If you were to tell my younger self that Dragon Ball GT wouldn't be the end of Akira Toriyama's magnum opus and that a new series would take it's place, I'd probably write you off as one of the gullible idiots who believes in Dragon Ball AF and all the obviously fake recolours of Super Saiyan 5 (although ironically, a recolour does now make up a new power up).
If you were to tell myself that at your near thirties, you'd write an article on it because you have nothing better to do, I'd probably take up that drug addiction that always seemed out of my grasp, but alas, here we are, in 2015 with a 'sort-of' new Dragon Ball storyline in the form of Dragon Ball Super with ten points, observations and opinions of the new series (not for each episode, because we'd be here all day).
I was originally going to post this article at episode five, but lost momentum and decided to wait until the series hit double digits before posting.
I might do another one of these in ten weeks when the series gets to episode twenty but we'll have to wait and see. There's also spoilers so there's your warning. There's also a lot of stuff that hardcore Dragon Ball fans already know so for those fans, there's your warning too:
1) First arc is an adaptation of Battle of Gods
Although Dragon Ball Super is the first new Dragon Ball series in nearly twenty years, it's not based on brand new material. Super's first arc is actually an adaptation of one of the series latest movies and one of the biggest reasons why the franchise is on a comeback.
2013's Battle of Gods was the best Dragon Ball movie ever (although that's not saying much and I haven't seen Resurrection F yet) but rather than continue from here, the series is an adaptation of the movie, meaning for any Dragon Ball fans who haven't seen it, you can go straight to Super instead.
Battle of Gods is set in the decade long gap between Buu's defeat and Uub's unveiling which sees the literal God of Destruction Beerus and his assistant Whis searching for a literal Super Saiyan God. Their search takes them to Earth and shenanigans ensue.
At this point in the series, Goku has become this new Saiyan form and the fight is just starting. Future episode titles show this arc has at least another three episodes before concluding and after that, I presume we'll be getting an adaptation of Resurrection F.
2) The Extra Filler Shows Battle of Gods' Shortcomings
As mentioned before, Battle of Gods is easily the best Dragon Ball movie released and it was also the longest at eighty minutes (not including Evolution because it shouldn't be included in anything). Although it wasn't the non-stop action fest many thought it would be, it covered everything it needed to and had some nice fanservice thrown it with hints towards more stories.
Stretching the movie beyond it's original running time was never going to be easy and in-stereotypical Dragon Ball fashion, it shouldn't have. It's easy to complain about Beerus and Whis taking four episodes to get to King Kai's planet or nine before Goku reaches his new form, but some of the additional filler make the rather simple story into a bore.
A lot of the time is spent with characters commenting on actions that the audience already knows about or characters having conversations that could end in two sentences and stretching them to last an episode.
At least the extended action sequences offer something visually more appealing, although even they look a bit meh. Speaking of which...
3) Poor Animation and Characters Off-Model Throughout
During the entirety of Dragon Ball, Z and GT's run, it never always looked great. You'd get that one director and his team who always made episodes look rubbish and they always ironically were crucial episodes.
This isn't a problem with just Dragon Ball, the anime industry has always been a bit cheap with long series and takes as many shortcuts as they can to get an episode done (did you really think those long stare-downs and transformations were just done for an artistic and pacing decision?).
Episode One and Two of Super are fine, they have good character models, the animation, whilst not too demanding (in that there's two fights between them which combined run less than five minutes) has the characters moving like actual people.
From episode three onwards, the cracks begin to show. The much derided fight between Beerus and Goku in Episode Five is every bit as bad as the multiple gifs and screencaps show. From there, only occasionally do characters ever look right, there's always something off, like little to no details on panoramic shots or just normal shots where the characters are talking that are badly drawn.
These hopefully are just the results of the series being rushed and might be fixed for their home video releases but they don't leave the best impression of the franchise's big comeback to TV.
4) Vegeta is Still the Best Character in the Series
Everyone's favourite Saiyan prince set the archetype of Shonen rivals and is one of the few characters in the series to grow as a character (unlike lead Goku who has been exactly the same since the end of Dragon Ball).
Episode Two sees Vegeta away from training and spending a day with his family which is both funny and affirming, cementing how much Vegeta has changed from a guy willing to kill thousands of people to get a rematch for a fight to willing to be uncomfortable at an amusement park because he made a promise.
The moment Beerus and Whis touchdown on Earth, he's a thankful reminder of just how dangerous the pair are and provides much of the comedy of this act. Whilst nothing will top the surreal bingo scene in Battle of Gods, the octopus balls one nearly does.
