Future Trunks Arc vs Universal Survival Arc

[DestructoDisc]

Which arc do you think was better?

I personally think the Future Trunks arc was better. I liked Zamasu and Goku Black, I liked the action scenes, I liked Future Mai, I liked many things about it. The Universal Survival arc was just too dragged out for me to put it above the the Future Trunks arc.

[SupremeKai25]

Our opinions coincide. Zamasu truly was the best villain in Dragon Ball. The most developed villain, the most complex villain, a multi-layered villain, with one of the most unique and creative designs ever. It is clear that Zamasu is the most successful Dragon Ball villain ever, since he was able to kill Goku, obtain immortality, merge with the very fabric of the cosmos, and expand his power way beyond the league of the protagonists, since they needed to cowardly summon Grand Zeno to defeat him. Even so, Zamasu brought everyone down along with him, and deprived Trunks of his home. It is clear that the villain, Zamasu, carried this arc. Zamasu made this arc interesting and worth watching. It is therefore not a surprise that many episodes of this arc were devoted to estabilishing Zamasu's backstory, given how the mystery surrounding this divine individual was the cornerstone of the arc. Now that is how you write a compelling antagonist, not the mess called "Jiren".

The Universal Survival arc was just too dragged out for me to put it above the the Future Trunks arc.

A very convincing argument. The Recruitment phase alone was as long as the Future Trunks arc, clearly it was way too long. I still don't understand why they devoted so much time to building Krillin and Tien for the Tournament when they proved to be quite useless. I mean, what did Krillin even do in the Tournament? Aside from defeating a couple of fodder grunts from Universe 4 that weren't a threat anyway. Well, I guess his constant screaming proved to be vital in encouraging Goku. Way too much time was devoted to fodder like Krillin, Tien and the freaks of Universe 2. The result was that the final fight against Jiren could have been much longer and significantly more intense, but was reduced to a mere 5 episodes fight.

[SsjCookie]

Definitely the Zamasu saga.

Why?....because it had tension and character building, not to mention story building.
It wasn't perfect of course but it was still waaaay better than the TOP in my humble opinion.
That was just dumb fighting for the sake of fighting, you would think that they weren't fighting for the survival of their universe by the lacklustre way they went about it.
Smelly shoe attack?....Really Krillin, you used to be so hardcore, and the same goes for Piccolo and Tien.

The Zamasu arc had an interesting villain and some sympathetic protagonists. (Mai the kids and the resistance.)
I was really sad when they were wiped out in the end.
Not so much in the TOP though, I found myself not caring much about what happened with the universes because it seemed to me that they didn't cared either.

[Grimlock]

Future Trunks saga, obviously.

It is the best saga that came out of Dragon Ball Super despite being a mediocre one nonetheless. It had some substance in it, it had an actual plot, things were occurring, there was a little bit of tension, there was a little bit of dark tone. What prevented it from being a better saga was, of course, the lack of daring to bring the different, the lack of exploring concepts. Still, what we got is way better than tournaments, we have had just one and then we jumped right into another. Tournaments are just a bunch fights that do not actually drive forward the plot, if only erasing Universes was tied into a plot for a huge twist/revelation/appearance of a villain towards the end... nope, all the Universes were erased? Now let's just bring them back!

We can have tournaments, but once in a long while.

[MyNiggaGoku]

Since I consider the manga to be my main source for Super, I can't make the comparison because the ToP is not finished yet. So far however, I prefer the FT arc but again, that's probably because I can have a full opinion on the whole arc. But I'd dare to say that the ToP has the potential to surpass the FT arc, depending on how it's handled ofc.

[PFM18]

I enjoyed the ToP arc more. I loved both but I just liked the ToP arc more. Tournaments are a core part of the Db franchise and I think the ToP was handled extremely well despite having a few flaws here and there.(Every arc does.) To me, the ToP arc is a top 3 arc in the franchise.

IMO, both are amazing arcs and top 5 in the franchise easily.

[Lord Beerus]

The Future Trunks arc certainly had a much better story to tell, as well as having a better fleshed out central antagonist, but the Universal Survival arc had much better fights, better music, provided better utilization of the cast and the ending was much more satisfying.

I really like both arcs a lot, but we're going by narrative, characterisation and overall presentation, I'd have to go with the Future Trunks arc. If the criteria of judgement is based purely on spectacle and visual showcases, then the Universal Survival arc wins.

[Marlowe89]

The anime's Future Trunks arc commits a few major missteps and egregious flaws, but still feels like a carefully crafted story arc with a clear sense of direction and purpose. The anime's Universe Survival arc suffers from the opposite problem -- it has a few big highlights and compelling moments, but still feels like a story arc that lacks any cohesion or direction whatsoever.

A lot of it has to do with scripting. For the FT arc, it never felt like the scriptwriters' talents were wasted, and they were often assigned to episodes that played more to their individual strengths (like King Ryu and a mostly slice-of-life oriented episode before the big confrontation against Black, for example). For the Tournament of Power, Toei didn't exactly pull off the chaotic feeling of its setting in a convincing way and often dedicated unnecessary time to characters that weren't integral to the overarching plot. FT felt more focused in narrative and characterization overall.

[prince212]

Mmm I think I’ll take future trunks, because of the unexpected things and thrilling story ,I really enjoyed last two chapters of t.o.p arc ..
If we talk about the manga .. t.o.p is not done , is looking so good but I can’t see this arc taking over f.t arc , we will see ..
I enjoyed both arcs , if I choose zamasu arc is more due to some unappealing chapters of the tournament more than about the content.

[PFM18]

Zamasu truly was the best villain in Dragon Ball

I agree with this. He actually had a real motivation and he wasn't like overpowered strong so the fights with him were more interesting rather than most arcs where both sides alternate between dominating each other with very very few close contested fights.

