Dragon Ball (All Series)

[LumRanmaYasha]

Some of the best episodes of Super have been comedy-focused or featured the characters just spending time together. They don't need to top this arc in terms of scale and spectacle for it to be entertaining. Even something smaller scale with less at stake can be just as fun if the heart's in the right place.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Alright, I'll preface this by saying that there was a fair amount of ass-pulley writing in this episode that disappointed me a bit. But still, was I the only one "squee-ing" with nerdy excitement throughout most of this?

Because, holy shit, man.

And special props to to the writers for closing out Future Trunks' character arc by....

Spoiler

....having him be the one to finish off Zamasu/Black. It's really satisfying and cements him as my second favorite character in Super so far.

[close]

Granted, there was some contrived writing here as well, and I'm definitely critical of it, but part of me also just can't help but get drawn into how good the rest of the episode was.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I remember when FUNi skipped the first GT arc and went straight to dubbing the Baby arc. I know that was a controversial move, and not something modern FUNi would be open to doing, but I'm wondering if they should do that for Super and just skip straight to dubbing and releasing the Champa arc first.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

If they allowed Toonami to air both the Battle of Gods and Resurrection F movies, they could totally do that. In all honesty, I don't expect them to go that route, but it'd certainly be better for ratings.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Here's MasakoX's thoughts on this week's insanely controversial episode of DBS: https://youtu.be/fdKxj77yh_Y

I'm in complete agreement. The episode, much like the arc as a whole, most definitely had some writing problems. However, I'm rather baffled as to how pissed off so many fans are about the retcon that the Potara Fusion is not permanent for mortals, especially when the Majin Buu arc gave us absolutely no explanation to begin with as to why Vegitto unfused.

But bigger than that is the complaint that Vegitto didn't land the final blow but instead Future Trunks scored the kill....in his own fucking story arc. This whole arc was referred to as The Future Trunks arc for a reason. His whole character arc was about learning to solve his own problems for a change. And on top of that, people complained about Goku and Vegeta always hogging the spotlight in Super. So, the writers actually addressed that complaint in a way that makes sense and was clearly set-up throughout the arc, and now people are even more pissed because....Goku and Vegeta didn't hog the spotlight again?

I swear, the Western Dragonball fandom just puzzles me sometimes.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Asspulls have been a part of Dragon Ball from the very beginning. The series is full of contrivances. I don't see how the potara fusion only lasting a hour feels any more cheap than Vegito inexplicably unfusing inside of Buu for no given reason, except for the fan-created assumption it had something to do with Buu's digestive system (which makes no sense because Gotenks was still fused inside of Buu until the time limit for the fusion ran out). I appreciate them actually giving an explanation for why Vegito would unfuse that makes sense. Does it cheapen the mystique of Vegito as a fusion? Sure. But I don't know why people are so butthurt over it when the fact they unfused for no reason back in the Buu arc already did that.

Future Trunks defeating Zamasu makes the most sense from a thematic and story standpoint. Future Trunks's character arc during this saga has been learning to deal with his own problems himself, but more than that, Zamasu being defeated by a mortal who has not achieved god-like energy like Goku or Vegeta, but has instead been inbued by the power of all living mortals on Earth, their combined hope and strength, serves to prove Zamasu's belief that mortals cannot measure up to the power of Gods false, because when combined, it was the power of mortals, ordinary mortals, that ultimately defeated him. There's actual logic and emotional thematic reasoning as to why Trunks had to be the one to defeat Zamasu in the end. It's way more of a justification than Gohan being the one to defeat Cell or Goku the one to beat Buu, and you rarely see people criticize at least the former of those examples.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, to be fair, It's the Genki-Dama that Goku creates from the people on Earth that kills Buu, not Goku alone.

And really, Future Trunks killing Zamasu follows the same logic. He scores the kill, but he couldn't have done it without everyone's help.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Sure, but it's always felt like Toriyama decided to switch gears at some point in the arc to shift the focus from Gohan to Goku, with no real reason to justify doing so other than he decided that was better. But I've always loved that the ending of the Buu arc is basically the people of earth contributing their power to defend themselves for once, which was brilliant, and yes, Zamasu's defeat followed the same logic which is why I was really satisfied by it as well.

