Dragon Ball Super

Dragon Ball Super (Japanese: ドラゴンボール超スーパー, Hepburn: Doragon Bōru Sūpā) is a Japanese manga and television series, which serves as a sequel to the original Dragon Ball manga, with its overall plot outline written by franchise creator Akira Toriyama. The manga is illustrated by Toyotarou, with story and editing by Toriyama, and began serialization in Shueisha’s shōnen manga magazine V Jump in June 2015. The anime television series was produced by Toei Animation, with individual episodes written by different screenwriters, and aired on Fuji TV from July 2015 to March 2018. A theatrical film instalment titled Dragon Ball Super: Broly was released in December 2018.

The series chronicles the adventures of Goku during the ten-year timeskip after the defeat of Majin Buu. Following a retelling of the events of the films Battle of Gods (2013) and Resurrection ‘F’ (2015), where Goku attains the powers of a god, he must learn to use these newly discovered powers under the gods of his universe.

Plot

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God of Destruction Beerus Saga

Six months after the defeat of Majin Buu, peace has returned to Earth. Goku works as a farmer to support his family, and his family and friends live peaceful lives. However, a new threat appears as the God of Destruction Beerus awakens after decades of slumber. Beerus, along with his Angel assistant and teacher, Whis, seek a legendary prophesized warrior known as the Super Saiyan God (超スーパーサイヤ人ゴッド, Sūpā Saiya-jin Goddo), threatening to destroy the Earth if he loses to him. To protect Earth, Goku transforms into the Super Saiyan God by using the power of five Super Saiyans (Vegeta, Gohan, Goten, Trunks, and the unborn Pan in Videl’s womb). Goku battles Beerus and loses, but his efforts appease Beerus, and he spares the planet.

Golden Frieza Saga

Afterwards, while Goku and Vegeta leave with Beerus and Whis to train, the remnants of Frieza’s army collect the Dragon Balls to revive Frieza. A few months after coming back to life and training, Frieza returns to Earth, seeking revenge on Goku and Vegeta. Despite achieving a new transformation called Golden Frieza, he is defeated by Goku and Vegeta, who have mastered the Super Saiyan Blue transformation. In spite, Frieza blows up the Earth with a suicide attack, but Whis’s ability to reverse time allows Goku to slay Frieza.

Universe 6 Saga

Champa, Beerus’ brother and the God of Destruction of Universe Six, convinces Beerus to hold a tournament between the best fighters from their universes, with the reward for the winner being the Super Dragon Balls, planet-sized Dragon Balls with nearly unlimited wish-granting abilities. Champa intends to swap Universe Six’s barren Earth with Universe Seven’s for their cuisine. Goku and his friends join the tournament. The tournament reaches its climax in the second-to-last match between Goku and Hit. After a failed attempt to lift the rules to face Hit at full power, Goku forfeits the match. Hit forfeits the final match in return, and the tournament concludes with Universe Seven’s victory. Beerus secretly wishes for the Super Dragon Balls to restore Universe Six’s Earth.

Future Trunks Saga

Goku later meets and befriends Lord Zenō, the Omni-King of all universes. Goku promises to bring him a friend to play with. Later, Future Trunks reappears, with news of a new enemy who has stolen Goku’s body, known as Goku Black. Goku and the others eventually discover that Goku Black is actually a Supreme Kai apprentice from Universe Ten named Zamasu, who used the Super Dragon Balls to steal Goku’s body from a different timeline as part of his plan to obtain immortality and wipe out every mortal. In the end, Zamasu is erased from existence along with the entire future timeline by Future Lord Zenō, who accompanies Goku back to the present timeline, where he becomes Present Lord Zenō’s friend. Whis travels to the future to prevent Zamasu’s rise to power, and Future Trunks leaves for an alternate timeline.

Tournament of Power Saga

Later, Present Lord Zenō and Future Lord Zenō hold a tournament called the Tournament of Power (力の大会, Chikara no Taikai). At Goku’s suggestion, the multiverse tournament features a team of fighters from eight of the twelve universes. However, both kings declare that the universes defeated at the tournament will be erased. Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Krillin, Android 17, Android 18, Piccolo, Tien, Master Roshi, and a temporarily revived Frieza join the tournament as fighters for Universe Seven. They battle against formidable warriors from the other universes, such as Universe Eleven’s Pride Trooper named Jiren. During the fight, Goku attains a new godly form known as Ultra Instinct (身勝手の極意, Migatte no Gokui), which allows Goku to attack and dodge unconsciously. The tournament ends with Goku and Frieza taking Jiren down along with themselves, leaving Android 17 as the winner of the Tournament. He is awarded one wish from the Super Dragon Balls, which he uses to restore the erased universes, with the consent of both Zenō’s. For his efforts, Frieza is permanently revived and rebuilds his army. Goku and his friends return to their lives, and Goku reveals to Vegeta that he is unable to use Ultra Instinct again.

