Anime: Dragon Ball Super

Pre-airing Expectations

Dragon Ball, the king of battle anime…it might as well deserve that title because just like thousands upon thousands of anime fans, I too was introduced to the world of anime thanks to Dragon Ball. It all began with Dragon Ball Z which I watched every weekday afternoon on television in the early 2000s, after a long and tedious day of school; I was always excited to see Goku battle the next villain, the other Z Fighters stalling for time, the endless powering up, the iconic Kamehameha and Death Beams, the next big wish, the next big transformation and the next planet that would blow up after 12 episodes…Hell, even waiting for Goku to heal up for his next battle because he forgot to take his medication was entertaining.

Eventually, Dragon Ball Z stopped airing and was replaced with its predecessor, the original Dragon Ball which I also watched and greatly enjoyed; whether its young Goku smashing his way through the Red Ribbon army, King Piccolo killing Shenron in an epic fashion, young Goku killing King Piccolo in an epic fashion, Oolong wishing for panties or Roshi sniffing panties; it was always so much fun to see such comedy gold being shown through my television screen.

Soon afterwards, Dragon Ball GT which I eventually realized was a non-canon sequel, started showing up and while I wasn’t as entertained with it, I still enjoyed the ideas it presented. Every time I went to school the next day, my classmates would be talking about the episode of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z or Dragon Ball GT that aired the previous day.

Can you imagine that an anime, back in the glory days of television where anime was practically a myth and scorned upon, would be talked about and praised in a public place? Such a feat was unheard of; clearly the Dragon Ball franchise had a magic touch that many anime lacked that helped forged a connection with the unaware populace to the world of anime, allowing people to dive further into anime and explore what else the anime medium had to offer.
Although Dragon Ball, where I live, stopped airing in the late 2000s and I grew out of it, I still fondly remembered the good times I had with the Dragon Ball franchise and will forever be my stepping stone in the world of anime. A few years later, the Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods movie premiered and reignited my passion for Dragon Ball and eventually, Dragon Ball Super was announced, and I was excited to see Dragon Ball in the modern era…

Oh boy…how wrong I was. I know what you’re thinking “Why are you so upset with Dragon Ball Super? Let me guess; you’re an anime fan who started watching better anime and realized that Dragon Ball was only good cause of nostalgia?” No, nostalgia doesn’t blind people to the true quality of a show; it simply makes them more biased and positive towards something because they don’t want a good part of their past smudged upon. People can still recognize flaws in things they fondly remember. And so, being nostalgic doesn’t blind me to the fact that Dragon Ball was never well written; it had comedy gold and many good fights between memorable characters. These are reasons why Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z are so beloved by many. However, Dragon Ball Super does not share any of these traits processed by its predecessors.

Artwork, Animation and Sound

The most obvious trait that is adored by many was Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z’s great art and fluid animation; who could forget the iconic Super Saiyan transformation, the background of Planet Namek and the tournament arenas; all of which had consistent artwork most of the time. Sure, there were hiccups here and there… but it wasn’t to the point where the Super Saiyan transformation in Dragon Ball Super is reduced to badly drawn shit or characters in faraway shots look plainly, unevenly and pitifully drawn; it just looks ugly and ruins the experience.

Most of the fights in Dragon Ball are best remembered for its animated fight scenes, fluidically done well and background damage from the Ki Blasts or fighters being thrown into terrain displayed just as well…all of this is lost in Dragon Ball Super where most fights are sloppily animated since it barely used any of the animation and camera angle techniques that helped Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z fights look good.

As for the music…eh, it’s no Bruce Faulconer but manages to try and be epic enough to get some invigoration going.

There is no consistency whatsoever in Dragon Ball Super’s artwork and animation; the only times the characters are drawn correctly and animated wonderfully…are only when it matters. Yes, only when it counts is Dragon Ball Super’s policy when it comes to artwork and animation which means only the big fights will have beautifully drawn artwork alongside fluidic movement in its animation, while the rest of the episodes can look like dogshit. What makes this consistency worst is that Dragon Ball Super is animated by Toei Animation, which is a huge company with a huge budget. As such, you would expect most Dragon Ball Super episodes to have consistency since its animation studio has the budget to do so. Therefore, most of the time Dragon Ball Super will shove mediocre to downright terrible artwork and animation in your face and will only grant you the great artwork and animation at very few points. This means that your overall enjoyment is mostly ruined by lack of consistency in production values and you will question Dragon Ball Super’s terrible artwork and animation most of the time.

Story and Characters

The Dragon Ball story formula is as old as time itself; most of its story progresses through with each fight. For each fight to make sense and help progress the story, it technically established (although, the power scaling term was coined by the fandom) the first power scaling in battle anime. The power scaling aspect helped viewers to keep track of who was stronger and what enabled fighters to catch up to one another, allowing fights to make sense and flow easily since the viewer will know whom is strongest between two fighters and will be able to accept increases in strength.

Dragon Ball’s power scaling/formula goes like this; Fighter A is stronger than Fighter B, so Fighter B trains or gets a transformation to catch up to Fighter A which will help Fighter B to fight on par or overcome Fighter A. After a while, Fighter C will arrive who is far stronger than Fighter A and overcome Fighter B; Fighter B will go back to training or get another transformation which will allow Fighter B to fight on par or overcome Fighter C. An in-series example would be Goku’s Kaio-Ken being unable to fight on par or overcome Frieza’s Final Form. Goku gets the Super Saiyan transformation, which enables Goku to overcome Frieza’s Final Form. Frieza then powers up to 100% and fights on par with Super Saiyan Goku.

(Fighter B < Fighter A < Trained/Transformed Fighter B < Fighter C < More Trained/Second Transformation Fighter B)

So basically, Dragon Ball’s power scaling involves martial artists catching up to one another in strength and, its major rule when it comes to power ups or restrictions in strength. For example, the Potara Earrings allowed two fighters to fuse and gain unimaginable strength at the cost of being fused together forever; this restriction ensured that the Potara Earrings were never abused and never ruined the power scaling. I’m aware that the power scaling did prevent many Z fighters from catching up to Goku and Vegeta, henceforth Dragon Ball Z being infamously known as the Goku and Vegeta show. Many Z fighters could have caught up to Goku and Vegeta had Akira Toriyama gave them the training or transformations to do so. Despite this drawback of making secondary characters useless, most of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z’s fights follow this power scaling it established; you will never be losing track in a fight and you won’t be questioning the escalation of strength. Sure, there were times where Dragon Ball Z had too many sudden transformations and leaps in strength such as Buu’s transformations. However, you could keep track of the fighters’ strength during that arc and still enjoy it even if it was badly written. As long as Dragon Ball fights had the viewer knowing the strength between two characters and keeping track of it which allowed delivery of good fights, you didn’t care about the quality of the writing.
Ironically, Dragon Ball Super does not follow the very formula it established.

Battle of Gods Arc

It all begins with the God of Destruction, Beerus, who is the next powerful antagonist after Kid Buu, and is tasked with blowing up planets to maintain balance; he is a glutton and gourmet and would blow up a planet over a slight infraction over food, making the stakes high. He wakes up, wants to uncover a legend regarding the Super Saiyan God and after defeating Goku’s full power, goes to Earth to investigate further. Beerus became the new martial artist to be caught up to in strength once again and thus the power scaling should continue as always. It does for a bit as Goku’s Super Saiyan God helps him fight on par with Beerus…until its revealed that Beerus was only using 70% of his power against Goku. Regarding the Super Saiyan God transformation, for such a grandiose title, it isn’t as impressive as the legend suggests; it’s nothing more than a colour swap. The viewer would expect this grandiose transformation to be far more spectacular such as having god-like robes or a cosmic cape. To conclude, The God of Destruction Arc was somewhat enjoyable as it gave an intimidating antagonist in Beerus and a fine fight between him and Goku (especially in the Battle of Gods movie), despite the Super Saiyan God transformation being unimpressive and Beerus holding back which causes the power scaling to crack. However, since this revelation of Beerus holding is revealed after the fight, you will be under the illusion that Goku’s Super Saiyan God helped him to fight on par with Beerus meaning you will still enjoy their fight regardless.

Resurrection of F Arc

After a short while, Frieza resurrects and goes to Earth to get revenge. Its at this point in Dragon Ball Super where the power scaling begins crumbling along with established rules. I know I said that writing quality doesn’t matter when it comes to Dragon Ball but even it must have rules and restrictions for its universe to work and that goes for the fights as well, power scaling and rules for transformations . Frieza resurrects in pieces even though fighters who are blown up (such as Krillin) return as whole; why is Frieza the sole exception? So anyway, after he is repaired, Frieza has a lot to do in order to catch up to Goku’s level of strength. How does he accomplish this immense feat? A simple four-month gym program. How can Frieza be able to catch up to Goku in a short amount of time whereas the other Z fighters have been struggling to do so for years? Why does Akira Toriyama give this catching up treatment to only Frieza and not to the other Z fighters? Many can claim all they want that Frieza never trained in his life and that’s why but it still comes off as forced which causes power scaling to slowly lose its meaning. Before Goku and Frieza fight, the other Z fighters (such as Master Roshi, Tien and Krillin) must fight hordes of Frieza’s minions who should be naturally stronger than some mere humans, but they manage to defeat them easily.

Goku and Frieza unveil their latest colour swaps, Super Saiyan Blue and Golden Frieza; although these transformations are slightly better than Super Saiyan God in terms of colour (the former being a better colour since red was already used in Kaio-Ken and the latter matching Frieza’s almighty personality) they do not catch up to Beerus’s strength. Power scaling crumbles as Goku and Frieza have an unimpressive fight which was done better in the Namek Saga. After a lot of nonsensical gibberish with Goku letting down his guard and Super Saiyan Blue not being durable enough to withstand a simple laser, Frieza blows up Earth, Whis loads a new save file and Goku kills Frieza with an obligatory Kamehameha. Goku and Frieza’s second fight ends on a whimper, nothing gained and lots of rules being tossed out of the window and power scaling starting to crumble. In summary, the Resurrection of F was boring and unenjoyable since its major fight is unimpressive and it does more harm to the establishment of the Dragon Ball universe because everything that has been built up is broken down.

