Saturday, November 11, 2017

Dragon Ball Super Ep. 115 Review: A Fusion of Expectation and Disappointment


That opening, what was I watching?! I’m so confused!

The episode starts right off with Goku’s continuing fight with Kefla. Even in her base state she is able to overwhelm SSG Goku. The animation here gets the point across but it also looks like they were cutting corners.

Watching this Beerus argues that the Potara are against the rules, but of course Zeno-sama likes it to it is allowed.

At the same time Vegeta is distracted by Goku’s fight and ends up getting locked by Toppo. Piccolo and Gohan also have their hands full with the Namekians. Unfortunately we only get a quick peak at either of these fights.

Back with Goku, he’s been forced to transform into SSB. He can‘t hold back against the female fusion, who also powers up to Super Saiyan’s legendary form. The fight begins relatively even, with lots of cycling animation. Kelfa uses an energy ball which forces Goku to go all in with Kaioken. Goku has already drained his power once, and Beerus observes that this will take its toll. However Kefla is also suffering from low stamina. She isn’t used to this kind of power. Goku blows away her next ki attack but she gets him with a surprise kick which knocks him back to base form.  Goku gets back up but he is suffering, however when Kelfa goes to finish him off, his ultra instinct activates and he easily dodges her follow up attacks while hardly moving.

I think the end of this episode was the only point where I felt fully committed. The title gave too much away, and even without that so much of this fight was by the numbers. That’s really a pity, because the ending of the last episode left me stunned, and after the great directing last episode I expected the quality to continue. I was sourly disappointed.

The use of looping animation was super noticeable this time around, and it didn’t help that many of the characters seemed slightly off, kind of like in early episodes of Super. Considering the importance of Goku once again reaching ultra instinct and the fact that Caulifla and Kale are popular but somewhat controversial, you would think they would be going all out for this one. Instead we have a slightly below average episode with a good ending.

It is somewhat predictable that Kefla will be the antagonist that will give Goku the insights he needs to face Jiren again, at least that is what I think is going to happen. But that is no excuse for lazy artwork or storytelling. We came into this knowing Goku is the hero. It’s all about the delivery

As for the next episode, I hope it makes up for this one, but I am not holding my breath.

-Gedaemon

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