Couple that with one of the better animated scenes with his fight with Beerus and it's obvious that Vegeta is one of the saving graces of the show currently. Hopefully we'll see a lot more of him in future episodes.
5) Beerus is Still Awesome
Despite being the literal God of Destruction and so strong that he can't be comprehended by mere mortals, Beerus is still a laugh riot. He can switch from being an immature brat to a sinister terror in a matter of seconds and even after watching Battle of Gods, there's something very uneasy about a cat who's prepared to destroy an entire planet because he doesn't get to try pudding.
Whilst nothing like Freeza and Cell in terms of menace and more akin to Buu, Beerus is one of the more interesting new characters and a welcome addition to the franchise.
6) Some Poor Voice Acting
It's easy to mock the English Dub (or Dubs) for some of the voice acting being a bit pants, but the idea of doing so to the original adaptation of the series in it's native tongue was something that never crossed my mind.
Whilst it's easy to excuse King Kai's voice actor being old for his performance, it's a problem when the character on screen is very animated whilst his voice sounds like he's done a shit load of valium before the take.
This isn't a problem with just him, the cast in general are relatively the same as Z with some pushing well into their eighties (including Goku's voice actress) and as sad as it is, their age has caught up to them.
Even sadder is the prospect of replacing them, but if their performances are effecting the tone of the show, it's time to take the drastic step and move on.
07) The Soundtrack is Good
Dragon Ball has always had iconic music. Even the franchise's low point GT had a great soundtrack that made the non-sensical and absolutely stupid story at least listenable.
Super's soundtrack is more poppy and less orchestral which suits the tone of this particular arc. There's a unnamed track which plays whenever something terrible is going down (for example, the start of episode seven) which I really like and hope sticks around for when the series gets to brand new material (hopefully...more on that next).
Add a catchy intro and outro and you have one of Super's stronger points.
08) All Hints Towards New Story's are in the Manga...and Opening Credits
As mentioned before, Super's first arc is an expanded adaptation of Battle of Gods. There's been no significant changes other than some confusion as to when the series takes place (the movie said four years after Buu's defeat whilst a press release said six months...which is impossible).
There are however not so much hints, but full blown confirmation that new developments are happening. In Super's manga adaptation, we're introduced to another universe's versions of Beerus and Whis called Champa and name not given. Champa is a fat version of Beerus whilst name not given is a female counterpart of Whis.
Champa and name not given are looking for Dragon Balls for an unknown reason and make contact with Universe Seven's Kibitoshin and Elder Kai. Whilst these were tidbits, it's only at chapter four (ironically released today) that shows real development beyond what's already been shown.
A ship of Sorbet's army encounters a "Super Dragon Ball" which is the size of a planet, only for Champa to subsequently destroy said ship. Also, Kibitoshin defuses back into Kibito and the Supreme Kai using the Namekian Dragon Balls rather than put them back.
A ship of Sorbet's army encounters a "Super Dragon Ball" which is the size of a planet, only for Champa to subsequently destroy said ship. Also, Kibitoshin defuses back into Kibito and the Supreme Kai using the Namekian Dragon Balls rather than put them back.
Meanwhile in the anime, the only hints to Champa and name not given is their brief appearance in the show's intro, whether they'll make an actual debut in the near future is yet to be confirmed.
09) No Idea How Long the Series Will Last
At this point, we're ten episodes into Super's first arc with the intro hinting at Resurrection F being adapted (hopefully we'll see a retcon of Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan being shortened) and something with Champa maybe afterwards.
Whilst the ratings of Dragon Ball have never done well in Japan since the early nineties, it's worldwide appeal might mean we're in for a long run. Whether it'll surpass GT's "short" sixty-four episode run or come close to Z's near three hundred is unknown, but hopefully we'll get some more info in the future.
10) Overall; Disappointing But Room for Improvement
So yeah, Super has not exactly been great. It doesn't help that it's adapting a pretty good movie which did all it needed to in short time by adding worthless dialogue and poorly animated fight sequences, but there are glimmers that Super can be a great series.
The series proved it can do great fight sequences like Episode Two's filler of Beerus on the alien world. It's proven it's willing to expand on characters development like Vegeta and why he still sticks around with his family and hopefully the future plot with Champa and Co is something special other than "he bad, they fight, must win".
Ultimately, I'm far older than Super's aimed market and it's a relatively simple franchise of man gets stronger because the bad guy is strong, but it does hold a special place and I'm still looking forward to watching Resurrection F on Blu-Ray next month more than any other film around that time (excluding The Force Awakens).
And hopefully in another ten episodes time, I'll still be sticking around with Super.
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