Universe Sixth and Seventh Tournament Arc

After Frieza’s second defeat, the Z Warriors encounter Champa who is the God of Destruction of the Sixth Universe as well as Beerus’ brother and challenges the Seventh Universe in which the winner will receive the Super Dragon Balls to wish from. This is where the show starts exploring the omni verse of Dragon Ball with the only conceivable way possible, a tournament. To be fair, this style of introducing new universes by fighting in a tournament is an ideal method in the context of Dragon Ball; although tournament arcs already serve as introducing characters through battle, this manages to make sense. In other tournaments, the Z Warriors were on their home turf, so they had a rough idea about the martial artists they were going against. In this case, the Z Warriors are completely in the dark about the Sixth Universe and don’t have any idea what to expect. By having an introductory tournament between the Seventh Universe and a new universe, the Z Warriors can gauge the strength of another universe, learn about their fighting styles so that when they go to said universe they can be prepared, and vice versa. However, while an introductory tournament is an ideal way of showing off new universes, this tournament’s set up makes little sense; Champa challenges the Seventh Universe to a tournament so that he can win the Super Dragon Balls he gathered to teleport the Seventh Universe’s Earth into his universe because it has delicious food…why doesn’t Champa simply use the Super Dragon Balls he gathered already and wish to create a new Earth? Oh yeah, I nearly forgot that Goku is a battle frenzy maniac in this show and wanted a tournament with the Super Dragon Balls on the line so that he can fight new warriors. While this may excuse Champa’s actions, it doesn’t excuse the fact that this set up still doesn’t make sense; having a tournament with the location of the Seventh Universe’s Earth on the line doesn’t have any consequences or penalties. Both the Sixth and Seventh Universe are practically the same, so if the Seventh Universe were to lose and have their Earth moved to the Sixth Universe, there won’t be any repercussions which removes the high stakes from this tournament.

It also doesn’t help that most of the fights in this Sixth/Seventh Universe tournament were bad or forgettable because the opponents the Z Warriors were facing were mostly pitiful coupled by the fact that the Z Warriors were not using their full power right away. Botamo was a Winnie the Pooh knockoff who was defeated easily, Frost was a Frieza knockoff who was one shotted by Vegeta and Cabba was a Tarble knockoff. By the way, its at this point in the show that the Super Saiyan transformation becomes easy to achieve. Remember the struggle Vegeta had to go through to get his Super Saiyan transformation, all Cabba had to do was get a bit angry; its as easy as that, very little struggle is needed to become a Super Saiyan at this point.

Despite most of these unimpressive fights, this Sixth/Seventh Universe tournament is still a bit salvageable thanks to the Vegeta and Magetta fight as well as the Hit and Goku fight. Magetta was an opponent who could not fly, so to even the playing field, a barrier was erected on the arena to prevent Vegeta from flying away easily. Magetta used the barrier to his advantage by heating himself up to wear Vegeta down since the heat would be trapped in the barrier. He also used his magma and gases to create explosions against Vegeta. There was even a bit of a struggle such as Magetta holding off Vegeta’s Final Flash Basically, this was a more tactical fight that doesn’t happen in Dragon Ball that often which made it enjoyable and more so considered that the previous fights were botched and unenjoyable due to Frost. Then there’s the Goku and Hit fight for being well animated by Dragon Ball Super standards. Unfortunately, their fight ruins the power scaling since Goku’s Super Saiyan Blue can’t defeat Hit who was holding back because he is an assassin and couldn’t go all out. The power scaling is now at a point where the new antagonists get more powerful and Goku and Vegeta get less powerful, thereby making it difficult to keep track of the fighting taking place because you will be too busy questioning why Super Saiyan Blue Kaioken (which should logically defeat the next opponent according to the Dragon Ball power scaling formula) isn’t enough to defeat Hit who’s holding back.

The Sixth Universe/Seventh Universe had the ideal method of introducing new universes with an introductory tournament. However, this tournament was mediocre since its setup is obscure, has no tension because there is nothing to lose and most of the fights were boring, leaving you with very little to care about; it also doesn’t help that this tournament will be overshadowed in a later arc which will make you care less. There is some glimmer of enjoyment to be found in this disappointing tournament in the Vegeta versus Magetta fight and the Goku versus Hit fight; the former for using tactics and the latter for being one of the few times Dragon Ball Super is well animated. Therefore, the Sixth/Seventh Universe tournament only has some value in watching two fights, but these fights will probably be watched on YouTube videos which devalues the quality of this tournament.

Future Trunks Arc

Now we get to one of the worst parts in this entire show and the franchise itself; this entire arc completely breaks power scaling, logic that was established in earlier parts of Dragon Ball are thrown out the window and nothing will matter in the end. Future Trunks returns to the present to get help from Goku and Vegeta to defeat Goku Black. This arc revolves around Goku and Vegeta jumping back and forth between timelines many times to try and defeat Goku Black and later Future Zamasu. This wouldn’t be an issue had the power scaling formula still be intact. Goku and Vegeta would only need to jump between timelines twice; the first time to experience Goku Black and Future Zamasu’s full power; the second time they would return with a new transformation along with being better prepared and defeat them in an intense struggle. But instead, Goku and Vegeta struggle against Goku Black and Future Zamasu multiple times and must jump back and forth multiple times with nothing being accomplished.

Speaking of the antagonists, Goku Black and Future Zamasu are introduced as complex villains who want to create a utopia by decimating humanity whom are corrupt and evil. The problem here is that Dragon Ball isn’t a complex show; its antagonists were always kept simple; the simplest being wanting to conquer the universe or destroy it. Goku Black and Future Zamasu being complex villains who are morally grey and think that they are doing good doesn’t work in Dragon Ball since it’s a simple show and you’ll be made to believe they are intelligent and make you question said intelligence as to why they didn’t use the Super Dragon Balls to wipe out humanity in the first place. This could be forgiven if there was some good fights but since there are not the only thing I can digest is the story which Dragon Ball isn’t well known for. In this blackhole of power scaling corruption, you’re wondering how the hell Future Trunks is going to catch up in strength? Well no matter, Super Saiyan Rage is enough to level up to Goku Black and Future Zamasu whom were able to easily defeat Super Saiyan Blue; power scaling consistency for the win.

In the final trip to the future all hell breaks loose with nothing making sense:

• Vegeta in Super Saiyan Blue while angered can easily overpower Goku Black’s Super Saiyan Rose even though he was owning Vegeta moments before. Being angered and getting strength isn’t something new but its now being abused to the point of making you think that training is meaningless because of this gimmick.

• There is this sub plot about using the Mafuba technique to seal away Future Zamasu. Future Trunks learning the Mafuba and being able to perform it correctly in just a few seconds makes little sense. But this doesn’t matter since Future Zamasu breaks free so this set up is meaningless.

• The biggest retcon occurs in this final engagement; Goku and Vegeta use the Potara Earrings to combat the merged Zamasu. Its retconned that the Potara Earrings do not merge entities together forever, now entities are only fused for an hour! This makes Vegeta swallowing his pride and fusing with Goku forever to fight Super Buu and save his son which was great character growth, meaningless! What’s even worse is that Super Saiyan Blue Vegito doesn’t even help to defeat Fused Zamasu which makes his appearance just a cameo to appease the Vegito fans and not for the sake of being a glimmer of hope in this desperate struggle.

• Since the Potara Earrings are too retconned to be of any use, Future Trunks has no choice but to pull out a power up from his ass which allows him to create a Spirit Sword Bomb from the energy of thirty nearly-dead people which kills Fused Zamasu with ease!? How does this remotely make any sense? Goku’s Super Spirit Bomb needed the energy from millions of people from Earth to kill Kid Buu in an intense struggle whereas Future Trunks’ Spirit Sword Bomb needed only a few mere people to kill Fused Zamasu who is a thousand times stronger and with ease?

• The BS has finally ended…oh wait, it becomes more nonsensical as Zamasu becomes one with reality and his desires start breaking reality apart…yeah it makes no sense that Zamasu doesn’t die right away because becoming part of reality is what most Dragon Ball villains do after being defeated, right? To save everyone from this nonsense, Goku pulls out the Zeno Button which he could have done all this time. Zeno starts erasing the future timeline along with Zamasu and Goku and Vegeta go back to the present by holding onto the Time Machine even though this should be impossible since it was an established rule that being inside the machine is the only way to time travel. Zeno erasing Future Trunks’ timeline makes all the struggles he endured for his entire life as well as the resistance and Mai pointless. Wait, there was a resistance fighting against the Zamasus? Why didn’t I mention that earlier on? That’s because it is now meaningless since they are all erased.

• Back in the present, Future Trunks and Mai go to a new timeline, which makes this entire debacle pointless.

What a load of BS, simply terrible. This entire Future Trunks arc is a convoluted mess; nothing makes sense and everything becomes pointless. All this arc does is put a blemish on the Dragon Ball franchise. It goes against everything that Dragon Ball has built; from the simplest of rules to power scaling. I lost my patience with this arc as it was nearing its end and I was glad it was over; this is where my enjoyment of Dragon Ball stopped completely, and I started disliking it.

Tournament of Power Arc

Soon afterwards, the Tournament of Power promised at the end of the Universe Sixth and Seventh Tournament begins after Goku begs the Zenos to start it. The Tournament of Power is where eight universes send ten of their most powerful fighters to duke it out with their prestige and pride of their respective universes on the line; each fleshed out fighter having their own reason to win and root for. It’s a massive premise and its not hard to see why it’s the most hyped up arc in Dragon Ball. The Tournament of Power could have easily been the greatest tournament arc in history…if the above mentioned happened…

Instead, the Tournament of Power, while still massive in its premise, is a survival battle royal where eight universes must battle it out to please the Zenos and if all ten of their respective fighters are eliminated, they will be erased; only the universes with the most survivors still in it by the end of the time limit will be spared and be victorious. The most glaring flaw is that this is a battle royal; why opt for a battle royal instead of the usual bracket system? This is more glaring considering that Dragon Ball has never done a tournament of this style before. When the tournament begins, the viewer will see thousands of explosions all over the place making the viewer assume that many fights are taking place…when in fact the explosions are just there for the sake of being there to trick the viewer into thinking that many battles are taking place when in reality the camera focus is on two or three fighters duking it out while no other battles are taking place. WWE’s Royal Rumble works better because the camera focus is on one ring and all the wrestlers in it, so the viewer can keep track of the many wrestlers easier since it’s all in one place whereas the Tournament of Power is all over the place and thus its difficult to keep track of anything that is going on. Not only that, the Royal Rumble starts ten times better and flows better because all contestants don’t enter at the same time; two wrestlers enter in first and the remaining wrestlers enter in at regular intervals; this allows the viewer to watch a few wrestlers easily and since some wrestlers will be eliminated before the ring becomes full, the filtering helps the viewer always keep track. In the Tournament of Power, all fighters start at the same time and this makes it difficult to keep track of the battle royal’s flow since you don’t know what fights are taking place when the camera focus is only on one set of fighters. Even before its begun, the Tournament of Power proves to be a disastrous idea since the Dragon Ball franchise doesn’t have any experience in battle royals nor does it have any technique in executing it correctly.

