Goku happily notes that none of the fighters are giving off energy, at least not that they can detect. Where the others are worried, the fact makes him even more excited to be involved in the tournament.
Given that the other fighters are from different universes, it makes sense. On top of that, it raises the tension, as we don't know what any of the fighters are capable of. It's also a nice way to sidestep the power level issue and just focus on the fights themselves.
And what a fight this was. Basil proves to be no slouch, as he gleefully and repeatedly kicks Buu in the stomach and face. He even gets a couple of crotch shots in there too. The fact that this is dirty pool is somewhat negated by Buu being...well Buu. Even putting that aside, fighting dirty and cheating seem to be within acceptable parameters according to the omni-king's decrees.
It's pretty clear that this tournament isn't going to be like the others. In addition to the aforementioned point about cheating, where previous bouts ended when a fighter was knocked out of the ring, the omni-kings declare that the fight will continue until they either get bored or a fighter is knocked completely unconscious. Whether this escalates to full on death matches later on down the line remains to be seen.
In the meantime, though, Buu continues to contend. It doesn't look too good, though, as even when he starts fighting back, he can't seem to get a good hit in. Having the Supreme Kai be the one to express the most shock at this was a nice touch, but the tables soon turn in his favor, when he becomes enraged at Mr. Satan being injured by some debris. While Buu has been kind of obnoxious, it was nice to see that he still legitimately sees Mr. Satan as his friend and shows concern for him.
All in all, the fight was very reminiscent of Buu when he first came out of the egg. Even the beings and gods from other universes express shock at Buu's ability to shrug off insane amounts of punishment, they flat out admit that they have no idea what he is (though it is suggested that the multiverse is filled with similar beings,) and Basil exhausts himself attempting to pummel and blast Buu into submission. There are some decent fake outs where it seems like Buu is down for the count, but he just pops back up with a smile on his face.
It was nice to see, in all honesty. It seems like it's been a long time since this iteration of Buu has gotten a definitive win. It was very entertaining to see him have the upper hand in a fight again.
Even putting that aside, Basil was kind of obnoxious. To his credit, he can back up his boasts, as he put up a hell of a fight; but you really wanted to see Buu put him down for the count. His universe's Supreme Kai isn't much better. He spends most of his screen time cackling and taunting the Universe 7 team. It just makes Buu's win all the more satisfying.
It's a testament to the fight that there's a legitimate sense of relief at it being done. Not because the fight stunk, far from it, but the tension was held for a vast majority of the episode, so having that breather was appreciated.
Of course, it isn't long before the second round is announced. Not surprisingly, Gohan steps up to the plate. For his part, he's eager to show his dad the results of his training, but things aren't looking too good for him.
For one thing, his opponent, Lavender has a blood lust that Basil lacked. He's actually quite eager to kill his opponent and is insistent that as long as he can kill, he'll win.
From a meta-perspective, the rule of tension dictates that he lose. Granted, this is just an exhibition match and likely won't have any consequence, but having universe 7 win all three would be anti-climactic. It's possible that Goku will lose, but I'd be surprised if they didn't try to amp up his bout by making it the tie-breaking fight.
Exhibition or not, this was a great way to kick off the tournament. The fight was really well done, there were some nice callbacks to "Z", and it seems like this was just the beginning. I'm more than OK with this arc only going uphill from here, but it does make me excited to see what comes next as this was quite a bar to set.
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