Well, Freeza might still be better but it is close.

[shadd21]

With the exception of the Vegetto Blue vs Zamasu fight and that brief moment when Goku and Trunks fought Black and Zamasu, all of the action scenes in the Future Trunks arc were stiff af

Reused animation be damn, the action scenes of the ToP at least had movement to them

[SupremeKai25]

Zamasu truly was the best villain in Dragon Ball

I agree with this. He actually had a real motivation and he wasn't like overpowered strong so the fights with him were more interesting rather than most arcs where both sides alternate between dominating each other with very very few close contested fights.

Well, Freeza might still be better but it is close.

Is Frieza still a villain though? I think he became an antihero in the Universal Survival arc, since he was a protagonist who lacked conventional heroic qualities.

[DHM211]

As a whole (because there are quite a few USA arc episodes I love), I would say in terms of story: Future Trunks arc. In terms of art/animation: Universal Survival Arc.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

In terms of overall story: Future Trunks arc obviously! Great villains and a very compelling story (up until #67).

In terms of art/animation: Universe Survival arc. Unfortunately the Trunks arc is the most inconsistent looking thing ever.

In terms of epic moments: Slight edge to the Universe Survival arc ULTRA INSTINCT!

I'm terms of musical score: Slight edge to the Trunks arc..
Just so good perfectly captured the arc.

[Yuli Ban]

The Future Trunks arc is the anime's only original non-tournament arc, so it wins by default.
That said, I have plenty of problems with it, but I've already stated them before. It's just a sad fact that DBS's best story is still below mediocre in terms of writing and execution, at least if put on a level playing field with other works. Zamasu has one of Dragon Ball's only villainous arcs, something that gives real explanation for why he wants to achieve what he wants other than raw destruction for its own sake, and even then it's a pretty lousy reason that isn't adequately explained well. In the manga, the desperate, on-the-cuff nature of his plan is more adequately shown off, resulting in Goku Black coming off as if he's constantly about to fall apart. It takes away from his sheer overpowered mystery in the anime, but it actually shows that Zamasu wasn't fully planning ahead and his Zero Mortals Plan is basically being created as he goes along.
Also, we got Vegetto Blue. I don't even want to think about how powerful Vegetto Blue is.

[ZombieVito]

I love both arcs and they are easily in my top 5 of the whole franchise but I have to give it to the Future Trunks arc. Anime version of course, manga one is just shit and deserves to be hakai'd.

- One of the best villains in all DB, the most OP/Broken one and my personal favorite one.

- Made great use of Trunks and some side characters.

- A fantastic ending with actual consequences.

- An actual mystery with twist and turns.

- Builds up the world a lot.

- Fights were a step up from the previous arc.

- Vegetto's return was superb.

[Bergamo]

I love both arcs and they are easily in my top 5 of the whole franchise but I have to give it to the Future Trunks arc. Anime version of course, manga one is just shit and deserves to be hakai'd.

- One of the best villains in all DB, the most OP/Broken one and my personal favorite one.

- Made great use of Trunks and some side characters.

- A fantastic ending with actual consequences.

- An actual mystery with twist and turns.

- Builds up the world a lot.

- Fights were a step up from the previous arc.

- Vegetto's return was superb.

Oh yeah, the manga is so much worse than SUPER SAIYAN RAGE(somehow more redundant than super perfect cell).

[Dbzfan94]

Black arc falls apart completely in the last third and the ending is horrendous.

ToP is barely a story with only a select few great moments out of an otherwise boring slogfest.

I'd still go with Black arc tho because it tries to do something new and the beginning was fantastic

[Torturephile]

The future saga, simply out of it being a story. The downsides were the mood whiplashes, the art and animation at times, some narrative issues, and that the story generally took a nosedive since the end of episode 61. At least its characters and their interactions were memorable, the new soundtrack was fairly good, and it was dark, tonewise.

The ToP saga, on the other hand, barely had story, unique characters or at least ones to care about, and had more inconsistent quality of storytelling and pacing. The music introduced during it, however, was the best of the show, and I liked its art and animation along with fight sequences.

[PFM18]

The Future Trunks arc is the anime's only original non-tournament arc, so it wins by default.
That said, I have plenty of problems with it, but I've already stated them before. It's just a sad fact that DBS's best story is still below mediocre in terms of writing and execution, at least if put on a level playing field with other works. Zamasu has one of Dragon Ball's only villainous arcs, something that gives real explanation for why he wants to achieve what he wants other than raw destruction for its own sake, and even then it's a pretty lousy reason that isn't adequately explained well. In the manga, the desperate, on-the-cuff nature of his plan is more adequately shown off, resulting in Goku Black coming off as if he's constantly about to fall apart. It takes away from his sheer overpowered mystery in the anime, but it actually shows that Zamasu wasn't fully planning ahead and his Zero Mortals Plan is basically being created as he goes along.
Also, we got Vegetto Blue. I don't even want to think about how powerful Vegetto Blue is.

....the only non-tournament arc so it wins by default? Ok so in DB the Piccolo Daimao Arc wins by default since most of the arcs are tournament arcs?

I love both arcs and they are easily in my top 5 of the whole franchise but I have to give it to the Future Trunks arc. Anime version of course, manga one is just shit and deserves to be hakai'd.

- One of the best villains in all DB, the most OP/Broken one and my personal favorite one.

- Made great use of Trunks and some side characters.

- A fantastic ending with actual consequences.

- An actual mystery with twist and turns.

- Builds up the world a lot.

- Fights were a step up from the previous arc.

- Vegetto's return was superb.

Well said. I agree an just about everything.Although I wish the Vegetto fight was a bit longer.

And I wish they found a way for it to end without Zeno erasing everything and making Trunks start from square 1.