Broly Saga

Frieza and his henchmen seek the Dragon Balls. During his search, Frieza meets two exiled Saiyan survivors, Broly and his father Paragus, the latter of whom wants revenge on Vegeta for his father exiling Broly before the Saiyan homeworld’s destruction. Broly overpowers both Goku and Vegeta, until they fuse into “Gogeta”. However, before Gogeta can kill Broly, he is wished back to the planet Frieza found him on by Frieza’s henchmen Cheelai and Lemo. Frieza flees Earth, vowing to get his revenge.

Planet-Eater Moro Saga

Goku, Vegeta and Majin Buu are asked by the Galactic Patrol to help recapture the fugitive Moro (モロ), who had used his powers to extract the life force of countless planets. Their search for Moro leads them to New Namek, where Moro defeats them and uses the Namekians’ Dragon Balls to restore his abilities and release all criminals in the Galactic Patrol’s custody. Moro and the convicts rampage across the universe while Goku and Vegeta prepare for a rematch against him. Goku seeks to master Ultra Instinct with the help of Galactic Patrolman Merus (who is secretly an Angel-in-training), while Vegeta heads to Planet Yardrat, where Goku learned Instant Transmission. Two months later, Moro leads his army of convicts to Earth as the Z-Fighters and the Galactic Patrol make a stand until Goku and Vegeta arrive. The Z-Fighters hold their own against Moro’s strongest minions until Goku and Vegeta arrive. Despite Goku and Vegeta gaining new levels of power and techniques, it’s still not enough to defeat Moro as he fuses with one of his henchmen, android OG-73i (who has the ability to copy his opponents’ powers and techniques by grabbing the back of their necks). After Merus sacrifices himself in stalling Moro’s rampage (Angels are only meant to be neutral observers of mortal affairs, as interfering will result in being erased from existence), Goku finally masters Ultra Instinct and turns the tide against Moro. In a last-ditch effort, Moro fuses with Earth, threatening to self-destruct and take the entire North Galaxy with him. Eventually, after absorbing energy fused together by Vegeta’s new fission powers, Goku slays Moro, saving the Earth. Peace once again returns as Merus returns to existence, but as an mortal.

Granolah the Survivor Saga

Goku and Vegeta return to Beerus’ planet to train further. As Whis trains Goku to master Ultra Instinct, Beerus trains Vegeta in the ways of Destruction. As this happens, a Cerelian mercenary named Granolah retrieves the remains of one of Moro’s henchmen and delivers it to his employers, the Heeters. Granolah learns from the Heeters that Frieza is alive, and vows to become strong enough to destroy Frieza and avenge the destruction of his home planet of Cereal. Granolah then goes back to his home planet and uses the planet’s Dragon Balls to make him the greatest warrior. The dragon uses nearly all of Granolah’s remaining lifespan to grant the wish, leaving Granolah with only three years left to live.

Production

In addition to his role as the series creator, Akira Toriyama is also credited for the “original story and character design concepts” of the new anime originally directed by Kimitoshi Chioka. Toriyama elaborated on his involvement with the “Future Trunks arc” saying he created the story based on suggestions from the editorial department, “As with last time, I wrote the overall plot outline, and the scriptwriters have been compiling and expanded the story content into individual episodes, making various changes and additions, and generally doing their best to make the story more interesting.” In addition to new characters designed by Toriyama, other characters for the “Universe Survival arc” were designed by Toyotarou, artist of the manga version, and a few by both.

Toei Animation producer Atsushi Kido previously worked on Dragon Ball Z for a brief time during the Freeza arc, while Fuji TV producer Osamu Nozaki said he has been a fan of the series since childhood. Morio Hatano, series director of Saint Seiya Omega (episodes #1–51), began sharing the series director credit with Chioka beginning with episode #28, before taking it over completely with #47. From episode #47 to #76, Morio Hatano shared the role of series director with Kōhei Hatano (no relation), another storyboard artist and episode director for the series.

