'Dragon Ball Super' Episode 106: 'Find Him! Death Match With an Invisible Attacker!!'

While Goku makes sure that Roshi is OK, Gohan and Piccolo find themselves stalked by a sniper.  Any movement on their part seems to draw dangerous fire.

Now, despite what the title may tell you, this isn't a death match.  The blasts are powerful, but non-lethal.  Piccolo even notes that it has to be this way, as a kill would render the fighter disqualified.  Of course, it's still a serious problem to be sure.  It forces Piccolo to play meat shield, losing multiple limbs (but regenerating them) in the process.  It got them through, but the dialogue suggests that doing it this extensively will wear out Piccolo's stamina. It seems like he's going to need to take a breather for a while.  He, Roshi, and Kale can chew the fat while they all try to recoup some energy.

The sniper made for a unique adversary, as this was something that raw power or even fighting skill couldn't overcome.  This was a battle of wits and it worked very well.  We'd see Gohan and Piccolo assess the situation and come up with a counter-measure, only to find that the assassin has a fall back which forces them to adapt again.  The back and forth gave our heroes frequent chances to shine while also keeping the tension up.

Over the course of the episode, Tien, Goku, and Vegeta enter the fray and it only makes the confrontation that much more exciting.

I did get a kick out of Vegeta stating the simple solution of "dodge", only to be grazed by sniper fire himself.  I don't know if that was an intentional "abridged" reference, but my brain made the connection regardless.

Even with the back up, the universe 7 fighters have a rather tough situation on their hand.  It's only through team work, quick strategic thinking, and coordination that they are able to ultimately overcome the adversary...or adversaries, I should say.

The fight doesn't come without cost, however.  Tien ends up eliminated.  He takes one of the two snipers with him, but it is still an elimination.  I wonder what would have happened if one of the Tiens (he puts the multi-form to use here) got eliminated, but the other three remained.  Would it be like a "majority rules" situation where if over 50% of the clones were eliminated he'd be eliminated entirely, or is it an all or nothing deal?  The episode has them all go out at once, so it's a moot point, but it would have been interesting to see how the Zen'os would call that.

This episode was quite a bit of fun.  It was tense and well paced.  It also gave us something of a break from a string of fights.  The nature of the adversary made the episode stand out a lot more than some of the other ones.  We also saw a few more fighters eliminated.  There's still 32 minutes left, but the remaining fighter count is starting to dwindle.  As we get down to the final few, the tournament may eventually become the "all out brawl" that we thought it would be.  We'll just have to wait and find out.

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