ToP Arc: The Worst and most boring Arc of Super so far?

[MajinMan]

My personal feelings about the ToP arc aside, how could anyone rate this arc below Resurrection F? RF looks like literal trash, and it did VERY little to expand upon the movie version. The only new things were throwing Ginyu in the ring and killing Piccolo. Everything else was pretty much the same, but looked 100x worse. In fact, I think it is downright embarrassing that some of those episodes were even allowed to air on TV. Episode 24 was the ugliest piece of trash ever, and it was the debut episode for Super Saiyan Blue. Just think about that.

[Rubens]

Being the worst is debatable but it wasn't boring... At first.

I enjoyed most of the first episodes evolving the team recruitment section and the 3v3 fight against the wolves (I mean, how often did we get to see Boo fight?), despite some fragilities.

The problem for me, and the root of the boredom, was the tournament stage that was plain and boring - they had to "forget" it was made of katchin and added tons of rubble and environmental damage to make it more dynamic - it was overall a dark and dull scenario, and lots of annoying and repetitive nonsense overstayed their presence, for example Ribbriane (no offense to whoever likes her, it just stopped being entertaining after the first time) and her universe, characters losing stamina and going ss blue in the following episode, etc. All those factores and others contributed to exhaust the viewers' interest.

I remember at the time seeing people hoping and wondering if there would be a cutaway to earth for some subplot envolving Trunks and Goten defending 17's island... Unfortunately they didn't and instead kept treading forward to the very end. I seriously got tired of it and took me some time to finish watching the series.

I'm terms of being the worst... Out of Super, I personally think RoF was poorer.

[superfan2024]

Super Arcs ranked:

1. FT
2. ToP
3. U6
4. BoG
5. RoF

Unfortunately the ToP's improved art/animation didn't save it from being the first.

[ZombieVito]

In the manga it is.

Anime though? It's one of the best of Dragon Ball.

[Acetona]

Yeah, I think so too.

While I didn't like Future Trunks arc, at least it tried to tell some story, as convoluted as it could get with timelines and such. ToP arc's first act, where Goku was recruiting the team was extremely padded for no reason and forced drama to eleven, which felt like they were trying too hard sometimes. I mean, it was really necessary for Goku to lie to them about prize money and make them quit when they discovered the truth? It's so pointless it was dealt with in the same episode.

Then, we get to the tournament per si and things start to fall apart quickly. While it had the potential to play strategies and team work on a battle royale setting, they threw it all on the trash can. On the second episode, it turned to everyone vs Universe 7 and midway they simply stopped with team fights in favor for one on one battles. As mediocre as it was, that episode where Piccolo and Gohan fought those snipers guys was the most memorable, because they at least tried something different. We got like 40 episodes (almost a whole year of broadcasting) consisting mostly of repetitive and uninspired fight scenes with no plot progression and no interesting twists on the fights themselves. I find it funny when people say it's the best arc on the franchise, this show exactly what some fans expect of the series: brainless action.

because it was a really long arc and now dragonball fans can't handle it like back in the days seeing to long fights

I don't think that's the main issue. The Freeza fight still holds up today, because there are a lot of twists and some unpredictable things (you would probably disagree because we have seen it like a million times, but oh well).
On another note, One Piece fights drag on multiple episodes, but there is so much going on both plot and character-wise that I can totally ignore their lenght. It's a matter of execution. As I said, ToP fights are stale and repetitive.


EDIT: Super arcs ranked from best to worst:
BoG > U6 > FT > RoF > ToP
I do think RoF is awful, but it's short so it's a lot more bearable than ToP

[Forte224]

I found the U6 arc to be way more boring than the ToP. But yeah, the ToP also really dragged on and on far longer than it should have. The Zamasu arc was the only one that felt properly paced...until the last couple of episodes anyway.

[Hulk10]

I'd say the ToP was one of the worst arcs, due to its stakes. I really didn't like that. But I did like learning about the denizens of the other universes.

[PFM18]

In the manga it is.

Anime though? It's one of the best of Dragon Ball.

This. The manga pretty much butchered or didn't even include every storyline/narrative premise of the ToP that existed in the anime. The ToP in the anime, to me, is one of the very best the Dragon Ball franchise has to offer. The only arcs that I wouldn't have to think twice about placing above the ToP are the Saiyan and Namek arcs.

