Dragon Ball Super
Dragon Ball Super is a Japanese manga series and anime television series. The series is a sequel to the original Dragon Ball manga, with its overall plot outline written by 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 was produced by Toei Animation, with individual episodes written by different screenwriters, and aired on Fuji TV from July 5, 2015 to March 25, 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 ' and ', where Goku attains the powers of a god, he must learn to use this newly discovered powers under the gods of his universe while travelling to other universes to face more powerful opponents and nearly unstoppable foes.
A theatrical film sequel titled was released in December 2018. Its English dub was released in January 2019.
Plot
Four years after the defeat of Kid Buu, peace has returned to Earth. Goku has settled down and works as a farmer to support his family. His family and friends live peaceful lives. However, a new threat appears in the form of the God of Destruction named Beerus, who is considered to be the most terrifying and the second most powerful being in Universe Seven. After awakening from decades of slumber, Beerus tells his Angel assistant and teacher named Whis that he is eager to fight the legendary warrior whom he had seen in a prophecy known as the, while threatening to destroy the Earth if he loses to him. To protect Earth, Goku transforms into the Super Saiyan God to fight Beerus by using the power of five Super Saiyans, which includes Vegeta, Gohan, Goten, Trunks, and the baby named Pan in Videl's womb. Goku shows an immense amount of power that is enough to impress Beerus. Despite losing, Goku's efforts appease the God of Destruction enough that he decides to spare the planet.While Goku and Vegeta leave with Beerus and Whis to train for a year, the remaining remnants of Frieza's army arrive on Earth in search for the Dragon Balls to revive Frieza. A few months after coming back to life and training, Frieza gathers his forces and returns to enact his revenge on Goku. Despite achieving a new transformation called Golden Frieza, he is defeated by Goku and Vegeta, who have both mastered the Super Saiyan Blue transformation. Frieza blows up the Earth in retaliation. However, with Whis's ability to manipulate time, Goku destroyed Frieza once again.
Champa, Beerus' brother and the God of Destruction of Universe Six, convinces Beerus to hold a tournament between the best fighters from their universes. Whis reveals that there are twelve universes in existence. The universe that Goku and his friends are from is called Universe Seven. Champa also reveals the reward for their tournament will be the Super Dragon Balls, which are planet-sized Dragon Balls whose wish-granting abilities are practically limitless. Champa intends to swap Universe Six's destroyed Earth with Universe Seven's for their cuisine. Goku and his friends join the tournament. Each match in the tournament shows different surprises and abilities. 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 in his full power, Goku forfeits the match. However, Hit forfeits the final match since he was inspired by Goku to do the same thing. The tournament concludes with Universe Seven's victory. Beerus secretly wishes for the Super Dragon Balls to restore Universe Six's Earth.
Goku later meets and befriends Grand Zenō, who is the Omni-King of all universes. Goku promises to bring him a friend to play with. Later, Future Trunks reappears and brings bad news of a new and powerful enemy that is a counterpart of Goku, who is 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 hijacked Goku's body from a different timeline as part of his plan to attain immortality and wipe out all mortals and gods. In the end, after a long ultimate battle which occurs the future timeline, Zamasu is erased from existence along with the entire future timeline by Future Grand Zenō, who accompanies Goku back to the present timeline. Goku fulfills his promise to Present Grand Zenō by introducing him to his future self. Whis travels to the future to prevent Zamasu's rise to power.
Some time after Future Trunks returns to his restored future, Present Grand Zenō and Future Grand Zenō hold a new tournament called the Tournament of Power. At Goku's suggestion, the multiverse tournament features a team of fighters from eight of the twelve universes. However, it becomes a battle for survival when 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 representatives for Universe Seven to protect it. The Universe Seven team must battle against many formidable warriors from the other universes such as Universe Eleven's Pride Trooper named Jiren. During the fight, Goku briefly attains a new godly form known as, which increases his agility and power. Ultra Instinct allows Goku to simultaneously attack and dodge without having to think of the latter. The tournament ends with Goku and Frieza taking Jiren down along with themselves, which leaves Android 17 as the last remaining fighter and the winner of the Tournament of Power. He is awarded one wish from the Super Dragon Balls, which he uses to restore all of the erased universes. It is revealed that Present Grand Zenō and Future Grand Zenō expected the universes to be restored. If the wish was used for selfish purposes then both kings would have erased all of existence. For his efforts in the Tournament of Power, Frieza is permanently revived and rebuilds his army. Goku and his friends return to their daily lives on Earth. While sparring, Goku reveals to Vegeta that he is unable to activate Ultra Instinct again. Goku and Vegeta pledge to become more powerful.
Following the Tournament of Power, a revived Frieza and his henchmen are in search of the Dragon Balls once again. During his search, Frieza comes across two exiled Saiyan survivors with incredible high power including Broly and his father Paragus, whom the latter wants revenge on Vegeta for his father exiling Broly before the Saiyan home-world's destruction. After Broly overpowers both Goku and Vegeta in their battles, Goku suggests Vegeta they should fuse into "Gogeta". However, before Gogeta can defeat Broly, he is wished back to the planet Frieza found them on by Frieza's henchmen Cheelai and Lemo. Frieza flees Earth threatening his revenge.
Some time later, Goku, Vegeta and Majin Buu are contacted by the Galactic Patrol who enlists their help to recapture a dangerous fugitive called Moro who was being held prisoner for 10 million years after using his powers to extract the life force of countless planets. Their search for Moro leads them to New Namek, but they fail to stop his plan to use the Namekians' Dragon Balls to restore his lost youth and release all criminals in the Galactic Patrol's custody. Since then, Moro and the escaped convicts had attacked several planets together while Goku and Vegeta make preparations for their impending rematch against him. While Goku seeks for a way to master the Ultra Instinct, Vegeta sets to planet Yardrat, where Goku learned the skill of teleportation. After two months, Moro leads his army of convicts to Earth as the Z Fighters and the Galactic Patrol make a stand until Goku and Vegeta arrive.
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, 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, 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
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. 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 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.
Music
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 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 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 by Japanese rock band Good Morning America. The second ending theme song for episodes 13 to 25 is 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 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 by idol group Batten Showjo Tai. The sixth ending theme song for episodes 60 to 72 is by Arukara. The seventh ending theme song for episodes 73 to 83 is 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 by Lacco Tower. The tenth ending theme song for episodes 109 to 121 is 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, , was the first film in the Dragon Ball franchise to be produced under the Super chronology. Released on December 14, 2018, the film is set after the "Universe Survival" story arc. 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 is confirmed to be in pre-production as of June 4, 2019, by Toei executive Akio Iyoku. Iyoku felt that the film will be "will probably be totally different" from Broly.
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
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 Supers 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 of the series was critically acclaimed for its 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."
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
- Best Fight Scene – Jiren vs. Goku - Nominated
- Best Continuing Series – Dragon Ball Super - Winner
Manga reception
In Japan, the manga's tankōbon volumes 1 and 2 sold 594,342 copies as of 2017, volume 3 sold 236,720 copies as of 2017, volume 4 sold 267,417 copies as of 2017, volume 5 sold 400,000 copies as of 2018, volume 6 sold 216,871 copies as of 2018, volume 7 sold 208,796 copies as of 2018, volume 8 sold 314,269 copies as of 2019, volume 9 sold 188,027 copies as of 2019, volume 10 sold 196,204 copies as of 2019, volume 11 sold 119,283 copies as of 2019 and volume 12 sold 146,305 copies as of 2020. This adds up to at least 2,888,234 tankōbon copies sold in Japan as of 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.