Skar wrote: Fri May 08, 2026 2:57 pm
I think the misconception is that a more faithful version means 100% cutting and replacing all anime original scenes. Both of these recuts aren't doing that or not possible for a fan to do anyway and there are still hours of anime original scenes. More faithful just has to have less filler and closer to what Toriyama might've envisioned when he wrote it. The arc was supposed to be a fast paced battle royale lasting less than an hour. I think these recuts have done a good job of that while still keeping the best fights and character interactions.
What counts as faithful is something you can question. We do not know exactly what the “Toriyama outlines” are. What we do know — something you pointed out yourself — is that they are only outlines, not a fully developed story. You can see that from the many differences between the manga and anime versions. However, neither version, manga nor anime, is inherently more “pure Toriyama” than the other. The so-called “filler” is necessary to turn those outlines into a complete story. By that logic, shortening the story does not make it any more or less authentic to Toriyama’s version, as long as the basic outlines are still followed.
The Tournament of Power may have been a relatively short tournament in-universe, but the large number of anime episodes mainly served to give the other universes — besides 6, 7, and 11 — some proper focus as well. Not everything happened in a completely linear way. There were many battles involving 8 different universes taking place simultaneously. The anime took its time to show that multi-universal aspect, whereas the manga, in my opinion, rushed through the fights too much. The in-universe time and the actual screentime are very different things, but if you cut too much, the focus ends up being mostly on the Universe 7 vs Universe 6 and Universe 11 fights, even though it was fundamentally supposed to be a battle between 8 universes. In fiction and fantasy, time is often stretched to create more storytelling tension — for example, the fight between Goku and Frieza, where the supposedly final few minutes before Namek’s destruction were spread across 10 episodes to build suspense.
That said, I do think you are right that both the TOP and Future Trunks arcs should receive the same remaster treatment as the first three arcs. And yes, some trimming could definitely be done here and there. The question is simply where. In the TOP, for example, the recruitment process could absolutely be shortened, because it drags on without the story making much actual progress. The most important thing is that the proportions between the story arcs remain more or less balanced. A Moro arc lasting 26 episodes while Future Trunks/TOP only get 12–14 episodes would feel very disproportionate. If they finish the Moro arc first, they may have a better reference point for determining the appropriate length of the remastered versions of the longer arcs.
She/Her 
