What did you LOVE Most in the Universe Survival Arc?!

[Chuquita]

Aw thank you!

[Kataphrut]

1. More consistent character writing across the board. I'm rewatching Future Trunks arc at the moment via dub and I can't get over how badly Goku is written. US handles him much better, along with Beerus, Gohan, Freeza and a few others. Trade-off is a much worse Vegeta unfortunately, but I can deal.
2. The music. Limit Break and Ultimate Battle are great, Sumitomo's score is great, the placement is great. KA KA KA KA KACHI DAZE
3. Interesting character dynamics. Goku and the Androids. Goku and Freeza. Gohan and Freeza. Goku and Caulifla. Vegeta and Roshi. Ribrianne and the Androids. Android 17 and Freeza. A lot of interesting new team-ups or refreshing takes on old dynamics that aided in both the character writing and the battles.
4. The visuals. They pretty much crushed the "Super animation suxxs" memes with this arc alone. Everything looked polished, the fights were consistently decent when they weren't fucking amazing, good atmosphere.
5. Freeza's character development. That's a hell of an about-face going from some of the worse Freeza writing in Resurrection F to the absolute best. He absolutely stole the show.
6. Gohan's character development. I'ma be real, the only thing that puts this below Freeza is the lack of a decent payoff. But still, this was a refreshing take on Gohan after so much of not knowing what to do with him. It had a good compromise between the dichotomy of "fighter" and "scholar/family man" that he's been stuck in.
7. Ultra Instinct, aka the best transformation since Super Saiyan 2. Such a cool concept, so well presented. Shame about the Mastered version though...
8. Caulifla. The first female Super Saiyan was exactly what she needed to be, a battle-happy charismatic idiot. She might be my new favourite character from Super (not counting Beerus and Whis) just for being a tonne of fun, having good chemistry with Goku and an adorable relationship with Kale.
9. The concept of the other Universes. While the execution of individual teams varied, the idea of each one basically representing a different anime genre was a fun idea. Special shoutout to Universe 2 for committing to the magical girl gimmick (Ribrianne's trio were fun, Tuxedo Mask Yardrat was fun, and the Beautiful Boys were such a stupidly awesome last-minute pull) and Universe 3 for going from jobber to surprise threat in the second half.
10. The final episode. Wait to pull out of a tail-spin there, Toei. Everything worked so well for that finale. You had the Goku/Jiren dynamic come full circle, an awesome final teamup battle with a surprise win, beautiful direction and the reveal about the wish made the rest-button feel meaningful. It's basically the polar opposite of the Future Trunks arc, reversing a collision-course toward nihilism in a satisfying and positive way in the space of a single episode.

I could probably think of more, there was genuinely a lot to like about this arc.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

Everything.

The made everything that on paper sounded eh great. No lumbering 1v1 tournament like the U6 one with very little actual background art besides the ring, but here the arena changed a lot.

Recruitment episodes where great, Freeza and Goku one being up there are the best, talk about delivering.

Plenty of SSGSS.

Return of SSG.

SS3 put to bed for once and for all.

Kale and Caulifla.

Ultra Instinct! It looks so cool, so glad it turned out silver! Been hoping since August the final version would be silver. "Omen" wasn't too bad either.

The music, animation, SBing, direction etc when one point where ON POINT! Like damn some of the technical aspects this arc were just like nothing we've ever witnessed.

Characters and their interactions.

U7 basically being Zen-Oh's tool to help learn lessons for the other universes, which explains why U7 did most of the work.

The whole limit breaking theme of the tournament.

Vegeta, man the dude was terrific this arc, never been the biggest fan of his character but man he had so much more than I thought he would and loved his fight with Toppo and loved his new form.

#17 obviously. Roshi was also another massive surprise.

Seeing blue shirt and shirtless Goku again was great and a nice visual change up, something we haven't properly seen since Namek. Also fully shirtless Vegeta was a nice surprise too.

Beerus, just simply sitting on the sidelines we got so much out of him! 5 years on and still one of the best ever characters in DB.

I like what they did with Jiren towards the end.

Goku being here there and everywhere! If characters are going to be relevant then they are going to have to be alongside Goku thus finally cutting the BS from Z out where writing Goku out was the only way to make characters relevant.

