The Universe 6 Saga is the third arc of Dragon Ball Super and the first with a story never told in theaters: nineteen episodes broadcast on Fuji TV between January 24 and June 5, 2016. At its heart is a tournament between two twin universes, set up on a whim by two gods, which opens the series up to the multiverse and brings in Zeno, the king of everything, for the first time.
What the saga is about
After Frieza's defeat, Goku and Vegeta go back to training with Whis. Then Champa, the twin brother of Beerus, shows up on Beerus' planet with his angel Vados. This is where Whis explains that there are twelve universes, paired two by two: the Seventh, Goku's, is the twin of the Sixth. Champa tastes Earth food and falls in love with it, but on his own universe's Earth humanity was wiped out by a war.
The brothers decide to settle things their way: a five-on-five tournament. If Universe 6 wins, Champa takes Universe 7's Earth; if Universe 7 wins, Beerus gets the Super Dragon Balls, as big as planets and able to grant any wish. To locate them, Bulma and Jaco go to consult Zuno, a being who knows everything.
The tournament on the nameless planet
Beerus' team is made up of Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo and Monaka, billed as the strongest fighter the god has ever faced; Majin Buu is ruled out after a mandatory written exam. Champa fields Botamo, Magetta, Frost, the young Saiyan Cabba and the hitman Hit. The fights take place on a planet with no name, under the eyes of both universes' gods.
Goku easily beats Botamo but loses to Frost, Universe 6's counterpart of Frieza, who looks like a gentleman but uses a poisoned needle. Once the cheating comes out, Vegeta deals with him, then beats Magetta and faces Cabba: during the match he teaches him to go Super Saiyan, and from then on the boy looks up to him as a role model. Against Hit, however, the Saiyan prince falls: the hitman uses "Time-Skip", a technique that lets him stop time for a split second.
Goku takes him on by combining Super Saiyan Blue with a tenfold Kaio-ken, a gamble that costs him dearly. When Champa and Beerus start arguing about the rules, Goku steps out of the ring of his own accord. Then it is Monaka's turn, and Hit, tired of Champa's orders, pretends to take a blow and lets himself lose. Universe 7 wins.
Enter Zeno
Just as Champa is threatening everyone, Zeno arrives, the ruler of all twelve universes, able to erase them with a gesture. He enjoyed the tournament and wants a new one with fighters from every universe: the seed of the Tournament of Power. The nameless planet turns out to be the last Super Dragon Ball, and the wish restores Universe 6's Earth.
Main characters in this saga
Episodes
The titles are those of Funimation's English dub.
About episodes 42-46
These are self-contained stories: the victory party, with Beerus dressing up as Monaka so as not to disappoint Goku, Goku's ki problems while he babysits Pan, and a copy of Vegeta created by miraculous water on planet Potaufeu. Sources split over them. English and Spanish Wikipedia include them in the saga, which therefore ends at 46; the Fandom wiki stops the arc at 41 and groups the rest into a separate mini-saga built around the Duplicate Vegeta. We keep them here because they are the natural epilogue to the tournament: Monaka, Pan and the after-effects of the Kaio-ken all come out of this story.
Characters and transformations
- Champa and Vados, Universe 6's God of Destruction and angel, comic mirrors of Beerus and Whis;
- Hit, the legendary assassin, who will return more than once;
- Cabba, the first Saiyan from another universe, a polite and respectful young man;
- Frost, the "good" version of Frieza, who is anything but;
- Zuno, the universe's oracle, and Zeno, the king of everything, with his attendants;
- Monaka, Beerus' champion, who is really just a delivery man.
On the power front, the new arrivals are Super Saiyan Blue combined with the Kaio-ken, unleashed by Goku in episode 39, Cabba's first Super Saiyan transformation and Hit's Time-Skip. For the full picture, see our Super Saiyan transformations page.
Differences from the manga
There is no film behind this arc: anime and manga start from the same outline by Toriyama and develop it in parallel. In Toyotarō's chapters 5-13 the tournament is more linear. Against Hit, Goku goes from base to Super Saiyan, then God and finally Blue, without ever using the Kaio-ken, and Hit does not refine his Time-Skip during the match. Frost is knocked out by Vegeta, whereas in the anime it is Hit who takes him down after his defeat. It is in the manga, during a sparring session, that the divine form gets the name Super Saiyan Blue; the Pilaf gang follows the heroes to the tournament planet; and the Duplicate Vegeta interlude does not exist.
Our take
With Universe 6, Super finally finds a voice of its own. A tournament between twin universes is a return to the roots, to the martial arts tournaments of the original series, and it works mostly thanks to the characters: Champa and Vados are a fun reflection of Beerus and Whis, Cabba gives Vegeta a pupil who makes him more human, and Hit is the first opponent in years to be lethal without being evil.
The Goku versus Hit fight is the heart of the saga, and the moment Goku leaves the ring because the show no longer makes sense says a lot about him. Less successful are the Frost episodes, which repeat Frieza without his charisma, and the closing episodes, likeable but superfluous. Yet the final act, with Zeno's arrival, changes the scale of the series and sets up everything to come. Before this saga comes Resurrection 'F'; next up is the Future Trunks Saga.
Did you know? Monaka, Beerus' "strongest warrior", is just an intergalactic delivery man: the god uses him to motivate Goku and, at the party that follows, even dresses up as him rather than give the bluff away.
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