Shade's Thoughts on Dragonball Super

 

I’m back again! It’s been tough keeping up with college lately, but I finally have a day off! With this opportunity, I’ve decided to write something I’ve been deliberating on for a while now. You’ve probably seen me express my disdain for Dragonball Super before, but it’s not too often that I actually get to discuss the high points, because there are actually a lot of redeeming factors, it’s what you would call a mixed bag. A pretty bizarre one at that, the lows are so frustrating they make you want to pull your hair out, and the highs are tremendously high, an emotional roller coaster keeping you at the edge of your seat in excitement. There’s no in-between. It’s like going to a buffet with dry, day old food innefectually kept warm with heat lamps and could potentially give you food poisoning, and delicious, freshly cooked food with no indication of which is which until you give it a try (A metaphor that I’m sure Goku would appreciate). It’s worst is worse than GT’s worst, yet its best completely blows anything that GT has to offer out of the water by a longshot.

 

Apparently, this is due to TOIE staff having different writers and animators handle their own batches of episodes, for better or for worse. And when a glaringly obvious few of them had absurd budget and time restraints, well… hindsight is 2020.

 

Most reviews go over each individual arc in order and discuss what parts they liked and didn’t like, but here I’m just going to bring up the points that stuck out the most for me. This isn’t a full review, just a general overview of my thoughts and opinions regarding the show and what stuck out for me the most.

 

The First Few Episodes

 

A lot of people seem to have a problem with the show’s filler episodes, but it’s my personal opinion that these are when the show shines through the most. Dragonball has always taken advantage of its filler to further develop its characters and have genuinely fun and charming moments with them (Let’s just forget the whole Ginyu Bulma frog thing happened). The action-packed fight scenes are what made Dragonball popular, but it’s these character interactions that show you what they are protecting when they defend their planet or universe. It shows you what’s at stake, and creates additional tension in these fights beyond just the presentation and visual flair.

In the first couple episodes, Vegeta follows up on his promise to Trunks in the Buu Saga and takes him and Bulma on a family vacation. You can tell that the only person who isn’t enjoying himself is Vegeta, but he puts up with it so his family can have a good time. Bulma catches on and gives him permission to leave and do what he wants, and Trunks thanks him for spending as much time with them as he did.

Meanwhile, Goku is spending some quality time with Goten teaching him how to farm, while sneaking some sparring in with him in a cute “Don’t tell mom” moment. Hercule then appears, with a large sum of money he received as a reward for defeating both Cell and Buu, but decides to give it to Goku instead because he still feels guilty for taking credit for beating them. Goku gives Hercule some credit saying it was still brave of him to even be there and do what he did, but Hercule just can’t keep the money in good conscience, saying it belongs to him and his family because it was Gohan and Goku who beat them respectively. In a hilarious moment Goten abrubtly says “Dad, just take the money.” Goku reluctantly takes the money home to an overjoyed Chi Chi who uses half of it to pay for Gohan’s continued education and house for him and Videl and saves up the rest. Both Goku and Vegeta getting a reprieve from their wives to do whatever they want, naturally they train, setting up where they begin for the Battle of Gods movie, which is a nice way of bridging the gap between the Buu arc and Battle of Gods.

There’s also a filler episode where Goten and Trunks look for a present to buy Videl which a lot of fans think takes away from the action and I get it, but I’m all for sweet and cute moments like this.

 

Battle of Gods

 

Battle of Gods aka Kami to Kami is technically the first canon Dragonball Z movie (not including the Bardock and Trunks TV Specials), and the first new official Dragonball story in over 15 years. It is also the last Dragonball Z piece of media, signifying and ushering in a new era of Dragonball.

Let me just get to the point. Beerus is an incredible inclusion to Dragonball lore. Whenever a new antagonist is introduced in Z, there are two big elephants in the room: The power escalation needed to maintain tension as a tired formula, and if it’s a threat that existed this whole time it’s difficult to work it into the plot in a way that doesn’t devalue the tension in previous arcs. Luckily, the concept of Beerus rectifies both of these issues in a pretty intelligent way. We have encountered many deities in Dragonball from Kami to the Kais, but Beerus is a god who is tied to the existence of the universe itself, a being who slumbers for thousands of years and awakens to destroy. Not due to evil or some vengeful backstory, but because it is in his very nature to destroy in order to preserve balance.

