'Dragon Ball Super': Episode 109: 'The Ultimate Enemy Approaches Goku! Now Let Loose! The Killer Spirit Bomb!'

After a week off, Dragon Ball Super returns with a double header.  It was certainly the wait as two of the tournament' heavy hitters face off: Goku and Jiren.  This was a fight that would've been best suited for the final match up, but we get it a bit early.  It's an interesting subversion, but the gods of universe 11 note that having them face off now will have ramifications later.  By seeing Jiren's power in action, the remaining fighters will likely lose the morale to keep fighting.

Before this, though, we see Goku facing off against Ribrianne.  It's not a bad fight per se, but it isn't the most active.  It's kinetic, sure, but Goku is largely playing defense and it doesn't seem like Ribrianne actually lands a clear hit.  I did get a kick out of her "love" arrows.  Not even Oliver Queen or Hawkeye ever came up with that one.

Ribrianne also stands as the first fighter to declare her intended wish with the super dragon balls: to become a god that is worshipped and loved by everyone across the multiverse.  I was surprised by how cool with this Helles was.  Even the Zen-oh's don't seem too bothered by this.

For Goku's part, he's not sure what he wants to do with the wish.  He does bring up the idea of wishing for something for Chi-chi or his family, which I thought was kind of heartwarming; but he's more excited at the idea of wishing for a strong person to fight.

While Ribrianne thinks herself to be the ticket, she is but an appetizer to the main course that is Jiren.  I rather liked the segue.  I'm surprised we haven't seen more fights like this where one is interrupted and a fighter moves onto another target, but at the same time, seeing fights complete has worked for several episodes as well.

Ribrianne's reaction to seeing Jiren was rather amusing to boot.  You might find her being reduced to comic relief a disappointment, but a little levity is always nice.

At long last, Goku faces off against Jiren.  As has often been the case, Goku opens the fight trying to gauge his opponent's power.  He attacks in his base form, in super saiyan form, in super saiyan 2, and in super saiyan god form to no avail.  The complete bypass of super saiyan 3 was noticeable, but I can understand why Goku didn't want to burn through his energy, even if the time spent in that form was brief.

All of these appear to be completely useless as Jiren is stupid strong.  Even in blue, Goku doesn't fare too well.  The only time Goku can even hold his own is when he combines blue with the kaio-ken times 20, and even that's by the skin of his teeth.  Like I said, Jiren is stupid strong.  Goku pretty much gets his clock cleaned for a good chunk of this episode.  Even Vegeta notes that Jiren's power is ridiculous.

It would have been nice to see the other universe 7 fighters back up their teammate when they saw that he wasn't getting anywhere in that fight, but this is Dragon ball and them just sitting on the sideline is par for the course.

With no other options, Goku uses his trump card: the spirit bomb.  I'm curious how this one compares to the one used against Buu.  That one had a whole planet behind it, though the few contributing now are a lot more powerful now.  Granted, Vegeta doesn't help, but Frieza does.  Even Krillin, Tien, and Roshi toss in energy.  I'm kind of surprised that was allowed, but I'm guessing the Zen-ohs were willing to let it slide because the attack was gonna be cool.

It would have been interesting to see fighters from rival universes lend Goku some strength out of sheer pragmatism.  If Jiren's that powerful and this is Goku's best bet to take him out, why not improve the odds of taking out the major frontrunner?  You could argue that it would have been moot, but again, it would have been interesting to see rival characters at least consider the idea.

Is the attack enough to defeat the powerful foe?

....

No, of course not.  This is a 2 parter.  Jiren's not going out that easy.  In fact, he rather effortlessly sends the spirit bomb back at Goku.  The saiyan does try powering up again to get the strength he needs to push the bomb to its intended target, but it doesn't work.  In fact, the episode ends with Goku seemingly being taken down by his own attack.  You could argue that it's not much of a cliffhanger, as we know that Goku is fine, but if nothing else, there's tension in the fact that Goku has no real options left against this particular opponent.

Overall, this was a very strong episode.  The Jiren vs Goku showdown lived up to the hype and the prior lived up to his reputation as possibly the most powerful fighter in the tournament (and in turn, the multiverse.)  I'm looking forward to seeing how this match up concludes in the second half of this Dragon Ball Super double header.

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