Warning: The following review contains spoilers for the episode.
The warriors have gathered and the Tournament of Power is set to begin. Although it’s a slow paced episode, it does a great job of setting up our expectations for what’s to come, thanks to well-executed character moments and subtle hints about the power and tactics of the many universes.
It came as no surprise that Frieza was once again a standout in Episode 96. His evil antics make for great entertainment. The moments he’s on-screen you can sense the tension between him and the other characters, which leads to such great moments, like when Vegeta had to get into a ‘friendship circle’ with Frieza. There are decades worth of animosity between these two, and watching Vegeta have to swallow his pride made for one of the funniest moments in recent memory.The greatest strength of Episode 96 is that, along with Frieza, it did a terrific job of setting up and displaying the many characters we will get to know over the next several weeks. Alliances were made, friendships reinforced, and rivalries put on display as the heroes all arrived on the battlefield. I was worried that this process would be boring, but Super found several interesting ways to get us acquainted with these characters. Jiren is a great example of this. Goku’s conversation with him could have gone down a typical route, but instead Super had them dodging stone slabs and exchanging knowing looks. Not only does this brief action scene break up the several minutes of other conversations we’ve seen at this point, but it also let us know just how strong and intense Jiren will be as a fighter.
It wasn’t all good news this week, though. The scene where the Gods of Destruction fought each other seemed a bit odd. From a story standpoint, it’s clear that they were fighting for Zen-Oh’s favor, but Zen-Oh wasn’t even watching to begin with. This means that it ultimately added nothing to the overall plot, and only served to show off the Gods desire to not be killed, which was already very clear to begin with.
There was also a general slowness to this week’s episode that felt out of place given the intensity of the fighters and the events that are about to occur. It’s very much the ‘calm before the storm’, but it unfortunately doesn’t make for good entertainment, especially on the heels of last week’s episode. This is also the burden of having to set up so much for the future. A lot of new characters and storylines were introduced this week, which was enjoyable, but the time they spent on other subjects was poorly used. The beginning minutes were the worst for this, where we learned nothing new about the Gods on display and instead just spent several minutes watching them bicker.
