Gotta say, Toyotarou is really good at planning chapters such that the eventual tankoubon releases are nice and succinct. The first chapter continues from the Hakaishin battle royal from Volume 5, but the rest of the volume follows the set-up for the actual Tournament of Power, ending with the Universe 7 team all gathered and Whis teleporting them to the arena.
We get our first introductions to Jiren, Caulifla, and Kale. More importantly, we get back to Android 17 and Freeza, foreshadowing their eventual success as major players in the Tournament. Even more importantly, though I guess some people might not care too much for it, we get motherfucking Oob!
Props to Toyotarou for giving a shit about Super Saiyan 2. I actually can't remember how often we've seen Goku go SS2 previously in the Super manga (we've had Trunks's mastered SS2 versus Goku, though). Like with Fat Boo ages ago, Goku sets up a "AND THIS IS TO GO FURTHER BEYOND" thing by displaying all five of his current transformations in his little exhibition against Toppo for the Zeno twins. Humorously, Zeno doesn't care much for SS2 at all, believing Goku to have barely changed at all ("Did he really change? I don't feel anything different..."). Even funnier, the Lords of Everything show great excitement for SS3 ("Yay! Goku's face looks scary now!" "This is fun!"). SS2 always got shat on in Toriyama's work: first, the editor kicked Gohan out of being the new protagonist, so the biggest SS2 moment didn't get to last long; second, Goku was forced to have a new form, so Toriyama made SS3 look silly with its hair and missing eyebrows; third, Vegeta has to go evil again (Majin) to reach SS2 himself, and still gets beat by SS3 (that is, he beats Goku, but later finds out about SS3 and realizes his rival went easy on him); overall, non-Gohan SS2s look too similar to SS1, barring the electricity among the aura, so it's often hard to tell when SS2 is happening without Toriyama letting us know. Toyotarou's made sure to give Goku a concrete SS2 form, with a distinct change in his bangs (pretty sure this is based on Toriyama's art, but Toyo remains more consistent). I think it's safe to say Toyo is a big fan of SS3 (as clear as it is he's also a big Vegeta fan), hence the praise Zeno gives the form. But just in case we make the mistake of thinking Toyo is shitting on SS2, we get a later glimpse during a masked Goku's little battle against 17, when we see the electricity in his aura, and can kinda see his bangs through the mask's eyeholes, and it's a little odd to think Toyo had Goku jump straight to SS2 and later to 3 when the main progress for Goku is to start SS1 then activate God ki to go Blue (his basic strategy), or otherwise instantaneously power down from SS while activating God ki to use SSG then reactivating SS to get Blue (which he did against Hit). I guess the match against Toppo put Goku in the spirit of exhibition, and so he decided to do 2 and 3 versus 17? Makes a little more sense than having him go straight Blue to show how overpowered 17 is (which I think the anime did).
Anyway, best thing is that Toyotarou doesn't put the fucking lipstick on Kale that makes her look like a chola in the anime. Makes all the difference, and she's a lot cuter here. Of course, this is the same artist that gives Cabbe a little more muscle definition, proof enough that Toyo maybe cares for the characters a little more than Tori....
****
EDIT (09/18/2024): Bumping from Four to Five Stars. Hype for Uub (who won't yet reappear in the manga...), #17, and Freeza is unreal. Mad comfy volume, also.
Caulifla and Kale SEXOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO