I'm sure this question has been asked many times, but whatever.
A new Dragon Ball series sounded like a dream for many years. For whatever reason though, I haven't actually watched more than the first three episodes. I've heard the first arc is basically a retelling of what happened in the recent movies, which I barely remember.
Anyway, what's the quality of this show? I never really watched GT, so don't use that as a point of comparison. How does it compare to Z, and have there been any arcs as good as the Namek and Cell Tournament ones? Is it filler heavy, or is the pacing generally good?
I'm sure this question has been asked many times, but whatever.
A new Dragon Ball series sounded like a dream for many years. For whatever reason though, I haven't actually watched more than the first three episodes. I've heard the first arc is basically a retelling of what happened in the recent movies, which I barely remember.
Anyway, what's the quality of this show? I never really watched GT, so don't use that as a point of comparison. How does it compare to Z, and have there been any arcs as good as the Namek and Cell Tournament ones?
It took a long ass time, but it's decent, I actually look forward to watching episodes now, so there's that. Basically, if you want more DBZ, it is worth watching, simple as that. I also appreciate that it is gradually attempting to make it not entirely based on whatever Goku and Vegeta are doing, especially with the current arc. (Some of the episodes that have come from bringing older characters back into the fold have been glorious) And the addition of newer characters like Beerus and Whis are refreshing.
There has yet to be any arcs that were as good as Namek or Cell Saga. There was one arc that did try its best, but the way it ended just kind of makes it admittedly fall short. That said, the gulf between its quality and DBZ's isn't big enough to the point where I would say that Super is not worth bothering with.
So basically, if you're on the fence, just watch it.
it feels significantly worse in quality when compared to z.
Its timeslot and new colour schemes/ art handling means its more "kid friendly" (yeah, don't expect limbs or a good deal of blood. )
the SOL episodes are pretty good, but everything else feels compromised and much less thought out both in story and in cinematography.
it has its few moments, but never ever reaches the highs that Z or the og series ever got to.
edit: if you want something that feels more like Z, then i seriously recommend the 2011 hunter x hunter anime.
If the thread on gaming side about the new videogame is any indication, some people really fucking hate it with a passion.
Some even think it's worse than GT, which I don't think is possible.
Other than that most people think it's ok. Still haven't seen any ecstatic praise for it.
I still have yet to watch it.
though just skip the first 27 eps or so and watch the first two movies and then pick up from there.
or if you only like to watch it in english watch the first two movies and then join toonami with the weekly airing as it's just about to get to episode 27 lol.
I'm enjoying it, early on it was a bit rough but it has found a decent groove and could prove to be a lot of fun especially with the current arc if there are some nice twists to come.
Latest story arc has been fantastic for a lot of reasons. Good character development, lots of focus on secondary protagonists, etc. We have yet to see if it'll reach the quality of some of DBZ's bests, but it's getting there.
Super has generally been a pretty good watch despite some flaws here and there.
That being said, if you generally enjoy Dragon Ball and are willing to look past some of its flaws you'll probably like it fine enough.
I personally have been waiting for a successor to Z that matches or passes it's high points, and DBS doesn't really do that for me so I've kind of stopped paying attention to it after the Goku Black arc. People have been saying the new arc is better but I have yet to check it out.
If the thread on gaming side about the new videogame is any indication, some people really fucking hate it with a passion.
Some even think it's worse than GT, which I don't think is possible.
Most of those people transparently have not watched much of Super. They say shit that doesn't make sense or stopped being true over a year ago and then backtrack when challenged.
Super is overall in a good place for fans. It has it's detractors, but so does Z.
Beerus arc: Slow to start, but fun while it gets going. Some lame plot events but Beerus easily carries the whole thing. Didn't really like the movie but I felt the arc was better; the issue is that it wasn't changed enough.
Golden Freeza arc: One of the worst things in the franchise. The whole event has almost no consequence and it never feels like there's any real risk. Tagoma's cool though. Again, I didn't like the movie and I liked the changes to it, but this time the plot was just that much worse.
