong. He challenges everyone with a grin, and that swagger becomes the spark that keeps Team Universe 7 in the crosshairs for the entire tournament.
As action, a giant who grows with every blow is a classic idea, solved in the most Goku way imaginable: give him more energy than he can hold. The rules briefing, finally, is clear and genuinely useful. The ring, the clock, the flight ban: these are the constraints that will make the tournament a battle of strategy as well as strength.
Trivia
- Written by Atsuhiro Tomioka and directed by Masanori Satō, with Joey Calangian, Noel Añonuevo and Masahiro Shimanuki as animation directors. It drew a 6.4% TV rating in Japan.
- The forty-eight minutes correspond to one hundred units of time on Zeno's calendar.
- The Bergamo bout is anime-only: in the manga, the exhibition is a battle among the Gods of Destruction.
- The Japanese word aotenjō in the title means a strength with "no ceiling", one that can keep rising forever.
Did you know? Toei's simulcast title asked Which One Wields the Limitless Power?!, a looser take on the same "sky's the limit" idea.