Dragon Ball Arc Rating/Review

Captain Cadaver

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Future Trunks Arc Overall Score - 3/10

Once the ToP ends, we'll add it to this thread.
 

SSJ2

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Changing this back to a standard topic.
 

SSJ2

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That's awfully generous bro.
 

ahill1

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Making Kibito the final villain is the only way to save this arc/saga, sadly.
 

Papasmurf

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They can if Yugi draws his last pathetic card for an instant win
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Captain Cadaver

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We shat on it so much it made it worthless when it's pretty much destined to receive a bunch of 0-1/10s. :troll

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Just waiting for the manga version of the arc to end so we can fully compare and contrast.
 

Let's Go Fearless!

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ToP Anime: 8/10

It was great spectacle but there are things that was dragged for no reason other than fill the time IMO. A lot of great fight from Goku Vs Jiren and Hit Vs Jiren. Also that annoying Kale should've been eliminate sooner than later and her manga version is much better too.
 

Captain Cadaver

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Fearless Instinct said:
ToP: 8/18

It was great spectacle but there are things that was dragged for no reason other than fill the time IMO. A lot of great fight from Goku Vs Jiren and Hit Vs Jiren. