Dragon Ball Super: Thoughts and Expectations
Dragon Ball Super! Holy shit! It’s crazy to even think that a brand new Dragon Ball show is right around the corner. For those of you who have just wandered out of your cave and found a computer, Dragon Ball Super is coming out, a true sequel to the story of Dragon Ball Z. Though technically it takes place before the End of Z section (so my wish of an adventure series with Pan and Bra are dashed), but that’s beside the point. I’m filled with a mix of terror and giddiness as if I was a 10 year old kid again. Mostly though, I’m excited to see how it’ll turn out in the end. With Toriyama on board, they may be able to steer the show to towards more favorable water then their *ahem* last attempt at a sequel. Anyway, anyone that knows me knows that Dragon Ball holds a BIG place in my heart. And while the final arc of the manga was mostly a huge letdown and the aforementioned GT was a boring pile of ape shit, the two recent movies have more than reinvigorated my love for the series. Perhaps similar to how a Saiyan becomes stronger after a brush with death. Despite my enthusiasm though, I’m gonna keep my expectations rather middling cause this IS Toei and they tend to not exactly aim for the stars with these classic anime revivals. That being said, I do have a short list of some expectations out of the series. Some serious, most just fan-wankery, but all genuine.
1. Get the tone of Dragon Ball down
Now I know people like to pretend that Dragon Ball is the epitome of stoic badass martial arts fight, but you’d be wrong and you should go back to 7th grade math class. While it definitely leans more towards serious towards the middle and end, there is a delicate balance of fun and even sometimes comedy to every fight. Also, Goku is pretty much never stoic during a fight. Even when he confronts Piccolo, or Nappa, or hell even Freeza, he still treats the situation as a test of his strength first and a high-stakes battle second. That idea that “Goku will pull through eventually” is calming and removes a lot of the stress from the harrowing battles. This is the basis for most shonen/battle manga at this point with varying degrees of success. Another thing about the fights is that they’re spontaneous and fast paced (contrary to popular belief). Without the filler present in the anime, the fights are really streamlined and easy to read. The fast pace and spontaneity is of course because Toriyama literally only planned like 3 chapters ahead so even he would be on his toes. Now this is debatably a stupid idea, but it worked somehow. Hopefully some of that accidental genius will come through again
2. Some good down time episodes
I already know that there will at least be one episode about Goten and Trunks getting a gift for Videl and that sounds adorable. What I want is more of that. Not TOO often cause it’d ruin the pacing, but just enough so that we can get some good Toriyama gags and see whatever some random character is up to on their day off. IMO the best parts of Battle of Gods were the antics at the party before it went caddywhompus so I guess just something in line with that. On a similar note…
3. Better use of side characters
GT was absolutely god awful with it’s use of side characters. Fuck, even two of the MAIN characters (Pan and Trunks) did diddly dick. Remember how Uub was really really strong and was set up as a really really strong guy? Oh man, he even got a super form and everything! This is gonna- Oh, he’s dead already...okay. I may not have seen the actual movie but I’ve read the tie in manga to Revival of F and god damn, even Master Roshi and Jaco get a cool ass fight scene. The series does not need to continue being just a circlejerk for Goku and Vegeta. We got Gohan, Mr. Buu, Gotenks. All great fighters with potential to help whatever transdimensional spooky bad guy shows up. I would honestly give my left nut for Gohan to become the strongest again, even for a moment. SSGSS Gohan, please be real...
4. A Villain with personality
This is super important. It’s no doubt, Beerus and Whis are the best things to happen to this franchise is a long time. Really funny and full of personality, but also soul crushingly powerful. Problems aside, even Majin Buu (barring every form after Super Buu) was a really funny character a lot of the time. Fuck Baby and Syn Shenron, straight up. I couldn’t get a more bland experience if I ate a single slice of white bread that sat on the counter all day. They were no more complex or interesting than Demon King Piccolo and at least HE has the excuse of being the first real serious villain. That was actually a twist back then, cause characters like Emperor Pilaf, General Blue, and Taopaipai were pretty goofy. I don’t even need it to be comedic though. Freeza was entertaining cause he was still exceedingly polite juxtaposed to all the atrocious shit he was doing. Cell was entertaining cause he went from a single minded bug monster to a dude that just wants to show off how cool he is and throws temper tantrums over little kids beating him. Just please don’t give me a guy that is SUPER BADASS AND MORE POWERFUL THAN SUPER SAIYAN 69 in place of a real personality.
At the end of the day though, I really just wanna have fun each week. I wanna be able to make up theories for what’s gonna happen next with friends. I wanna see all the kids getting into Dragon Ball and making their fan characters. I just wanna be a kid again and watch new episodes of Dragon Ball as they air. I know I was quite verbose as far as what I wanted to see, but all I REALLY wanna see is simply a return to form and a return to my childhood.
