Dragon Ball Super Episode 34 Review: Piccolo vs Frost – Stake It All on the Special Beam Cannon!

Dragon Ball Super lets Piccolo do his thing and delivers one of the best battles from the show’s run!

This Dragon Ball Super review contains spoilers.

Dragon Ball Super Episode 34

“It seems like everyone is underestimating me today.”

So much for a kind-hearted Frieza alternate, right? As much as last episode had a lot of fun with the prospect of Universe 6’s Frieza surrogate being his polar opposite, “Piccolo vs Frost” acts as proof that regardless of the universe, regardless of his name, a “Frieza” can’t fight their natural inclination to be an evil, conniving villain.

As much as this episode is about Frost’s underhanded tactics in this tournament, the real thing to get excited about this week is that this is essentially one long, awesome Piccolo showcase. So much of this series up until this point has just been Saiyan congratulating and aggrandizing, which is great, but becomes repetitive. As a result, entries like this one not only stand out due to how different they feel, but additionally it’s encouraging to see that Dragon Ball Super is still interested in telling stories that highlight the supporting characters of this superpowered cast. However, Goku lays into Piccolo pretty hard before he enters the ring to let him know that he doesn’t think he’s going to win this. Plus, his claim that maybe he’ll be able to tire out Frost so Vegeta has an easier time with him is even more condescending.

After Goku’s surprise disqualification in the final moments of the previous episode, Piccolo steps in as Universe 7’s second challenger. This well choreographed battle between Piccolo and Frost largely plays as a Piccolo’s Greatest Hits. The bulk of their fight sees Piccolo charging a mammoth Special Beam Cannon. He fights intelligently and evasively by also putting his decoy power into use. The many clones of Piccolo allow the real Namek to continue to charge his big attack while also posing as an effective decoy for Frost. Piccolo puts up a good fight, but Frost gets past his many efforts and decides to conclude their battle in some close range combat. Unfortunately, history just repeats itself here with Piccolo succumbing to Frost’s strength.

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Or at least that’s what it looks like Piccolo is succumbing to, until the highly tuned senses of galactic patrolman, Jaco, identify that something is amiss here. Thank God Jaco is around, too, because with the little guy’s help Frost might have just run away with this whole tournament and nobody would have even known what he was up to. As some viewers might have suspected from the mysterious turn for the worse that Goku took during his fight with Frost, it appears that Frost has actually been poisoning his opponents with a covert needle-like weapon. Frost’s entire façade crumbles away at this point as he also reveals that all of the planets he’s saved were only in danger because of attacks that he put in motion in the first place. His kind demeanor has merely been a tactic for battle.

Frankly, not enough happens as a result of Frost’s cheating. Sure, he’s disqualified, but shouldn’t Goku and Piccolo also be brought back in due to how they were defeated? I know that this is addressed to some extent and I’m not saying that Goku should jump back into battle, but he should at least be added back to the end of their roster or something. Beerus is appropriately ticked off over Champa’s team trying to pull a fast one over on him like this, but it still seems like the guy should be more upset. He’s a God of Destruction! He should disintegrate that cheating Frost!

Even though Piccolo’s moment in the sun ends up with him losing, “Piccolo vs Frost” is still a very satisfying episode of Dragon Ball Super that does pretty much everything right. It pulls off an exciting, engaging fight while still managing to throw in some surprises and twists, too. It also leaves you wanting more in a way that none of the rest of these recent tournament episodes have, which is saying something.

As all of this begins to wrap up, Vegeta decides it’s been a little too long since he’s done anything bad ass and so he jumps into the fray to make all of this impossibly more exciting. Even though Frost has been disqualified as a result of his cheating, a confident Vegeta says that it’s fine if Frost stays in the running. Then he forces Piccolo to forfeit and insists that he’ll be the one to take on Frost as his next opponent.

It’s a moment that’s terribly in character for the Saiyan prince as well as highlighting the guy’s super arrogant nature. It’s this exact attitude in the past that allows Frieza the necessary time to blow up the Earth. Much like Goku’s endless naivety, Vegeta’s arrogance is his major dramatic flaw. If Frost were to annihilate Vegeta right out of the gate here, it’d really teach him a lesson about impulsivity. That being said, we all know that Vegeta is going to kick Frost’s ass next week, so just enjoy this awesomeness for what it is. Watching a Namek warrior go to his limit is great and all, but now it’s time to get that rage flowing and to really take things up a notch.

Rating:

4 out of 5