Overall an amazing arc. Toei should feel proud on what they accomplished here!

[TheDipDap1234]

The thing that I liked the most is that they made characters that aren't Vegeta and Goku relevant again, gave them a lot of fights, and even a boost in power. I always wanted Super to do this ever since it was announced in 2015, and I got more and more dissapointed seeing Vegeta and Goku being the only characters that mattered. I'm very happy this arc changed that.

I also liked the soundtrack, the animation, some of the new characters, some of the fight scenes, etc.

Other thing I liked is that it introduced a good number of new female fighters. Who would have thought that Dragon Ball will introduce this many new and strong female fighters in one arc and treat most of them seriously?

[PFM18]

Everything.

The made everything that on paper sounded eh great. No lumbering 1v1 tournament like the U6 one with very little actual background art besides the ring, but here the arena changed a lot.

Recruitment episodes where great, Freeza and Goku one being up there are the best, talk about delivering.

Plenty of SSGSS.

Return of SSG.

SS3 put to bed for once and for all.

Kale and Caulifla.

Ultra Instinct! It looks so cool, so glad it turned out silver! Been hoping since August the final version would be silver. "Omen" wasn't too bad either.

The music, animation, SBing, direction etc when one point where ON POINT! Like damn some of the technical aspects this arc were just like nothing we've ever witnessed.

Characters and their interactions.

U7 basically being Zen-Oh's tool to help learn lessons for the other universes, which explains why U7 did most of the work.

The whole limit breaking theme of the tournament.

Vegeta, man the dude was terrific this arc, never been the biggest fan of his character but man he had so much more than I thought he would and loved his fight with Toppo and loved his new form.

#17 obviously. Roshi was also another massive surprise.

Seeing blue shirt and shirtless Goku again was great and a nice visual change up, something we haven't properly seen since Namek. Also fully shirtless Vegeta was a nice surprise too.

Beerus, just simply sitting on the sidelines we got so much out of him! 5 years on and still one of the best ever characters in DB.

I like what they did with Jiren towards the end.

Goku being here there and everywhere! If characters are going to be relevant then they are going to have to be alongside Goku thus finally cutting the BS from Z out where writing Goku out was the only way to make characters relevant.

Overall an amazing arc. Toei should feel proud on what they accomplished here!

I agree with everything said here. Additionally:

-Got to see VEGETA NOT WEARING GLOVES!! I think this may be the first time in the series we actually see Vegeta's bare hands.
-Vegeta's interactions with Cabba and how it motivated him.
-To see Freeza's hatred for Saiyans manifest itself without resulting in attacking his teammates.
-The Gods of Destruction being seen as these unbeatable beings now being a bunch of children at the mercy of the mortals of their universe was a nice contrast.
-The creative fighting that happened throughout the tournament. Whether it be Dyspo and Hit, all of Krillin's fights, Monna's fighting, and much more, it actually came down to more than "A is stronger than B therefore A wins and there is nothing else to it."
-Vegeta showing his love for Saiyans while making sense within his character up to this point.
-Freeza and Goku teaming up with each other.

To me this arc is only behind the Namek Arc and maybe the Cell arc for the whole franchise

[Rakurai]

If anything, I loved all the interactions of U6, from Frost and Freeza 'teaming up,' to Botamo and Magetta fighting together, Kale wrecking the entire tournament, to Hit fighting against Jiren, to the U6 Saiyans pushing Goku to his utmost limit, to the Namekians fighting against Piccolo and Gohan. I never understood the humor behind Dr. Rota, but oh well.

[Vegeta_Sama]

-Got to see VEGETA NOT WEARING GLOVES!! I think this may be the first time in the series we actually see Vegeta's bare hands.

Not really. I can remember two times of when that happened off the top of my head: when he took a shower at Hulma's place before the return of Mecha Frieza, and when he was training with Trunks in the Gravity room in the Buu arc.

[PFM18]

-Got to see VEGETA NOT WEARING GLOVES!! I think this may be the first time in the series we actually see Vegeta's bare hands.

Not really. I can remember two times of when that happened off the top of my head: when he took a shower at Hulma's place before the return of Mecha Frieza, and when he was training with Trunks in the Gravity room in the Buu arc.

Oh well the point was it doesnt happen often lol.