[LumRanmaYasha]

GOKU VS ARALE!? 

[Spark Of Spirit]

I quite like that Future Trunks was the one to finish him off. I also like that he stole Black and Zamasu's idea about infusing his sword with energy and used it to kill him. Not only is it Zamasu's own hubris that did him in, but it mirrors Future Trunks' introduction in the original series by slicing apart the enemy.

It was also great seeing Vegitto again. An explanation as to why they originally un-fuzed in the Buu arc was well-needed too. But if you want an explanation as to why he couldn't finish him off while Future Trunks did, just go with the fact that he softened him up tremendously. His body was breaking down as was his mind, and they needed someone to deliver a solid hit.

All in all, it was a great arc. This is the type of thing we needed from a DB series since GT fumbled the ball. If Funi were to just start with the previous arc and move forward, that would be more than okay with me. They could always go back and do the other stuff later.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, that's the official conclusion of the Future Trunks arc. I think it's safe to say at this point that this was a very flawed but overall strong arc of Dragonball, and arguably the best thing to come out of the franchise since the end of the original manga. I do have plenty of legitimate criticisms here, but what I liked far outweighs what didn't work for me.

That said, I'll need to give it some time and an eventual full re-watch before I can really cement my true thoughts on this story-line. I was contemplating doing a write-up about it this weekend, but decided to hold off on that for at least a few weeks since it's still too fresh in my mind for me to properly assess it from a less biased perspective.

In the meanwhile, I am looking forward to the Dr. Slump crossover episode (the first since New Dr. Slump, if I'm not mistaken), as well as the apparent Yamucha-centric episode if the promotional art is any indication. And while I'm not sure if it will be a full arc, I'm definitely anticipating Hit's reappearance into the story.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Only thing I'm wondering is why they didn't just use the Dragon Balls to restores Future Trunks' world and everyone who died.

On the other hand, I think an interesting twist would have been to restore Future Trunks' timeline back to just before the androids arrived. Him having to participate in all those shenanigans again would have been pretty interesting.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I have to say, for as many problems as I've had with Super since the beginning, I've really enjoyed all of its comedy-focused episodes since early on, and this was another legitimately funny one, IMO.

That said, though, might Super be in trouble for the next arc?

We'll have to wait and see, but it's not ususally a good sign when a show's head creative director switches out so many times so frequently. It kind of showcases that this series is in fact a nightmare to work on from a production standpoint thanks to Toei's poor scheduling, to the point where you can pretty much tell that very few people in the higher-up positions of the show's production actually want to have that job.

[Dr. Insomniac]

So instead of an alternate Ocean dub, we get an alternate Bang Zoom dub.

[Spark Of Spirit]

The Super cast list:

GOKU - Sean Schemmel
VEGETA - Christopher R. Sabat
BEERUS - Jason Douglas
WHIS - Ian Sinclair
KRILLIN - Sonny Strait
GOHAN - Kyle Hebert
BULMA - Monica Rial
PICCOLO - Christopher R. Sabat
TRUNKS - Alexis Tipton
NARRATOR - Doc Morgan
GOTEN - Kara Edwards
CHI-CHI - Cynthia Cranz
A18 - Meredith McCoy
MR. SATAN - Chris Rager
BUU - Josh Martin
KING KAI - Sean Schemmel
SHENRON    - Christopher R. Sabat
VIDEL - Kara Edwards
YAMCHA - Christopher R. Sabat
TIEN - John Burgmeier
SHOU - Chris Cason
ROSHI - Mike McFarland
PUAR - Brina Palencia
PILAF - Chuck Huber
OX-KING - Kyle Hebert
OOLONG - Brad Jackson
MARRON - Tia Ballard
KIBITO KAI - Kent Williams
ELDER KAI - Kent Williams
DENDE - Justin Cook
CHIAOTZU - Brina Palencia
MAI - Colleen Clinkenbeard

Not much of a surprise here.