While the gods' attitude towards Goku has been largely negative, one of the supreme kais does note that the tournament gave at least one of the universes a chance to survive. It's slim pickings as far as good news goes, but with something like this, I suppose you take what you can get.
Eventually, the fight does resume. I do wonder how the Zen'o's would have handled a longer pause, though I imagine it wouldn't end well.
The first episode in the tournament gave us small glimpses of several fights, while the last episode focused on just one. This episode kind of splits the difference, giving us a decent sized look at a couple of fights.
For the purposes of the story, this one seemed to work the best as there was just enough focus to get engaged, but we also saw the larger scope of what was happening...for the most part, but we'll get to that.
You'd think that with Goku and Vegeta taking center stage last time, that we would jump to other fighters. We do eventually, but Vegeta gets the early focus as he tries to vie for a rematch with Hit.
It doesn't come to pass, as Vegeta's charge is interrupted by Botamo. Considering Hit is one of the heavy hitters (ha) for Universe 6, this does make sense. This is also the first instance where the episode shows the importance of team work and coordination. We saw it to some extent in the Goku vs. Trio de Dangers, but this puts more emphasis on it as would be one on one fights are interrupted by others. This also brings the "brawl" aspect into greater focus.
While Botamo had a clear achilles' heel, we see that he has prepared a counter-measure to prevent himself from being thrown out of the ring. Granted, Vegeta is still able to just pick him up, but it shows that the same tricks aren't going to work twice against previously confronted adversaries. It was weird seeing Vegeta try to punch Botamo. You'd think he'd remember that direct attacks like that didn't work on him. I'd say maybe he just forgot over time, but if the group had a strategy session, you'd think somebody would bring it up.
This carries over to Magetta, who is now impervious to insults. Well, OK, Botamo just covers his ears so that Magetta can't hear it, but in any event, it makes things tough for the saiyan prince, suffice it to say.
The episode then jumps to Android 18, who is doing fairly well against a fighter named Shosa. She does so well, in fact, that there's a moment where it's suggested that she pulled a Drago and killed him in the ring.
Not only would this be bad from a general moral standpoint (though Frieza's point still stands) the more immediate ramification comes from the fact that killing isn't allowed. There is a moment of tension as 18 may be disqualified, but it turns out to be a ruse. Playing possum may not be one of the more impressive skill sets we've seen, but it's surprisingly effective as 18 finds herself on the ropes.
On the plus side, Krillin is there to come to her aid. Don't worry, she returns the favor later when he's on the losing end of a fight.
I was looking forward to seeing the husband/wife pair fighting side by side and this episode delivers on that front. It makes for one of the episode's major strengths. Not only do we get cool, coordinated attack patterns; but the bond between them is also showcased at several points, allowing for some cute, emotional moments.
They face off against a "blind monk" type character. This poses a problem as he is able to no sell Krillin's "solar flare x 100" attack. You'd think that at least the other fighters would be affected by this, but we never see that.
Speaking of, during this fight, we see no sign of the tournament outside of this 2 on 1 showdown. It's a cool fight, but something would be nice. I can understand how unrealistic it would be to animate characters fighting in the background, but show some explosions at least. That's what the two prior episodes did and that got the job done.
I did enjoy seeing how Krillin turned the tables on the otherwise tough opponent. I never thought I'd see the day when a Z warrior pulls a page from the Al Bundy school of fighting, but this episode managed to give us just that. Not only was it funny, but it showed Krillin's quick clever thinking and gave him a highlight as he manages to knock the opponent out of the ring.
Alas, this highlight proves to be Krillin's undoing as his moment to gloat gives Frost a chance to sneak up and whip him out of the ring, disqualifying him from the tournament. Given Krillin's history with Frieza, I did find it fitting that his universe 6 counterpart was the one to land the blow.
The episode ends here with the narration saying that there is still 43 minutes left in the tournament. The five minutes went by a lot faster than on Namek, but we still have quite a bit of fight to go before it's done.
It does stink that Krillin got knocked out. Seeing him and 18 fight alongside each other was cool. At least we can look forward to her joining forces with her brother. Krillin's elimination also adds some tension as universe 7 is now down a fighter and we know that they are just as likely to be eliminated. All things considered, though, universe 7 is still doing pretty well. The herd continued to thin here, so still having nine out of your ten fighters active is an impressive showing.
This episode was good, but not great. It had some nice character moments, but there were more noticeable flaws that weren't present in preceding episodes. The action was solid, so at least it delivered on that front. It also gave us fighters who were able to hold their own due to unique individual abilities. It helps add some variety to this big brawl and forces the characters to change their tactics each time around, which makes it more interesting to watch.
Judging by the preview for the next episode, things are going to be really kicking into high gear. Considering it's going to be the show's 100th episode, it's fitting. I'm really looking forward to seeing that.
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