[Koitsukai]

I don't think is part of the Arc but when Goku was preparing for Hit's coming, he was actually training ultra instinct and dodged Bulma's slap without even trying. I liked pretty much everything from the ToP.

[Lupin Vegeta]

While following the US saga live I felt like a kid again. It's the most ridiculously high stakes, over the top thing imaginable. In that respect I think they killed it, delivering what felt like a love letter to the "DBZ" I grew up with, but with everything turned up to 11 and EVERYONE getting a "moment". It truly felt like a natural conclusion to the never ending spiral of power levels and transformations that Dragon Ball has been ever since Goku's hair turned yellow for the first time. Goku even briefly achieves a state of fighting perfection and works with his greatest adversary.

I think we'll see a dramatic genre/tone shift going forward with the new art style, and I'm so glad I got to watch this arc live and feel 8 years old for a few months again.

Things I liked In checklist form
-The grandiosity of the concept
-The interactions between all of the U7 teammates
-The entire U7 vs U11 fight
-130, one of the nicest looking Dragon Ball productions ever
-The animation when the good animators were working
-The Roshi episode, fantastic
-Ultra Instinct - Goku briefly achieving perfection
-Vegeta being an absolute tank in the U11 fight after conserving stamina all tournament
-The focus on Gohan's intelligence in his fighting is fun
-17's strategic fighting is also fun and different
-Frieza took so many ass whoopings for his universe man he deserved to get revived by Whis lmao

[Asura]

I did love a lot of things about this arc which makes it the best arc of Super for me. In no particular order:

- 10 character teams which brought many older characters back into the show. Super has largely felt like the Goku & Vegeta show because they're basically the only ones we ever see fighting
- Battle Royale format
- Showing each person's elimination. Really sold it as a big ass tournament with a lot of people, would have been lame if a lot of them went off-screen
- Gohan's return to form
- Re-introduction of Android 17, making him into a fan favorite with how he was written
- Freeza is amazing
- Beerus
- Ultra Instinct is one of my favorite transformations, and it probably would be my favorite if it wasn't for Mastered UI being the true form and getting rid of the awesome looking black haired Omen in favor of ugly silver hair
- Caulifla and Kale are great characters
- The focus on Universe 6 in general, painting them as secondary protagonists
- The incredible art and animation which blows away everything else from Super by miles and even beats out Z in a lot of places
- The EXCELLENT soundtrack
- ULTIMATE BATTLE!
- The arena itself looks awesome, especially after it starts getting destroyed
- The atmosphere in this arc is amazing, especially after Toppo blows up the sky. Everything looks so beautiful and so cool with all the floating arena debris. Not to mention the entire thing lighting on fire in the final fight
- The kamehameha on Kefla. BEST Kamehameha in the franchise hands down.
- Jiren vs Goku, both parts (except for 129 with its ridiculous reuse of animation). 130 looked amazing from an animation perspective and 131 from an art perspective, although they both had great art and animation. 129 actually had great special effects though.
- The final fight being Jiren vs Goku, Freeza, and Android 17. Who would have thought the show would end in a 3v1, and with those characters? I love how different it is
- Goku and Freeza working together, Freeza lending his energy to Goku and not betraying him
- YUYA TAKAHASHI. It can not be stated enough how much this dude increased my enjoyment of the show. I love his art, he is the best artist the franchise has ever had IMO.
- The special. I think it really did a lot to bring people in to the show. I can't believe how many of the streaming websites crashed and how long they were down for when that episode aired, the excitement was insane, and they delivered such an incredible product.

There's probably a hell of a lot more.

[AnzuMazaki]

All of the new characters from the universes.

[Puaru]

Gohan's return to form

How can you possibly call it Gohans "return to form" when he, who was the second most important character and at the end the strongest character in all of DBZ, doesn't even last to the final battle this time around? He was a weak bitch during the entire tournament (being so weak that the had to be saved by Piccolo during his beam-struggle with the namekian, being so weak that he failed to eliminate Koichirator with his charged kamehameha, being so weak that he failed to do as much as even a smidgeon of damage on Toppo with any of his attacks), never did anything impressive or interesting, and went out in a totally anti-climactic way BEFORE the final battle, when even that no-name One Direction-ass looking nancy 17 got to stay in the fray?

