"Dragon Ball Super (Manga)" Official Discussion Thread

[Omori]

VJUMP currently has an "Interval Special" (like we got between Granolah and SH).
Back then it went for three months (Sep, Oct, Nov) before returning in Dec 22.

This month we got Vol. 2 of the interval special showing a new Gohan Beast illustration, the month before Gero's son Gevo.

I think we get at least another "interval month". Manga return at earliest in July, or even later.
The official site even mentioned that the interval special will run until a arc starts.

[Vegard Aune]

That does seem to imply that there will be a new arc at least? I mean the status of the manga is still somewhat in limbo.

...Incidentally I recently finished reading the Granolah arc and yeah I don't see how y'all can say that Black Freeza is not important. Like, the entire arc basically seems to, on a meta level, exist to hammer home the point that as powerful as the rest of our cast is, Freeza when he actually puts his mind to it is in a league of his own. All the antagonists' motivations link back to Freeza, and the moment where the man finally appears in person feels framed almost like a horror scene, meant to impart both on Goku & Co. and us the readers the utter hopelessness of the fight that lies ahead of them.
Like even putting aside the question of whether another arc that's just "We have to defeat Freeza!" again will actually be any good (I mean I thought the original Freeza arc overstayed its welcome and Resurrection F had basically zero substance)... to me that seems to be unambiguously what Toyotaro and Toriyama were building up to.

[super michael]

In DBS Broly movie Vegeta does say what would happen if Freeza trains. It is good to see in the Graholah we got result what happens when Freeza trains hard for 10 years in the ROSAT.

[Miracles]

That does seem to imply that there will be a new arc at least? I mean the status of the manga is still somewhat in limbo.

...Incidentally I recently finished reading the Granolah arc and yeah I don't see how y'all can say that Black Freeza is not important. Like, the entire arc basically seems to, on a meta level, exist to hammer home the point that as powerful as the rest of our cast is, Freeza when he actually puts his mind to it is in a league of his own. All the antagonists' motivations link back to Freeza, and the moment where the man finally appears in person feels framed almost like a horror scene, meant to impart both on Goku & Co. and us the readers the utter hopelessness of the fight that lies ahead of them.
Like even putting aside the question of whether another arc that's just "We have to defeat Freeza!" again will actually be any good (I mean I thought the original Freeza arc overstayed its welcome and Resurrection F had basically zero substance)... to me that seems to be unambiguously what Toyotaro and Toriyama were building up to.

You are right. The entire plot of Granolah was the main opponent getting strong enough to beat Freeza. As well as the Heeta's looking to overcome the Emperor. The story was telling the audience the whole time Freeza was the man and was gunned as so.

[FortuneSSJ]

Dragon Ball manga volume 39 drawn by Toyotaro. So good.



This is part of the 40th Anniversary Tribute “Dragon Ball Super Gallery" - https://www.kanzenshuu.com/2021/08/09/4 ... kishimoto/

[Rafa Fast]

Is it any safe to assume that the manga will be returning in August? I think it's possible as the previous break lasted 3 months, if we don't get a chapter in July, then the current break will last a similar period but a extra month, plus, they are going to make a DB comic con panel in late July, they are going to announce new Daima stuff there, they could very well also announce the new manga saga there for August, or nah?

If we don't get a new chapter in the next 2 months, then I believe the most obvious month for the manga to return is October, so they'll make a Triple Dragon Ball Content Release Party, with Sparking Zero, Daima and the new manga saga.

[JulieYBM]

Is it any safe to assume that the manga will be returning in August? I think it's possible as the previous break lasted 3 months, if we don't get a chapter in July, then the current break will last a similar period but a extra month, plus, they are going to make a DB comic con panel in late July, they are going to announce new Daima stuff there, they could very well also announce the new manga saga there for August, or nah?

If we don't get a new chapter in the next 2 months, then I believe the most obvious month for the manga to return is October, so they'll make a Triple Dragon Ball Content Release Party, with Sparking Zero, Daima and the new manga saga.

I think that it's best to just wait and see how things pan out, rather than trying to predict when Shueisha will publish more chapters.

[The Monkey King]

At this point I suspect the DBS Manga will come back in October to coincide with Daima and Sparking Zero.

[TheRed259]

The Manga has been on hiatus for quite some time now. It's so obvious that they don't know what to do now that Toriyama is no longer with them.

[nineko]

Even if it's hard to be optimistic at this time, and while it's not really a strong evidence, Dragon Ball Super isn't being treated as an ended series in the Shōnen Jump app, so I'll personally keep a little bit of hope that it's going to resume eventually. Just like I hope that the anime can resume as well.

[obiwan23s]

I would imagine that the manga team is probably working with Toriyama's former editors or something like that to storyboard the next arc, so it's going to take longer to figure everything out. I could see them doing one last arc, connecting it to EoZ and then they formally end Super.

Obviously from a business point of view they'd like to continue it, but with Toriyama gone, they'd have to sell fans on their brand of storytelling. Much easier said than done. Just look at Star Wars without Lucas. Very different franchise now.

