Caution: There Are Spoilers In Our Dragon Ball Super Episode 86 Review
Episode 86 is a pretty big episode for this arc because it is the episode where fans of the show finally get to see what Android 17 has been up to and also how he fares against someone like Goku. Goku’s still travelling around the Earth looking for people to fight in the Universe Survival tournament and wants 17 to join, but he’s also gotta test him out to see if he’s worthy of being in there.
As a big fan of the Android Saga in Dragon Ball Z, I couldn’t wait to see what Android 17 could do. It turns out he’s been on this island protecting the wildlife there for some time and has been training quite a bit. Dende early on in the episode informs Goku that he hasn’t been paying attention to what’s going on with others on the planet, some are stronger than he thought and have been training, one of those is Android 17, the other is the reincarnated Majin Buu.
I’m not sure why they chose to mention Buu in this episode, if there’s something going to happen in a later arc for Super or if it’s just in reference to the future ending of Dragon Ball Super (remember this series occurs in between the ending for Dragon Ball Z). It’s something to think about for now, but isn’t of much importance for this arc.
Android 17 as it turns out is incredibly powerful. He at first goes up against Goku who is in his Super Saiyan form and does well. There’s one moment where he seems to land a pretty hard punch and Goku, where I think for a second Goku got a bit mad about it and went immediately into his blue form. Interestingly Android 17 isn’t put off about this at all and the two continue to fight, evenly matched.
At this time, we all know that Goku is holding back, he’s still got a lot of power beyond this form and may even have another form we don’t know about yet. What’s interesting though is that 17, wasn’t at his full power either. I do wonder how strong he really is? Is he stronger than Gohan at this point and where would he stack up against someone like Majin Buu? This is all really interesting, even more so, how would he do against Vegeta?
What’s happening here with 17 and Goku isn’t over yet. 17’s recruitment it seems will stretch over into episode 87 as some threat from outer space has appeared and he’ll likely work with Goku to stop it. Although, currently, he doesn’t accept Goku’s offer to join, even with the truth behind the tournament told to him, but likely he’ll accept in this next episode.
Overall this was one of the more interesting episodes so far for this arc. I’m so happy to see 17 back in the show and was so impressed with how strong he has gotten. I would be very curious to see how he goes once the tournament begins.
