Episode 96 of Dragon Ball Super, first broadcast in Japan on June 25, 2017 and titled The Time Has Come! To the Null Realm with the Universes on the Line! in Funimation's dub, is the eve of the Tournament of Power. Team Universe 7, now including Frieza, leaves Earth for the Null Realm, where eighty fighters from eight universes gather. Between introductions, suspicious alliances and a first taste of Jiren's power, everything is set for battle.
Summary
The gods of the four exempt universes arrive at the newly finished arena, built from a steel even tougher than Katchin. To keep the two Zenos from getting bored, the Grand Minister suggests a test: Iwan of Universe 1, Arak of Universe 5 and Liquiir of Universe 8 face off under tournament rules, while Universe 12's Geen sits it out. The arena ends up in ruins, and the three Gods of Destruction are put in charge of fixing it. The two kings, meanwhile, slept through the whole thing.
At Capsule Corporation, Frieza's arrival creates tension. Beerus warns him against any tricks, Vegeta mocks his halo and Tien has doubts, but Goku vouches for him. Yamcha, hiding with Puar and Oolong, takes his non-selection with dignity. At the strategy meeting Gohan and Supreme Kai stress teamwork and fighting with superior numbers, but Goku and Vegeta find that unsporting: it will be up to Gohan and Piccolo to hold the group together. Whis asks everyone to hold hands for the teleport, and Beerus takes Frieza's hand to spare Vegeta the embarrassment. Bulma sees the team off and wishes them luck.
In the Null Realm it turns out the hand-holding was not necessary: it was just Whis's way of building team spirit. Whis explains that only gods and fighters with wings can fly in the arena, and that each fighter will feel the gravity of their home planet. The other teams arrive: Cabba introduces Caulifla and Kale to Vegeta, Frieza and Frost discover they have a lot in common, Top rebuffs Goku's enthusiasm, and Jiren, appearing behind the Saiyan in an instant, tells him to get lost. When the arena's blocks fly into place, everyone dodges except Jiren, who stays perfectly still: he has read their trajectories exactly.
The Grand Minister introduces the eight teams. Universe 4 seems to have only eight fighters, but Tien can sense the presence of two more. After a brief greeting from the Zenos, the forty-eight-minute tournament can begin.
Our take
The episode does its eve-of-battle job well: it reviews the team one last time, restages its internal divisions and introduces the rivals in one sweep. Jiren among the flying blocks is a lesson in narrative economy: without throwing a punch, it reveals a fighter on another level. The instant rapport between Frieza and Frost, on the other hand, is a little time bomb, and the audience senses it right away.
There is also a farewell, one nobody could have known about at the time: this is the last episode in which Hiromi Tsuru voices Bulma, and her good-luck wish to the team carries special weight today.
Trivia
- Written by Hiroshi Yamaguchi and directed by Masanori Satō, with Joey Calangian, Noel Añonuevo and Hiroyuki Itai as animation directors. It drew a 5.5% TV rating in Japan.
- It is the last episode in which Bulma is voiced in Japanese by Hiromi Tsuru, who died on November 16, 2017.
- The Gods of Destruction's test bout is an anime addition; in the manga, Goku talks to Hit on arrival rather than to Universe 6's Saiyans, and the team leaves during the day.
- In the manga, Yamcha does not show up to see the team off.
Did you know? The literal Japanese title speaks of the "World of Void", the name Toei's own simulcast used before Funimation settled on Null Realm.