Post
by dbgtFO » Thu Sep 26, 2019 8:38 am
I prefer the anime's narrative to the manga, but not overwhelmingly so. The anime could definitely have improved by incorporating some things from the manga and that would have been ideal along with my own little changes.
Introduction
They both start out strong with the anime adding a much needed emotional aspect, because they actually have Bulma die on-screen, whereas in the manga it has already happened. What the manga does better is make good use of the minor characters to establish how timetravel works in DB. It starts out with Jaco visiting Bulma and co. and warning her about it, while Trunks and the Pilaf Gang were mistakenly taught about alternate timelines in class, whereas the anime's school scene with Trunks has him learn basic arithmetic, which is not at all relevant to anything. I find that to be a problem in the anime, as the minor characters just do minor character things, instead of providing some insight to the story and being useful that way. Instead that is all handled by Whis later on, when Trunks shows up.
Goku-Black appearing in the past is such a good thing and it's extremely disappointing it's not in the manga. The timerings are not supposed to take you to the past, but it makes sense to make this a special occasion, because of Trunks' timetravel distorting things to the point where the timerings had to react. Of course the anime doesn't stick the landing and provide the reasoning I would want for this to be possible(ie. that Trunks unbeknownst to him was creating a new timeline) and instead goes with the ridiculous time loop, bootstrap paradox nonsense, that I despise so much, but it really establishes that messing with time will result in all sorts of unforeseen circumstances.
This also leads to Black destroying Trunks' timemachine and forcing the callback to Cell having timetravelled, which works really well, but unfortunately they don't take fully advantage of that fact by the end of the arc(ie. having Trunks and Mai move to Cell's abandoned timeline)but it's at least a nice callback.
Another criticism of this part however is that it's Beerus and Whis who recognize Black's ki as being Zamasu's, as if they just know every God of every universe. I would expect there to be some backstory there, but none is provided and so they just know Zamasu, because reasons...
This is where the manga scene of Shin and Kibito visiting Gowasu and Zamasu would come in play. They of course have started to associate themselves with other Kaioshin of the other Universes and so would be the ones to recognize Goku-Black's ki as part Zamasu's later on. Here in this scene we also have the manga make a callback to Majin Buu, whose Arc apparently doesn't really exist for Toriyama in DB Super at all, considering how much it's shafted and major consequences of it are sweeped under the rug, so it doesn't have to be brought up.
Making the callback to Majin Buu would serve to introduce Zamasu to the idea of a mortal being stronger than Gods and so he would be requesting too see this mortal in question who dealt with Buu. Then you have Shin and Kibito going to Earth to inform Goku at which point, Goku-Black appears and they'd be able to suggest that his ki was similar to Zamasu's.
The anime and manga both dropped the ball here, but the manga at least has Shin and Kibito being prominent in an arc about a rouge Apprentice Kaioshin, instead of Beerus and Whis knowing everything(in the manga of course Beerus confirms he doesn't know who Zamasu is).
Another point for the manga comes with its great handling of Future Trunks' conflict with Babidi and Dabra, which was quickly glossed over in the anime.
Middle
Here after Goku-Black has come and went and in the manga where Zamasu has been introduced we start the investigation phase into who Goku-Black is. The anime of course has the massive advantage of Goku-Black having appeared in the past and exposed his ki, which leads to Goku confronting Zamasu in Universe 10 and understandably leading to Zamasu's obsession with him. Whereas the manga does not have such fantastic storytelling and instead we jump straight to Zamasu and Gowasu visiting Future Planet Barbari and Zamasu not being triggered by much to concoct his evil plot. The anime really excells here, whereas the manga has Kibito being suspected here as a gag. The manga also suffers from the fact, that they already have it all figured out by the time they make their first travel to Trunks' timeline, whereas in the anime the mystery is far from solved. The only thing they didn't know in the manga was the fact that Goku-Black had recruited the Zamasu of Trunks' timeline, which was admittedly revealed in a cool way, once again having Shin be of good use by using the timering and observing that timeline. So in the manga Goku doesn't personally meet the Zamasu of his timeline that would eventually steal his body and instead only meets the Goku-Black version of him in another timeline and what's more they never even fight! It's a huge disappointment!
At least the anime made good use of all of them and had Goku and Vegeta each try fighting either of them with Trunks thrown in there too.
Goku-Black in the manga is exactly what it says on the tin; Zamasu's soul in Goku's body and his personality has stayed the same. Unfortunately he's a bit too whiny and can't handle setbacks well. In the anime he's a psycopath who maintains his composure, laughs at the pain he's feeling and manages to find a way out of trouble. Taking over Goku's body changed him in a way that makes him a bit like Goku in enjoying fighting and striving to get stronger. I feel this was a good way to handle the character, whereas the manga just stuck to the same old villain type, who complains and rages, when being bested.
The anime also has more cooperation between Zamasu and Black, while in the manga Zamasu is a non-entity, which is the same with Trunks because they both lack power compared to Goku, Vegeta and Goku-Black. So they both become support characters because of their healing ability instead of fighting prowess and that's fine, but it's a bit boring.