Not even the preparation before the Tournament of Power is done right nor does it raise high stakes; the viewer barely sees any of the universes outside of the Sixth and Seventh preparing. The viewer only sees glimpses of the universes gathering its fighters and does nothing in fleshing them out for the viewer to root or cheer for. I already know that the universes are motivated to survive, so that is nothing to root for. The Tournament of Power is a battle royal that’s been set up where there is no one correct side the viewer must cheer for. This tournament is like Survivor where you cheer on the contestant you find most interesting and not a specific group of characters, so the viewer is not meant to root for just the Seventh Universe; the viewer should be able to cheer for the universe he/she finds most endearing after seeing their fleshed out histories and actual motivations. However, the Tournament of Power is so ill conceived that the universes participate out of their hatred for Goku because he endangered all of them by convincing the Zenos to start this tournament in the first place. As such, the Tournament of Power’s character focus is on the Seventh Universe which shouldn’t be the case because the Tournament of Power’s battle royal isn’t the usual protagonist/antagonist situation. My point is, no actual preparation was given to the other universes which makes this seem like less than a battle royal and more of the same Dragon Ball tournament formula where you must cheer for Goku and his friends that the viewer has seen a million times. This makes me question why bother having a battle royal to begin with if it doesn’t play out like one. I know that this tournament is where universes will be erased, so there is no point in fleshing out any of the other universes if they are going to kick the bucket anyway. Even still, you need to have them fleshed out anyway because if they are going to die (until this impression is broken later on), you should at least be able to applaud their efforts and struggles and try to give a damn about them after they are erased. Because no universe is given preparation nor is fleshed out, you won’t give a damn about any of these fighters when they are erased. Instead, they come across as fodder for the Seventh Universe to steam roll through or in better terms, more playable characters to play as for upcoming Dragon Ball video games.

Even when actual preparation is given to the Sixth and Seventh Universes, its still BS. The Z Warriors such as Krillin, Tien, Master Roshi, Piccolo, Android 17 and 18 who have been relegated to the sidelines ever since the end of the Cell Saga, now have the strength to compete with Super Saiyan Blue Goku. But hold on, this should be a positive aspect since the Z Fighters now have relevance for the first time in two decades, right? Nope, they shouldn’t be able to even keep up with Goku after been relegated for so long and power scaling becoming broken; some will say that Goku searching for fighters to compete in the tournament is more of helping their personality flaws such as Krillin becoming confident again in his fighting abilities or Master Roshi overcoming his perversion or connecting with former adversaries such as Android 17. None of that matters in a tournament of survival; you need the strength and tactics to do so and getting rid of personality flaws doesn’t automatically make one fight on par with Super Saiyan Blue…but why should I care, power scaling is broken now, so I guess the Z Warriors are stronger because Goku said so. Their preparation is so bad, they had to resort to Frieza, and don’t give me “Buu fell asleep again” excuse which is just as bad; your preparation sucks when you must rely on your worst enemy to have your back.

As for the Sixth Universe…all they do is go on a Super Saiyan Safari. By the way, the Super Saiyan transformation is reduced to a light bulb that you can switch on and off. By getting a tingling back, a Saiyan can become a Super Saiyan…remember the times when good quality Super Saiyans were hard to find? Not anymore.
Did I say that tactics are important in the Tournament of Power, because that’s what several characters preach during the preparation…I saw none of that. Basically, in a nutshell, 90% of the fighters resorted to raw strength, unwarranted transformations, rule breaking, stamina physics breaking, guard down convenience and crowdfunding. Even when 10% of the time tactics were used, they were superficial and overcome easily such as the Fourth Universe fighters using their small size to their advantage.
So the preparation and start of the Tournament of Power is BS…maybe it can be turned around during the Tournament of Power’s middle portion. Let’s start with Goku’s Ultra Instinct which is yet another lazy transformation with upright black hair and silver eyes. The only reason this Ultra Instinct is considered amazing is due to that catchy soundtrack, otherwise its nothing special. The Super Saiyan transformation didn’t rely on catchy soundtracks to look good or be impactful; Super Saiyan relied on its display of power, the sacrifices to get it and the ability to overcome the current difficult obstacle at that time. Since Ultra Instinct failed to overcome Jiren it isn’t that special. I might as well add that it makes no sense for just Goku to awaken Ultra Instinct; this transformation can be achieved by anyone including mortals, yet only Goku can achieve it. Ultra Instinct isn’t a Saiyan-only transformation which is why it makes little sense. And I know that fans will defend this with saying that God Ki is required…God Ki? Since when? It was never explained properly; Hit has no “God-Ki” yet is as strong as those with so called “God-Ki” so he should be able to get this transformation. Vegeta has God-ki but doesn’t awaken Ultra Instinct. How Goku achieved Ultra Instinct is also just as nonsensical; Goku’s Seventh Universe Spirit Bomb was deflected back at him and after overcoming a black hole it created it allowed him to break his limitations (or shell) which awakened Ultra Instinct? Yes, it makes no sense. What’s even worse is that Goku never had to work for Ultra Instinct, sacrifice anything for it nor train for it; he just gets it for being brave enough for fighting Jiren, or in layman’s terms, plot convenience. Despite running out of stamina all the time, Goku can use Ultra Instinct several times without breaking a sweat.

Regarding stamina, for some stupid reason they introduced this limitation and made it important even when its always been there since Dragon Ball Z. Anyway, the Sixth Universe female Saiyans, Kaulifla and Kale are given importance for being SJW pandering warriors; baring Goku and the fighter to be talked about afterwards, they are two of the worst offenders in this tournament. They unfairly get transformations, can use the Potara Earrings even when it’s against the rules to use items and can fight evenly with Super Saiyan Blue Goku…despite them having little time to get used to their Super Saiyan transformations, they can go toe to toe with a Saiyan who has greater experience with the transformation. Most of all, Kaulifla and Kale are annoyingly arrogant and come across as Mary Sues.

However, the worst offender of this tournament is Jiren…screw this guy. Jiren is one of the worst characters in the Dragon Ball franchise; from his lame and lazy design to his non-existent personality whatsoever. But in a twist of irony, Jiren is considered the best character in the franchise for the above reasons when the true reason the majority praise this character is because he is the strongest in this tournament. But I do not care at all; Jiren will be forgotten about immediately after the Tournament of Power is over due to his equally lame and lazy backstory and Dragon Ball’s tendency to introduce or rehash more powerful characters in later years for the fandom to fangasm over, which will leave Jiren in the dust. What I am offended when it comes to Jiren is his utter lack of care for anything; he comes across as a walking plot device only needing to care when the tournament demands it. Toei Animation might as well have hired Trump’s Wall to be the strongest adversary for this tournament if they were going for a completely non-existent personality; at least that would make more sense, but I guess Toei Animation didn’t have the budget to do so since they blew it on designing Jiren. Because of this, Jiren doesn’t bother trying to eliminate any fighters in the tournament…then, he has the audacity to blame his teammates for failing to survive despite them eliminating other fighters and working together while he sat around doing jack shit. I have no idea who can be interested in such a character who doesn’t give a damn and when he does, he just shows the middle finger.

In its closing stages, Vegeta faces Toppo and defeats him with a Final Explosion without sacrificing himself…how? It took Vegeta sacrificing himself with the Final Explosion to completely obliterate Fat Buu, a far weaker opponent back whereas Vegeta’s Final Explosion this time around is far weaker but can defeat Toppo? Who is way stronger than Fat Buu? Whatever, the point of this is that afterwards, Vegeta can still move even after expending all of his ki and stamina which makes little sense. Throughout this tournament, Vegeta has once again played second fiddle to Goku and hasn’t done anything of significance at all. At the very least, I can appreciate Vegeta for relying on his own willpower and strength and not on nonsensical transformations and rule breaking, so Vegeta is the least offensive of the five worst contestants in this tournament but that isn’t saying much since most of everything he does still makes little sense.

Near the end of this tournament cluster jam, Goku, Vegeta and Frieza along with Jiren are the only fighters left. I find it ironic and hilarious that Frieza (before Android 17’s return), the tyrant who massacred the Saiyans, is the last line of defence alongside Goku and Vegeta whom he is mortal enemies with…well, at least this explains why Frieza is utterly absent during these last episodes; the Z Warriors claim that Goku is their last hope after Vegeta is eliminated, believing he is the last fighter remaining when Frieza is still in the tournament. What’s the matter, Toei Animation; do you also find Frieza being the last line of defence alongside Goku to be jarring and stupid? So, the best solution you could come up with is to off screen him completely when you could have made Android #17 being the last line of defence alongside Goku and Vegeta, which would have made his “supposed” self-destruction a lot more meaningful and the Z fighters cheering on Goku to make more sense?

Despite being completely out of ki, stamina and badly damaged, Vegeta is still able to use a Final Flash against Jiren and for some nonsensical reason, Jiren must block against Vegeta’s attacks even when he didn’t have to lift a single finger to block against a healthy Goku when they first fought. Why doesn’t Jiren just knock Vegeta out of the arena instead of beating the living daylights out of him? After messing around for no reason at all, Jiren finally knocks Vegeta out of the arena. During his final moments, Vegeta gives Goku his Ki…even when he is supposed to have no Ki at all…but this Ki is enough to allow Goku to go Super Saiyan Blue?

The final moments of the tournament are between Goku and Jiren. However, Jiren is still too powerful for some reason even though he’s nerfed all the time. And so, with the power of Akira Toriyama’s god like designs granted by himself, Goku gets ANOTHER new transformation for Ultra Instinct which is…silver hair…that’s right, the best design that the creator of his own work can come up with for an epic showdown…is yet another lazy colour swap. The creator fulfils the prophecy of Super Saiyan 5 forged by thousands of Dragon Ball theorists centuries ago; the circle is now complete, the Dragon Ball fandom’s designs have surpassed its master’s. When Dragon Ball fandom transformation designs have greater aesthetics than its own creator’s…then I start questioning the authenticity of this show being a canon sequel.

