Dragon Ball Super: Manga Chapter 100 - Official Discussion Thread

[Gashaponista]

Still, the image of Gohan for Jump Festa was cool

Did you like his totally deformed shoulder and left arm? (luckily the text covers up a bit of that monstrosity)

[Magnificent Ponta]

Anyhoo, the colour art within the Chapter seems set to look excellent from what I've seen of it.

Chapter Title seems to be "Violent Explosion! The Makankousappou!" (炸裂！魔貫光殺砲 Sakuretsu! Makankousappou!)

[Hellspawn28]

Hard to believe that we have reach 100 chapters of the DBS manga.

[Koitsukai]

So, nothing at all... DragonTroll Super at its finest, what an utter waste of time, a year and half of this... Not even a hint at a new arc, nothing, only a lesser version of a movie I'm already sick of by now, and I won't be revisiting for a good while.

They are lucky we are so invested in the franchise, because they are doing everything to lose the audience.
Dragonball now relies solely on videogames. It does make sense, though, if you want free stuff you get this 18-month retelling or a boring 2-year-long fighting arc, if you want good stuff, you have to pay the great work the devs do, and they are doing a better job than Uchida and Toyo.

[Zekken]

Finally its over, some nice art tho, i think next arc will be Android 21 related since Carmine still in the loose.
Anyway why`d they rename special beam cannon??

[VegettoEX]

Finally its over, some nice art tho, i think next arc will be Android 21 related since Carmine still in the loose.
Anyway why`d they rename special beam cannon??

"Light of Death" has been the style guide for their translation of Makankōsappō since 1998. Viz has never been beholden to FUNimation naming schemes, even when they ultimately did later conform to some of them (and/or forced by Shueisha to do so).

[Mr Baggins]

Thoughts on the Super Hero arc:

To sum up much of what I've previously said, this was a totally serviceable (if not exactly necessary) adaptation, being broadly faithful to its source material with a bit of extra content that's justified enough in some cases and less so in others.

The most obvious of these changes on the "justified" side is the additional prominence given to characters that otherwise felt tacked on in the original film – especially Goten and Trunks, both of whom are thematically relevant this time around, have vastly improved characterization and even feature their own prelude chapters to set up the story's whole premise. In hindsight, the high school chapters should 100% be considered the arc's beginning rather than a separate arc, and it helps that they were collectively some of Toyotaro's most enjoyable work in a long time. Some existing theme work and character development, mainly the Gammas', are also explicated a bit more here, though they're still clear enough in the movie.

On the flipside, certain parts have no business dragging on for longer than they were ever intended to. The sheer length of Piccolo's initial clash with Gamma 2 betrays the whole point of that scene and undermines later dialogue in the same chapter, which generally cheapens the Gammas' introduction compared to the movie. The "subplot" on Beerus's planet (if you can call it that) is even more superfluous than before, partly because it's also recapping a completely different movie. Cell Max still adds nothing of value to the story, except now he gets more panels than screentime. If something is already padded in the original as those latter two examples were, then padding them out further without adding much anything meaningful obviously isn't worthwhile in any circumstance.

That being said, outside of those isolated instances, the pacing overall is surprisingly quite good. Most chapters prior to Cell Max's awakening flowed just as briskly as the manga's pre-Moro arcs, usually not dwelling on one plot point for too long and ensuring every month had its share of substantive content along with some consistently well-timed gags to boot. This is the kind of storytelling the manga needs, not whatever the fuck Toyotaro was smoking when he wrote the Granolah arc. I want Dragon Ball to feel like Dragon Ball (Toriyama's Dragon Ball, that is) and it manages to do that here for the most part. It only took half a decade!

For my thoughts on the story in general, I've covered all that in the movie thread already. This adaptation is, again, largely the same, with minor changes both positive and negative that somewhat cancel out. So while it isn't a net improvement per se, I think the manga succeeds at translating that theatrical experience into comic format; Super Hero the manga arc really is just Super Hero: Director's Cut, and whichever version you prefer is probably going to boil down to media preferences more than anything. Whether it actually needed to happen at all is a different matter, but it happened, and it's fine for what it is. I only haven't been commenting much in these threads because... well, I've already seen it.

Since I believe it's neither better nor worse than the film, I give it the same score: 7.5/10.

[Hellspawn28]

This entire arc felt pointless. It felt like filler while Toriyama and the dragon room staff are working on a bigger idea. It reminds me of the retellings of BOF & RF in 2015. The art is the only thing that this arc had going for it.

[ZombieVito]

Yeah, I'm not a fan at all of the changes Toyo made in these 2 past chapters.

Hopefully Toei doesn't animated them if they adapt the arc when Super returns.

[Vegard Aune]

Well. I was wrong. I thought for sure the end of the Super Hero arc would not last the entire chapter and that there would be a tease at what came next. Which, uh, unless you count the added bit of "Oh no, Carmine is still scheming!" which I really cannot say piques my interest much at all... yeah no this was just the end of the movie. I guess in Toyotaro's defense I had kinda forgotten about the Goku and Vegeta epilogue and just how much talking there was after Cell Max explodes.

At leas this seems to confirm that, even with Daima on the horizon, the Super manga is not ending here, though. I reckon they would have told us if this was the final chapter, and surely it wouldn't still have a "TO BE CONTINUED" at the end. Like I had been saying, after all the Freeza buildup it would be weird if Super just ends with an arc about Piccolo and Gohan fighting the remnants of the Red Ribbon Army while Goku and Vegeta are just unaware of there even being a situation that needs dealing with the entire time. Like, that is a funny enough story idea... But not as the end of the series.

