Kanzenshuu

those "awakenings" refer to his rage boosts, not specifically Super Saiyan.
I know, that was my original point. Beast would only also be rooted in Super Saiyan if both:
1. Ultimate was rooted in Super Saiyan
and
2. Beast was rooted in Ultimate
But...

he was clearly Ultimate right before ...

Toriyama was only speaking about the form's design.
No, he wasn't. This is not a comment about the design:
Gohan has achieved his own unique evolution, based off the sort of awakenings he had as a boy. I've even named this transformation "Son Gohan Beast", in the sense that the wild beast within ...

Also, when Trunks shows up he says "Goten, I hear you've been training." That makes it sound like Goten training isn't the norm.

I'm never going to take the extra effort to type the name correctly, but I do agree that it being so extra adds a bit to his character, and is funny. Dragon Ball is funny sometimes.

It's clearly supposed to be an evolution of Ultimate. That's why Gohan was in his Ultimate form when he unlocked it.

On the one hand....
Toriyama had every opportunity to mention Ultimate when explaining what he had in mind with Beast, and he didn't. I don't think it's clear in that panel that ...

Yeah, there's no special reason why Beast and Ultra Instinct both give the characters white/grey/silver hair. Just kinda arbitrary, like many things in this series.

Ultra Instinct is an angel technique, so it's got the angel's hair color, makes enough sense. Beast is not an angelic state, nor is ...

It was funny.

I enjoy the Cell arc quite a bit, but I couldn't imagine including it in the "Dragon Ball and Toriyama at their best" section. There is a ton of sloppy and questionable writing in that arc. I think it especially sucks as an ending to Goku's story. The "badguy magnet" excuse quickly falls apart under ...

He is a pretty bland character, and I've never understood how he's got diehard fans. But every character is someone's favorite, so it's okay if I don't get it. I don't mind that he's kind of pointless. Him just existing makes the world seem a bit bigger, like Bra in the epilogue. In life, some ...

I was introduced to Dragon Ball as a 6 year old in 1998, via Cartoon Network's initial run of the 1996 "Ocean dub" of Dragon Ball Z. The earliest Dragon Ball related memory I have is agreeing with a friend of mine in thinking that it seemed stupid. I can't remember if this was based on what we heard ...

He incites the plot, but he does so as an outsider. He often exits the story, where we do not see his perspective, and then he returns. We do get a flashback bonus chapter showing his backstory, but that's created long after his debut. Finally, he does still kinda bookend the arc, with its closing ...

It's been a while, but I remember finding the anime's ToP to feature, and the manga's Granola arc to constitute, meditations on the nature of strength as a goal. What lies beyond strength? Is being the strongest enough? Is being the strongest something that lasts? In that way, both stories are ...

Long post, kinda stream of consciousness, sorry it isn't more/better organized.

I think the notion that Dragon Ball's original run (where Toriyama was actually the one putting pen to paper) is less indicative of his writing ability than modern Dragon Ball (where others are the ones putting pen to ...

I think it's a mistake to conflate Canon and Continuity. One significant and important way in which they diverge is that a Canon is basically a collection of works sharing a trait that has out-of-universe significance, while a Continuity is basically a collection of works sharing a trait that has in ...

You could even relate it back to how the Piccolo arc establishes those killed by demons don't pass on into the afterlife, and that every other version of Boo contained at least a little bit of Kaioshin in him making him not a full demon/Majin/whatever


But connecting him to Piccolo and ...

What larger themes and topics shake loose from this story?
When it comes to learning or not learning lessons: I don't think that "they could have defeated Freeza more easily if they worked together" is actually necessary for them to learn, for the story to have a meaningful payoff. It is true that ...

(snip rants)

Actually, this could be a great video subject for DBD in the future: a breakdown of what 'action' and 'adventure' storytelling needs and requires, and when Dragon Ball does them well and poorly and why one so totally won out over the other.

That's like... Your opinion.

Given ...

I like to think people who are absorbed by Buu are eventually fully digested into him, thus the two Kaioshin he absorbed pretty much don't exist anymore.

Yeah if they still existed I think we'd have seen them in pods in the Boo arc. Granted, the story about the five Kaioshin came after the inside ...

stuff

Re: Boo arc Goku and Family
See, if Dragon Ball was at its core a story about family and friendship, I would be much more focused on the kind of husband and father Goku is when thinking about his character arc. But Dragon Ball is at its core a story about fighting and growing stronger, so ...

stuff

Re: Gohan
Yeah, we agree that Gohan was a botched attempt. Because Gohan sucks at doing this Goku thing, and Goku didn't do enough to help him not suck at it before dipping. So it's a good thing that Goku came back and we got a less shaky ending.

Re: Teachers
We're really splitting hairs ...