It is also hinted that the Elder Kai was sealed in the Z-Sword by a powerful entity that turns out to be Beerus in BoG, and you can retroactively connect Beerus to a lot of plot points like that, so you don’t have to suspend your disbelief all that much.

Whenever Beerus is around, it’s like a ticking time bomb. You never know what’s going to set him off, as he will destroy anyone who annoys him indiscriminately. It’s a dangerous game for both heroes and villains. This a double-edged sword which I’ll address later.

There’s also an incredible moment where Bulma runs up and slaps Beerus, and Beerus slaps her back. Vegeta then goes absolutely insane on Beerus, actually able to land some solid hits on him in just Super Saiyan 2.

And then there’s Super Saiyan God. I have mixed feelings about this form. On one hand, it really doesn’t live up to the hype in terms of appearance. It’s essentially just base form with red hair. It’s like the color gold was already taken for the initial Super Saiyan so they used another color. I remember seeing the trailers for it, where it showed Goku turning into a Great Ape and Beerus looking shocked, so fans were speculating that it would be some canon variation of Super Saiyan 4, or at least some sort of homage to it, so upon just seeing this in the movie I was honestly pretty disappointed. On the other hand, the way it is presented and animated in the fight soon after made me immediately forgive that.

While this is technically a Z movie and not Super, there are arcs that retell the events of these movies. While I do appreciate this as fans maybe didn’t have the time to see the movies can catch up on all relavent plot points, they’re essentially poorly animated and drawn out versions of the films. You can skip over them and just watch the movies, you won’t miss anything important unless you’re doing research and need to see all the feats and moves.

 

Resurrection F

 

Resurrection F was the first red flag for what the rest of Super was going to be like. There are a lot of moments where you really have to just turn your brain off and just enjoy what’s being played out on screen. And Super asks a LOT from its audience to do that. Luckily, it doesn’t get much worse than Resurrection F’s dumbest plot point… emphasis on much.

Sigh… upon being resurrected, Freeza obtains a new level of power along with a new transformation that rivals a Super Saiyan God. By training for six months.

 

But Shade it actually makes sense because Freeza is a prodigy and never trained bef-

Yeah, no. I call BS on that. Freeza got the absolute fight of his life on Namek. He was forced to utilize every tactic, every technique, every trick up his sleeve just to stay on top and survive against the Z-Fighters, transforming and pulling out all the stops by going 100%. Also being familiar with each of his forms and describing the advantages and power levels of each implies that he was forced to utilize these forms before. He even outright mentions training with his father, saying Goku is the first person to give him a decent fight since sparring with him. This is in both the anime and the manga.

If you really needed to bring a classic Dragonball villain back, just make it Resurrection Cell. The whole “I trained to get stronger” thing would make way more sense due to his Saiyan DNA and ability to get Zenkai boosts. Imagine him training this whole time in Hell to actually be a formidable threat again. Sure, you’d need to come up with a reason for him getting out of Hell, like say Dr Gero had a backup lab or something and he remotely controlled androids to bring him back with the Dragonballs in place of the remnants of Freeza’s army, but it’d still be way more forgivable than the mess we have here.

I feel like the only reason Freeza is back is because Toriyama enjoys writing him. And I can respect that, but I just feel like it’s unnecessary.

That being said, this is still a fun movie. I really appreciate how each of the non-Saiyan characters each get their own time to shine fighting against Freeza’s forces. A lot of time is also spent on focusing on Vegeta, which, as a Vegeta fan, I can always appreciate.