Other than that, since this was literally just the movie + one new scene, there really isn't much to say that I haven't already said. Super Hero As Told By Toyotaro is a perfectly serviceable adaptation of the movie that would probably be quite fun for anyone who has not watched it... But it also offers little new to anyone who has. Still, I appreciate its inclusion. And I don't mind that it lasted this long either, because really... When you're trying to adapt like half an hour of action from a movie into a comic format, yeah, that action is going to end up having a much higher page count than the more dialogue-centric portions. Especially if you want each individual beat in the fight to have time to breathe, which is something I felt Toyotaro's past adapted arcs really struggled with. Like, seriously, the Tournament of Power went on for two and a half volumes but it was the most paint-by-numbers action I think I've ever seen out of Dragon Ball, hardly ever giving any of its many supposed big moments the chance to actually feel big or impressive. Just, Ultra Instinct did not look cool in the manga until the end of the Moro arc. Prior to that it really just came off as "Well that happened" due to how quickly it came and went each time. So... yeah. A full year of Super Hero? Sure. I am entirely on board with a full year of Super Hero.

[Bardock God of Time]

Finally its over, some nice art tho, i think next arc will be Android 21 related since Carmine still in the loose.
Anyway why`d they rename special beam cannon??

I'd like her to return but I feel like they should go a different route instead of the Majin 21 plot from FighterZ.

If they bring her back we could see 16 again, maybe that fake movie leak with Android Raditz could become a reality lol

[Anomandaris]

Another stellar episode. I've really enjoyed this arc and retailing and I love the color pages.

Absolutely gorgeous artwork!

Feels like I'm reading a different Manga than a lot of you. The complaints here remind me of Reddit. And how people attack their favorite video games and t v shows relentlessly lol

[Rafa Fast]

So the crisis on earth ended but not the "super heroes battle"? Since Carmine appears to not know much about building androids like Hedo, I think it's pretty safe to assume that we are getting more Goten and Trunks centered chapters with them fighting goofy androids, maybe with Pan included this time, if that's the case then I'm going to like it, but I just wanted a new saga, at least a preview.

But honestly, maybe we were pretty dumb, we were already aware that there would be nothing Dragon Ball announced at the jump fest, that was already a huge red flag, I just don't say we were completely dumb because Victory Uchida was a strong troll troller, how is Carmine's survival meant to shock everyone if countless fans have been theorizing this since the movie was released lol?

[Hugo Boss]

how is Carmine's survival meant to shock everyone if countless fans have been theorizing this since the movie was released lol?

I think the big surprise was actually the colored pages, not anything related to the actual plot. At least, it’s confirmed the manga will continue. Not sure what Carmine can do at this point though.

[nineko]

Not sure what Carmine can do at this point though.

Team up with Black Freeza.

About this chapter, my comment is mostly the same as the previous ones. It would have been nice and enjoyable in a vacuum, but I already knew how the movie played out, so yeah, let's wait for 101 and hope for more original content.

[Lance Freeman]

Alright, movie recap is over, original content starts back up next month. What do you think we're gonna get; Daima buildup, Black Frieza or something out of left field?

[Gt91]

Finally its over, some nice art tho, i think next arc will be Android 21 related since Carmine still in the loose.
Anyway why`d they rename special beam cannon??

I'd like her to return but I feel like they should go a different route instead of the Majin 21 plot from FighterZ.

If they bring her back we could see 16 again, maybe that fake movie leak with Android Raditz could become a reality lol

That would be cool ahaha.
I really don't know what to excpect at this point.

[FortuneSSJ]

What a beautiful color spread.
Whatever they are feeding Toyotaro they better keep doing it. Man just isn't missing.

Goten and Trunks still helped Gohan Beast in the end as expected. Overall its the first time I like Toyotaro arc version more than Toei's.

Not sure if the arc is over considering the editor note that the Super Heroes fight will continue, but the retelling part is finally over.
Whatever we get next it will be new content.

Congratulations to Toyotaro for reaching 100 chapters. It's been a joy to see his evolution.
Here's for another 100. At least.

[Magnificent Ponta]

As expected, the art was generally excellent. Otherwise the Chapter was pretty much as expected from the talk around it before its publication - fun in its way, but nothing wildly out of keeping with what we'd already seen in the movie; just a few tweaks - overall, as many have said, a perfectly "serviceable" offering, albeit leavened by the pretty art focused on the Makankosappo, to lend a bit of extra spectacle for Chapter #100.

Like a few others here, from both the Carmine tease and the editorial sting text at the end of the Chapter in the V-Jump issue, I'm lowkey expecting that the arc isn't truly, fully over - just the section that overlaps with the film. I'm mildly intrigued about what the shape of the rest of the arc might look like if it does in fact start to go this way, but if this is the case, I also would have liked a little more content giving us a directly relevant "tease" to set expectations properly, rather than the somewhat outsize focus on the film-related denouement here (not to mention all the faff that skewed expectations for no reason, as discussed earlier).

Given that the arc so far has given us the best characterisation of Trunks, Goten and Pan that we've had This Century, though, I'd be happy to see some more original content in this vein to round out the arc.

[Rafa Fast]

I think the big surprise was actually the colored pages, not anything related to the actual plot. At least, it’s confirmed the manga will continue. Not sure what Carmine can do at this point though.

The final page of Chapter 99 spoiled these coloured pages, so that can't be consired a surprise at all, I think.