Dragonball Super Episode 51 Review

Relax. This week, Dragonball Super is calming down a bit and giving us a little break from the insanity.

After the last episode ending with Bulma pulling out yet another Time Machine and Black being pulled back into the future, it’s time to rewind and explain a few things. Cue flashbacks to Dragonball Z, the Cell Saga, when Cell first arrived in the present. Trunks shows Bulma that the two machines are one and the same, both bearing the same ‘HOPE!!!’ marking that Trunks scrawled onto it. This can only be due to the way the show would have us believe time travel works. They went into the past at different points in the future, thus creating a paradox of two machines existing in the same timeline.  But that’s not really the focus here – Goku and Vegeta can use this Time Machine to chase down Black, once Bulma fixes it up with the notes her future self left.

Bulma with the Time Machine

Goku, pumped as always for a battle, immediately begins harassing Whis for more training for the next battle with Black. Beerus and Whis both seem uninterested, reminding the others that messing around with time is never a good idea. In fact, it’s illegal by Galactic Patrol standards, most Kais and other gods. They suggest Goku try training with Vegeta on his own, but Vegeta is already on his way to his personal training grounds – the old Gravity Room. I was super excited to see that brought back into the show, as Vegeta’s power always comes from training in solitude. This was where he first became a Super Saiyan, equal or more powerful then Goku (it’s a constant back and forth). I can’t wait to see what levels he can reach with the Gravity Room training and Blue mode.

In the future, Black is intrigued by his meeting with Son Goku. As he mentioned, fighting styles seem to be ‘embedded’ into him as he fights. He begins to take stances exactly like Goku’s, and sees the power he could gain from this new knowledge. He fires what looks to be a black Spirit Bomb of some kind to test himself.

Trunks and crew

As the episode wraps up, we get a heartwarming little sequence of Future Trunks telling young Mai all about the things she did in the future, how she grew up, and how she helped the battle against Black when he showed to destroy humanity. During these flashbacks we hear Black say he’s doing God’s work by wiping out the humans on Earth. Either he is insane, or there really is someone commanding him. This is a show where gods of destruction regularly hang out on Earth for pizza now. It could be anything.

Trunks and young Mai

Whis believes he may have an inkling of Black’s origins. Already back to the excitement? We’ll see next episode!