The anime has Trunks reach a new form and it's cool, but it isn't explained. I like it, but I definitely didn't like it appearing without a proper explanation. The manga instead just has a SS2 form for Trunks that is strong as SS3, but it's only good enough for besting Future Zamasu and can't deal with SS Rosé Goku-Black.
While I like that Goku-Black is smug and such in the anime, I feel like they sometimes take it too far with him not appearing to be bested. When he mentions how he killed the Gods, no one actually points out that he lacked the strength necessary to kill any God of Destruction. He just gets to say it unchallenged by anyone, as if he's that powerful. The manga at least has Goku In chapter 19 point out that he only could do it, because he took advantage of the Kaioshins' lives being linked with the Gods. You can turn this into Black pointing out how fragile the system is, because of that and still maintain his cool, but him going unchallenged is pretty bad to me and I appreciate the manga for actually bringing up that plot point, because that's the exact reason Black even got so far in the first place.
Climax and ending
So we are here where Goku and Vegeta have escaped from the Future once again and Trunks is left to deal with Black and Zamasu. Once again I like that Gowasu and Shin are more involved, but I don't think they needed to be that involved, but at least Trunks' escape is actually shown instead of the anime, where he starts fighting the two and then next episode he has apparently managed to escape without any mention as to how. In the manga Goku is the one who brought up Mafuba, but Goku never knew about the backstory in the first place, because he wasn't around, when Roshi recounted it to everyone after the 22nd Tournament, so that doesn't make sense. In any case they go back and in both mediums manage to get there in the nick of time, before Black and Zamasu finish off everyone.
Here I must say while the return of SSG is cool, it all seems a bit boring, so I sway more towards the anime with just having them fight with Blue from the get go. Trunks learning Mafuba in 5 minutes was ridiculous, but I don't really have an ideal way to handle this, though I'd probably prefer Goku doing it, like in the manga. In any case Zamasu and Black merge and no surprise it was more of a spectacle in the anime with over the top visuals and what not, while the manga was understandably more subdued, but unfortunately lacking because of that.
Merged Zamasu getting creative with his attacks was a nice breeze of fresh air in the anime and the manga could have taken some inspiration. Instead he just throws Katchin blocks. I wanted him to at least make a giant sword out of those blocks and use that as a weapon. Vegetto was only there in the anime for 10 minutes and it was a bit of a shame how rushed episode 66 seemed like. At least in the manga we get far more after the merging came undone, but it doesn't seem as grandiose as the anime, despite the anime being far shorter. The manga then has Goku know Hakai without ever actually showing him having witnessed it in the first place like he did in the anime, which is pretty bad. The anime has Trunks use a Genkidama in his sword, which doesn't make much sense either, as there are so few humans left to power it. So they both suffer greatly from that.
I do appreciate the anime for actually having some survivors that the cast interact with. It helps to give it a bigger emotional resonance with the audience. In the manga there are only Trunks and Mai left, which drags it down.
By the end of it all Zeno wipes out everything and it ends disappointingly with neither utilizing Cell's timeline, as Trunks and Mai's new home. Of course there just had to be another line about how it's Whis who's going to travel to the future, even though Whis told them earlier in the arc he can only turn back time by 3 minutes. This is just the anime shafting the Kaioshin again, who are the ones responsible for timetravel, not Whis. The manga doesn't confirm that Shin or Gowasu would be going to the future, but ideally it would be Shin, who would go there.
Conclusion
Both have a bunch of bullshit, that don't really make a lot of sense and they both seem they could have benefitted by making the arc longer. The anime is only 21 episodes long and the manga is only 14 chapters long(although averaging ~40 pages per chapter).
I liked how the manga actually bothered to give its take on the timetravel mechanics in detail, whereas the anime unfortunately doesn't delve into it that much. In particular the fact that time passes concurrently between timelines. It does so in the anime too, but they don't mention it ie. all time travels to the future could have conveniently been done, so as to return the second after they left for the past, but they don't. Instead hours and days passes in the future the same way it does in the present, solidifying that's how it works.
Goku-Black's characterization is pretty good in the anime and they manage to use the core cast in a great way. The manga manages to bring in the minor characters and have them give good insight to the plot with Pilaf at the end figuring out time travel, which is pretty good.
The fighting is better in the anime and Goku and Vegeta aren't so dead set on only fighting alone, so everyone gets to fight here, even Trunks.
So at the end of the day, while I have a lot of problems with the anime, I do prefer it, but I definitely wish it had taken some elements from the manga, ditched the bootstrap paradox, actually explained the whole Kaioshin backstory and put Trunks and Mai in Cell's timeline.
. Also, Turles appearance in the anime/manga doesn't mean automatically that the movie is canon, like Bardock's appearance in the manga doesn't mean that the Bardock's whole special is canon. It will depend of the explanation behind his appearance, if there's one.