Gohan sucked during this tournament. He should become a vaccum salesman because he is an expert in the field of sucking.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

I don't think is part of the Arc but when Goku was preparing for Hit's coming, he was actually training ultra instinct and dodged Bulma's slap without even trying. I liked pretty much everything from the ToP.

It also helped develop his relationship with Hit much more. Also the pre U.S arc stuff constantly showed how bored Goku was itching to fight, aswell as giving mini arcs to Gohan and Krillin to help ease the audience back into them.

[Asura]

Gohan's return to form

How can you possibly call it Gohans "return to form" when he, who was the second most important character and at the end the strongest character in all of DBZ, doesn't even last to the final battle this time around? He was a weak bitch during the entire tournament (being so weak that the had to be saved by Piccolo during his beam-struggle with the namekian, being so weak that he failed to eliminate Koichirator with his charged kamehameha, being so weak that he failed to do as much as even a smidgeon of damage on Toppo with any of his attacks), never did anything impressive or interesting, and went out in a totally anti-climactic way BEFORE the final battle, when even that no-name One Direction-ass looking nancy 17 got to stay in the fray?

Gohan sucked during this tournament. He should become a vaccum salesman because he is an expert in the field of sucking.

Gohan has done nothing for the entirety of Super. Expecting him to come back and be the strongest character like he was in Z is way too much. I don't know what you mean that he had to be "saved" by Piccolo during his beam struggle with the U6 Nameks. That was very clearly a planned, tactical move seeing as how Gohan doesn't even flinch because he knows Piccolo is charging his beam. Gohan was the one saving Piccolo in that fight. Koichierator literally pushed back SSB Goku and SSB Vegeta's beams at the same time, so expecting Gohan to be stronger than both SSB Goku & SSB Vegeta combined is pretty silly. Toppo was a GoD candidate, expecting Gohan to be stronger than someone like that after having done nothing for the entirety of the show is again, silly.

Not only did Gohan rack up an impressive amount of eliminations and had the most screen time aside from Goku, he eliminated U11's #3 player which not even Golden Freeza could solo on his own. Gohan did very well for himself and contributed a good amount, taking out Dyspo was the best I could have hoped for for him. It would be bullshit if they made him overpowered, and stupid if they made him so weak that all he could deal with was fodder, so I think they found a nice balance.

[Puaru]

I could have hoped for for him. It would be bullshit if they made him overpowered, and stupid if they made him so weak that all he could deal with was fodder, so I think they found a nice balance.

They allowed so much other bullshit in terms of power levels so why couldn't they have given Gohan the same treatment? 17 somehow got powerful enough to tangle with Jiren by training all by himself on some random island and having sex with animals, that's pretty bullshit if you ask me. Gohan could easily have been given an equally bullshitty excuse to become among the top-tiers, but he didn't, despite being a much more important character than that stupid 17 nobody.

Who cares that Gohan got a lot of screentime when none of what he did was awesome. He just eliminated no-name after no-name foes, while all the important shit was done by his stronger teammates

Gohan really really sucked during this arc, he really did.

[Kagari]

Gohan's return to form

How can you possibly call it Gohans "return to form" when he, who was the second most important character and at the end the strongest character in all of DBZ, doesn't even last to the final battle this time around? He was a weak bitch during the entire tournament (being so weak that the had to be saved by Piccolo during his beam-struggle with the namekian, being so weak that he failed to eliminate Koichirator with his charged kamehameha, being so weak that he failed to do as much as even a smidgeon of damage on Toppo with any of his attacks), never did anything impressive or interesting, and went out in a totally anti-climactic way BEFORE the final battle, when even that no-name One Direction-ass looking nancy 17 got to stay in the fray?

Gohan sucked during this tournament. He should become a vaccum salesman because he is an expert in the field of sucking.

Following the Trunks arc he basically replaced Vegeta as the second lead next to Goku for the majority of the arc. Had several episodes building up to his return to strength, beginning with his participating in the exhibition match, helping Goku select the Universe 7 team and recruitment with the Z Fighters, got his Ultimate form back through training with Piccolo and improved it further to the levels of Blue Goku. During that time he was also taught to shed his arrogance - a huge issue he had when he was given the upper hand in his fights in Z. Gohan also regained his fighting sense to become a serious, confident warrior which was shown to the audience when he challenged his father.

