I hate this chapter. As a Dragon Ball fan, I can say this isn't Dragon Ball, and this time Toyotaro has proven he doesn’t understand it. A real fan of the serie understands that this goes completely against everything the serie ever established.
Now, let me explain why I think this.
First of all, in Dragon Ball the fighter with the highest power always had the upper hand, especially when the gap was huge.
Roshi shouldn’t even be able to get near Jiren. If his power is much lower than Kahseral as he says, then Roshi shouldn’t have a chance there either unless he was hiding his Ki.
Another problem this chapter has is the characterisation. Not only does Kefla act very un-Saiyan like, having no pride in her fight and losing all hope, but Gohan too shows signs that he despises his Saiyan heritage, despite that contributing to his power being so high in the first place. Him being a Saiyan is also the reason why he was able to beat Cell, so it’s absurd for Gohan to suddenly neglect his Saiyan heritage. Is this a subtle “Gohan hates his father” meme? Since when was Gohan similar to My Hero Academia’s Todoroki?
The reason he doesn’t transform isn’t because he wants to improve the Earthling way, but because his potential unlock ritual made it useless for him to transform as he can now always fight at his best without undergoing any physical change which would also consume his stamina. Something Toyotaro has clearly forgotten.
But let me focus on the most messy and insulting characterisations of this chapter:
Goku and Roshi.
Goku is a genius fighter who had already surpassed Roshi by the Baba tournament. Throughout the story, it was always shown how much of a genius he is, as he surpassed his rivals and masters with ease (except for Beerus and Whis).
Having Goku acting like a newbie fighter is just bringing down Goku’s character to what he was as a kid: it's a regression of his character, and Jiren treats him as if he is an unexperienced fighter similar to how Cell treated Trunks. Goku losing his temper and screaming he wants more raw power was an out of character moment, and it doesn’t help how he uses something similar to Kaioken, as other characters comment, yet it isn’t Kaioken but has the same “principle”.
This chapter also seems to not understand what the old trainings Goku did were about, even if it accurately mentions them.
- Roshi taught Goku to always aim higher and that there's always someone stronger out there. To never be satisfied.
- Korin taught him how to avoid useless movement to become more efficient in battle.
- Kami and Popo taught him ki manipulation, how to use it better in a fight etcetera... basically all about Ki.
- King Kai’s training was about ki control and power level increase, in fact that’s what Kaioken is all about.
Goku had internalized all of these trainings, it makes no sense for him to have suddenly forgotten them all. Sure, they all lead up to Ultra Instinct, but each training always lead up to the next one. And the training Goku did with those teachers all increased his battle power. Which is not all about physical strength, but has other factors such as speed, reaction speed, efficient movements, ki control.
This chapter also makes it seem like every foe Goku fought had no idea what they were doing and were just powerful because of their Ki being high.
Even though Goku admitted Vegeta was superior to him in fighting prowess, which is exactly why Vegeta had a higher battle power.
Also worth noting how Tenshinan, Krillin and Yamcha trained under the same masters as Goku except for Whis. Does it mean they never understood what they were taught, even though they all surpassed their masters? Does it mean that all those people are actually terrible masters? By their own admission, they never had anything more to teach to their pupils. Does it mean their students forgot all their teachings?
Roshi never ever showed to have anything more to teach, he even admitted being outclassed by Goku in the Baba tournament and told him and the others he had nothing more to teach them afterwards. That was his character arc in the original manga.
He trusted the new generation to be much better than he was, as he was never that talented in the first place considering how it took him 3 years to grab the water off Korin. How do you think he would fare against Popo on Kami’s lookout? I would bet he would do worse than Goku, even if they use the same amount of Ki.
Roshi being the first teacher is not an excuse to completely change his character. it shouldn't be Roshi to remind Goku those things. But suddenly, it turns out that Roshi was an awesome master all the time, but he just refused or forgot to teach his pupils the last and most important training!
The way Toyo presented things it’s like Roshi saw and knew of all the teachings Goku ever received.
What the hell? He should just know of Korin’s training, and that afterwards Goku has trained under some Gods (Kami/Popo, King Kai and Whis).
The chapter makes no sense to anyone who has read or watched DB by actually paying attention to it. Roshi’s training was all about pure strength, and in fact for Roshi martial arts was all about strength. Of course he had other teachings but that was the bulk of it. And it was exactly him who taught Goku and the others that martial arts are all about old plain physical strength, definitely not Vegeta or Freeza.
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This is also inconsistent with the way Toyotaro has decided to get rid of Krillin and Tenshinan, who had far surpassed Roshi way back then, by having them lose to Frost's undiscussed superiority power-wise. His manga had been faithful to this up to this chapter, but now Goku has to neglect power... to get stronger and to hold his own against a strong opponent. Now tell me how this makes sense.
Not only does it devalue Ultra Instinct as soon as it's introduced, it also devalues Beerus and the other Gods for not having learnt it in millions of years while Roshi was close to it and was able to teach it to Goku in a few minutes. It devalues Whis' worth as a teacher. All for making Roshi shine and feel like a badass teacher.
Actually, If you replace Grandpa Gohan with Roshi in this chapter and have him say “Goku, did that old man teach you to only care about power? Have you completely forgotten my teachings?” THAT could have worked. Grandpa Gohan was the one teaching Goku Kung Fu, and to work on his weaknesses. Basically retcons the grandpa to be a martial artist who recognised flaws in Roshi’s ways and was developing his own methods. Which would also explain why Goku as a kid always asked Roshi to teach him martial arts instead of just having him go through physical training.
This whole technique over power thing should have never happened now. Maybe in the future, when all the relevant fighters will have mastered UI.
Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t mind AT ALL Dragon Ball switching to being more technique focused, but not like this. The only way to make such a change that I can think of is to say that every being who has mastered Ultra Instinct can only improve in his technique and martial arts ability. Even then, it probably wouldn’t make much sense, but the battles between two Ultra Instinct users are still a mystery and at that level one could come up with an excuse saying that their power is equal or that it can't get much higher than that.
Honestly, if Toriyama wrote this chapter I would have been like “Yeah, he has forgotten his work. Well, let’s see how he handles things moving forward”. Unfortunately this isn’t from Toriyama, who will keep writing stories where the character with the bigger power level wins. This is how DB always worked.
The chapter isn't even badly written. If I had to judge its writing without considering the whole picture, I would say its main flaw is that it feels rushed. But I bet someone who has NEVER read or watched DB before would find this chapter good, or someone who has clearly forgotten what DB is about or has never truly understood it. Or someone who just straight out skipped the first part of the serie and so has no idea who Roshi is or what he did.
In conclusion I will say: I am sorry but this isn’t Dragon Ball. It’s something else with DB characters in, seemingly written by someone who has forgotten what DB is. If the ToP happened after the 21st Budokai, then this could have probably made sense, but at this point it contradicts the original manga and even Super's manga.