[Zamasu55]

You must be joking. The first three arcs were way worse.

[BWri]

In my opinion it is. Not only did we already have another tournament (2 arcs prior!) but the entire arc and build up to it was just.... Boring! It didn’t feel like the rest of db super that i fell in love with. The Future Trunks Arc was the very best imo. But after it, everything went downhill. I enjoyed every arc up until this point. But the ToP was just.. meh. I can’t truly explain exactly why. Since this is a higly subjective thing. It just feels so different imo. Ofcourse there are many reasons i could use. Such as the slow build up, the excess amount of fodder side characters with extremely boring and ugly designs. (Another tournament, sigh!) and several other reasons aswell.

Tournaments are overdone in Dragon Ball. And many fans (myself included) are done with it aswell. We want an actual villain for once. Something new, something unique, something mysterious. Something dark. Something ancient. This is exactly what made the Future Trunks Arc so great and why this new Arc by Toyotaro in the manga is looking to be very promising aswell! Just look at all the fans’ reaction to this manga chapter and see how excited they are to finally read the manga! Some people haven’t even read it in MONTHS! It was just boring, rehashing old material we’ve already seen in the Anime. But now (since a long time) people are finally excited again!

What do you guys think?

Manga ToP was mostly a disappointment for me, outside of some moments with Frost. Comparatively the anime ToP was genius, though riddled with logic issues (Saiyan stamina being the main offender). I had major problems with the anime ToP when Goku was in like every fight but overall it was tons of fun, had a great ending, some emotional moments, amazing fights, and tons of character moments to get me interested in new and old characters.

When it comes to absolute boredom, I have to go with the universe 6 arc tournament. Talk about needless and pedestrian. The only interesting thing about this tournament was Frost cheating and some world building hints from Cabba. I liked Hit, but this was the worst place to introduce a character like him. He should have had an arc all his own with someone hiring him to take out Goku and Vegeta. Everyone on Universe 6 needed to be fleshed out so much and it all feels rushed. Most of the fights were meaningless and had no stakes. And these characters hardly had any chemistry with Universe 7. They screwed up by making Frost and the others so weak. I'm a tournament-freak and this just didn't do it for me.

This and the following Pontefeu mini arc, which I skipped, nearly made me give up Super. I had also dropped the last 5 or so Frieza arc eps so this was the last straw. Luckily we got that Kamisend of a Trunks arc to get me interested again.

[Champa The Destroyer]

Worst no not really I find this arc very entertaining to watch despite having some issues. The animation was fantastic definitely an improvement compared to the previous arc and it introduced many cool looking character, it also has some of the best battles.

Boring not much but I do gotta admit I find the recruitment episodes, episode 106, 119, 126, 128 and 130 boring.

Wait, you find 130 to be boring?! That's one of the best fights in the entire franchise imo.

[Spider-Man]

Worst no not really I find this arc very entertaining to watch despite having some issues. The animation was fantastic definitely an improvement compared to the previous arc and it introduced many cool looking character, it also has some of the best battles.

Boring not much but I do gotta admit I find the recruitment episodes, episode 106, 119, 126, 128 and 130 boring.

Wait, you find 130 to be boring?! That's one of the best fights in the entire franchise imo.

Whoops I meant 129 it was that episodes I found boring but I don't hate 130 it was average.

[lancerman]

It's the only arc of Super I find worth rewatching

[wolflonnie]

Not at all. I loved it. It has certain boring points yes but it's the second best arc of super and one of DB's best ones in general.

[Rakurai]

I wouldn't say the worst or the most boring.

In the anime, that honor goes to U6 vs U7 or RoF IMO.

In the manga, that honor goes to U6 vs U7.

In the manga it is.

Anime though? It's one of the best of Dragon Ball.

This. The manga pretty much butchered or didn't even include every storyline/narrative premise of the ToP that existed in the anime. The ToP in the anime, to me, is one of the very best the Dragon Ball franchise has to offer. The only arcs that I wouldn't have to think twice about placing above the ToP are the Saiyan and Namek arcs.

Toyotarou adapts the story from Toriyama's outlines. Not Toei's.