In the tournament itself he was focused on teamwork - the very thing which won U7 most big battles and the entire thing. He protected the weaker fighters on the team for a bit before teaming up with Piccolo. He took out several fighters, finished off Universe 10, then worked with Piccolo (saving him several times, mind you) to eliminate the last of Universe 6 - and before you say the Namekians were weak, they weren't. Piccolo couldn't do anything to them. And Piccolo assisting during the beam struggle doesn't make Gohan weak, he was fighting two powerful opponents at once. He wasn't weak fighting the fused robots either. His performance there was fine given Blue Goku and Vegeta weren't exactly doing much to it to begin with and performed rather on his own well before the team up scene.

Cherry picking Toppo is silly considering Gohan almost knocked him off with a Kamehameha before Toppo broke 17's barrier.

His elimination vs Dyspo (who was part of the final battle, mind you) could have been handled better from a production standpoint but the script part of it was fine. He came up with a solid plan, got Freeza of all people to listen to him, and executed it. It's on Freeza for dropping the cage, not Gohan. Gohan stepped up and sacrificed himself, going out like a hero to save the rest of the team. Having Dyspo still in play would have been trouble for everyone, as noted by Piccolo in the same episode.

At the end of the day, Gohan was handled better than he was in the Boo arc. He was developed into a serious, confident warrior that actually followed through and got things done. Not everything he did was flashy but the substance was certainly there, like it or not.

Gohan has done nothing for the entirety of Super. Expecting him to come back and be the strongest character like he was in Z is way too much. I don't know what you mean that he had to be "saved" by Piccolo during his beam struggle with the U6 Nameks. That was very clearly a planned, tactical move seeing as how Gohan doesn't even flinch because he knows Piccolo is charging his beam. Gohan was the one saving Piccolo in that fight. Koichierator literally pushed back SSB Goku and SSB Vegeta's beams at the same time, so expecting Gohan to be stronger than both SSB Goku & SSB Vegeta combined is pretty silly. Toppo was a GoD candidate, expecting Gohan to be stronger than someone like that after having done nothing for the entirety of the show is again, silly.

Not only did Gohan rack up an impressive amount of eliminations and had the most screen time aside from Goku, he eliminated U11's #3 player which not even Golden Freeza could solo on his own. Gohan did very well for himself and contributed a good amount, taking out Dyspo was the best I could have hoped for for him. It would be bullshit if they made him overpowered, and stupid if they made him so weak that all he could deal with was fodder, so I think they found a nice balance.

Also this. 100% this.

I could have hoped for for him. It would be bullshit if they made him overpowered, and stupid if they made him so weak that all he could deal with was fodder, so I think they found a nice balance.

They allowed so much other bullshit in terms of power levels so why couldn't they have given Gohan the same treatment? 17 somehow got powerful enough to tangle with Jiren by training all by himself on some random island and having sex with animals, that's pretty bullshit if you ask me. Gohan could easily have been given an equally bullshitty excuse to become among the top-tiers, but he didn't, despite being a much more important character than that stupid 17 nobody.

Who cares that Gohan got a lot of screentime when none of what he did was awesome. He just eliminated no-name after no-name foes, while all the important shit was done by his stronger teammates

Gohan really really sucked during this arc, he really did.

And yet Gohan was given one of the biggest power boosts out of anyone right before the tournament.

[Puaru]

Gohan's return to form

How can you possibly call it Gohans "return to form" when he, who was the second most important character and at the end the strongest character in all of DBZ, doesn't even last to the final battle this time around? He was a weak bitch during the entire tournament (being so weak that the had to be saved by Piccolo during his beam-struggle with the namekian, being so weak that he failed to eliminate Koichirator with his charged kamehameha, being so weak that he failed to do as much as even a smidgeon of damage on Toppo with any of his attacks), never did anything impressive or interesting, and went out in a totally anti-climactic way BEFORE the final battle, when even that no-name One Direction-ass looking nancy 17 got to stay in the fray?

Gohan sucked during this tournament. He should become a vaccum salesman because he is an expert in the field of sucking.

