Super is the only series without a Dragon Ball Hunt

[GreatSaiyaman123]

Classic Dragon Ball would alternate between a Dragon Ball hunt and a tournament. Vegeta and Nappa come to Earth for the balls, and the gang goes to Namek and ends up fighting Freeza over the Namekian set. Cell and Boo drop the ball and reduce them to being just respawn vans.

GT and Daima each introduces a new set for the gang to collect. Super gave us not one but TWO sets of Dragon Balls - The Super ones and the Cereal ones. There's no hunt, but Zamasu uses the Super DBs appropriately while in the tournaments they're just a prize. In the Granolah Saga they're just used to give Goku and Vegeta someone to punch.

Could Super have benefited from a hunt for the Super Dragon Balls arc as the introduction to the multiverse? Or would it have been considered too derivative from GT?

[SupremeKai25]

Uhm, the Super Dragon Balls are literally planets. Not really sure how you're supposed to "hunt", catch, and collect planets, or how that would be interesting to watch on-screen. They're either so big that it's obvious where they are and there's no mystery, or the sequence to collect them would be weirdly-written/contrived because they're literally planets (or both reasons).

"Gee, I wonder where the Super Dragon Ball is! What a mystery!" *is literally the size of a planet* Doesn't seem like a riveting story.

Black and Zamasu collected the Super Dragon Balls off-screen, so that's fine. I suspect they used a combination of telekinesis to literally move the planets and Kai Kai to move around them. Plus they probably knew from Zuno's intel where each ball was located.

[JulieYBM]

They could have done this for a story arc before the Universe 6 tournament, as a way to better set up the Universe 6 fighters.

[Vegeta th3 4th]

They were too busy wasting time on the tournament of power (55 episodes), the movie retellings (27 episodes), and the filler episodes between the main arcs (14 episodes) to have any room for something interesting like an actual adventure arc. I still can't believe how little we got out of a series with over 130 episodes. When the series was announced, my imagination went wild with all the possibilities a new series could bring to the franchise, but with each arc it became clear they had no clue what they were doing. Daima is only 20 episodes long and it feels like it contributed more to the franchise than this show with 100+ more episodes.

[Yuji]

I always thought that Whis shouldn't have turned back time in RF and that should have led into a search for the dragon balls arc -- assuming, for whatever reason, the Namekian ones don't work. That would have worked nicely too with keeping Freeza alive rather than just reviving him again later.

I understand Whis hinting at turning back time was a pretty obvious Chekhov's gun, but there's such a thing as too obvious, to the story's detriment. I think the first time reversal usage being later in the Zamasu arc actually would have worked better.

[Thani]

I always thought that Whis shouldn't have turned back time in RF and that should have led into a search for the dragon balls arc -- assuming, for whatever reason, the Namekian ones don't work. That would have worked nicely too with keeping Freeza alive rather than just reviving him again later.

I understand Whis hinting at turning back time was a pretty obvious Chekhov's gun, but there's such a thing as too obvious, to the story's detriment. I think the first time reversal usage being later in the Zamasu arc actually would have worked better.

Agreed. Whis being neutral shouldn't care that Earth was destroyed or couldn't be allowed to reverse time (itself a grave violation as he himself admits) despite how much him and Beerus enjoy the food and the people there.

Hell, that could even tie in with the U6 Tournament arc: they begin at Namek, finding out that not even Porunga couldn't reverse the destruction Golden Freeza caused for whatever reason, but then Beerus reveals the existence of the Super Dragon Balls and how they're limitless, thus the hunt for them begin until they eventually run into Champa and Vados, who THEN state that they collected most of them already and challenge the cast to a Tournament - winner gets not only to wish the Earth back, but to keep it in their respective universe.

[JulieYBM]

They were too busy wasting time on the tournament of power (55 episodes), the movie retellings (27 episodes), and the filler episodes between the main arcs (14 episodes) to have any room for something interesting like an actual adventure arc. I still can't believe how little we got out of a series with over 130 episodes. When the series was announced, my imagination went wild with all the possibilities a new series could bring to the franchise, but with each arc it became clear they had no clue what they were doing. Daima is only 20 episodes long and it feels like it contributed more to the franchise than this show with 100+ more episodes.

Dragon Ball Super contributed more to the overall series by giving characters arcs and bringing more resolution to them than anything that Dragon Ball Daima provided. You can strip away all of the 'newness' to the lore in Dragon Ball Daima and all you're left with is characters reading off shit you could read in a databook. Glorio's arc is threadbare and Panzy never even gets an arc off the ground. Hell, Shin sleep walks through his interactions with his two, new, antagonist siblings!

Dragon Ball Super is not perfect by any means, but Christ, it didn't fumble it's writing nearly as badly as Dragon Ball Daima does.

[SupremeKai25]

Also, Dragon Ball Super is filled with new lore and world-building.

The Destroyers and Angels? The twelve universes? The Super Dragon Balls? The Time Ring? The Galactic Patrol? The Cereleans?

Super introduced MORE lore than Daima.

[AliTheZombie13]

To be fair, Daima's was so "Eh", it doesn't even feel like it's there.