Goku and Jiren’s final fight features the “great art and animation” that Dragon Ball Super pulls out rarely and manages to go balls to the wall with it, something I can at least appreciate because I would have been infuriated had it not. I know many die hard fans will fangasm over this, but honestly having to trod through so much nonsense makes this hardly worth the wait especially considering that the build-up towards this makes no sense; Goku should be far too tired and worn out to fight anymore and Jiren should have eliminated him already. Why should I wait for one good animated episode out of more than a hundred when I could watch a consistently good animated series? Its quite sad because even though I enjoyed the art and animation for once, just like the rest of this tournament this show is determined to infuriate me no matter what; Jiren and Goku’s characterizations are completely inconsistent. Jiren who spouts about justice being strength (even though he is supposed to have a non-existent personality) fires a ki blast at the Seventh Universe bleachers which he should have been disqualified for but whatever, then Goku spouts out about “friendship” and fighting for his friends and family which makes him strong enough to defeat Jiren…this is Fairy Tail level BS. Goku is already fighting for his friends and family; we the viewers have known this for ages, so why does he need to say this!? Regardless of whether Goku actually cares for his friends and family, in the context of his character during this tournament, this makes no sense since Goku has been depicted as a battle frenzy maniac this entire tournament who put his friends and family in danger of having their universe erased in the first place and its more jarring when he was already thinking about them the previous episode. This comes off as yet another lazy friendship power up that all trashy battle anime resort to, what a shame. Despite friendship helping Goku, it isn’t enough to heal him from the fatigue of his silver hair which he conveniently starts feeling when he’s about to eliminate Jiren, which again makes no sense since he has “mastered” Ultra Instinct and shouldn’t be suffering from the toll of using it. Remember Android #17’s “supposed” self-destruction that was meant to be a heroic sacrifice? Well what a pity, he conveniently returns even though the arena is far too destroyed to have any platforms remaining and Frieza comes on screen out of screen. Whatever, screw the rules I have colour swaps.

At the end of it all, Android #17 and Frieza along with Goku (makes no sense for Goku to still be moving) face against Jiren for the last time. Goku and Frieza work together and eliminate themselves along with Jiren…my word the irony but whatever. Android #17 is the last man standing and wins the tournament, then he wishes for the universes that were erased to be brought back to life (so much for there being tension) resulting in a rushed anti-climax which makes their efforts in trying to survive the tournament pointless and in vain, the status quo is maintained, and everything goes back to normal as if nothing ever happened!? You know what this means? Because everything went back to normal, this tournament means absolutely nothing; they all fought for nothing and gained nothing, no payoff nor finality whatsoever. This tournament arc single handedly dismantled the Dragon Ball formula without giving the viewer any payoff or relief for this injustice, just so that it can introduce some no named forgettable characters...so much BS!

I could go and complain about the Super Dragon Balls being able to undo the Zenos erasure powers (because they are higher than Super Shenron so his wish shouldn’t be able to undo their damage) or the Zenos seeing into the future the outcome of the tournament or the timer being completely ignored or Frieza being ressurected without Dragon Balls but I honestly don’t care anymore. I knew the ending to this show was going to suck no matter what, but boy did it amaze me with its power to just suck.

The Tournament of Power is absolute garbage.

• Its inception, implementation, execution and choice to do a battle royal is awful since its style had no experience beforehand; the viewer will have no idea what’s going on during the beginning stages since it will be impossible to keep track of the fighters battling.

• The viewer won’t give a damn about the other universes and their fighters being eliminated since they were never fleshed out. Because of this, the viewer is also forced to cheer on one universe (the Seventh Universe) which shouldn’t be the case in a battle royal.

• There is no tension or high stakes because the viewer can only cheer on the Seventh Universe, making it blatantly obvious that they will win no matter what.

• The Tournament of Power’s rulebook is rewritten all the time; from allowing use of items to managing eliminations. The Potara Earrings are items, so why weren’t Kailifla and Kale disqualified on the spot? I might as well point out Master Roshi’s use of the Mafuba technique; it requires an item in a tournament where items are not allowed and not only that, it’s a game breaking technique that renders all fighting meaningless in a tournament that is all about fighting. In the final moments of the tournament, Frieza and #17 are still in the tournament even when the entire arena is in complete and utter shambles yet they are not eliminated for any reason.

• Tactics are non-existent in a tournament where teamwork is preached to be more important than raw power.

• Willpower and believing in love or other ideals means nothing because raw power supersedes everything. Only the strong with immense raw power survive even though this is supposed to be a tournament where the weakest contestant should have the greatest chance to outlast everyone thanks to willpower and tactics.

• Power scaling is broken, so its even more difficult to keep track of a battle’s flow and is impossible to enjoy a clean fight. As such, fighters can be nerfed or powered up at any time even when said fighter is the strongest, has taken the least amount of damage and is struggling to defeat two completely worn out Saiyans…

• Battle damage is inconsistent; you can have one arm and a leg with a hole in your torso and you will still be able to fight normally.

• Running out of stamina is inconsistent since fighters are refilled with it on the spot.

• Letting your guard down makes your defence paper thin for no reason, so even the smallest Ki attack amounts to collateral damage.

• Any transformations (more specifically the Saiyans) is inconsistent and can be used at any given time no matter how much damage is received, or the amount of stamina lost.

• The commentary on the bleachers is more important than the tournament itself.

What a disaster. The Tournament of Power was just utterly convoluted, completely nonsensical and a massive train wreck; it sucks. You will be relieved that this is over and done with.

After the Tournament of Disaster…Dragon Ball Super ends because Toei Animation now have all the milk money they need. Most of the Dragon Ball fandom was displeased and outraged with Dragon Ball Super ending, mainly because they can no longer make YouTube theory videos or review videos to earn money. If they are so disappointed, the fandom might as well make a fan-based continuation animated in Microsoft Paint, and the rest of the fandom wouldn’t be able to tell the difference because all they care about is colour swaps. But in all seriousness, Dragon Ball Super’s ending comes at no surprise due to Hiromi Tsuru passing away (RIP), the voice actor of Bulma who is one of the most important people of the Dragon Ball anime which made Toei Animation lose morale to continue forward. Another reason is due to the Tournament of Power’s premise itself; its so massive that anything after it will pale in comparison. Planet Sadal Arc? Exploring the other universes? Who cares, the Tournament of Power’s premise makes any conceivable story arc look flat. By shoving Dragon Ball’s tournament formula at its peak down our throats, who would want to digest some boring adventure arc; the fandom would rather want to eat up more tournament fighting. It also doesn’t help that the Tournament of Power didn’t capitalize on anything and leaves nothing to care about.

Overall Analysis

I tried to find something enjoyable in Dragon Ball Super and it never gave me the time or day. I don’t hate something just for the sake of hating it; I loathe Dragon Ball Super because it dismantles the Dragon Ball formula. Even the miniscule moments that are slightly enjoyable, means nothing in the long run.

In recent years, the anime industry’s shonen demographic has become stagnant so whenever someone call a show “shonen” it comes across as derogatory and demeaning. When Dragon Ball Super was announced, I thought this new Dragon Ball was a good chance to show newcomers of battle anime and manga what fighting is all about and to help revitalize the shonen demographic…unfortunately, this revitalization was not meant to be. Dragon Ball Super is just as shallow and stagnant as many trashy battle anime of the current era.

I can see why this is the case. Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z aired in an era where talent, time and money flowed more freely, and it was easier to depict more consistent well animated brutal fights since terrorism wasn’t prevalent back then. The average viewer could enjoy Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z far more because it aired on television and could never be spoiled about a major plot twist when discussing the show with other people; everyone was in the same boat and it was more enjoyable waiting to see the next transformation without prior information. On the other hand, Dragon Ball Super aired in an era where there is no talent, time and money are restricted, so depicting consistent well animated brutal fights with blood and gore is impossible due to terrorism being rampart. Dragon Ball Super is far more difficult to enjoy because it aired during the internet era where everyone can be spoiled in an instant; no one can enjoy speculating the next major plot twist since its shoved at your computer screen twenty-four seven.

So, when people say that Dragon Ball Super is awful in comparison to its predecessors because of nostalgia goggles, that is not the case; Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z aired in a better time with a strong focus on consistent well-animated fights aimed at entertaining the viewer. Dragon Ball Super aired in a rough time with a stronger focus on inconsistent animated fights aimed at milking the viewer’s cash.

To be honest, I find no joy in delivering this verdict; it sucks having to tear down a show I once had respect for. Dragon Ball Super is inferior in every way to its predecessors; it has inconsistent bad animation and artwork; the fights are terrible due to the bad animation and do not follow the power scaling or rules established and instead demolishes them in favour of having the best colour swap. Most characters are degraded versions of themselves and the new characters don’t do anything memorable to make you care about them. Worst of all, Dragon Ball Super damages the core aspect of the Dragon Ball franchise; from a monkey tailed boy striving to achieve greater strength through training and making friends along the way, to a battle seeking warrior who trains to protect his friends and family to a battle frenzy maniac who has an unhealthy obsession with dyeing his hair with every conceivable colour in existence.

Dragon Ball Super has achieved nothing resembling a good clean fight during its runtime nor does it show any sort of aspiration to be as good as its predecessors; all it amounts to is a cashgrab to create new Dragon Ball games which shouldn’t be the case. There is no conceivable way for me to recommend this train wreck to any Dragon Ball fan living under a rock and I don’t even consider it to be a time waster since it is a complete waste of time.

When Dragon Ball Super was announced, many Dragon Ball veterans believed that the Dragon Ball franchise should have stayed dead and shelved for eternity. With Dragon Ball Super’s end, I now share the same sentiments. The Dragon Ball formula simply cannot conform to current times, which is why Dragon Ball Super fails so miserably.

Its sad really, I didn’t think it was possible to royally screw up such a simple formula like Dragon Ball, but Dragon Ball Super proved me wrong. Say what you will about Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT which did have inconsistent moments; I won’t defend those inconsistencies. But you can’t tell me that they are just as bad as Dragon Ball Super. No, if Dragon Ball Z had ten asspulls and Dragon Ball GT had a hundred, then Dragon Ball Super had a thousand.