 

And then… Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan. Good lord, what a name. Thankfully it was shortened to just Super Saiyan Blue. It’s essentially just Goku and Vegeta going Super Saiyan with godly ki rather than their own natural ki. An interesting concept, but I have the same problems with it as I do SSG. There are plenty of jokes among fans where they refer to these as “Raspberry and Blueberry Goku” because its just like different ice cream flavors of forms we’ve seen before. That aside, I was hoping that in the anime adaptation we’d get more about this transformation and how Goku and Vegeta achieved it. More on that later…

The most redeeming quality of this movie is Beerus, who just happens to have taken a break from his nap to get some snacks on Earth. As I mentioned before, having Beerus around when he’s not the main antagonist is a double-edged sword. It adds tension, but at the same time taking away tension from the current situation and placing it on him instead. This is also a trend that occurs throughout Super. Whenever a powerful character shows up, someone says something along the lines of “This guy might be even stronger than Beerus!” only to really rectify that later by making him retroactively stronger than that character so that he remains significant. This is more the fault of TOEI’s writers having no idea how strong these characters are and having no idea how scaling works, but its consistently an issue with Beerus. I feel like this is unnecessary as it makes his fight against Super Saiyan God Goku less significant if Beerus was that much stronger the whole time. Like if Beerus was really using 70% power in BoG Goku would have far surpassed him when going Kaioken X20 in Super Saiyan Blue, but that’s not the case. And he still would be a terrifying threat with his energy nullification and Hakai alone so it’s not really needed to keep buffing him up like that, but I’m getting off topic here.

There’s not much to gain from the anime adaptation of this movie other than Ginyu returning, finally allowing Vegeta to have killed every member of the Ginyu Force, if you really wanted closure on that.

 

But it’s really not worth it cconsidering the bad animation and egregious treatment of Gohan, who struggles to turn into a Super Saiyan and then passes out. This is further absurd considering this isn’t that far from BoG where Gohan was in his Ultimate form. Like, apparently training for six months makes you a god but if you’re not constantly training you become more useless than Yamcha?

Crap like this is the reason gags like these exist in One Punch Man:

 

Whis Training Mini-arc

A mini-arc that bridges the gaps between BoG and RoF. I don’t have many things to say about this arc other than it’s fairly balanced with both comedic and serious moments.

Vegeta post-BoG wants to learn how to tap into Godly ki and attain new levels of power, so he asks for Whis to instruct him with the same training regimen he gave Beerus. Whis agrees, but only on the condition that Vegeta will become the next God of Destruction if something happens to Beerus. (I’ll admit the idea of God of Destruction Vegeta made me squee when I first heard it). Finally! We get to see the training necessary to achieve Super Saiyan Blue aaannnnd…. It’s all offscreen. Seriously? This is something that was hinted at in Resurrection F that we never got to see until now and it’s all offscreen?

Ok, technically they do show the God training. When Goku arrives on Beerus’s world, he can tell that Vegeta is stronger than him and has a new form. And listen, I’m absolutely ecstatic that Vegeta FINALLY gets the new form before Goku does (I don’t think Super Vegeta counts), but you could have at least shown a flashback of him achieving it for the first time. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

Also, Goku is only there because he childishly hitched a ride on Whis’s staff as he was going back and despite Goku never promising anything like Vegeta did it’s more like “Well, you’re already here so might as well train you too or you’ll never shut up about it.”

Overall though, it’s still a pretty enjoyable mini-arc and like I said before, I appreciate the character interactions.

 

Universe 6/Hit Mini-arc

Again, not much to say about this one.

I don’t care for Champa, the God of Destruction of Universe 6 who’s just Beerus’s fat twin brother. Out of the other Gods of Destruction, much like the Shadow Dragons in GT, only a handful of them are really cool and interesting, but we don’t really get to see them until later.

Anyway, Beerus and Champa host a tournament to decide which of their universes has the strongest fighters. I feel most tournament arcs are hit or miss so I wasn’t too excited about this one. There are some good moments here and there, mainly this one:

Goku encounters Hit in the tournament, a professional hitman, hence the name. He’s used to sniping his targets with compressed air blasts from his fists, not a one-on-one tourney where he is restricted from killing, so he is clearly out of his element but quickly adapts to Goku’s fighting techniques. Goku can tell he’s not at his best though so after the tournament, he uses a portion of Mr. Satan’s prize money to put a bounty on his own head, and Whis and his sister Vados allow Hit to enter Universe 7 to collect.