Champa arc: Still feels weak because there's no real risk here, but at least it introduces a few really cool and unique fighters. I'm naming my sons Hit and Magetta.
Commeson arc: No thanks. It's a lame filler arc. Yes, I know that there is technically no filler in the series, but it's still some shitty thing that Toei came up with between arcs.
Goku Black arc: This is where things really feel like Dragonball Z is back. There's a bunch of surprising happenings, there's a big battle with real risks. One of the best arcs in the franchise in my opinion.
Baseball episode: I normally don't care for the between arcs stuff, but this is awesome.
Tournament of Power recruitment: This lasts as long as an arc, so I'll treat it as one. Interesting character development stuff and fights, some twists at the end, but it drags on a bit long. Feels like they were setting up interesting things for Goku himself for the first time in a while. Plus the supporting characters are getting back in the game, which is great.
Tournament of Power: Barely started so it's hard to tell how it'll go. But it's got some good battles so far. The throwaway characters are given at least a moment, which is pretty nice. The stakes were set high and it makes them very clear very quickly.
Some people hate it with a passion, which I don't understand. I've been enjoying it. It never reaches the heights of the original run but it has some great new characters and expands on the DB universe a lot.
It has flaws, but if you can come to terms with that, it can be really awesome and hype. The current arc is really exciting and the last major arc we came from has one of the best DB villains. The production team has been pretty great at incorporating the classic Toriyama charm in to it too.
Well if you are a soft fan of db i recomend skip until after freeza arc, just watch the movies instead, most complains i hear is from the begining, if you like db og you probably will not mind so much the begining since there's a lot of silly moments like the original
Stopped watching around the start of the tournament of power arc so I could start watching from the start with the dub, but if you want more Dragon Ball, go for it. The first two arcs are a slog, and you're probably better off just watching the movies instead, but once it clears that hurdle, it picks up, and actually becomes a lot of fun.
it's really exciting to watch..........if you don't think too hard about the leaps of logic and extreme power creep. If you thought some of the latter DBZ arcs (Buu Saga particularly) were guilty of such stuff, DB Super basically notched all those stuff into over 9000 to the point that i don't care what super saiyan stages are more powerful than which and just go in and enjoy the fight and seeing characters interacting with each other.
Vegeta seems to be way funnier in DB Super though......because he's way mellowed down from DBZ so it's something i like about it at least.
I just marathoned the entire show up til now ober the last couple weeks. While it has some rough moments, the show is great fun. Surprisingly, some of my favorite episodes were the slice-of-life episodes mixed in among the action.
While the first two arcs are a little slow, the show really picks up by the later arcs. Episode 57 has what might be the best fight sequence in the entire franchise in my opinion.
For the record, Dragon Ball Super is a gigantic success and has millions of viewers across the world, made the db brand more successful than ever, and the profits keep getting up.
The show had a lot of issues quality wise when it started, some people gave up on it and never bothered to change their mind afterwards.
The current quality of the show is extremely good. ( with flaws, mind you, but it's enjoyable at the very least despite some inconsistencies )
It's indeed less violent visually but it's still very dark at times.
I just marathoned the entire show up til now ober the last couple weeks. While it has some rough moments, the show is great fun. Surprisingly, some of my favorite episodes were the slice-of-life episodes mixed in among the action.
While the first two arcs are a little slow, the show really picks up by the later arcs. Episode 57 has what might be the best fight sequence in the entire franchise in my opinion.
I've generally liked it, but also feel like it's kinda bad at the same time. Feels like what's the point a bit, it's hard to explain, but theres like very little forward progression.
The first 3 episodes are set up for BoG. It's new content setting up the post Buu life of the Z warriors, and gives Beerus some more context. I like the first 3 episodes, but my experience with those are the dub, I didn't start watching the Japanese version until the end of RoF.
