After the bait and switch of two weeks ago, Dragon ball is
giving us a chance to wash the bad taste out of our mouths with a double header.
AS the episode begins we learn Ribrianne’s objective: to use
the Super Dragon balls to become a goddess of love.
In the face of this absurd wish Goku says something even
more absurd: he hasn’t decided what he wants. He might make a wish for his wife
or kids or wish for someone stronger to fight. That’s the Goku we know.
The fight between them continues and let me say it’s beautifully
animated. It’s also over the top, Ribrianne’s attack makes a heart shaped hole
in the ground. But Jiren interrupts the fight. Ribrianne retreats then Jiren
and Goku have a stair down.
Surprisingly, there is no long talk before the fight, but
there is an unnecessary dramatic pause. Goku starts punching and blasting in
his lower forms to test Jiren’s strength, and it has no noticeable effect. Jiren
actually looks bored as Goku goes blue.
Unsurprisingly Super Saiyan Blue gives Jiren little trouble.
Goku can’t even keep up. He has to use Kaioken just to stay in the ring.
Goku powers down and declares he will use his trump card. He
begins powering up the Genki Dama as Jiren declares he will wait for Goku to finish. The attack comes, but of course Jiren deals
with it, throwing it back at Goku! And the episode ends with the ball beginning
to consume him.
Thankfully we don’t have to wait a week. The next episode
starts right away.
Goku somehow pushes the Genki Dama back and then Jiren just
puts a little pressure on it and sends it back.
The ball stains under their opposing powers.
We also learn that Jiren is at the level of a god of
destruction, and he is the rumored mortal a Hakushin can’t defeat.
‘And then’--never a good sign in storytelling-- the Genki Dama
seems to collapse as an exhausted Goku falls into it. We get a great shot of
Gohan standing at the edge of the whole in the ground looking horrified.
Since Goku was “killed” by his own attack Jiren is not
punished for his "death”. But of course we know this isn’t what happened.
To the surprise of everyone—except Freeza—in the show and no
one in real life Goku bursts out of the rock in a new form.
The fight begins again, Goku’s attacks are doing damage and
Gohan observes his movements are different than usual.
And now the reveal: Ultra Instinct.
A state of awareness the Gods train for but rarely attain.
This seems to shock the Gods and angels. Whis suggests that the Genki Dama
recharged Goku and under its pressure broke through his shell.
Goku pushes Jiren back but seem to hit his limit. Perhaps
the new form was too much for him but he’s blown away. Ask about it by Vegeta
Goku doesn’t even know what he was doing.
Hit steps in to fight in Goku’s place and Goku rests, only
to see Freeza standing over him with an energy ball, talking about Namek.
This was a fun double feature, but it was formulaic as hell.
If you couldn’t guess what came next at least once every five minutes you
probably weren’t paying attention, or haven’t watched enough shounen anime. The
only cliff hanger for me was if the fight would be finished this week, and of
course I had no idea what the new form was.
I know we are all here because we love Dragon Ball and want
more of the same, but switching thing up can be nice too.
I will complement the writers on one thing: way back when
Goku started training with Whis the angel explained training the parts of your
body to react on their own. He also said even Beerus hadn’t reached that level
yet. I think this new form might have something to do with that and if so it’s
a very good callback. I like it when a power up doesn’t just come from nowhere,
even if it is a deus ex machina.
At the very least it was a fun ride. Will next week be fun? A
fight between Jiren and Hit should be.
-Gedaemon
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