 

This time Hit has the advantage. The fight is nice and all but… I’m just gonna let TFS handle this one:

 

Goku Black/Zamasu Arc

 

I will not mince words here. I would rather watch the worst episodes of GT and Bio-Broly back to back than sit through this ungodly horrendous slog of an arc again. The less said about it the better because while there are some annoying things sprinkled throughout the rest of the arcs, this is the worst offender and talking about it actively upsets me.

Just to set the mood, you remember Future Trunks right? His backstory was already very depressing and bleak to begin with, but it worked with the overall tone and storytelling Toriyama was going for in the Cyborg/Cell arc. An arc that was brought to a close in a nice little satisfying package. But this time we return to the Future Trunks timeline, where he and his new girlfriend Mai are scrounging around for food struggling to survive and haven’t had a meal in so long that they are delighted to find a can of dog food. This… is unnecessarily depressing and is a stark contrast to the lighthearted and fun tones the series is known for (Not to mention it really doesn’t make sense timeline-wise and Mai shouldn’t be an adult because she wished for eternal youth in Battle of Gods, and she shouldn’t even be in the same timeline as Future Trunks anyway…. There is SO MUCH to unpack here). And as if Trunks hadn’t gone through enough turmoil in that timeline already, Bulma is killed by an evil version of Goku. I wish I was making this up. And look, I am not unopposed to Dragonball being dark and emotional, hell I just praised the Cell Saga for being dark and just wait until later to see what else I really liked, but it really doesn’t feel earned here. It’s just draining and almost too bleak to take seriously.

Now, it turns out that it isn’t actually Goku, it’s just an evil Kai named Zamasu from another universe who saw Goku fight in the Universe 6 Tournament and decided to take his body to use his power to kill all mortals because reasons. Now, we do get a flashback where he taught by his elder Gawasu about the duties of a Kai and shows him a primitive world where tribal beings are violent towards one another. And that’s about all we get. He sees a bunch of cavemen beat each other up and decides all mortals must die. Everyone talks about how disappointing Jiren’s backstory is, but I’d go as far as saying this is worse. They try and present it in a way that’s like Galaxia from Sailor Moon, where he sees himself as grande and above the sins of lesser mortal creatures, but all they really accomplish is making him seem like an edgy teen who just found out about nihilism on the internet. Goku Black/Zamasu’s biggest defenders have pointed to how he has a cool design and like how he acts high and mighty, but honestly, with all due respect I really don’t see it. He’s just a grimacing Goku with a Dark Jedi robe when he’s Goku Black and a green weirdo edgy teen when he’s Zamasu. Now, I can understand liking villains who present themselves well, but I really don’t see that in Zamasu. Freeza and Cell are entertaining and give captivating speeches and deliver insults that cut deep due to their relations with the other characters, but whenever Zamasu gives one of his speeches I just find him insufferable and can’t wait for him to shut up already.

Totally Not Mark actually brings up really good points when comparing GT to Super, and brings up that Baby from GT is actually a far better villain that fits the trope surprisingly well and has a much more compelling motivational backstory that fits the overall themes of the show far better.

I wish I could say the action is what saves this arc, but it’s honestly just one asspull after another with some poorly handled fanservices in between. It’s almost saved with the reintroduction of the Mafuba, a sealing technique that was used to seal away Piccolo way back in OG Dragonball. It was refreshing to see it come back, but it’s botched because whoopsie-doodles, Goku is an idiot and forgot to put the lid on. Way to go, champ.

A lot of really stupid moments like this happen and it’s already old the first time. Vegito also shows up along with a retcon of how the Potaro worked originally (making the Fusion Dance entirely pointless considering they basically have no setback, and completely ruins the consequence of having to fuse permanently), which is pointless since the original explanation of Buu’s magic in his innards overriding the magic of the earrings worked perfectly fine, and they could have just used the Dragonballs to unfuze afterwards like Kibito and Surpreme Kai did.

And apparently SSB Vegito wasn’t enough but Trunks with a Spirit Bomb (because he can do that now?) from like six people is… but then Zamasu becomes the sky or something?

But it’s all okay! Because Goku had a literal win button in his pocket the entire time, he can summon Zenoh the Ominiking to erase the universe, making this entire horrible arc pointless.