Dragon Ball once commanded respect; it had a magic touch like no other battle anime under the shonen demographic. I never expected anything well written from Dragon Ball in the first place even when I was a child; all I desired was lots of good fights between memorable, sympathetic protagonists who adventure around the globe training and making friends while protecting their loved ones and ruthless villains who want to destroy and conquer everything with either side using the eponymous Dragon Balls to get the advantage over the other in an epic struggle to determine the fate of the universe. That’s all Dragon Ball has ever been at it core. What more could you possibly want from a show that’s just about people punching each other? If you wanted well written battle anime, you would watch Full Metal Alchemist, Hunter X Hunter and Yu Yu Hakusho for that. However, as well written as those shows are, they didn’t have the magic touch of Dragon Ball. Sadly, Dragon Ball Super doesn’t have that magic touch that made me a major fan of it in the first place; its nonsensical fights between battle frenzy maniacs and “well written” villains who are unable to use the Super Dragon Balls because they are too big to fill in the boots of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z in a meaningless struggle that’s as pointless as existentialism itself.

I’ve probably started to ramble on now and started reiterating similar words too many times already, so I’ll give my final thoughts. As for the future of the Dragon Ball franchise…I don’t care because there is nothing to miss out on. Someday, a new Dragon Ball show will be announced and continue the travesty of Dragon Ball Super along with milking the fandom’s cash. But I won’t need to worry about wasting money because I have no need for any more Dragon Ball video games, especially ones that rely on miniscule rosters and stealing other battle engines to achieve mainstream popularity. Apparently, there’s a new Dragon Ball movie which has been announced that continues this show’s travesty and appears to be nothing more than a rehash of a previous Dragon Ball arc.

“The Miraculous Conclusion! Farewell, Goku! Until We Meet Again!!” is the name of Dragon Ball Super’s last episode, an episode name that rips off Dragon Ball GT’s last episode, the non-canon series…a fitting end for such an atrocious series; clearly illustrates the priorities of this show, to milk the fandom. Well, all I know is that after Dragon Ball Super, I won’t be meeting Goku again anytime soon.

Tl;dr - Dragon Ball Super lives in the shadow of its predecessors; it’s a battle anime that tried to usurp its fellow kings and made an embarrassment of itself, forever living on as a disgrace to the Dragon Ball name. It has never amounted to anything worthy of value nor delivered any good fights. It’s just a trash tier show through and through.

Notice: I wrote a separate review for the first 2 arcs and you can find them in their respective movie versions

Universe 6 Tournament

This arc had absolutely no steaks or tension. It was just a small tournament, with the only penalty for defeat being Earth teleporting to a different location. That’s so terrifying for a civilization that has no space travel technology yet. Muten Roshi blowing up the moon back in the second arc was a bigger calamity than this one. And why the hell did they even need a tournament, if the dragon could grant them anything they wanted?

Since there was no tension, the writer had to make up a lot of fake-outs for maintaining the interest of the audience with constant trolling.
-Monaka was a nobody pretending to be the strongest
-Botamo seemed to be invincible, yet his ability was easy to counter
-Frost pretended to be good, only to reveal himself as a cheating villain
-Magetta seemed to be a challenge to Vegeta, only because the latter didn’t go Blue right away

Also, the heroes had to constantly sabotage themselves in order to make it seem the opposition stood a chance, which was quite insulting once you realized it’s all nonsense.
-Gohan couldn’t participate because he had a business meeting
-Buu was disqualified for not knowing how to spell his name
-Piccolo dropped out for the sake of making Vegeta look cool
-Cabba was so weak, Vegeta had to teach him how to be a SSJ in 3 seconds, only to instantly lose anyways

Even as a tournament, it didn’t have much for you to care about. The opponents were all weak enough to be defeated by Piccolo, with the exception of Hit being somewhat of a challenge for having a broken power that allowed him to level up just by looking at his opponents. And even he wasn’t really a threat since despite being an assassin, he wasn’t allowed to kill anyone, effectively killing all the suspense.

So, why did they make this arc if it had nothing to offer? I’ll tell you why; so they could add more characters in Xenoverse 2. How else would they trick the fantards to buy the same game, if not for having a bigger variety of versus battles? The franchise fell so low, to the point where instead of having toys being made based on the series, you have the series being made based on the toys.

Goku Black

My god, this was easily the worst written arc in the entire franchise, yet the fantards consider it to be the best because it was giving them every bullshit they wanted to see for decades.
-Future Trunks returned
-The evil Goku from The Tree of Might became canon
-More hair color-swaps
-Mai became token waifu
-Mafuba was used again
-Vegeto returned

As a result nothing made sense. Especially the time travel gimmick became more broken than ever. The only thing the writer cared about was throwing in as many cameos and callbacks as he could, instead of trying to make a coherent plot.
-Why don’t they simply ask Zuno to tell them who is Goku Black?
-Why didn’t Gowasu stop Zamasu when the tea was showing he became evil?
-Why didn’t Zamasu simply wish for all mortals to die? What was he waiting for on Earth for so many months?
-Why was Beerus complaining about time travel when the prophecy of the Saiyan God is fatalistic?
-Why wasn’t anyone using the Mafuba for all these arcs?
-Why didn’t Goku simply summon Zeno from the very beginning?
-Why did Whis use time travel to fix everything at the end when it’s supposed to be a grave sin?

Tournament of Power

The last arc of this dreadful show had absolutely no planning. The only concern of the writers was to cram as many characters as possible and have them doing as many callbacks as possible, so they can pander the braindead audience with as little effort as possible. There is no plot to speak of, since it’s just random duels happening in whatever order the writers felt like at the moment, so I’m just going to describe how the participants were treated as means to prove how little thought there was in this horrible excuse of a finale. So, in order of elimination we start with:

1) Buu, who was not even in the tournament because the authors realized his powers were broken. He could turn opponents into candy, or heal his allies instantly, thus defeating pretty much everyone on his own, while taking away any sense of tension, since nobody would be running out of energy, or even getting injured. This is also why throughout the series, they were constantly keeping him out of the action by making him fall asleep or not knowing how to write his name. It clearly shows they didn’t plan anything ahead when they gave him a new power up right before the tournament and then changed their minds and had him falling asleep again. The funny thing is, the heroes could have simply taken him to the hyperbolic chamber so he would be awake by the time the tournament begins, but conveniently nobody thought of that. By the way, Vegeta blowing up the chamber was not an excuse for not putting Buu inside, since nobody knew Vegeta was inside, nor mentioned the possibility of using the chamber for speeding up his nap time. In retrospect, it was a mistake not including Buu in the roster, since he would be a fine excuse for why Goku and Vegeta were running out of energy, only to magically get it back after a few seconds, over and over again. As for the rule of not allowing healing during the fight, they broke every rule a hundred times so let’s not use that as an in-story excuse.

2) You don’t need any more proof regarding that, than seeing the flying fighters. Flying is not allowed, unless you got wings. Well, if that’s allowed because it’s a natural ability for them, then so if Buu’s healing powers, since it’s something natural for him. Also, what was the point of this limitation when everybody was constantly hovering and jumping and teleporting all the time, as if they were flying? It didn’t matter at all if they were on ground level or not, since they were constantly using energy blasts from afar to knock out someone, thus rendering distance inconsequential. As for those who were flying naturally, it didn’t give them any benefit whatsoever. That parrot guy was easily blasted out, that bat guy jumped out on his own, and that pixie bimbo literally forgot how to fly. So what was the point of not allowing flying? They had no idea of what they were doing with it.

3) Then it was the whole “attacking Goku from behind” gimmick, which got so old by being used all the time. Goku, like the complete dumbass he became in Super, was constantly being immobilized by someone grabbing him from behind. Something that is impossible after being able to sense someone from the other side of the universe and is a thousand times faster than light. But, hey, we need that fake suspense to make it seem like he can’t defeat everyone in a second, so let’s make it seem like he is unable to free himself right away. And let’s have the excuse of saving up his energy. Yeah, because he totally needed not to waste his energy, something he did twenty times and ran out of it a dozen more, only to magically get it all back after a couple of seconds. And the most insulting part was the orc-looking dude, who tried to sacrifice himself for taking Goku out of the ring. That is something most of the Z Fighters did, it was always heroic and tragic because they were characters you knew for decades, and also a cool way for them to leave the ring. But when a nobody like this orc-dude did the same, nobody gave a shit because he was not a Z Fighter. Even the show made it seem like it was nothing important, because the guy was cannon fodder. That’s how little the writers cared about everyone who was not an established character.

4) Then it’s the cheating when it comes to some of the powers. A wolf guy could poison even the strongest fighters, but because Goku had seen his power in the preliminaries, he knew how to avoid it. Meaning, the preliminaries existed only for nerfing universe 9 during the tournament. The wolf brothers were capable to take out most others, yet they were treated as complete fodders. One of them forgot he could become huge, and the rest assumed they could surround a guy that can teleport, or someone who couldn’t escape by simply jumping away. Universe 9 was treated as a complete joke when this is not what they were showing us before.

5) This is where the first deletion of a universe happened and every shonentard was losing his shit for no reason.
- Oh my god, the stakes have never been higher, as entire universes are being destroyed, and there is absolutely no way for them to be wished back at the end.
- Oh my god, Goku is a villain since the universes are being destroyed because of him, although this was not his idea since Zeno was planning on doing it, even if Goku hadn’t said a word.
- Oh my god, Goku is going to get character development when he realizes the destruction his battle frenzy causes, and will unlock the next power up because of it, although he never had and never will have any character development because this is a crappy shonen for people with low expectations.
- Oh my god, the angels are evil because they look really sinister and want to destroy everything, although they behave differently in every episode, thus you can’t be sure about anything.
- Oh my god, something terrible is going to happen at the end because Toriyama is out of ideas and is spreading lies just to keep his braindead audience watching.

6) Then there are cases of plain stupidity, such as that time android 18 needed to make sure someone was dead by coming closer. Turns out he was faking it, which was obvious, since if he wasn’t 18 would have been disqualified. You gotta be a real retard to fall for that.

