Sunday couldn’t get here fast enough! On the second episode of Dragonball Super we begin to see a few patterns emerge for what to expect for upcoming episodes.
First a quick recap; If you were disappointed with last week’s lack of Vegeta then fear not. This episodes is what Vegeta fans have been waiting their entire lives for. Somehow Bulma has convinced her husband to take a break from training and join their family on some much needed vacation time. Of course, Vegeta does this in typical fashion by scowling a lot, grumbling under his breath, and looking irritated at everything around them. Family shenanigans ensue (my favorite!) We get a couple great glimpses into the life of the Brief family, there are even moments where Vegeta doesn’t look like he wants to kill himself.
Most noteable is when Bulma comments that Vegeta has changed since the fight with Buu. The Buu saga as a whole probably shifted their family dynamics a lot considering Vegeta’s heroic sacrifice for his family only to return and find them all dead. That’s not the only thing that’s changed for him though, by the end of the Buu saga Vegeta came to terms that Goku was stronger than him. That doesn’t mean he’s going to give up or be satisfied with second best, as shown at the end of the episode when we see Vegeta training in 150x Gravity again, but it does mark subtle growth of character for our dear Saiyan Prince. Establishing this change was a great reintroduction to Vegeta and it provides a good flow to explain his overall silly attitude in Battle of the Gods.
As far as flow goes, this episode was a little better than the last. The focus was on Vegeta’s family vacation with some more foreshadowing. We even got some nice animation of Vegeta fighting in the gravity chamber. Though it was a little jarring when the show flashed back to a moment in the Buu Saga. I understand trying to save money and resources but the older animation next to the new gives the impression of college intern’s half-assed editing job.
Meanwhile the episode flashes to Beerus and Whis who are destroying planets at a whim. Beerus mentions a dream he’s been having of a strong opponent; the Super Saiyan God. That’s right, it looks like Super will be recapping the recent Battle of the Gods movie in order to expand on the next story arc.
I’m not thrilled at this idea, Battle of the Gods was a good movie and we’re wasting episode time watching things that have already been animated. This means some of the animation seems lackluster when compared to the theatrical movie. Plus, it is difficult to keep an audience’s’ attention when being shown a story we’ve already seen. At least the next five episodes will be used to recap the movie. As suggested in the next episode title: Where Does the Dream Continue?! Find Super Saiyan God!
But there are already some subtle differences that suggest maybe it won’t go exactly like BotG- for example Bulma might have her party on a cruise ship instead of her home and will Goku become a Super Saiyan God so early in the new season?
The good news is that I’m still excited for the next episode where the shenanigan focus looks like it will be on Krillin and his family, plus maybe we’ll get some spotlight time for our old friends Yamcha and Tien.
Freakouts, Giggles, and Additional Notes:
- Vegeta might be second to beating Goku in strength but he can still beat him when it comes to be world’s #1 dad.
- Vegeta standing on top of the jet while Bulma gave him some “training” makes me realize why these two make such a good couple.
- Oh yeah, and Goku’s back to training with King Kai. On a planet that is 10x Earth’s gravity while Vegeta has a machine that can go 150x gravity. I’m beginning to suspect Goku just doesn’t like being around people anymore.
- And now we all know who Gohan got his horrific tracksuit fashion from. Piccolo does not approve.
The Geek Girl Senshi 