Masako Nozawa reprises her roles as Son Goku, Son Gohan, and Son Goten. Most of the original cast reprise their roles as well. However, Jōji Yanami’s roles as Kaiō-sama and the narrator were indefinitely taken over by Naoki Tatsuta as of episode 12, so that Yanami could take medical leave. Kōichi Yamadera and Masakazu Morita also return as Beerus and Whis, respectively.

The first preview of the series aired on June 14, 2015, following episode 164 of Dragon Ball Z Kai. The next day, the main promotional image for Dragon Ball Super was added to its official website and unveiled two new characters, who were later revealed to be named Champa and Vados, respectively. A thirty-second trailer including the new characters was uploaded to the series’ official website on June 26, 2015.

The anime began airing on July 5, 2015 and was broadcast on Sundays at 9:00 a.m. on Fuji TV. On January 19, 2018, it was revealed that Super‘s timeslot would be replaced with GeGeGe no Kitarō starting on April 1, 2018. According to Amazon Japan, the final Blu-ray set indicated the series’ end at episode 131. The series ended on March 25, 2018, with the conclusion of the “Universe Survival Saga”. Fuji TV stated that no definite plans were made to either continue the series at a later date or discontinue it entirely.

English production and broadcasting

Dragon Ball Super received an English-language dub that premiered on the Toonami channel in Southeast Asia and India on January 21, 2017. This dub is produced by Los Angeles based Bang Zoom! Entertainment for the Asian market. A sneak preview of the English dub’s first episode aired on December 17, 2016. Production on the Bang Zoom! dub ended after episode 27 as Toonami Asia and India ceased transmission.

On November 4, 2016, Funimation announced the company acquired the rights to Dragon Ball Super and would be producing an English dub, with many cast members of their previous English-language releases of Dragon Ball media reprising their respective roles. As well as officially announcing the dub, it was also announced they would be simulcasting the series on their streaming platform, FunimationNow. On December 7, 2016, IGN reported that the Funimation English dub of Dragon Ball Super would air on Adult Swim Saturdays at 8 p.m. with an encore showing in their Toonami block later that night at 11:30 p.m. starting on January 7, 2017 alongside Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters. This was later confirmed on Toonami’s official Facebook page. The United States premiere of Dragon Ball Super obtained 1,063,000 viewers for its 8 p.m. showing on Adult Swim.

The English-subtitled simulcast of Dragon Ball Super was made available in North America and Europe through Crunchyroll and Daisuki. Following the closure of Daisuki, the hosted Dragon Ball Super episodes were transferred to the Dragon Ball Super Card Game website in February 2018 and was available until March 29, 2019.

Toonami Africa started airing Dragon Ball Super in Fall 2017 at 15:00 CAT (Central African Time) with an edited Funimation English Dub.

In Australia, ABC Me started airing Dragon Ball Super on November 3, 2018, with a new episode every Saturday at 2:45 pm. In the United Kingdom, the series aired on Pop from July 1, 2019, with episodes first airing at 7pm on weekdays. They both use the edited Funimation English Dub.

Music

	“Chōzetsu☆Dynamic!” MENU 0:00 Sample of “Chōzetsu☆Dynamic!” performed by Kazuya Yoshii, the opening theme song for the first 76 episodes of the show.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Norihito Sumitomo, the composer for Battle of Gods and Resurrection ‘F’, is scoring Dragon Ball Super. An original soundtrack for the anime was released on CD by Nippon Columbia on February 24, 2016.

The first opening theme song for episodes 1 to 76 is “Chōzetsu☆Dynamic!” (超絶☆ダイナミック！, Chōzetsu Dainamikku, “Excellent Dynamic!”) by Kazuya Yoshii of The Yellow Monkey. The lyrics were penned by Yukinojo Mori who has written numerous songs for the Dragon Ball series. The second opening theme song for episodes 77 to 131 is “Genkai Toppa × Survivor” (限界突破×サバイバー, “Limit Breakthrough × Survivor”) by enka singer Kiyoshi Hikawa. Mori wrote the lyrics for the rock song, while Takafumi Iwasaki composed the music.

