The rumor mill has been churning all sorts of speculations around the hit Japanese anime television series, Dragon Ball Super, for a long time now. While most of these speculations are proven to be true, DBS fans were hoping that the rumor centering on Goku's death does not come to fruition; but much to their dismay, it turned out to be true as well.

Dragon Ball Super episode 71, which was dubbed as "The Death of Goku! The Guaranteed Assassination Mission", did feature the end of the series' most iconic character just like earlier reports speculated. However, the report did not indicate that Goku will fire a ki blast just before he bites the dust. This colossal energy blast will breathe new life into the fan-favorite hero, allowing him to square off against Hit in episode 72.

Thanks to his own acumen, Goku manages to survive episode 71 --- hanging on to fight in another episode to start the new arc; however, there's no word yet on who hired Hit to kill Goku and if Goku knows who is at the helm of this assassination attempt, Inquisitr reported.

There's hearsay that Vados is behind this attempt to kill Goku. Presumably, Vados wants Goku dead before the "Universe Survival" arc begins. DBS fans, on the other hand, hazard a guess that someone more powerful than Vados wants to put Goku to death. While it still remains to be seen whether or not the upcoming episodes of Dragon Ball Super will shed more light on this, a mounting evidence suggests that either Beerus or Whis wants to do away with Goku.

Goku's cessation and subsequent recovery were steps to hike up the "Universe Survival" arc. In episode 71 of Dragon Ball Super, the God of Destruction urges Goku to train for the Omniverse Tournament introduced by the Omni-King. The tournament winner will be deemed as the best in the Dragon Ball multi-universe. Aside from that, Dragon Ball Super episode 71 highlighted Hit's new power, which was dubbed as "one punch", Attack Of The Fanboy reported.

It looks like ardent fans of Dragon Ball Super would just have to wait with bated breath to see how Goku managed to survive and how the final episode of the current arc paves the way for the Omniverse Tournament. Dragon Ball Super episode 72 entitled as "Counterattack: An Invisible Assassination Skill" is slated to air this Sunday, Dec. 25.