4-14 are all retelling of BOG. There is some new stuff. They're on a cruise ship to celebrate Bulma's birthday. So the fights while similar are in a completely different location which is neat. They play around with that. It is nice to look at something different. The issue is the animation is a lot worse than the movie, and below passable for a weekly series. The fighting isn't done as well as in the movie. The only benefit to watching the BoG arc is it sets up this as a series more than the movie, since the movie wasn't intended to be the beginning of a new series.
15-18 are new slice of life stuff between BOG and ROF. Majority of this stuff is good. Slice of life is Super at it's best, because it's usually not the Goku show.
19-27 is all RoF retelling. Unlike BOG which had a completely new location to the fights, this is the exact same location. There's added stuff, new character development which has payoff 50 episodes later. They try to spice things up a little, and I like the buildup to Goku and Vegeta appearing, but once that starts the arc goes downhill. The fighting is really bad in RoF arc, and the animation reached an all time low.
28 and beyond is all new stuff. The Champa arc does what it needs to do. It expands the lore and takes it to the next level after finding out there's a God of Destruction. We get to meet U7's twin universe, we get to meet a
saiyan, another Frieza race
, unique characters that theoretically exist in our universe. The tournament is alright. The beginning is iffy because they try to add tension and fuck over some characters in the process. They manipulate us with 2 different characters in that arc, Frost and Buu. Once Vegeta enters the ring though there are some really good moments with callbacks to some of his iconic attacks, and seeing him bond with another
saiyan
which is pretty huge. Then we have the final fight of the tournament, which had some issues pacing wise, but it was a pretty memorable fight with a new transformation that most people like more than the Blue transformation in RoF.
Now between the Champa arc and the Future Trunks arc, there's a miniarc I call the Pacifier arc. If you want to see a Pacifier in Vegeta's mouth for 30 minutes, and want to be reminded why Goten is a failure, then these 3 episodes were created for you. It's trash with a few funny moments that aren't worth it in the end. But hey the last episode sets up the Future Trunks arc in the last 3 minutes, so that's something.
The Future Trunks arc will probably be the most divisive arc in Dragon Ball Super. I like it. The fighting is good. Animation while improved in the Champa arc, still suffered noticeably at times, was greatly improved in this arc. There were still bad episodes, but there were really good looking episodes as well. You want Future Trunks to succeed, and he has some good interactions with the cast, especially Dadgeta in training. They do some amazing things with techniques, fusion, story, characters. The biggest issue is the arc didn't have much lasting impact, and yeah at times things got too convoluted, and they could have handled a certain transformation better, and a certain technique.
Between the Future Trunks arc and the current arc, we had about 10 slice of life episodes, and about half were focused on secondary cast, which really gelled well with the current arc since it picks those developments back up. There was maybe one slice of life episode I didn't care for, rest was gold.
Discloser. My favorite character in all of Dragon Ball has taken the throne as the seocnd main character right behind Goku.I'm bias because of that. Anyway, then we have the Tournament of Power arc. We're still in the meat of this arc. It's the longest arc in Super so far, that's a fact, and we still have many episodes to go. I have loved everything about this arc. For the longest time I've been thinking what sets this arc apart, and it feels like Dragon Ball. We're not just focused on Goku, and Vegeta, the other cast has had their own episodes to shine. So much of this arc is new to us. We met 10 new Gods of Destruction, and we have 70 new characters entering the tournament, and Toei did not cut corners or creating these characters, which is impressive. So far the actual tournament has had a good start, but it's the buildup that felt so good. Seeing the older characters we accepted won't be relevant anymore actually doing stuff was amazing. Seeing new and likable characters in other universes, was amazing. The most controversial thing for months that somehow Toei pulled off and a good amount of people who talked shit on it, including me, love it and how it's developing. In previous arc things were not executed to their best ability. This is my personal opinion, but I don't think this arc could have been done much better, for my personal taste. Could scaling be more realistic, sure, but then we're back at the Goku show, and for once Super is stepping away from that, instead of hating that, I'm relishing it because we might never see that again. I think this arc will be looked at as either the one time Toei stepped away from the Goku show, or the start of Goku becoming less relevant in Super, of many more arcs that will hopefully do the same.