 

This arc hurts me and I’d really like to stop talking about it now.

 

The Tournament of Power

 

Now we’re talking. This is where the overall production quality and energy of the show ramps up. The Opening theme of the anime also changes to encapsulate how much better things are going to get. The ending of the previous opening theme promised “something coming not so far away” and now we get a new energetic theme that’s pumped full of excitement.

The Tournament of Power is an adrenaline-packed spectacle where fighters from all 12 universes gather their strongest warriors to compete in a free-for-all, with the survival of each universe at stake (Let’s just sweep under the rug how they got to that point for now…).

Each universe has fighters all with varying degrees of power, meaning each one can have a fair fight with each of the characters, with each member of the Z-Fighters getting their own dedicated fights against the various competitors of the tournament. I really enjoyed seeing Piccolo, Tien, Krillin and 17 and 18 fighting opponents of their caliber, giving proper respect and moments to shine for each one. Even Master Roshi gets to go ham and it’s incredible.

But what makes this arc even better is that Super redeems its past transgressions with Gohan by giving him his Ultimate form back, even more powered up now that he’s sparred with his dad (and Goku too). Even better, they make Gohan the team captain of Universe 7. At first Gohan suggests that Piccolo lead, but Gohan has grown far from the little boy who depended on others and is his own man now, so everyone agrees on Gohan being the captain, which was a legitimately great moment for the characters.

Now, the ToP is far from the perfect arc. It definitely has its ups and downs, most namely r63 Broly and Jiren’s lackluster backstory. But I feel like the upsides far outweigh the downsides.

 

Which brings me to…

 

 

Ultra Instinct

Something like Ultra Instinct is precisely what I wanted when I heard about Super Saiyan God. I use the word “perfect” sparingly, but I truly believe that Ultra Instinct is the perfect transformation (the funny thing is it’s technically not a transformation, but rather a state of mind and body) in the entirety of Dragonball.

It doesn’t come out of nowhere like the God transformations. The best way to present a new form or technique is with proper foreshadowing and buildup. It’s something that Whis has been hinting at since Resurrection F, where he says that if Goku or Vegeta would stop thinking and focus solely on the movement of one’s body, they could eliminate the delay between each of their attacks and could become virtually unstoppable, and can arguably even be traced further back to Battle of Gods where Goku moves his body instinctively in response to Beerus’s movements after his God form wears off. They clearly took notes from Goku’s initial Super Saiyan transformation and the buildup in the Freeza saga, he even gets his outfit damaged in the exact same way which I thought was a nice touch.

In martial arts this state of mind is referred to as Yomi, the act of using pure muscle memory to react accordingly to an opponent’s movements. In the Japanese version, Ultra Instinct is referred to as Makatte no Gokui, or Mastery of Self-Movement. Every time Goku activates Ultra Instinct it’s an absolute spectacle. There are only so many ways that anime can express speed, and somehow these episodes manage to keep it fresh.

One of my favorite moments is when Jiren is delivering a barrage of punches and Goku is seemingly just standing there tanking it. But then the camera zooms in on Goku’s arms vibrating, then suddenly the characters realize there are points of collision in Jiren’s shockwaves, meaning that Goku is actually countering each individual attack with one of his own, and not even the audience can see him move.

There are also several moments where it seems like Goku completely dissolves into pure energy, followed by Jiren getting hit by an invisible force and Goku reappearing in different places. It’s a unique and stunning effect that goes beyond the average Afterimage and a really creative way of showing the speed of Ultra Instinct.

What I also like about it is it’s unique to Goku’s base form and, also unlike the SSG forms, isn’t a Saiyan exclusive ability, meaning potentially even the human characters have a chance of competing with god-level threats if they discover how to tap into their own Ultra Instinct. We all know it’s not gonna happen, but it’s still an interesting thought.

It’s probably for the best though, since no one knows how to activate Ultra Instinct willingly as it can only be obtained, well, instinctively.

Oh yeah, there’s also this:

No words. Just wow.

Chills, man. Every time.

