‘Dragon Ball Super’ Delivers an Epic Goku vs. Gohan Fight

The latest episode of the Dragon Ball Super English Dub saw Goku and his newly assembled team from Universe 7 trying to get in some final preparation for Grand Zeno’s Tournament of Power. Goku was all about doing some last-minute carb loading, but his son Gohan had a different agenda: some intensive last-minute training to unlock the potential of his latent powers, once again. But instead of just training with Piccolo this time, Gohan wants a more active and challenging test: a fight.

Gohan and Piccolo arrange a tag-team bout against Goku and Tien, with the same ring-out rules as the Tournament of Power. That fight proves that Gohan is able to effectively strategize in a free-for-all brawl; however, Gohan still isn’t satisfied that he’s ready to face the strongest fighters from throughout the multiverse. In order to get himself ready, he proposes one final test: an all-out Saiyan vs. Saiyan battle with Goku!

At first, Goku gives Gohan a taste of what his power is like in Super Saiyan 2 form – but when Gohan is able to keep pace, land blows, and demands more of Goku, father obliges son by going Super Saiyan Blue! Amazingly enough, Gohan is able to increase the power potential of his latent abilities, as the two Saiyans’ battle begins to disintegrate the terrain around them. At the climax of the battle, Gohan finally demands Goku come at him full power, holding nothing back; to oblige his son, Goku powers up to full SSB with a Kaio-Ken boost, as he and Gohan each put their full might into one last blow. In the end, even Gohan’s massive power is no match for Goku’s full strength, as the final trade of blows leaves Gohan KO’d in Goku’s arms.

Even though Gohan lost the fight, he still earns more respect from Goku than we’ve ever seen in the Dragon Ball Super era. Goku not only vows that he and Gohan will keep pushing each other to greater heights of power, he also makes Gohan the official leader of Universe 7’s team in the tournament. That may seem like a shameless piece of nepotism – but there is some logic to it. With his ‘two dads’ both influencing him, Gohan is probably the one Universe 7 Z-Fighter who has the best combination of brains (Piccolo) and brawn (Goku). Since both will be needed in the ToP, he’s probably a more balanced and better choice than having fight-happy Goku leading things.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly officially releases in Japan this December. Funimation will be bringing the film to theaters in the United States on January 16. Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release of the series is complete, and available to stream on FunimationNOW, VRV, and Crunchyroll.