The first ending theme song for episodes 1 to 12 is “Hello Hello Hello” (ハローハローハロー, Harō Harō Harō) by Japanese rock band Good Morning America. The second ending theme song for episodes 13 to 25 is “Starring Star” (スターリングスター, Sutāringu Sutā) by the group Key Talk. The singer for Funimation’s English dub is Professor Shyguy. The third ending song for episodes 26 to 36 is “Usubeni” (薄紅, “Light Pink”) by the band Lacco Tower. The fourth ending theme song for episodes 37 to 49 is “Forever Dreaming” by Czecho No Republic. The fifth ending theme song for episodes 50 to 59 is “Yokayoka Dance” (よかよかダンス, Yokayoka Dansu, “It’s Fine Dance”) by idol group Batten Showjo Tai. The sixth ending theme song for episodes 60 to 72 is “Chao Han Music” (炒飯MUSIC, Chāhan Myūjikku) by Arukara. The seventh ending theme song for episodes 73 to 83 is “Aku no Tenshi to Seigi no Akuma” (悪の天使と正義の悪魔, “Evil Angel and Righteous Devil”) by The Collectors. The eighth ending theme song for episodes 84 to 96 is “Boogie Back” by Miyu Inoue. The ninth ending theme song for episodes 97 to 108 is “Haruka” (遥) by Lacco Tower. The tenth ending theme song for episodes 109 to 121 is “70cm Shiho no Madobe” (70cm四方の窓辺, “By a 70cm Square Window”) by RottenGraffty. The eleventh ending theme song for episodes 122 to 131 is “Lagrima” by OnePixcel.

Related media

Manga

A companion manga series illustrated by artist Toyotarou, who was previously responsible for the official Resurrection ‘F’ manga adaptation, began serialization in the August 2015 issue of V Jump, which was released on June 20, 2015. Toyotarou explained that he receives the major plot points from Toriyama, before drawing the storyboard and filling in the details in between himself. He sends the storyboard to Toriyama for review, who edits the initial draft, making dialogue and art changes, before sending it back to Toyotarou, who illustrates the final draft and sends it to Shueisha for publication. In November 2018, after passing the end-point of the Super anime series, the manga began an original story arc. Shueisha began collecting the chapters into tankōbon volumes with the first published on April 4, 2016. Viz Media began posting free English translations of the manga chapters to their website on June 24, 2016. A print release of the first volume followed in spring 2017.

Films

An animated film, Dragon Ball Super: Broly, was the first film in the Dragon Ball franchise to be produced under the Super chronology. Released on December 14, 2018, most of the film is set after the “Universe Survival” story arc (the beginning of the movie takes place in the past). A poster showcasing the film’s new art style was released on March 12, 2018. A teaser depicting Goku facing off against Broly was released a week later. The first trailer was released at San Diego Comic-Con International 2018. The second trailer was released on October 4, 2018. The English version of the second trailer was released on October 5, 2018.

A second Dragon Ball Super film has been confirmed to be in pre-production as of June 4, 2019 by Toei executive Akio Iyoku. Iyoku feels that the film “will probably be totally different “.

Home video

In Japan, the anime series was released on Blu-ray and DVD by Happinet between December 2015 and July 2018, with each “Box” also containing textless opening and closing credits sequences and packaged with a booklet. In North America, Funimation began releasing the series from July 2017, again on both DVD and Blu-ray, containing both English-dubbed and English-subtitled Japanese versions; the Blu-ray releases generally also contain interviews with the English cast and textless opening/closing credits sequences. Funimation’s localized releases are distributed in the United Kingdom and Australasia by Manga Entertainment and Madman Entertainment respectively.

English

Japanese

Merchandise

Bandai announced that a line of Dragon Ball Super toys would be available in the United States in summer 2017. Bandai has also announced the updated Dragon Ball Super Card Game that starts with one starter deck, one special pack containing 4 booster packs and a promotional Vegeta card and a booster box with 24 packs. It was released on July 28, 2017. A line of six Dragon Ball Super Happy Meal toys were made available at Japanese McDonald’s restaurants in May 2017.

Reception

Anime reception

First impressions of the series’ debut episode were mostly positive with the quality of animation being praised the most. Richard Eisenbeis of Kotaku praised the series’ title sequence and said “My middle-school self is so happy right now, you guys.” Jamieson Cox of The Verge also praised the title sequence and said that “Dragon Ball Super’s intro will have you begging for its North American release”. Cox was also surprised that, considering how popular the franchise is, the series did not launch internationally at the same time. He called it “a move that wouldn’t be unprecedented” giving Sailor Moon Crystal as an example.

