Can I just start this review/recap by saying that I am in love with the opening music from Dragon Ball Super. Its got this entirely Japanese style that isn’t quite American butt-rock, but isn’t completely J-Pop either. It’s hard to explain, but it always puts me in a good mood.
Anyways, this wouldn’t be Dragon Ball without the requisite recap of last weeks events, even if hardly anything of value happened in episode one. If you want a recap of that just read my review for it on the site, or just know that Mr. Satan gave Goku a fat stack of paper which he in turn gave to ChiChi so he could bail on his family to go train on another planet. Word. This episode (whose title which I won’t repeat because Japan has a way with creating extremely long titles and… Well, shit. I could have typed it in the space I just used to ramble on) opens on the planet of King Kai as he is taking his slick red caddy for a drive around his tiny planet, on the only road it has. Already we are off to a fun start this episode.
As King Kai talks about peace and calm, Goku appears in his path causing him to swerve out of control and crash his car into his home. And like that all the peace and tranquility that King Kai showed is now all but gone. Goku sure has a way of being a burden on the people in his life. Our Saiyan hero goes on to tell King Kai that he is there to train on the planet as it has ten times the gravity of earth. King Kai isn’t happy as he tells Goku he isn’t some 24 hour motel that he can’t just check into anytime he feels like it. King Kai is an all-powerful deity, one of the most important ones in the universe as he so eloquently puts it after all. After Goku guilt trips King Kai (Goku is kind of an asshole) he dons a very Adidas track suit and gets to training before the scene cuts off. It’s weird not seeing Goku in his regular training gear, but this new look really does help bring the show into a more modern world.
We then jump to a Capsule Corp ship that Bulma is piloting with Trunks. He is of course passed out in the back making note that if his mother could fly they would have already been there. After a brief scolding by his mother Trunks asks if Vegeta is still on top of the ship. The camera then pans outside to show that he is indeed on top of the ship, with Bulma stating just how weird Saiyans are. Vegeta states that he is training and Bulma tells him that if he likes it so much she will build him his own damn train before gunning the ship in hopes of giving Vegeta a real workout. I don’t know what these Capsule Corp ships are made out of, but Bulma really does a number on it trying to knock Vegeta off the top before giving up when they arrive on the vacation. We then get a small montage of the things people do while on vacation from shopping to sightseeing with Vegeta all the while putting on his grumpy face. After Bulma says to knock of the training for a bit and enjoy the vacation Vegeta flashes back to the scene from Dragon Ball Z where he tells Trunks that if he hits him just once he’d take him to an amusement park. Fans know how this ends with Trunks landing a grazing blow that sends Vegeta over the edge before laying out his own kid with a brutal punch to the face. Man, this series is a lot darker than I remember. Look, I know Vegata and Bulma really love each other, but the show is trying really hard to subliminally tell me she’s probably in an abusive relationship. EVERY MALE CHARACTER IN THIS SHOW IS A DOUCHE! Sorry, I’m not sure what came over me.
What follows is another montage of Vegeta being a total party pooper before the family finds themselves at dinner because Vegeta demanded it. Things quickly cool down as food is the best way to a Saiyans heart and she continues to have the chefs bring out larger and larger dishes to calm her husband down. Everything is going swimmingly, aside from the massive bill Bulma must be racking up, until Vegeta takes things a little to far (when doesn’t he) and violently rips the tentacle off a giant octopus. This in turn causes the delightful dinner to spray copious amounts of ink all over Vegeta and in turn making him even madder than before. Bulma and Trunks escort him away before he goes Super Saiyan on the dead octopus and wrecks the entire building. Talk about some major anger problems that need addressing. Bulma sure does a lot for Vegeta even though he is a complete tool to her and Trunks. We get more of the same as the family move to a large concert to have some fun while Vegeta mopes in the crowd knowing that Goku is busy training, even though he is already the best fighter in the universe. Vegeta finally loses his cool and bails on his family (a running theme in this series) to presumably go train. I’m beginning to think divorce is illegal on this version of Earth.
After half an episode of dicking around we finally jump across the universe to Lord Beerus who is just lounging literally watching time float by. He, along with his companion, are traveling in what looks to be a comet in search of another world to destroy no doubt. Beerus lands on a planet inhabited by a bunch of green Minions knocks offs. These little guys are dumber than dirt and proceed to take on a gigantic T-Rex like creature on their own. As you can imagine things go very bad and hundreds of the little guys are scorched to a crisp. But before more idiots can perish, a hero emerges from the forest ala Captain Caveman to save them from the Dinosaur. This buffed up minion that looks like a pickle with a problem saves the day and he and his followers go to feat on the giant T-Rex. Unfortunately before that can have dinner Lord Beerus’ companion appears and tells this hero that Dinosaur meat is the 7th most popular dish in the universe. He demands to take the meat back to Lord Beerus, and after a scene of alien language that goes on far too long our pickle hero goes Super Sai… Err, Super Pickle by transforming into another, larger form. Lord Beerus shows up demanding his meat and after a little exposition where we find out that he’s eating so he can better remember the person he saw in a vision (It’s Goku, I’m calling it right now) before he utterly destroys super pickleman. It’s not a long fight, or impressive one, but we finally get to at least see some punches and special attacks get thrown around for the first time this series.
Beerus forgoes the Dinosaur meat and just blows up the entire planet with nothing more than his little finger before we shift to the Elder Kai freaking the fuck out because he felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced; Or something along those lines. Yoda here is apparently the only Kai to feel this new power in the universe (they just sort of materialize out of nowhere don’t they) and fears for everyone, as a power like this hasn’t been seen in some 30 million years. He announces that The God of Destruction, Lord Beerus, has awoken from his nap(?) to lay waste to everything. Makes sense now why he’s so dang hungry all the time. Lord Beerus watches over the destruction of this latest planet and once again has a vision of someone very powerful before we cut back to Earth. Nothing fancy here, but we at least get our first bit of character development and backstory, even if it has been the shortest part of the episode so far.
On Earth we see Vegeta, back in his Saiyan armor, in a gravity room beginning his training. What we then get is a montage of him training in 150G as he dodges lasers that are blasting him from all over the building. The training doesn’t last long before Vegeta is blasted out of the sky and quietly curses Kakarot under his breath before we cut to him training on King Kais planet, as Vegeta narrates about him becoming the number one fighter int he universe. Look, I’m a huge fan of Dragon Ball anything, but we are two episodes in this season and we are already relying a little heavily on some pretty tired plot devices from twenty years ago. We then cut back to Lord Beerus in space who tells his buddy that he cares not for the Dinosaur meat, but instead only cares for a being that can entertain him endlessly. I’m going to assume that he means by providing him a worthy opponent and not, you know, that other stuff. Still, witht he destruction of the planet his vision becomes a little more clear as Beerus now has a name for this being that his is looking for, Super Saiyan God.
And with that another episode of Dragon Ball Super ends without anything of merit happening, and what little did was essentially either rehashing a twenty year old story, or Lord Beerus once again being a super dick. Yes, I understand that this is what Dragon Ball, especially Z, is known for, but I would have loved for this new series push the story telling elements forward a nit better. This is 2015 and Dragon Ball is ingrained in cultures all over the globe. They no longer have to fill episodes with needles and superfluous filler just to pad out run times anymore. I want to see this story develop at a little faster pace than it’s currently going because they do have something interesting going on. At least next week we finally get all the gang together in one place!
Final Thoughts:
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Goku is a terrible husband
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VirginiaErr, Vegeta is a terrible husband -
Lord Beerus is really bad, but at least he treats his companion better that Goku or Vegeta treat their wives
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It’s. So. Slow.
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