7) And then we got the first KO for universe 7. Despite Kuririn being in the team for creating a new blinding attack and for somehow being as powerful as super saiyan blue (because power levels are bullshit and Goku is too stupid to know how to hold back) none of that mattered. His blinding attack was less useful than a smelly shoe. Which by the way, that counts as a weapon and he should have been disqualified. Not that anyone cares about the rules in this damn tournament. Anyways, he loses because he dropped his guard and not because he was overpowered. We can’t have one of the established heroes losing in a fair way; that would make him look weak. No, it has to be an unfair sneak attack by a bad guy. Something which by the way shouldn’t have happened in this case, because A, the bad guy was a hundred times stronger than him thus didn’t need to sneak attack him, and B, android 18 was right next to him covering his rear, therefore it shouldn’t be possible to be sneak attacked. How stupid is this bitch?

8) The next part they completely messed up has to do with hyping anyone who was not an established character. There was this huge disconnect between making many of the opponents seem threatening, and actually being handled as such. It’s part of the fake suspense this entire series overflows with. They were constantly exciting you to expect every fighter being challenging, only to see them getting defeated very easily. I’m telling you, Reddit was full of topics where people were having dreams about the amazing powers every single one of those nobodies will have, only to get 30 seconds of throwaway fodders. The hype was so high, shonentards were constantly dreaming about the potential of this arc. And there is nothing wrong in making it seem like the opposition stands a chance, but it’s anti-climactic when it turns out nobody outside of Jiren posed a threat. He was clearly the final opponent as the opening was constantly telling you, yet these stupid promises of amazing fights from others was making it seem like there is more to it. When there never was and the show itself never tried to make anyone else that important.

9) And the problem is not just how nobody else was treated fairly, it also has to do with how they were behaving when they were facing an established fighter. At first they would be heroic and kind-hearted, but as soon as they face a favored warrior they would magically become evil and petty. The writers were so unwilling to show psychological pressure by presenting everyone fighting for the survival of his universe instead of being good or evil, to the point they were rewriting noble opponents into bad guys, so the heroes would seem heroic by defeating them. Because this way, it doesn’t feel tragic when you have to kill countless people by defeating their heroes. No sir, they are assholes and they deserve it.

10) That was super lame when Gohan was the only one aware of that. They were constantly making it seem like he was devastated by the destruction he was causing, and why he was supposed to be holding back all the time and have his ass kicked around by nobodies. Every time it was happening it seemed like he would get character development. Everyone expected him to fight seriously afterwards and to unlock the next power up thanks to his newfound determination. Only to completely forget everything after a few minutes, go back to getting his ass kicked by nobodies, and never unlocking the new power up the show was constantly hyping you about. All because the writers were refusing to show actual psychological pressure in an arc that was demanding it.

11) After that we had the defeat of Tien, someone who was there just for the heck of it. Toriyama gave up on him ever since the original series, and Super simply continued the tradition of treating him as garbage. It says a lot when he was ridiculed in every episode he was supposed to get the spotlight. First he’s made to look like a fool by a little girl with weak powers, then he’s defeated by a grandpa he had surpassed decades ago, then he drops his guard in the tournament as if he doesn’t have decades of battle experience, and finally sacrifices himself to take out a complete nobody Goku could defeat in a fraction of a second. But no, they had to make it look like Goku forgot how to teleport and thus couldn’t appear behind the sharpshooter and defeat him without Tien having to sacrifice. We needed Tien to look heroic by making the protagonist act like a complete retard.

12) And by the way, this is another blunder about the arc. There were many last moment saves for some characters, and not for others. There was no logic in how someone could save a comrade from falling off the stage in one scene, but be unable to do the same in another scene. It would happen whenever the writers felt like it, instead of when it was possible to happen. Why didn’t Goku teleport to save Tien from falling? Why didn’t Kunshi or Jimizu use their powers to save their fighters more often? It would make sense if they were shown being preoccupied with other fights, something which never happened. Everyone was supposed to be fighting at the same time, when in reality the action was mostly duels with everybody else disappearing from the stage for twenty episodes. Basically, the storyboard was complete shit, since everyone appeared and disappeared at random, and you never had any idea what the rest were doing in the meantime. And since it was universe 7 who defeated almost everybody else, it’s as if the opponents were doing nothing for twenty episodes, besides patiently waiting for their turn to go against universe 7. I understand that it would be impossible to show 80 characters fighting at the same time, but that begs the question: If the writers couldn’t do it, why didn’t they make a traditional tournament instead? Nobody would be appearing and disappearing all the time there, interesting duels wouldn’t be interrupted at random, and nobody would be saved from falling off the stage whenever the writers felt like it. So, the moral message of the story is: If you know you can’t do it, don’t do it.

13) The next defeat was Roshi, who despite being handled much better than any other member in the team, was still terrible in overall.
- Despite giving up on fighting way back in the original series, he magically becomes super-powerful by watching porn. Training in secret my ass; he was doing nothing but watching porn for decades.
- He mutated into a rapist who sexually assaults every girl than is near him; something he never did in the past.
- He defeats Tien, someone who was stronger than him since the day he was introduced and who was training non-stop for decades in actual martial arts.
- He uses the mafuba in the tournament multiple times, which is a double cheat since not only he didn’t die from it as he did with King Piccolo, but he also used vials for trapping someone inside. Those count as weapons and he should have been disqualified because of them. So many idiots were defending this as legal because the vials were part of the technique, which makes no sense, since with the same logic someone could use a nuclear warhead by using the technique known as “activation button finger attack”.
- And going back to what I said about the writers refusing to allow psychological pressure, Roshi is about to die from his injuries, but Goku jumps in and resurrects him by simply giving him energy. We couldn’t have some actual tension by seeing a hero dying for a few minutes. And why the hell did they need senzu beans all these years, when giving energy has the same effect?

14) I will tell you why; it’s because the show watered down the violence so much, to the point injuries became the same thing as getting tired. There is almost no blood or bruises anymore, and energy attacks are only pushing someone out of the ring, when in the past they would have disintegrated him completely. Since injuries no longer exist, you don’t need senzu beans anymore. Just give some of your energy to a “tired” companion, and that is enough to become fully healed. So basically, death lost its meaning a long time ago, and now so did injuries.

15) At this point, the writers decided to get rid of universe 6, so they were making up excuses for taking them out in the dumbest ways imaginable. The first bigshot was Frost who was all about trolling since day one. He had the twist of being a good Frieza, only for a second twist to undo the first twist and he was just like Frieza all along. In the tournament of power he teamed up with Frieza and everybody was theory crafting a million nonsense regarding who they will double-cross and how powerful they will be as a duo, only for the whole thing being yet another troll. They never teamed up to do anything and Frieza eventually double-crossed him in a most anti-climactic way. Why did he even need to fool Frost into lowering his guard by kicking the crap out of Gohan, when he was a thousand times stronger than him? What happened to the whole “we need to save up our energy” when they wasted their energy and time on this completely pointless trolling? That’s what happens when you create a character whose only defining feature is trolling. The writers didn’t know what to do with him, so they destroyed the credibility of anyone else who was interacting with him as well. Gohan was once again shown to be incapable to deal with someone way weaker than him, and Frieza was wasting energy and time when they were supposed to be fighting for survival. Also, it was proven once again how the rules make no sense and everyone can break them whenever he feels like it. Frost was erased for attacking someone from the bench, when everyone else was constantly throwing weapons and giving their energy from the bench without ever being punished.

16) The second bigshot was Hit, who in the classic tradition of this horrible series, was completely nerfed compared to his previous appearance. He didn’t defeat almost everyone with his time skip ability, and he didn’t constantly power up just by looking at stronger opponents. In fact, he was defeated so easily to the point many shonentards refused to believe he was out of the ring and were making up bullshit theories about him still being on the stage by using clones or some shit.

17) The next ones were Kale and Caulifla, who sum up everything that is wrong with listening to your fans. Creating gender swapped imitations of non-canon characters, who can power up with no training or effort, from normal form all the way to SSJ2 in less than an hour. Somehow getting no damage from a SSG kamehame but one minute later having trouble with a SSJ2. Not getting disqualified for using the Potara, or not using the Potara right away to defeat everyone in one minute, and instead assume neither of them is going to get knocked out by the time they decide to use the earrings. Something which happened almost twice before the fusion, by the way. And of course Goku and Vegeta really want to save up their energy which is why they trained their enemies in the middle of the battle by wasting their energy in making them stronger and harder to defeat. And Kefla really wanted to save her universe by taking out the strongest enemies, which is why she was playing with the other saiyans the whole time instead of teaming up with them for taking out Jiren. Top notch writing.

18) And finally there were the two Namekians, the definition of mishandled characters. They were super powerful, they had perfect teamwork, they used tactics, they didn’t limit their attacks to one technique, they never dropped their guard just because, they never held back for having a fun battle, they didn’t become villains the moment they went up against universe 7, they didn’t do something ridiculous such as powering up in the middle of the fight or heal instantly when they were out of stamina, and they did not break the rules by using weapons. Despite all these assets, they were hiding throughout the tournament for no reason. They didn’t even bother to take out a few nobodies while in stealth mode. And on top of all that, the rest of their team acted like they didn’t matter until they were the last remaining on stage. It’s almost like the writers didn’t have a clue about what they will be like up until the episode they introduced them. It’s almost like instead of fleshing out these infinitely better written than even the main heroes characters, they wasted their time in gender bending fan service saiyans. These Namekians should have been the main focus of universe 6 and they only appeared for a single episode.

19) But why should anyone pay attention to those nobodies when you have excellently written characters like Ribrianne, a parody of magical girls whose only defining feature is making the exact same joke about love? She repeated it in almost every goddamn episode despite getting old after a few times. Not even her powers were interesting; she had the most generic attacks with the word love in the name to further make her more obnoxious. She didn’t even use teamwork with the other members of her team despite never shutting up about love and compassion. Everybody hated her for all the screen time she was getting and cheered when they finally took her out. But again, why would you give focus on the well-written Namekians where you have characters such as her?

20) After all this mess, most of the remaining known heroes were taken out in a hurry and in very anti-climactic ways because the writers were suddenly told they only have a dozen episodes to wrap up this travesty. This begins with Piccolo, who was once again nothing more than a surrogate father for Gohan, even after decades had passed and he had become a family man. Because why would you do something new with a character when you can rehash the same shit that sell based on nostalgia? After being nothing but support the whole time, he gets pushed out of the ring by a bug, because we can’t have an established hero losing fairly by a nobody.

