Review: "SOS From the Future! A New Black Enemy Reveals Himself!"

Akira Toriyama has done it again. He's set the stage for what's sure to be another classic Dragon Ball story arc. Last night, 'Dragon Ball Super' released its 47th episode, "SOS From the Future! A New Black Enemy Reveals Himself!," brought back the fan favorite Future Trunks, and introduced a new villain, Black. The episode starts in a desolate future, with destroyed buildings and massive craters in the ground no doubt due to the massive battles between Black and the Z fighters, with Trunks running from Black, who is at this point in the episode just a shadowy figure firing powerful ki blasts. Trunks eventually gets away from him and arrives at Bulma's lab, where she gives him the fuel for the time machine. Bulma stresses to Trunks that there is only enough fuel for a one way trip (she also tells him that "there's always a way back"), and that he should remember that people have died to make his trip possible. Black soon after finds Bulma and Trunks in the Lab, and savagely murders Bulma in front of Trunks. Now Trunks has to flee again and this time meets with Mai, a once henchmen of Emperor Pilaf turned freedom fighter. Mai also appears to be the love interest of Trunks. They talk for a while, Trunks tells her that there's only enough fuel for a one way trip and that they would be going back 17 years, because "that's where [his] friends are." Black finds them, and Trunks attempts to confront him using his sword, that he can now fire ki blasts from. His attacks were ultimately useless, and Mai decides to be a decoy and sacrifice herself, because "[Trunks is] the one who needs to survive." The episode ends with Black killing Mai in front of Trunks, and as Trunks holds his dead girlfriend(?) Black is finally revealed, amidst the destruction and fire, to be Goku with an emerald earring in his left ear.

There were also scenes from the present in the episode, but they really didn't do anything to progress the narrative, so I left them out of the review.

 Last week I said that I hoped this week's episode would shed some light on the specifics of the new arc, but the only new information we get from the episode is that Bulma and Mai are murdered by Black, and that there is only enough time traveling fuel for a one way trip. This episode also tells us that this is the same Future Trunks from the Cell/Android Saga, because he remembers events from that timeline. Something about this episode that I thought was really cool was the fact that no matter what, Trunks is always the lone surviver. He was the only surviver in the 'History of Trunks,' and nothing's changed. It reminds me of the interaction that Hank McCoy and Wolverine have in the 'X-Men: Days of Future's Past,' where McCoy says:

"There’s a theory in quantum physics that time is immutable. It’s like a river — you can throw a pebble in and create a ripple, but the current always corrects itself. No matter what you do the river just keeps flowing in the same direction." 

Trunks being the last person on Earth will always happen, no matter how much he tampers with the past. He is only prolonging the inevitable. 

 Toriyama is notorious for writing himself into a corner and making things up on the fly, making the continuity of Dragon Ball very confusing, but it seems like 'Dragon Ball Super' is planned out a lot better. Time travel in comics and anime is always confusing if you think about it too much, so don't. Don't over think the continuity, don't think about Trunks and his blue hair, don't think about Uub, don't think about where Launch is, and definitely don't think about Mai and how she's actually like 40+. Just sit back and enjoy Future Trunks.