#murichim

All right, so Piccolo has finished drilling Gohan and they both seem confident that he’s back to his full strength.  But Piccolo wants to test that out and he only knows one way to do that: Clobbering Goku.  So they arrange a little 2v2 match on top of a mesa, with Tournament of Power rules.

Roshi and Chiaotzu bear witness.  You know, nobody ever brought up having Chiaotzu on the team.  Sure he’s got a terrible win-loss record, but who’s to say he hasn’t been training like a maniac this whole time?  If all these other characters can stand up to Super Saiyan Blue now, maybe Chiaotzu can smoke all their asses.

Nice shot of the Milky Way.  Well, North Galaxy.  Whatever.  It’s pretty, is what I’m trying to say.

So it’s a 2-on-2 match, but Tien pretty quickly ceases to be a factor.  Gohan’s a house of fire, and he’s mainly gunning for Goku, but he and Piccolo have coordinated their attacks, while Goku and Tien haven’t seen each other in months. 

So while Goku fights Gohan, he tells Tien to focus on Piccolo, who’s currently charging up for some big attack.  Tien goes for Ki Ko Ho, but Gohan has it scouted.  He shoots an attack that sets off an explosion in front of Tien, spoiling his aim.

Then Gohan lures Goku into the range of Piccolo’s attack, which turns out to be the explosive wave he used way back in the 23rd Budokai.  It engulfs the whole mesa, which is bad for their opponents since the mesa is the ring.

And Goku seems to weather the storm okay, but that just leaves him wide open for a heavy punch from Gohan.  See what I mean about how they coordinated their attacks?

At this point the entire mesa is a crater, and Tien asks everyone to stop fighting.  But Gohan wants more, so he challenges Goku to a one-on-one fight.  Goku agrees.

Meanwhile... oh fuck, it’s Gowasu.  Way to suck all the life out of the party, Episode 90.  Okay, so he’s supposed to choose a team for Universe 10, except he’s so overwhelmed by the task that he’s paralyzed with doubt.  Also he’s still reeling from that whole business with Zamasu. 

Then Rumsshi, the Destroyer for U10, shows up and criticizes him for overthinking the problem.  The key is not to use your head, but to use your body to choose a team.  What the hell does that mean?

Then he reveals that he already went out and recruited a team while Gowasu was sweating it out.  Well, why didn’t he just tell him that in the first place?  Of course, this reveal is kind of stupid when nine of these guys are wearing robes so you can’t see them.  Although I don’t know why the leader is disrobed since we don’t know anything about him, either.

Rumsshi says the theme to this group is muscle, but I seem to recall one of these fighters was a scrawnly little lady with butterfly wings.  Still they all drink protein shakes to prove their jock credentials.  Gowasu isn’t convinced, but since he couldn’t make any decisions himself, there really isn’t any choice.  That sums up Gowasu pretty well.

Now that that’s over, let’s get back to.... Super Saiyan 2 Goku?  Awwww yeah.  I’d like to think he’s using this form to open as a sort of tribute to Gohan, who pioneered the form, but I’m probably reading too much into it. 

I love this whole episode, but I especially love this fight.  There’s not a lot to say about it, since it’s just Goku and Gohan hitting each other very hard.  But this is very satisfying for a lot of reasons.  When Goku came back for the 25th Budokai, Gohan was looking forward to fighting his dad in the ring, and then Majin Buu happened and it all fell through.  So now we’re finally getting that payoff. 

Goku has the edge here, as he seems to take more initiative.  For example, he uses Instant Transmission to ping-pong Gohan around some buttes, which obscures Gohan’s line of sight long enough for Goku to set up a Kamehameha.  But Gohan just turns and fires his own right on the spot.  So it’s like he’s taking Goku’s best tactics and matching them with raw power. 

However, Goku slips away from the beam struggle and blindsides Gohan before he can react, which is pretty slick. 

And yet Gohan is still able to keep Goku at bay.  Each time Goku out-finesses him, Gohan just drops another hurtin’ bomb.

Mmmph!

Damn!

Meanwhile, Vegeta can sense this from all the way in West City, and he likes it a lot.  I’m sure he’s looking forward to the day when he can fight his own kids in a match like this. 

Gohan challenges Goku to fight him with his full power, so Goku goes Blue, but Gohan wants everything, so...

Super Saiyan Blue Kaio-ken it is. 

So they have this big collision in mid-air, and they do the anime thing where they show both guys immediately after they collide, and then one of them passes out.

Gohan manages to throw one more punch, but he runs out of gas before his fist can connect.  He’s done.

Goku lets him fall for a bit, then teleports to catch him. 

And everyone’s all smiles and Gohan’s satisfied that he impressed his dad.  Very nice, very cool and good.

Aw, and there’s the martial arts bow.  This is so heartwarming. 

And before we sign off, Goku announces that he’s chosen a team captain for Universe 7, and it’s Gohan. 

Some hearty thumbs-ups are exchanged and it’s smiles all around.