[super michael]

DBS added many lore and added many new things, but at the same time they ruined some characters.
Power scale was bad in DBS along with how they got their power up.

[nineko]

Can we really call them "hunts" now that most characters can fly at extremely high speeds (or outright teleport)? As we've seen a few times, collecting all the balls is a matter of minutes as of now, even Bulma by Super Hero times has been known to easily and periodically collect them.

The super dragon balls might pose some logistic problem, yes, but e.g. Goku with a space suit and an oxygen tank can go to outer space and teleport them to some free section of the galaxy.

Really, "hunting" the dragon balls has become a trivial task at this point. Which is kinda sad, considering that that's what gives dragon ball its eponymous name.

[Vegeta th3 4th]

Can we really call them "hunts" now that most characters can fly at extremely high speeds (or outright teleport)?

Daima found a way around this by having them guarded by strong warriors who require solving a puzzle after defeating them.

[nineko]

Right, I still wonder what would happen if a powerful warrior decides to obliterate a tamagami instead of honoring the additional puzzle, because I still can't believe that an eye-powered Abura never managed to collect the dragon balls. Imagine that Goku picked the wrong cup, or Vegeta or Duu gave a wrong answer, then what? Do they have a series of rematches with the same identical outcome? Even Baba said that Goku didn't have to fight her warriors anymore after the first time. Tamagami #1 could do nothing against Gomah in episodes 18 and 19. I can suppose that the dragon balls would deactivate if obtained by breaking the rules, but this should be stated by someone (ideally Neva), otherwise it's just a fan theory.

[Vegeta th3 4th]

Imagine that Goku picked the wrong cup, or Vegeta or Duu gave a wrong answer, then what?

Maybe the ball turns to stone and can't be used.

[Yuji]

Can we really call them "hunts" now that most characters can fly at extremely high speeds (or outright teleport)? As we've seen a few times, collecting all the balls is a matter of minutes as of now, even Bulma by Super Hero times has been known to easily and periodically collect them.

The super dragon balls might pose some logistic problem, yes, but e.g. Goku with a space suit and an oxygen tank can go to outer space and teleport them to some free section of the galaxy.

Really, "hunting" the dragon balls has become a trivial task at this point. Which is kinda sad, considering that that's what gives dragon ball its eponymous name.

Can Goku really teleport away a planet-sized object? Wouldn’t he by that logic be able to teleport Earth?

I think by the very fact that the Super DBs are scattered through 2 universes is more than enough challenge. U7 may be a breeze, but theoretically there could be dangerous physics/enemies in U6, or IT doesn’t work for whatever reason there. In reality, U6 would be a bit of a cakewalk too, but we didn't know that beforehand.

[GokuHater]

I feel that's not really a case of Super but DB itself slowly shifting more towards action and fighting than adventure.

The last concrete Dragon Ball hunt in Z was on Namek and then in Cell and Buu any DB hunt was an off screen plot device.
Super, which greatly resembles Z, followed that trend and focused more on action stories and tournaments.

Off course we have story beats going "back" to hunting DB, like GT or Daima but they sometimes feel disconnected.

Unfortunately Super's plot is not built well for a dragon Ball hunt. The idea is quickly dropped when we learn Bulma always has a few just in case.

I can think of two instances it could have worked.
1. When they summon Shenlong in the filler, a mini arc of gathering Dragon Balls could work if done creative enough. It could be fun but that depends on writing, the characters and length. Surely would be a better way to spend time that purple Vegeta

2. The second, and far more interesting, idea would be to see Granolah collecting DB. There could be far more than 2 and he could really struggle in his quest which would make his end goal a lot more satisfying. We also would get to know him a lot better.
Unfortunately this thread was used as only a quick way to get Goku and Veggie fighting him.

[Jord]

I'm surprised we never saw a storyline in which another person else gathers the dragon balls for his or her wishes at the same time. That would have been interesting. It's not like the dragon balls belong to the Z crew and when another good person is gathering them, they can't just punch their way out of it.

[BernardoCairo]

It's not really a Dragon Ball Hunt, but they did try to do something with the Super Dragon Balls during the Universe 6 Tournament Arc (you know, with Bulma looking around for them).

[MisteryOne]

We really should have gotten one after the Champa arc. The cadt exploring various planets of U6 like Sadala or Namek while trying to figure out which planet was the last Super Dragon Ball. Alas, Toriyama didn't really cate about actually exploring the ideas behind a multiverse.

[GokuHater]

We really should have gotten one after the Champa arc. The cadt exploring various planets of U6 like Sadala or Namek while trying to figure out which planet was the last Super Dragon Ball. Alas, Toriyama didn't really cate about actually exploring the ideas behind a multiverse.

I am not saying it wouldn't be a good idea but this could very easily backfire.

Keep in mind we weren't that much after 2 rettelings which we can easily say, weren't the most loved.
After that we finally had something fresh in a tournament.
By this time people were probably dying for an original arc with a villain.

Having a dragon Ball hunt, even if done well, could again alienate some fans, who would see this as a GT repeat.

So they decided on a more traditional (and far safer) Zamasu arc.