21) Then No.18 gets kicked out after doing nothing but supporting others and never standing out on her own. And she does a pretty crappy job at it, since she fails to protect Kuririn’s back, and her heroic sacrifice to let her brother stay on the stage was fake feels, since just like it happened with Tien, Goku forgot how to teleport, thus he didn’t know he could save anyone he wanted at any time.

22) Then Dyspo and Gohan are taken out in lame ways, since for some reason being the fastest in all the universes is not fast enough to avoid getting trapped by a bunch of beams, and being promised to get a power up throughout the arc means nothing. Also, Gohan, what happened to your reliant self? You were supposed to no longer be a crybaby after you became SSJ2. Now you went back into a scared manchild who refuses to take part in a fight because of a business meeting and constantly needs Piccolo to give you courage. Where did your character development go to? Also, Goku forgot how to teleport again, so he couldn’t save you.

23) Toppo was the next one to be taken out in a stupid way. He was yapping about justice the whole time, only to contradict himself at the end by going god mode and completely flipping the only thing that was defining him. He was equally shallow and annoying as Ribrianne, but this character rewrite is not an improvement. Also, he was overpowered in the most boring and direct way without some sort of strategy to at least make it worthwhile. I mean, what’s so special about god ki if a mortal can still kick your ass? Was it that hard to make him lose by being tricked into erasing the ground under his feet, or wiping from existence one of the opponents, thus getting disqualified? Getting overpowered by a lazy power up was the most unimaginative way to defeat someone. They even contradict the in-series logic since despite being able to wipe from existence anything he attacks, Toppo somehow lost to a mortal who was using attacks he should be able to delete easily.

24) The one who kicked his ass was Vegeta by getting a power up that was never explained or excused. What the hell is Super Saiyan sparkly Blue? The perfected god ki form? Then what the hell was blue in comparison to red? And he unlocked it because he was thinking of Cabba, a guy he hardly knows and is hell-bent on becoming his mentor, although he is currently dead? How are you so sure you will see him again and what about your family or the survival of your universe; those are not important anymore? And what happened to that catharsis you supposedly got in the Buu arc, when you accepted Goku as your superior? You went back into rivaling him, as if you never had any development as a character. Once again they are rehashing the same ideas without developing new ones.

25) After that there was only the final showdown where the last three fighters were taken out at the same time, so I am going to talk about them separately. Starting with Frieza, the best villain in the entire franchise, now ruined by the terrible way he was handled. He was initially resurrected for a rehash of the beginning of the android saga, only to be killed and resurrected again as a replacement for Buu. The only reason it happened was because people don’t like Buu as much as Frieza. Strangely enough people don’t like Tien that much either but he couldn’t be replaced for some reason. So, in the tournament Frieza was constantly trolling everyone, mostly doing nothing but looking at others fight, and occasionally taking out a few nobodies. Then with the power of friendship he becomes a good guy at the finale and teams up with Goku to take out Jiren. What the hell was this trash? Frieza was special as the bad guy who never became good and now he became just another background ally along with the other worthless Z fighters who were once enemies and opponents. And they even bring him back to life as thanks despite being a backstabbing sadist, personally responsible for the death of 99% of all sentient life in their universe, and who was planning to wish from the dragon to become the next god of (not) everything. How do you casually redeem something like that with the power of friendship? This is bullshit.

26) Then we had Jiren, the most boring and forgettable antagonist in the whole franchise. He has the most generic face, he’s just super strong without using any interesting techniques, his back story was an unoriginal Batman revenge ripoff, hastily explained in few minutes, and he was doing almost nothing throughout the tournament despite being able to defeat everybody in a few seconds. He had some bullshit excuse about not wanting to be responsible for the destruction of a universe, and yet he was in a tournament for the sole purpose of erasing other universes. He constantly sabotaged his own team by not helping out his companions, and he constantly didn’t bother to kick out the ones he fought. And what did you know; he suddenly becomes evil at the finale when he was calm and stoic throughout the tournament. Power is everything all of a sudden, and he proceeds to show how un-heroic he is by beating the crap out of an exhausted Vegeta. Well done writers, you really outdid yourselves there. Not making Vegeta getting overpowered fairly because that would make him look weak.

27) Then we have Goku who is a culmination of every problem in the show. It’s summed up as acting like a complete idiot for purposes of fake suspense, fooling around with his enemies instead of taking the situation seriously, and constantly getting his stamina back a dozen times after he’s completely exhausted. This is done mainly because there was no way to excuse Goku not defeating everyone right away, as it was the case in earlier arcs.
-Saiyan arc: Goku was in the afterlife
-Namek arc: Goku was healing, traveling to Namek, and then… healing again
-Android arc: Goku was recovering from his heart disease.
-Buu arc: Goku was letting everyone have their chance with Buu instead of doing a fusion dance right away
-Resurrection F: Goku was at Beerus’ planet
Without him being incapacitated for a long period of time, the writers were making up silly excuses for why the obvious thing wasn’t happening. But, since people are watching Dragonball for the damn power ups instead of the writing, Goku eventually gets two new hair colors that make him more powerful than ever before, when he has no energy left. Holy shit; how much more plot armor can they give this guy? He wins even when he is losing. And of course none of that had anything to do with Goku getting character development because he stops treating the tournament as a joke. Because that’s what everybody expected to happen after being constantly told something terrible is going to happen at the finale.

28) And finally we have No.17, the best character of the arc. Not because he was the best written obviously, but because he won. As far as writing goes, he was a complete mess just like the rest of them. He was absent from the show since the Cell arc, and all of a sudden he reappears as strong as SSB, by doing the impossibly hard training of … being a park ranger. Yeah, that’s all it takes these days to jump to god levels. Next thing you know, the farmer with a shotgun will be stronger than Zeno by shoveling manure. Back to 17, he was the voice of reason throughout the tournament and was not fooling around like the rest of the idiots did, which is why he was such a cool character. But in reality the writers just made him perfect when he was just a barely looked into character. He didn’t have any of the pragmatic features in his first appearance and now all of a sudden he is a mastermind with exceptional hearing. They went as far as making him able to hear the tiny bug not even Piccolo could hear with his keen senses. In the finale, dumb shit happen and he decides to make it seem like he died to protect Goku and Vegeta. I don’t understand why he would do such a thing, since even if he wanted to attack an unsuspected Jiren later on, he wouldn’t be able to scratch him no matter how strong the attack would be. In fact, if he had lowered his energy barrier and allowed Jiren’s attack to actually kill him, he would have tricked Jiren into getting disqualified and universe 7 would have won the tournament. But we couldn’t have something smart like that and we instead had the dumb shit of hiding for a couple of episodes for a weak ambush to take place.

And the arc ends with the terrible thing that Toriyama promised everyone would happen. What could this terrible thing possibly be that is more devastating than the destruction of most universes, which are totally not going to be wished back?
- Does Frieza manage to get his wish and becomes the new god of (not) everything?
- Do the angels reveal to be evil and kill Zeno, becoming unstoppable after the strongest mortals are dead?
- Does Yamoshi, the original SSG, appear out of nowhere and kills the angels?
- Does Hit reveal to be on the stage the whole time and assassinates No.17?

They just wish the universes back and everybody lives happily ever after. That’s the fucking terrible thing Toriyama was hyping you for. Zeno goes as far as admitting he was planning to bring back the universes anyways, and he wouldn’t allow evil wishes to be granted, so the most devastating destruction in the history of the franchise was a joke all along. That also means Goku and anyone else who were being idiots and fooled around the whole time, are now justified, because there was never any actual threat and it was always a game. Fuck this show. Just fuck this show.

Writing this one really hurts my soul a bit. It is true what they say: You either die as a hero, or you live long enough to become a villain.

I used to love Dragon Ball. Oh, I did. A lot. Watching it either alone or friends, talking about it in length discussions. Talking about the characters, the story, what could have happened, everything, while playing the Budokai games on PS2. Fun times. But not anymore. I really want to throw most of this shit to the bin, thanks to the directions they went with DB. The first problem began with GT. It had so many problems, I was wondering back then how Toriyama even greenlit. I learned after some time he wasn't involved with GT and it was made for a quick cash-grab during the peak of DBZ. Of course, that didn't make things better. It made it worse.

Time passed, went to university, took my diploma, started working, and I moved away from DBZ. And then I watched the movie with Vegeta's brother and Super Saiyan Bardock and my banging my head to the desk started ever since. And of course, I learned about the movies "Battle of Gods" and "Resurrection of F". I haven't bothered watching them at all, for few reasons. For BoG, I saw the new form of SSJ, called God Super Saiyan and my reaction was "That's Kaio-Ken, you assholes!!". For RoF, the fact they brought back Frieza and giving him new transformation and giving to Goku and Vegeta yet another Super Saiyan form, this time Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan, or Super Saiyan Blue, for short and making more fucking sense than SSGSS. I passed watching those movies. I don't mention Kai, because it addes nothing new to the mix at all. It's only there for people to say "HERE IS HOW DBZ SHOULD HAVE BEEN FROM THE BEGINNING!!". It's simply a very good, easy, with not much effort way to grab people's money with out doing much work. You can simply open any video editor, get all DBZ episodes, cut and edit them, without fillers and voila, you have Kai.

And then I heard about Dragon Ball Super, the new DB series, the true canonical sequel to DBZ. I said to myself "OK, that can't be bad". Boy, oh boy, how wrong was I. Deskbanging intesified from there.

I will start with the technical stuff, before moving to the arcs.

The first thing everybody started talking about DBS very negatively was the animation, and I will join them. It's the worst animation I have ever seen in my whole life for a major animated show. Some drawings of characters some times were either half-drawn, or badly-drawn, with very bad porpotions of the body as well, like Goku some times has a small head compared to his body. I saw hands being so badly-drawn, I thought they were on wrong arms. And some fights are badly animated too and for an action series with powerful punches, kickes, destruction of the surrondings with some powerful techniques, it's not good-looking at all. And when it shows characters from far away, like doing a wide shot, they all look plainly drawn, showing muscles blocky and faces with not many features. Few were the moments I saw some effort put to the animation.

