So the only real value to the first 75% of Dragon Ball Super is the filler episodes they stick between each arc. The Battle of Gods and Resurrection F episodes were crappy reruns, and the Destroyers Tournament looks like a crappy WWE B-list Pay-Per-View. And the Zamasu arc.... well, we’ll get to that.
But the filler episodes are generally fun and enjoyable, probably because they don’t waste time dragging out every little moment to pad out the series. Like Dragon Ball GT, Super could probably be edited down to a much shorter anime if they just cut out all the pointless monologues and staredowns and reaction shots from minor characters. These were always part of the charm with DBZ, but GT and Super just abuse the hell out of those tricks, with little to show for it. What puts Super ahead of GT is that it can occasionally produce a good story once in a while.
All right, so let’s dive into this. Bulma’s doing some sort of experiment when Monaka shows up in his delivery truck to bring her more snacks. She then borrows him to hold a funnel under a pipe while she generates a small amount of liquid. There’s filter paper in the funnel, so I guess she needs to filter it. Monaka just worries about falling behind on his route.
See, this was what I was saying about Gohan’s career in the last episode. They’re so vague about what he does and how he does it. In this scene, Bulma’s working on an experiment which clearly has no basis in reality, but I can still recognize some of the equipment. Glass funnel, filter paper, and a giant over-sized beaker. The other stuff doesn’t look like anything in particular, but it still looks kind of authentic, like someone actually used references to draw this room instead of just winging it. They should show Gohan in a room like this, only with biology stuff. Like bugs and... more bugs. That’s where biologists work, right? They just hop into a big room full of bugs.
Anyway, Goten and Trunks find Monaka’s unattended truck and start screwing around in the back. Hey, those toys aren’t for you!
Monaka’s in such a hurry to get on with his route that he doesn’t even check to see if anyone’s in the back. He just listens to the radio, and they read his letter on the air. Under a psuedonym, Monaka confesses that he likes to take the packages marked “fragile” and set them on fire.
Anyway, he doesn’t find the boys until he makes his next stop on Planet Potaufeu, where he has to warm them up because there’s no heat in the back of the truck.
Monaka’s here to deliver a martial arts magazine to the planet’s sole inhabitant, Potage. Potage kind of looks like a cross between a dog and a beetle, but not quite. Anyway, he’s got bigger problems on his hands right now.
A bunch of bad guys, led by the evil Gryll, have come to this planet in search of “superhuman water”, but Goten and Trunks clobber them easily.
Gryll withdraws, but not without picking up the mysterious amulet that Potage dropped earlier. Among other things, it’s the key to unlock the superhuman water.
And while Goten and Trunks could easily stop him, he takes Monaka hostage, which allows him to take possession of the superhuman water. Seems kind of anticlimactic, but...
Back on Earth, Bulma has finally discovered Trunks and Goten got into Monaka’s truck before he took off. She calls Jaco to help them search, and when he tries to back out, she considers contacting the Galactic King and telling him about that picture she saw on Jaco’s ship with silly stuff drawn on it.
More importantly, look how huge Vegeta is in this shot. It’s ridiculous. He’s supposed to be a little shorter than Bulma, and while I’ve gotten used to artists toeing that line, making him a little taller, this time they go way too far. The character model isn’t meant to be this tall, which is why his shoulders and arms look so messed up.
Here, they just screw it up in a whole different way. Vegeta looks about right this time, except they just raised him up about six inches from Bulma’s level. It looks like he’s standing on a box.
Back on Potaufeu, the bad guys are chasing the good guys, but these aliens look a little... different, don’t they?
Vegeta arrives in the nick of time (and so does Jaco) and he defeats the bad guys easily, but one of them melts into a puddle of purple goo, and it envelops Vegeta like a giant amoeba.
This is probably someone’s fetish, so drink it in, you sick fucks.
Vegeta emerges from the fluid seemingly unharmed, except he can’t use his powers. As for the purple goop...
It’s become an exact copy of Vegeta, with all his powers. Uh-oh.