The manga does a far better job at making the tournament feel realistic & a story as read from the original DB manga. Toriyama never gave all his villains a dedicated chapter on how to defeat them. He never hyper-focused on one or gave each and every one of them unnecessary transformations that felt like gags or parodies. And the anime was a horrible narrative mess from start to finish.

[GreatSaiyaJeff]

While I think it's the 2nd best arc in Super, right behind Future Trunks, it has it's fair share of flaws. The pacing is all over the place, Tien not being used efficiently like the others, and the same tired joke of Buu sleeping and Yamcha being a poor sob. Heck I think if you cut this arc down by 10 episodes, it probably would have been more better paced. As for the most boring or worst, it probably has to go to either BOG or RoF just because they are less efficent then their movie counter parts.

[Green]

The Tournament of Power as a arc as many problems, but I don't think it's the worst because of the highs reached in certain episodes. It would probably be the FNF retelling I guess, or the padding arcs written by Toei.

We start off with the Exhibition Match, and I find it to be a cut above the rest of the saga. Sadly though, the writers introduce the nonsensical concept of Goku being responsible of the universes' distruction, which is forgotten exactly 2 episodes later. Bergamo too has a rather convenient ability that he will also forgot in the tournament itself, but I'm sure the more joyous fans have, yet again, an excuse for that.

The U7 Recruitment is... a mess save for Freezer's portion. Pacing is so drawn out that when we watched it weekly some just left, there's your typical Toei madness (Gohan reaching Blue level overnight, a magic that makes Roshi several milions times stronger, the overuse of Blue) and instead of expanding on other universes the show focuses obsessively on our own with stories already seen.
Oh yeah, the few times other universes are seen it's a parody of M8 or the godly Nigrishi, strongest fighter of U3 who will have an amazing fight with Jiren himself... or not.
The U11 portion is somewhat decent though and a fresh breath of air, but totally forgettable.

The Tournament itself has been analyzed by others before me so I won't dig in too deep.
1) The universes vanishing mean nothing when the viewer doesn't care about those characters in the slightest
2) Drawing out episodes on single characters whose names I don't even remember is even worse
3) Turning the battle royale into an U7 vs all is the worst

All things said, there are some hype moments that make me go "woooah" and temporarily forget what remains left. For DBS, it's best to sit, turn off the brain and enjoy the show like kids.

[GodVegetto91]

You must be joking. The first three arcs were way worse.

That’s only your opinion. I really enjoyed these 3 Arcs despite 2 of them being retellings. It’s not always about quality. There are also always subjective personal feelings involved with preferences for certain arcs that have nothing to do with what people like you would consider to be “objective quality” (something that doesn’t even exist since preferences for a kids show are always entirely subjective) I especially liked the Battle of Gods Arc for various reasons. The ToP Arc, however, was just flat out.. Boring.. imo. That’s my opinion.

[BWri]

Oh yeah, the few times other universes are seen it's a parody of M8 or the godly Nigrishi, strongest fighter of U3 who will have an amazing fight with Jiren himself... or not.

That godly Nigrishi, strongest fighter in Universe 3 ... until he wasn't. I'm not even sure why they decided to hype this character up. I suppose whoever wrote his introductory episode wasn't around when he was eliminated by a no-looking Cabba.

3) Turning the battle royale into an U7 vs all is the worst

Yeah. It would have been okay if the plot at least acknowledged that this was going on, but everyone still treated it like a free for all. It may have added tension if this was acknowledged at least and if stamina actually mattered during the earlier episodes.

[sunsetshimmer]

Not only the worst DBS arc but also worst arc in entire franchise to me, at least in anime version that was unwatchable garbage.
Manga version was mostly fine and not bad compared to anime.

If we ingore that it's just retelling and rate arc itself, RoF arc was a lot better despite looking trash. It wasn't long arc while ToP took FOREVER due to tons of bad fillers after Goku Black arc, then tons of retarded episodes of Goku fighting with Roshi and others and then tons of forgettable episodes with irrelevant U7 fighters fighting against even more forgettable fighters. Not to mention that april fools joke SSJB Evolution form or Broly with lipstick. Also due to so many episodes, scenery became even more boring than Namek.