Post
by Scsigs » Mon Oct 21, 2019 2:56 pm
I DO agree that this arc has a LOT of problems, & I hate the characters acting stupid at points to make the plot happen, I still enjoy this arc a lot. But, I understand why you don't. If only Toriyama planned out this arc in advance. It would've resulted in better storytelling, but I like that it's constantly on the move, since it's being forced to by the rewrites. As you said, it has an unpredictability for it being always on the move. I appreciate an always moving story as opposed to one that doesn't move much, depending on the length & events of the story I'm experiencing. It's why I love One Piece. Yeah, it's a Jaguar on a treadmill, going nowhere fast, but the plots always have a movement that's decently fast for them. Granted, Oda clearly plans & is able to think on his feet better than Toriyama ever did with Dragon Ball on the whole, but I don't mind Toriyama doing it. However, it was clear Toriyama wanted to end the story or radically change it to be able to move on to something else by this point considering he was clearly done & burnt out, but that was no more clear than in the Buu arc & I think it's worse there.
Speaking of, I've heard Geekdom101 say a while ago that you don't consider the Buu arc that bad, but considering that's your lowest-ranked arc, it's clear that it has more problems.
When it comes to Super, I don't see its stories as stagnant, BUT the storytelling NEEDED work because it's clear that just outlines from Toriyama aren't enough & he SHOULD be a consultant on how the story's told as opposed to just planning the arcs out, since the writers & showrunners Toei hired for the series clearly had NO idea how Toriyama writes some of the characters or executions of some things. The Future Trunks arc IS an example of this, where they clearly had NO idea where everything was going most of the time & didn't have a lot of time to tell the story in a satisfactory way, which lead to a LOT of mediocre payoffs, constant bad shifts in direction, & bad pacing. I don't feel it was bad to bring Future Trunks back, since I'd think most people wouldn't've hated seeing him brought back, but what they did to him & his timeline was really bad & completely undermines the happy ending he had originally. Granted, it's not like his future wouldn't be faced with more threats, but how his arc in Super was handled was really bad, which I think most people agree on. Also, the fact that Super's arcs have no real tension because it's before the last chapter of the manga/last few episodes of Z REALLY holds it back & I hope, because we all know there's more coming at SOME point, that they finally push passed that point & get to actual new stuff that can be exciting.