I don't exaggerate when I say I have seen better animation from those fan-made cartoons about Game Grumps on Youtube, or from hentai. Hell, even Dora the Explorer has better animation than this. I don't care what people will say here, it's atrocious. It's not some run-of-the-mill ecchi harem high school series we get every month that doesn't have much to go for. It's, supposedly, a major series, a YUGE name that everyone is watching! How the fuck can you screw that!? I watch the new Chii's Sweet Home series, and while that show has some not-good CGI, it's better made.

As for the sound department.............. I don't have any complains. Voice acting is decent, and the opening is 100x better than Kai's, so that's a positive. But, I do feel the guy who voiced acted King Kai, kinda phoned it. At the beginning of the show, when he yelling to Goku for his predicament, he wasn't yelling as I think he should have. But that's me.

Another major complain I do have with DBS is how the whole show is around Goku and Vegeta. Most of the characters don't impact the show at all. In fact, only Bulma does anything useful in the whole show. Do you remember how in DBZ we were seeing Gohan growing up, and doing stuff? Fuck that shit, he is a family man now, with wife and kid, and a job as scholar and stop being in any way useful. Krillin? Pfft, he gets the shaft as well and becomes a background character. And let's give Vegeta Krillin's Pwned Counter. Let's not go to the others characters as well, because it can make you sad. I found Jaco annoying as well, used mostly for exposition.

Before I go to the arcs, let me say again I haven't watched BoG and RoF movies at all, since it's the same thing anyways. They say some things were changed between TV and movies, but they end the same way, so it's like saying "They wear blue hats instead of reds hats, so it's totally different, expect not at all.". Secondly, I haven't bothered with fillers. Thankfully, episode titles are listed here, so I avoided them, expect for............. that one dreadful filler episode.

Arc 1: Battle of Gods
(Episodes 1-14)

I believe this was a good arc over all, because we are introduced to some far better and more interesting characters: Beerus and Whis. They do begin as villains, but they aren't bad guys, like Frieza. Beerus is the God of Destruction, the most powerful being in the universe and Whis, his assosiate. They are not bad as character, there is some chemistry and they don't feel as most of the characters from the movies and they have impact as well. I will take him over Lord Slug, or Cooler or Garlic Jr and whatever that thing was in the third Broly movie. Aaaaaaaaaaaand they ruined it by mentioning God Super Saiyan. Long story short, yet another fucking power up for Goku. At least, we have the originality where Goku doesn't truly win and it moved the story more. Not mnay major complains.

Arc 2: Resurrection of F
(Episodes 15-27)

When I heard the movie would have Frieza as the main villain, I despaired. It's moves like this I absolutely hate. "Let's bring a recognise villain to the story, despite being dead or out of the picture, to bank on people's nostalgia and make better money!!" is what they thought pretty much. No point of this fight and no point of this arc. I swear I could have skipped the whole thing and nothing major would be lost on the way. What we get is yet another transformation for Frieza, now Golden Frieza, and yet another SSJ form and thats' it. How it worked, some loyal soldiers to Frieza resurrected him with the Dragon Balls, and he spent months training (yes, really) to kill Goku and Vegeta. Can't say I really cared for the result, since I knew how it would end. That goes for all DBS, since there is the finale of DBZ, that takes place years after Goku kills Majin Buu and DBS takes some time after Majin Buu.

Another thing I don't get is why bother showing Captain Ginyu still exists at all. It's pointless.

In the end, bad arc.

Arc 3: Champa and the Interuniversal Tenkaichi Budokai
(Episodes 28-41)

This is where the movies ended and DBS moved and it went to the shitter even further. The process behind it must have been "Let's throw a tournament arc, since it's Dragonball, 'till we figure out what to do next. Also, let's steal more ideas from fanfics as well. If it worked with SSJ Bardock, it can work with everything!". So we learn there are 12 universes, not just this one and the twin brother of Beerus, Champa is looking for the Super Dragon Balls. Oh yes, more Dragon Balls, Because this concept isn't redundant and they lost their meaning by the time the Namekian Dragon Balls were introduced and are used now to resurrect dead people and nothing more.

And why do we have a tournament between two universes? What kind of catastrophic events lead to it? What could it be the epic reason?

Food. That's right, food. Because our universe has the better food than Champa's universe, we will hold a tournament with the strongest fighters of both universes because of food. Ughhhhhhhh.............

And the fighters from the other universe are for most part uninteresting: an angry Haribo version of Winnie the Pooh, pallete-swapped Frieza, a meak Saiyan whose fight lasts for 1 minute, a rejected Robot Master for Mega Man and Hit, the best assassin from that universe. Seriously, the best fight in this arc is Goku vs Hit. The worst fight goes to Vegeta vs Frost, mainly because they tried to make Frost seem like a good guy but they go "PLOT TWIST! He is evil!", like "No shit, Benedict Cumberbutch, we kinda figured it he is bad". The highlight of this arc is when Goku, while in SSGSS form, he uses Kaio-Ken to be on the same level with Hit. That made many fans' pants filled with jizz somehow. I said "The fact you remembered Kaio-Ken, it means you really got out of ideas".

Also, it was at this part I learned that the manga does a better explaination of stuff that happens in the story, and being better written. It's like saying it's better to wipe your ass with toilet paper than with sand paper. Examples are, in the fight between Vegeta vs Magetta (the Robot Master reject I said above), in the whole fight, Vegeta is on SSJ form, not in SSJ Blue. It's simply due to how much energy it drains. In the anime, this VERY IMPORTANT PIECE OF INFORMATION is shown, whereas in the anime, it's NEVER TOLD! And, in the manga, Goku never uses Kaio-Ken at all!!! Like, what the blazing balls?!

I kinda liked how Goku and Hit seeing Beerus and Champa start fighting like kids, they say how they fight for them pointlessly, like they acknowledge how fucking retarded this tournament was from the get-go.

As we didn't have enough bullshit, we are introduced to Zeno, the King of all Universes. Because, the word "god" hasn't lost any meaning already. Anyways, Beerus wins, the tournament is over and I don't care for shit in-between.

And we move to the worst arc of DBS so far, and one of the worse arcs in fiction which is...............................

Arc 4: Goku Black
(Episodes 47-67)

Oh yeah, the part that made me hate Dragon Ball Super forever and dislike Dragon Ball in general. The arc that people praise a lot for some reason.

So, we have a new thread that appears in Future Princess Trunk's time, kills Future Bulma and is revealed to look like a lot like Goku. The very first thing you will notice is Future Princess Trunk's hair is blue, not purple. I never understood why they did that. On DBZ, both series and movies, he had PURPLE hair, not BLUE. That's a major mistake that follows many, many more. Logically, he goes to present time and ask Goku and Vegeta for help. The new villain, dubbed as Goku Black, because he wears black but he is not black, appears to present. After this skirmish, we are introduced to Zamash, the other villain, who wants to kill all mortals because they are stupid, hairy, empty-headed animal food trough wipers, their mothers were hamsters and their fathers smelt of elderberries, therefore they must die. He is one of the Supreme Kais from Universe 10, and apprentice to Gowash.

The immediate problem with this arc is how it was going back and forth to many stuff:

1) Goku, Vegeta and Future Princess Trunks go to future time, meet Goku Black, get their asses kicked, go back to present, think of stragety, go back to future, repeat. This is done 3-4 times and during these times, the same thing happens.

2) Gowash is drinking tea, made by Zamash, Zamash says he hates mortals and they must die, Gowash dismisses those things and stops Zamash, and Zamash hates him even more. Also, this scene is done more than 4 times. After a while, we get it, he is bad. And total shocker, he tries to kill Gowash and in the end, he is killed by Beerus.

Oh, and who is Goku Black? He reminds me a lot of Tha Arkham Knight. He is supposed to be a new exciting character, being stronger than our hero, whose true identity would shock and leave us in awe. And like Arkham Knight, when revealed, you want to punch walls and babies from your seething anger. Goku Black is Zamash who switched bodies with Goku using the Super Dragon Balls, kills Gowash, kills mortals, and then he travels to the past to team-up with past Zamash to unleash more hell.

This arc has enough bullshit to make Trump's Wall, like "Let's use the Ma Fu Baa, something people will Google to defeat him" and they botched it, or how they fuck up the timelines more than Barry Allen fucks up the timelines in the Flash TV series.

And to the final fight, Zamash and Goku Black use the Potara earrings to fuse together. How will Goku and Vegeta deal with it? We will use the Potarra earrings as well. And it has the biggest retcon I have ever seen in my whole life. It passes many retcons in X-Men comics in every possible way. Do you remember in DBZ the Potara fusion is permanent and can't be reversed at all? Now, if you are not a Kai, the fusion lasts for 1 HOUR!!! THAT'S BULLSHIT ON EVERY CALIBER!!

Do you remember how Vegeta was totally against it on DBZ, but when he hears that Trunks is absorbed by Buu, he swallows his pride and fuses with Goku, despite knowing the fusion is permanent? That was one of the best moments in the whole Dragon Ball saga, because it shows how much he cares for his son. He did it to save his son. That was great development. Now we throw that great moment to the bin with a retcon, because we write the plot as we go on, and don't bother thinking if it's good or not. FUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOUUUUUUUUU!!!!

And the fight is finished by giving Princess Trunks a power-up pulled from Toriyama's ass and kills Zamash with a Spirit Bomb-like sword, with energy gathered from the few people still alive on Earth. Goku could do some damage to Vegeta when he came to Earth, with a Spirit Bomb from Earth, and Princess Trunks kills him easily. And some bullshit happens that you won't care at all. You will be glad this shitfest is over, drop the series and watch something else. Anything is better from DBS at this point, even Teletubbies.

This is seriously the worst anime arc I have ever seen in my life. It shows how many shits they give to the show, when you need to sell as much as possible, while missing many points of why we like the characters. If I want fights, might as well watch Fist of the North Star. Or better yet, I will watch the Abridged version. You know your story sucks monkey balls when its #1 parody is 10x better in characterization, story, plot construction and pointing out your fucking plotholes.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut....................... that wasn't the point that made me ragequit. The thing that made me drop it was Episode 69: That BS Episode that has Arale from Dr Slump and somehow she is stronger than Goku and Vegeta combined!! I swear if it didn't show up on Youtube as suggested, I wouldn't even bother watching it at all.

I am not gonna bother watching the rest of it, and I don't care nor am I worried how it will end, because we already know how it ends: with Goku fighting against Uub and training him. The only reason I might care is if they go past that part, to throw GT at the pits of Hell.