[Rafa Fast]

While I would like to see Super ending and a new manga starting, I think I do understand why they are going to continue it, imagine, if they are going to animate the Moro and Granolla sagas, how are they going to call it? Would they still call it Super? Would they really be promoting a "dead brand"? I personally wouldn't mind it, but from a corporate perspective that probably wouldn't be good I think?

[Zephyr]

The sub-series brand names mean very little. Kai wasn't branded as a "Z" thing until it was. Final Bout wasn't branded as a "GT" thing until it was. Games with "Z" in the title have tons of non-"Z" stuff. Games without "Z" in the title focus on "Z" stuff. They adapted two "Z" movies into "Super". They could easily adapt two "Super" arcs into "Daima", or whatever else. And on the flip, they could easily adapt the "Daima" TV series into the "Super" manga.

[Koitsukai]

After the Super Super Hero title, everything goes.

[sangofe]

It would be terrible to have a Daima mange if it stops the Super manga. I'd only be up for a Daima manga if some other expiernced new mangaka did it.

[TobyS]

They can easily switch to daima to adapt the daima arc as super is on hiatus, then just say hey that's over so now supers resuming now.

Or they can call it super and just have the arc be the daima arc.

Or change the branding to be daima and then the next super arc is perhaps a manga continuation of the daima story and brand with no need to switch back.

They could skip adapting daima like broly or have another author do it and run them concurrently.

They've got a few options we just have to wait and see.

[LoganForkHands73]

I have a feeling Toyotaro will provide a unique Super-ized spin on the Daima material if he has to adapt it. From what we've seen of all the promo material for Daima, it seems to be sidestepping the events of Super as much as possible, aside from Shin and Kibito being defused (which can easily be explained due to the de-ageing curse) and possibly a shot of Whis (or another Angel, based on the eye colour) in the trailer. Regardless of where it fits into the timeline, we'll probably get more cameos of Super era characters to see what they're up to while all this childish shit is happening.

Anyway, there's something I wanna talk about regarding the manga, might be worth its own discussion thread. People often bicker about how the manga scales to the anime in terms of power levels, but it strikes me how insanely lowballed Goku and the others feel in the early days of the Super manga. Toriyama commented on how power levels went completely off-the-rails by the end of the original manga, and a truly next-level form like Super Saiyan God was the only way he could envision Goku getting stronger than Super Saiyan 3.

In the Universe 6 arc, they really went out of their way to make Goku and Vegeta look less impressive than we're accustomed to. I would speculate that this was a soft reset of the power scaling so that the action can once again progress towards earth-shattering blows and heaven-shaking transformations like in the original.

At no point in the tournament itself* does anybody feel anywhere near "god level", even when the Super Saiyan God forms are wheeled out. The whole scale of the tournament is very small; the arena can't be much larger than the Tenkaichi Budokai stadium, if that. The Universe 7 team is effectively reduced to only three warriors, with Piccolo lasting about a minute against Frost's poison. Beyond Monaka, Jaco also plays a key role despite not being much of a fighter, establishing that his vision is somehow sharper than than of a god. In the first match, Goku is handicapped with stomach cramps and struggles somewhat against Botamo. Even as a Super Saiyan, Vegeta can't lift Magetta who weighs *only* 1,000 tonnes. The final cherry on the cake is that Super Saiyan Blue is revised into another power-draining form, arguably more stressful to maintain than even Super Saiyan 3. Vegeta can barely sustain the form for more than one usage without severely weakening and Goku only pulls it out at the literal last second against Hit, before ringing himself out for the bants. The more manageable power on display perhaps helps the comedy-of-errors tone of the arc.

*Ignoring the flashback to Beerus and Champa's solar system-spanning battle, which does feel like a clash of titans.

[Hugo Boss]

The introduction of Super Saiyan God was meant to be a significant leap, but the manga needed to scale back this power, resetting audience expectations and creating a fresh narrative starting point, potentially to manage the story better and keep it going until Goku finally gives a true challenge to Beerus.

Besides, the portrayal of Super Saiyan Blue as a form that drains power quickly adds a strategic element to its use. This limitation contrasts with the often overwhelming power displays in the anime, making battles more nuanced and less predictable. I personally enjoyed this approach more than what the anime did, with those unrealistic and repetitive scenarios involving Base and Super Saiyan forms.

Not to mention this blend of action and humor is a hallmark of Toriyama's style.

[Peach]

I wonder what kind of issues behind the scenes are causing the manga return to take so long. Are there issues with the estate and Toriyama’s family establishing creative control for works that continue the continuity? One would have to assume the family would be in charge of whoever replaces Toriyama as supervisor

[FlpShimizu]

I wonder what kind of issues behind the scenes are causing the manga return to take so long. Are there issues with the estate and Toriyama’s family establishing creative control for works that continue the continuity? One would have to assume the family would be in charge of whoever replaces Toriyama as supervisor

I feel like after the nightmare that was Super's production they got extra careful with anything going forward. But then, we had that Capsule Corporation x Shueishia thing, which probably caused delays. And then, Toriyama left us. They didn't really know what to do with this franchise when things were calm and smooth, now after all this chaos it's no wonder we have been kept in the dark.