However, the fifth episode received harsh criticism from Japanese and Western audiences due to its poor animation style compared to the previous four episodes. These problems continued at episode twenty-four, and several more episodes onward. Dragon Ball Kai and Resurrection ‘F’ producer Norihiro Hayashida felt that the criticism was overblown. He said that people were criticizing the entire series based on a few bad sequences that were done by new animators. He went on to explain a quality decline in the anime industry that he believes is the result of studios cutting time given for post-production and not allowing for reviews of the final product.

Despite this, the Champa Arc was praised for improving its animation. Episode 39 was noted improved animation and praised fighting sequences. Attack of the Fanboy reported that “Dragon Ball Super” episode 39 may be the best installment of the series to date. Goku and Hit’s fight “starts off explosively from the get-go.” The Future Trunks Arc also garnered positive response from fans and critics alike. IGN’s Shawn Saris acclaiming Episode 66, stating that, “Episode 66 of Dragon Ball Super has a few missteps but ultimately leads to a great final battle with Zamasu.” Anime News Network criticized the poor animation and narrative quoted as “shameless soap opera” based on the handling of the cast.

The final arc, “Universe Survival Arc,” garnered much more positive reception than previous arcs. Several episodes such as 109/110 and 116 have been cited as some of the Super series’ best episodes; Despite this praise, Jay Gibbs of ComicsVerse criticized the series for its inconsistent narrative, having heard “an explanation within an episode, then see that very explanation invalidated seconds later.” 

Episodes 130 and 131 were live streamed in various cities across Latin American countries including Mexico, El Salvador, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Nicaragua for free in public venues. The public screenings drew large record audiences, which included filling stadiums in Mexico and other Latin American countries, with each screening drawing audiences numbering in the thousands to the tens of thousands.

Even though the fan reaction has been positive, Dragon Ball Super has been criticized by fans for lacking the mild blood and gore that was present in its predecessor Dragon Ball Z. This is, however, due to the fact that the series is targeted towards a younger demographic than the previous installments, and as such, censorship would not allow such content to be shown on a television program targeted towards children. A Dragon Ball Super episode received a major complaint by the Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organization as the part of the story involved Master Roshi making multiple sexual attacks on the female character Yurin.

Accolades

2017 Crunchyroll Anime Awards:

• Best Continuing Series – Dragon Ball Super – Nominated

2018 Crunchyroll Anime Awards:

• Best Fight Scene (Presented by Capcom) – Jiren vs. Goku – Nominated
• Best Continuing Series (Presented by VRV) – Dragon Ball Super – Winner

Manga reception

All four volumes of Dragon Ball Super‘s manga adaptation have charted on Oricon’s weekly list of the best-selling manga; volumes one and two sold 29,995 and 56,947 copies in their debut weeks respectively. Volume three was the fourth best-selling for its week with 92,114 copies sold, and volume four was fourth its week with 150,889. According to Nielsen BookScan, the English version of volume one was the second best-selling graphic novel of May 2017, the ninth of June, the fourteenth of July, and the eighteenth of August. Dragon Ball Super volume 4 topped NPD BookScan’s graphic novels list for January 2019.

In Japan, the manga’s tankōbon volumes 1 and 2 sold 594,342 copies as of June 2017, volume 3 sold 236,720 copies as of July 2017, volume 4 sold 267,417 copies as of November 2017, volume 5 sold 400,000 copies as of April 2018, volume 6 sold 216,871 copies as of June 2018, volume 7 sold 208,796 copies as of September 2018, volume 8 sold 314,269 copies as of January 2019, volume 9 sold 188,027 copies as of April 2019, volume 10 sold 196,204 copies as of August 2019, volume 11 sold 119,283 copies as of December 2019, volume 12 sold 146,305 copies as of April 2020  and volume 13 sold 155,095 copies as of August 2020. This adds up to at least 3,043,329 tankōbon copies sold in Japan as of August 2020. Tom Speelman of ComicsAlliance noted that Toyotarou’s condensed and altered versions of the Battle of Gods and Resurrection ‘F’ arcs made it a lot easier to speed through and added suspense. He also said that for the first time he could not decide whether the anime or manga was superior.