I find that quite difficult..Dragon Ball Gus wrote:On it's own merits, is Dragon Ball Super really all that "Super"? Take off your DBZ nostalgia glasses and look at this series as it's own thing, tell me if it's "Super".
I will always compare it with DBZ, because that's why I'm here and why I even watch Super in the first place.
As for my thoughts.. Dragon Ball Super does what it is set out to and that is to be a television show and to a lesser extent a monthly manga, that bring so much joy to kids all over the world, that they will nag their parents to spend some money on the franchise's merchandise.
We can tell by the massive improvement in sales over the last couple of years, that it has been quite succesful in that regard and so for those in charge it's definitely Super.
For me as a fan, however it's merely good.
I'm glad they didn't go full on DB Heroes and just made new characters to replace the old ones, cause then I'd definitely be out, just like I eventually dropped Digimon and Yugioh, because I didn't care for the new characters. Goku and co. are DB to me, so as long as they are around, there is more likelihood, I too will stick around to see their adventures.
My biggest problem with it is the fact, that it's so merchandise driven, that the narrative takes a hit, episode 98 being a recent example:
"Goku is not going Blue, because he wants to save his stamina"
Me: Ok, that makes sense, can't expect Blue every episo-*fast forward to end of the episode, where Vegeta and Goku go absolutely overkill, when eliminating the Trio, instead of just staying in SS, which was already stomping them*
...
Toei has always done this, an amazing spectacle to distract you from the fact, that what you are seeing is non-sensical(and also why their power scaling is out of whack and characters are more capable of giving fights to other characters, that should be out of their league).
At least some people admitted, that was the case, but they still enjoyed it, because it was cool, which seems to be exactly the reaction they want you to have.
A big plus for Super though is that Toriyama now gets to plan out the entire arc in advance and he also gets input from others and the end result is new exciting stories, that go a bit differently than before, the Future Trunks Arc ending on quite the bittersweet note with Trunks' timeline utterly destroyed and having to go to a copy with duplicates of himself and Mai.
Furthermore the stories now have an overarching theme of the gods' involvement in Goku and co.'s lives, the Future Trunks arc having a god deride humans for always repeating the mistakes of the past and so justify that they don't deserve life, which is pretty thoughtful.
And then it has culminated in this massive tournament between all universes, where survival is the prize, as the lower beings are forced to fight it out, as amusement for the one above all, who without a thought just wipes out entire universes and don't even know, why that would upset them, which really shows how small we really are.
So all in all, it's a good show, but for me it's not quite Super.
. Akira is also not satisfied with Toei. Anyhow we are having some canon Db stuff. DBGt had adventure, DB stuff but a donkey can never become A Horse. It is non canon to me.
