Dragon Ball Super Episode 11
Now we’ve got a Battle of Gods on our hands! After so much build up, it’s rather satisfying to actually see Goku land a number of combos on Beerus and send him flying through the sky. They might not leave much of a mark on him, but Goku is finally holding his own against the God and that actually translates to compelling content. At one moment Goku basically acts as a black hole to an energy blast of Beerus’, crushing it under his own power. Moments like this where even Beerus is surprised by Goku’s strength are the highlight of the episode. In spite of the new-found groove to this battle, it does largely play out with the two going back and forth with their blows. Goku gets the upperhand on Beerus. Beerus gets the upperhand on Goku. Repeat. This might be due to the fact that Beerus is still trying to help cultivate the true powers of the Super Saiyan God, but it does get a bit repetitive in nature. Even still though, sequences like Beerus’ “Kick the Goku” onslaught are pretty damn exciting to watch. There are a number of viewers that have already seen this material via Battle of Gods, which you would think would lead to some new tactics being resorted to in Dragon Ball Super. The battles don’t play out exactly the same across the two mediums, but the larger beats are all identical. Going in a whole new direction and inventing some new “middle” to Goku and Beerus’ battle might have been the better approach here. At the least, different content here would have less people inevitably comparing the animation between the two. There is also a lot of Beerus toying with Goku this week, with him still holding back his full strength. Ironically, this is all being done as a means of motivating Goku to fight harder and coax more power out of his opponent. While Goku largely gets his ass kicked this week (with Beerus literally removing him from the Earth’s atmosphere in order to make his point), he’s no worse for wear at the end of things. The new Super Saiyan God merely powers up, somehow heals himself in the process, and is now ready to give Beerus another go. Nothing is ostensibly changed since last episode, only that these two are a little more aware of each other’s abilities, but this episode can end up feeling like a tease at times. When Goku is no longer holding his own against Beerus, things get genuinely tense as Beerus once more begins talking about destroying the Earth, and even produces a colossal ball of energy (or more like a couple hundred) to prove he’s serious. In spite of the tremendous demonstration of power that Goku pulls off to counter Beerus, the episode still nearly ends on a rather grim note (you have to be really strong to give something a flaming punch that doesn’t extinguish when underwater). The past few episodes of this show might have felt like a lot of false starts of this battle finally beginning before something else would manage to knock it down a notch, but next episode has these two truly at the peak of their power. There’s no turning back now.
