Dragon Ball Super

Episode 91

Okay, our ten man team for the Tournament of Power is complete. They did it. No more complications to expect, right? It's all just going to be strategy and preparation from this point forward, since they only had a couple of days to train from the beginning and we're nearing the final hour. Yessir, no more dawdling.

Unfortunately, it was never going to be that simple, as we learn towards the end of this episode that Majin Buu has re-entered one of his two-month sleeping periods. This means that we'll once again be deprived of seeing Buu as one of the big hitters of Universe 7, a true shame because he was always one of the more bizarre and fun characters of the "bad-guy-turned-good" crop. This is ultimately in service of an upcoming revelation that a certain other character will be taking his place (who so far can only be seen via leaks, but if you've been on the internet recently, you probably already know who I'm talking about). It's a pretty exciting twist, but I kind of hate the idea that I'll have to wait a few weeks to really talk about it.

The main bulk of this episode comes from cycling once more through some of the other universes to get an update on where they're at in the recruitment process. Zen-Oh, the arbiter of existence's fate, watches on from a safe distance and peeks in on everybody as our window into the other parties in this upcoming tournament. Surprisingly, Goku and friends have been having by far the easiest time putting a team together (excluding this last minute shake-up), and the other universes are struggling to find that right balance of strong and smart, good and evil. We already know Universe 6 has at least 3 Saiyans locked down, and now it looks like familiar faces Hit and Frost will be in the mix as well. Toppo's team continues to lock themselves in as the undisputed heroic figures of the tournament, and Universe 2 has some magical girl-style alien on their side. Notably, the Grand Priest tells Zen-Oh to specifically keep an eye on the female warriors of the tournament, of which there are now many more than we're used to seeing in Dragon Ball.

Overall, this episode has a lot of variety but very little to offer beyond a bunch of noise. A conversation about Old Kai not having the time to unlock Goku's potential here, an obnoxious "Roshi is a perv" scene there, and a bunch of unspectacular updates on the other competitors in the tournament abound. I'd say it was nice to see a little beyond what's going on with Goku and company, but this is already the third episode that covers the other universes in this recruitment arc. The most dramatic thing that got accomplished this episode was the reveal that Buu won't be sticking around, but even that won't really go anywhere for a few episodes.

This episode is pleasant enough, but I'm just so overwhelmingly tired of jogging in place. I expected this recruitment arc to be maybe three or four episodes at the start, but it's been over twice that with no definite end in sight. Every week I'm trying to think of new ways to say "I'm bored. Please move on."

Rating: C+

Dragon Ball Super is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Sam Leach records about One Piece for The One Piece Podcast and you can find him on Twitter @LuckyChainsaw