Review: Dragon Ball Super Episode 51

In the previous episode we got to see pretty satisfying fight between Goku and Goku Black, that ended with Black being dragged to the future by his Time Ring, to help correct the timeline. He did, however, manage to destroy Trunks' time machine before leaving, to keep Trunks stranded in the past while he continues to lay waste to the rest of mankind. Hope isn't lost though (literally), when Bulma finds the capsule containing the time machine used by Cell years ago. The first question you might ask yourself is: If Bulma has had that capsule for all these years how has she not yet reverse engineered it or fixed it? Then the next question is: If she couldn't fix it before, then why now? Basically the technology used to create the time machine was too advanced for Bulma to understand and it frustrated her, but now that she has personal notes, written by her future self, about the time machine, she will have a better chance of fixing this one. So once she explains that she will be able to fix the time machine, Goku and Vegeta agree to go to the future with Trunks, then go their separate ways to train (Vegeta was pissed with Goku, probably for saying that Vegeta was too shaken up to train with him). On his way into the gravity chamber Vegeta says that he will never forgive him (very melodramatic). 

Now we get to the focus of the episode, which is the relationship between Mai and Trunks. So far we've only seen small glimpses of it in the form of awkward, but cute, hand holding, where Trunks gets really excited and grabs Mai's hand and drags her somewhere, and all the while she is grinning and blushing, and since the start of the Goku Black saga we have seen Mai and Trunks fight along side each other in future, but until now have yet see how they met. 

After Goku and Vegeta leave to train separately, Trunks notices Mai and, much like his younger self, gets really excited and grabs her by the hands and tells her about her future self. I'm still really confused by the timeline in Dragon Ball, because future trunks had never seen Mai as a young girl, but at this point you have to assume that he knows nothing about the past that is somehow supposed to change his future, so I digress. Trunks goes on to tell Mai about how in the future she leads the resistance against Black, and we even get a flash-back(forward?) scene of one of her plans to stop Black. She lured him into the middle of a city, using gunfire and was he was at the center she detonated bombs that would cause the entire city to fall on Black. The plan of course didn't work (I don't even think that would hurt Pan) and just as Black was getting ready to attack and kill Mai Trunks comes to save her, but is wounded in the process. After escaping, Mai tends to Trunks' wounds and explains to him that he is the reason everyone fights. He is their hope. 

During the episode we also see a short scene where Black tests out the new abilities and strength that he gained from fighting Goku, and says that he now must learn more about Goku, because apparently the more he knows the more powerful he becomes.

Review: Dragon Ball Super Episode 50

Sorry I'm so late with this week's review. The holiday weekend was very busy and I was not able to get a chance to sit down and write, but, anyways, episode 50 was definitely one of the more insightful episodes of the current Future Trunks/Goku Black story arc. The episode starts with Whis and Beerus examining Black from their lawn chairs, noticing that he is both Goku and not Goku, and seeing that he has a Time Ring. They would later tell everyone that Time Rings are only possessed by the Kaioshin, which all, but proves the theory that Black is a fusion between Goku and a Kaioshin. The only question left is: How? Because in the timeline that Future Trunks and Goku Black exist in Goku is dead, and will have been dead fro some time. Might the Kaioshin have brought him back to life and used his body for the fusion? Or is it possible that the Kaioshin that fuses with Goku is in the present and fuses with him before him and Vegeta go to the future with Trunks? Honestly your guess is about as good as mine. The jacked up timeline makes explaining everything about this show even more difficult. 

Well, getting back to the review, after Whis and Beerus made their observations, we see Goku challenge Black to a fight, to which Black accepts and gives Goku a cryptic message: "I was hoping to fight you in this body." Goku was of course confused by this statement, and so was I. The thing that me really stop and think was the fact that he said "this body." This made me wonder if there were other bodies that he has been using, like maybe Vegeta's body or something. However we do actually find out why he wants to fight Goku in that body. Goku starts the fight in super saiyan form, because like Vegeta says to Trunks, mid-fight, "[he] has a habit of holding back at the beginning." At this point it seemed as though they were evenly matched, but after exchanging a few punches, it seemed as though Black was getting stronger after every punch. He even said, "This pain will make me even stronger!" What he means by this becomes even more clear after he is forcibly brought back to the future by the Time Ring and says, "I was able to engrave [Super Saiyan Goku's] fighting style into my own being. This is what makes Goku Black so dangerous. Ever since he was first introduced, I've wondered how would he possibly stand a chance against either Goku or Vegeta, let alone both, and this is how: As a fight goes on, Black's power level will rise to surpass whomever he is fighting, which may even cause Beerus to get involved in the future (who knows). 

Also, before being dragged back to the future (you see what I did there?), he destroys Trunks' time machine, seemingly keeping Trunks in the past for good while he is able to go back to the future and continue the annihilation of mankind. However, Bulma is able to find the time machine used by Cell, in her lab. This time machine is broken, but Bulma is more likely to fix this one than the one destroyed by Black. 

Lastly, before the episode ended the, we brought to the future and shown a, what we had previously assumed to be, dead Mai laying on the ground, but the camera pans down to her hand and we are able to see movement! Mai is alive! This scene perfectly transitions us into the next week's episode titled: Trunks And Mai.