Dragon Ball Super

Dragon Ball Super
"Let's see how you handle Ultra Instinct.."
Genre: Adventure Fantasy Martial arts Running Time: 24-25 minutes Country: Japan Release Date: June 20, 2015 – March 25, 2018 Network(s): Fuji TV Adult Swim [Toonami] (North America) RCTI (Indonesia) Created by: Akira Toriyama Distributed by: Kimitoshi Chioka Morio Hatano Kōhei Hatano Tatsuya Nagamine Ryōta Nakamura Seasons: 1 Episodes: 131 Previous show: Dragon Ball GT Next show: Super Dragon Ball Heroes

Dragon Ball Super (Japanese: ドラゴンボール) is a Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation that began airing on July 5, 2015 and ended on March 25, 2018. Its overall plot outline was written by Dragon Ball franchise creator Akira Toriyama, while the individual episodes were written by different screenwriters.

Plot

With the defeat of Kid Buu four years prior, peace has returned to Earth and Son Goku (now a radish farmer) and his friends now live peaceful lives. However, a new threat appears in the form of Beerus, the God of Destruction. Considered the most terrifying being in the entire universe, Beerus is eager to fight the legendary warrior seen in a prophecy foretold decades ago known as the "Super Saiyan God".  

Why It Can Tap Into Ultra Instinct

1. Dragon Ball Super doesn't go into full-blown action-packed episodes from the start like Dragon Ball Z, instead beginning with a more funny and story-based start.
2. The premiere episode has that Dragon Ball feeling that you experience during every single episode, and it really sets the tone for what's to come in the future episodes.
3. The faces of the past are scattered across the episode as the characters embarked on their own small stories that are sure to collide soon.
4. With the new antagonists of the series defined and the foundation of the narrative established, the series is sure to become a favourite amongst all fans of the original manga and anime.
5. The first episode ("The Peace Reward - Who Will Get the 100 Million Zeni?") succeeds in setting up the series ahead as well as telling us a new and entertaining story, which is more than anyone could ask for.
6. Many of the characters are still lovable.
7. Intense action, humor and anticipation are all blended into a seemingly never-ending story that keeps you wanting more.
8. The show expands upon the Dragon Ball universe and capitalizes on exploring the realm of gods. It introduced that there's not one, but twelve, universes each with their reigning Destroyer Gods and Kais, with unknown frontiers yet to be explored.
9. The variety of new characters that this new series brings is especially wonderful - it's both wide and thoughtful.
   • It also brings back the characters first introduced in the last two Dragon Ball Z movies, namely Lord Beerus and Jaco.
10. Funimation's English dub is great, and adds unique jokes and references that weren't in the original Japanese version.
    • It even featured Brian Drummond (the voice actor of Vegeta in the Ocean dub of Dragon Ball Z) to voice Fake Vegeta in the Funimation dub.
11. The Future Trunks Saga and the Universe Survival Saga were generally well-received by fans.
12. New power-ups and transformations are introduced in this show, such as the immensely powerful Ultra Instinct, which allowed Goku and Vegeta to get through increasingly tough opponents.
13. It has a variety of callbacks from the original manga and anime, providing some nostalgia without being hammered in, such as Goku and Krillin's training together.
14. While the animation isn't the best initially, makes up for some decent tension and fast-paced action. In fact, by the final arc of the series, veteran animators from the old anime have returned and the show's art started improving.
    • Yuya Takahashi, known for bringing deeply detailed, gritty and extremely third-dimensional spins on the characters, has worked with the series starting with the Universe Survival arc, his take on the characters for the new show received acclaim for its distinctiveness and its perfect imitation of the Dragon Ball Z art-style, and then went on to work on the film, Broly.
    • Others like Naotoshi Shida and Naoki Tate have also returned with updates in their style.
15. Great intros and outros, such as the first opening song, which keep you pumped up as each episode begins.
16. Unlike the previous shows, The French dub does not suck.
17. While Goku was flanderized in this show, he did improve himself in the latter half of this show.
18. For the first time in the franchise, Akira Toriyama gets to be deeply involved with its storyline, providing outlines, character designs, and more to help the anime progress.
    • In fact, the main reason why this series exists, as well as Akira Toriyama's heavy involvement in the series, is in response to the intense negative backlash the Dragonball: Evolution (the live-action film adaptation of Dragon Ball) had when it came out in 2009.