Dragonball Super: Broly

 

Oh man, I have been ITCHING to talk about this movie. It came out at about the right time I needed it too, just when I was really getting sick of Dragonball and no longer considered myself a fan of it.

When I heard there was going to be a new Dragonball movie with hand-drawn animation and I saw it for myself in the initial trailer, with it’s snappy and dynamic style that invoked classic Dragonball while still injecting something new into the franchise, I was excited.

Then… I found out it was a Broly movie. Hoo man my disappointment and aggravation was IMMENSE.

Broly as a character has always been a mouthpiece for the worst part of the Dragonball fanbase, the type who only come for the punching and screaming and little else, and style and no substance. Again, the divisiveness of the character and how he is handled is summed up well by Team Four Star:

 

But that was before I actually gave this movie a chance and was absolutely blown away. This character is not the same Broly from the original movies, this is Toriyama’s take on the character. I gave Toriyama a lot of crap but he can really pull through with great storytelling when pushed to do so.

If my words aren’t enough to convince you, then this will:

Broly in this movie is a far cry from what he was, for one thing his backstory and motivation actually has a lot of thought and emotion behind it, and actually makes sense. I am captivated by his character, and his story about Bah brings me to the verge of tears every time. It’s not often that Dragonball can tug at my heartstrings like that.

I have a lot of good things to say about this movie, and there are a TON of hype popoff moments, but my main takeaway was my favorite scene in the movie.

SPOILER WARNING if you still haven’t seen it yet.

 

So the basic plot of the movie is that after Freeza’s humiliating defeat at the hands of the Saiyans yet again, he stumbles across the remaining Saiyans Paragus and Broly, who were exiled to a remote planet by King Vegeta when he discovered that Broly’s power level as an infant exceeded his own son (which makes much more sense than the original movie where he attempted to kill Broly and Paragus because…reasons.). Broly is a tragic character that has always been feared or coveted due to his abnormally high power, was banished to survive in the wild by King Vegeta, was abused by his father because of it, and now is being pushed around by Freeza to do his bidding. In some ways, even Goku and Vegeta are somewhat guilty for pushing Broly because the former two want a worthy opponent to face, but Broly is only fighting because he is being forced to and just wants to be left alone. In this scene, Freeza has a moment of realization in the form of a flashback of what happened on Namek, and Kills Paragus to trigger Broly’s Super Saiyan transformation. This is truly a heartbreaking scene because it shows how much Broly loved his father despite their toxic relationship. This is also coupled with a feeling of relief for finally being free of his father, immediately followed by guilt and despair that he is unable to control the power bursting from within him as he being torn apart both emotionally and physically. This is complimented by the animation, stellar voice acting, and the incredible orchestral score Rage and Sorrow that captures Broly’s emotional turmoil during his Super Saiyan transformation perfectly, all while giving the original Super Saiyan form the grandiose and reverence it deserves. It also signifies the current dread and direness of the situation as Broly is losing control. It honestly reminds me of Worldbreaker/World War Hulk where the titular character is absolutely justified in his rampage, but must be stopped due to the innocent lives he is putting at risk.

All in all, it is a fantastic movie that is an absolute love letter to all aspects of the Dragonball franchise, even paying homage and tribute to the Latin American fanbase and the Funimation DBZ English dub in the soundtrack, as well as references and callbacks to other Dragonball movies and even GT. All of the cool, with none of the dumb. Here is a full review. I say this as someone with firsthand experience, If you haven’t seen this film because of your bitter feelings toward Super, you are SERIOUSLY missing out on something incredible. It’s an amazing ride from beginning to end and you only really need a surface level understanding of Dragonball since it goes over the main relevant plot points from the history of the Saiyans to now, you arguably only really need to see BoG prior to this to understand the God forms and who Beerus and Whis are, though it’s pretty easy to catch on with what we are told and shown. I only really have a couple big gripes in this film and they mostly have to do with the retcons, though the movie itself holds up on its own.

 

 

My reaction when someone kills DBS Broly in my Dragonball FighterZ team.

 

Welp, I am Hero’s Shade and hopefully that was a satisfactory overview on my general thoughts on the series as a whole. Catch you all later!