Following the Trunks arc he basically replaced Vegeta as the second lead next to Goku for the majority of the arc. Had several episodes building up to his return to strength, beginning with his participating in the exhibition match, helping Goku select the Universe 7 team and recruitment with the Z Fighters, got his Ultimate form back through training with Piccolo and improved it further to the levels of Blue Goku. During that time he was also taught to shed his arrogance - a huge issue he had when he was given the upper hand in his fights in Z. Gohan also regained his fighting sense to become a serious, confident warrior which was shown to the audience when he challenged his father.

In the tournament itself he was focused on teamwork - the very thing which won U7 most big battles and the entire thing. He protected the weaker fighters on the team for a bit before teaming up with Piccolo. He took out several fighters, finished off Universe 10, then worked with Piccolo (saving him several times, mind you) to eliminate the last of Universe 6 - and before you say the Namekians were weak, they weren't. Piccolo couldn't do anything to them. And Piccolo assisting during the beam struggle doesn't make Gohan weak, he was fighting two powerful opponents at once. He wasn't weak fighting the fused robots either. His performance there was fine given Blue Goku and Vegeta weren't exactly doing much to it to begin with and performed rather on his own well before the team up scene.

Cherry picking Toppo is silly considering Gohan almost knocked him off with a Kamehameha before Toppo broke 17's barrier.

His elimination vs Dyspo (who was part of the final battle, mind you) could have been handled better from a production standpoint but the script part of it was fine. He came up with a solid plan, got Freeza of all people to listen to him, and executed it. It's on Freeza for dropping the cage, not Gohan. Gohan stepped up and sacrificed himself, going out like a hero to save the rest of the team. Having Dyspo still in play would have been trouble for everyone, as noted by Piccolo in the same episode.

At the end of the day, Gohan was handled better than he was in the Boo arc. He was developed into a serious, confident warrior that actually followed through and got things done. Not everything he did was flashy but the substance was certainly there, like it or not.

Naw man, he sucked.When people think back at the most awesome moments from the ToP they are not thinking about anything Gohan did. Gohan never went beyond his limits like Goku did (gaining ultra instinct) Vegeta did (surviving his own suicide attack), 17 did (also surviving his own suicide attack). Gohan just did unimpressive unimportant crap that never looked cool or took real strenght. Everything he did are things that Goku could have done with one finger. Gohan is weak and pathethic.

[Kagari]

Naw man, he sucked.When people think back at the most awesome moments from the ToP they are not thinking about anything Gohan did. Gohan never went beyond his limits like Goku did (gaining ultra instinct) Vegeta did (surviving his own suicide attack), 17 did (also surviving his own suicide attack). Gohan just did unimpressive unimportant crap that never looked cool or took real strenght. Everything he did are things that Goku could have done with one finger. Gohan is weak and pathethic.

Speak for yourself. When I look back at the best moments from the tournament, my favorite parts are in 118 when Gohan saved Piccolo in a complete role reversal from the Saiyan arc and the father-son simultaneous Kamehameha against Universe 2 and 6.

You seem so stuck on 17, the same 17 who was off-screen for most of the tournament (had no fights from episodes 104-116), the same 17 who spent most of the final battle running around and didn't even take out a single one of the U11 big three. And the Vegeta stuff... well don't get me started on how awful his entire character was the whole arc. Cheapening his big emotional moment from Z isn't what I would call an "awesome moment."

[PFM18]

I could have hoped for for him. It would be bullshit if they made him overpowered, and stupid if they made him so weak that all he could deal with was fodder, so I think they found a nice balance.

They allowed so much other bullshit in terms of power levels so why couldn't they have given Gohan the same treatment? 17 somehow got powerful enough to tangle with Jiren by training all by himself on some random island and having sex with animals, that's pretty bullshit if you ask me. Gohan could easily have been given an equally bullshitty excuse to become among the top-tiers, but he didn't, despite being a much more important character than that stupid 17 nobody.

Who cares that Gohan got a lot of screentime when none of what he did was awesome. He just eliminated no-name after no-name foes, while all the important shit was done by his stronger teammates

Gohan really really sucked during this arc, he really did.

He dealt the final blow to Universe 6 and whatever Universe Obuni is from and then he also was vital in taking out Dyspo. Dyspo is kind of a big deal and he had some nice moments fighting against him like saving Freeza or brawling in that Death Beam cage or whatever