The latest issue of the Dragon Ball Super manga takes us into the final round of the Tournament of Power, with Goku and the Universe 7 team facing off against Jiren and the Pride Troopers Toppo and Dyspo of Universe 11.
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That battle quickly came down to a three-way final battle, with Goku and Vegeta squaring up to tag-team Jiren. When Goku’s ally Android 17 stepped up to self-destruct as a drastic gamble against Jiren, the sacrificial act pushed Goku to once again manifest the Ultra Instinct power. And, in this manga format, we actually get to learn a bit more about the technique behind Goku’s mastery of Ultra Instinct.
In the moment when he manifests the power again, Goku is reeling form the death of No. 17, when Jiren taunts him with the following:
“One of your allies is dead and gone. This does not please me. Nothing youdo will change anything so I’d rather not witness such acts. It’s time to end this.”
Jiren is trying to be nice(?) in his own way, by offering his opponents a swift end to their beating; however, Goku’s reaction isn’t quite what Jiren expects, as the Saiyan starts to crackle with a brilliant energy, while declaring the following:
“That #17… He Turned out to be a good guy in the end, which makes this… even harsher… I hate that it happened… but getting mad about it won’t solve anything. I need to keep growing. My days of letting everyone down are over.”
This version of Ultra Instinct’s debut is actually a nice callback to the two biggest transformation moments from Dragon Ball Z: The first is obviously Goku’s first Super Saiyan transformation during the Freeza saga, which was spurned on by the emotional trauma of Freeza making Krillin explode right in front of Goku. The other big callback connection is Gohan’s first Super Saiyan 2 transformation in the battle against Cell, which was spurned on by Gohan’s primal desire to not fail his family and friends any longer.
We’ve been praising the Dragon Ball Super manga for how its version of the Tournament of Power is doing a good job of rooting the big flashy transformations and power-ups of the story deeper into the series mythos. Goku’s Ultra Instinct Omen transformation in the manga was rooted in his lessons from Master Roshi’s Turtle School; the full manifestation has now been rooted in the Saiyans’ emotional connection to their Super Saiyan powers. The timing is important, as the upcoming Dragon Ball Super: Broly movie will be giving fleshing out the roots of Super Saiyan power and it’s connection to Goku’s unprecedented power gains, thereby streamlining cannon as we move into the future installments of both the anime and manga.
Are you excited to see how Goku and Jiren’s final battle plays out in the manga? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Dragon Ball Super: Broly will hit Japanese theaters in December, and is expected to arrive in the U.S. around mid-January 2019. Dragon Ball Super is currently airing its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m. ET. 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 Funimation, VRV and Crunchyroll.
