It was a nice way to let the tension and anticipation simmer a bit longer before the big brawl begins. That's really what the tournament boils down to, really. For all the talk about the need for coordination, strategy, and teamwork; most of the fighters just sort of charge in and start punching. You'd expect that from Goku and Vegeta, but pretty much every universe does it.
Strangely enough, universe 7 is largely ignored. You'd think that after the preliminary that everyone would be gunning for our heroes, but the other universes spend most of the time fighting among themselves. There's one point where everybody's fighting and the universe 7 team is just standing off to the side. I'm surprised no one suggested just sitting back and letting them fight it out. True, Goku and Vegeta wouldn't go for it and it would only be a matter of time before attackers came, but why not let their opponents waste energy on each other?
With so many fighters, no one match up is given too much attention. I was kind of hoping that the herd would thin and remedy this, but alas only two fighters are eliminated this episode. I suppose it's understandable, as these are all elite warriors, but it does make it hard to follow and keep track of what's what.
Even stranger, some of the more memorable characters are almost absent. Caulifla never gets involved and Kale is too shy to fight. I was initially disappointed by the latter, but I'm guessing it's going to make her transformation all the more impressive when she does finally go all out.
On the plus side, though, the fighters aren't left to float in the void for all eternity after getting knocked out of the ring. They are, instead, teleported to their team bench where they can be lectured by their deities and cheer on their teammates.
The omni-kings are impressed by the display of power from all the universes and even keep track of eliminations via their....godpads...oy.
While Universe 7 doesn't end up seeing anyone eliminated, they don't exactly get off to an auspicious start. Gohan, Roshi, Piccolo, Krillin, and Tien try a coordinated combo attack when they get surrounded. While the commitment to the "work as a team" plan is commendable, it does nothing as the approaching fighters seem unfazed. You'd think that, if nothing else, the solar flare would have caused some problems, but nope.
Even Goku almost gets eliminated when one fighter gets him in a bear hug and tries to drag him out of the ring in a sort of kamikaze attack. It "almost" works, but Beerus reminds Goku he can go blue, which he does, saving himself and knocking the other fighter out of the ring.
If nothing else, this scene confirms that you can hang off the side of the ring, pull yourself back up, and not get eliminated.
Oddly enough, Goku drops back to his base form after he frees himself. It's weird for a variety of reasons. He says he wants to conserve energy, but it never seemed to be a problem before. More than that, doesn't dropping in and out of the form drain energy faster? I'm citing the manga, which is different, but still. Maybe this will be where they establish that. Either way, I think Goku should have just stayed blue. He still has the kaio-ken combo in his back pocket should he need it and his powered up form should make things easier for him when facing other fighters. It probably would have come in handy considering he ends the episode surrounded by five other fighters.
All in all, this episode was solid. It was nice to finally get to the tournament and the episode kicked things off rather strong. It was all well animated and multiple characters got a highlight moment. The one downside for me came from external distractions which constantly forced me to pause. It really breaks up the momentum and undercuts the episode's faster pace.
It should also be noted that only one minute has passed when the narration starts up. As such, the fight should go a while. In some ways, it's a good thing as doing it in real time would have probably ended up being really anti-climactic. On the other hand, all fighting doesn't lend itself to analysis. Then again, other episodes have had "all fight" plots and we've done a good job talking about those, so it should be fine.
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