Bad Qualities

1. Super lacks a story with significant weight, edge, tension and seriousness, unless you kind of count the Future Trunks Saga and the Universe Survival Saga. While Dragon Ball indeed tells a simple story, at least the original manga/anime put up a decent storytelling and world-building, and the DBZ filler episodes add in some interesting adventures.
   • This is especially apparent in the Tournament Saga, which opens with Champa and Beerus fighting over a birthday cake and destroyng planets in pure rage only for getting scolded by Whis and Vados later on beacause of the destroyers' petty scuffles.
   • The ending of the Future Trunks saga was polarizing, with many complaining that it takes away the final victory for Trunks and saving his bleak future.
2. The occasional drop-down in graphics quality (especially in episode 5, "The Ultimate Fight on King Kai's Planet! Goku vs. the God of Destruction Beerus") due to time constraints for production is noticeable and damages the quality of such a legendary series. Again, this problem also existed in the previous series.
   • This is also because of new animators taking over and not allowing some of the veteran animators to return. Thankfully, longtime Dragon Ball animators like Naotoshi Shida return and the show's animation started improving beginning with the Future Trunks arc.
   • Because the show uses Tadayoshi Yamamuro's art-style for the characters, which was applied since the 2000s, the reproduced result is more simple, plastic-looking and more two-dimensional than the earlier, more grittier-looking art from the old shows.
3. The first two sagas are remakes of the two most recent Dragon Ball Z movies Battle of Gods and Resurrection 'F and are often negatively viewed by fans.
   • While the first of these is more well-received, the "Resurrection 'F'" saga was more lukewarm's due to its poor animation style, lethargicaly choreographed fights, and some alterations.
   • Not to mention, hardly any of the characters were given focus or character development, a recurring problem since the Buu arc.
4. The transformations (except Ultra Instinct and Rosé) are interesting concepts but have hardly any execution put into them. For example, the Super Saiyan Blue form (first appearing in Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F') is basically just a god-enhanced palette swap of the first Super Saiyan form, in comparison to the first God form, which was more distinguished enough. Its Rosé counterpart, at least, lets its user create elaborate ki weapons.
   • Trunks' new rage-fueled Super Saiyan form is pulled out of nowhere with zero build-up and explanation. To add insult to injury, he can somehow make a Spirit Bomb using the hopes of people counting on him, also without explanation.
5. The power-scaling is nonsensical, even for shonen standards, with some examples below;
   • There are also a couple of inconsistencies with little explanation with how the characters' powers are handled. There's Android 17 who can somehow hold up against a (held back) Super Saiyan Blue Goku, while Kale's Berserk state was able to withstand Super Saiyan Blue Goku's attack and was able to lift him up. Later on, Goku's Super Saiyan God form was able to somehow overpower her mastered state.
   • The show seems to treat the Saiyan God forms as weaker than they actually are. Some characters are able to keep up with, or even beat, Goku and Vegeta in these states for some reason.
6. Due to its demographic being for older children, there is hardly any blood present. This eliminates some of the intensity and the impact the characters suffer in fights.
7. Some of the character designs and new additions were controversial or polarizing;
   • Future Trunks' design changed his hair color to blue to match the original manga's appearance, which creates more confusion as the present timeline Trunks' hair is still purple.
   • Kale is a shallow near-knock-off of Broly from the non-canon Dragon Ball Z films, down to the dialogue and fighting style before controlling herself. She can transform into a state eerily similar to Legendary Super Saiyan, and is in a scene imitating the first Broly movie, where she just walks into Goku's Kamehameha. While Broly was eventually placed into canon, but still.
8. Goku has been flanderized, going from a serious hero with the mind of one and a great courage that made up for his stupidity into an absolute idiot who is dumb to the point he doesn’t even know what a kiss is, at least midway into the show, as well as forgetful to the extent it causes grave consequences. Not to mention he also became a fight-mongering jerk with an overexaggerated desire to fight stronger opponents, even at the cost of universes getting erased, in which Vegeta, a proud Saiyan, often reprimands him for. This is partially due to the series trying to portray him to be accurate to the manga. But like mentioned before, he did became more of himself in the latter half of this show.
   • Vegeta was unfairly treated in the first saga as he was downgraded into a moronic comic relief and Beerus’ personal butler. He also hardly ever wins, which is a downgrade that started in the Cell saga. Alas, his character was the least flanderized and still retains the character development he went through.
9. The series also shares the problem with the previous entries of having Goku and Vegeta in the spotlight, mainly ignoring the ancillary cast, which was later remedied in the final arc where Android 17 wins the Tournament of Power.
10. Most of the filler episodes are forgettable and not that interesting, unless you count the Dr. Slump crossover.
11. While great, the Funimation dub can suffer hammy dialogue as well as alterations that don't quite sit well with the story.
    • The Bang! Zoom dub is awful, suffering even hammier delivery than Funimation.
12. The pacing is a little too fast, especially in the fights. At least in Dragon Ball Z Kai, the pacing is still slow enough to evoke tension.
13. The Tournament of Power's 48 minute countdown logic doesn't make sense as it takes more than 10 episodes to finish, which is similar to the infamous 5-minute Namek destruction countdown from DBZ.

Trivia

• Hiromi Tsuru, the original Japanese voice actress for Bulma Briefs, passed away on November 16, 2017 during the production of the Universe Survival Saga. Episode 116 ("The Sign of a Comeback! Ultra Instinct's Huge Explosion!!") was subsequently dedicated to her memory.
• Before it was announced that the show would be airing on Toonami on Adult Swim, it was rumored that it would be airing on Disney XD even with some making fake promos.

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