In terms of filler and pacing it's a HUGE improvement over Z. Z still has higher highs so far. The early episodes aren't great, but otherwise it's a really fucking solid follow up to Z with some fantastic fights, moments and character development at times. It also does comedy way better than Z ever did.
I'm a Super optimist and advocate but there are definitely some people who don't like it or are super critical, but that's to be expected with how revered the series is.
I honestly am having as much fun watching super as I did watching Z, even if it can't beat the highs of the Namek saga.
I think it would be a huge mistake for a big Z fan to not watch it.
Edit: people shitting on the animation are generally referring to the early episodes that retread the movies. It's disingenuine for them to say that without that qualifier, but this is GAF
Its pretty fun, yeah, if you've been following it since the beginning you can see just how much it has improved since its inception, also don't believe anyone who is still saying the animation is bad, as they are obviously not watching super, especially when they say it compared to dbz
The Trunks arc is absolutely fantastic, I just re-watched it a week ago and it felt thrilling to binge through the lot.
The new characters are fantastic, show has slice of life moments that are shining highlights. Overall the show encapsulates the best things about Dragon Ball, friendships, eating copious amounts of food and punching mans.
Great to watch on your own, even better with friends.
The moment where I fell in love with Super was when Super Saiyan God Goku kicked Beerus so hard that he skipped across the clouds. I want to say it was episode 12? Does someone
As some people are saying, if you want more DB, jump in. I don't think any arc has been as good as any of the big arcs in DBZ, but it's still enjoyable and I look forward to watching it every week.
In terms of animation. Post episode 76, there have been 1 or 2 episodes that I would say looked bad, and even those were no where near what we got with BoG/ RoF, or even the Champa arc, they just look bad compared to the new standard Super created.
The moment where I fell in love with Super was when Super Saiyan God Goku kicked Beerus so hard that he skipped across the clouds. I want to say it was episode 12? Does someone
watching the slice-of-life episodes are a absolute must.
Some of the best of super are actually those episodes where its just the characters shooting the shit or having real character development that toriyama never got the time to implement.
The current tournament of power arc spent most of it building up characters and showing new things and character interactions and it is better for it.
It's nice. I really enjoy the slice of life episodes, just a good time with those.
One thing I cannot agree with other is the Goku Black arc, it's just incredibly stupid to me. I like the tournament arcs though and the characters introduced there are awesome.
Everything before that is just the movies rehashed with worse animation. So most newcomers would be better off just watching the film equivalents then starting on that episode for a more enjoyable experience.
It's nice. I really enjoy the slice of life episodes, just a good time with those.
One thing I cannot agree with other is the Goku Black arc, it's just incredibly stupid to me. I like the tournament arcs though and the characters introduced there are awesome.
I loved the Goku Black arc. It involves time travel, so naturally there's plenty of stupid on that front, but I'm pretty ok about letting that stuff slide. I felt like the action was great and the villains were great otherwise. I preferred it to the Cell arc overall, but again... Z had some really great moments in that arc. If they stuck the ending a bit better in Super with that arc, it would have just been absolutely killer.
It doesn't have the same highs as Z, but it's generally fun and starting to come into its own with the last few arcs.
They expanded the universe in some cool ways and introduced some great new cast members, while fleshing out some long-neglected ones. Consequently, the slice of life stuff is sometimes better than the actual fighting. And the pacing is generally better than Z.
The problem is that they're not working off source material, so unfortunately the cinematography/choreography isn't as strong as it was in Z and the show almost seems like it's going too fast through important moments.
Also, while the lighter tone is nice, sometimes it diminishes the tension.
If you like Z and want more of the world and its characters, it delivers. I wouldn't expect more than that.
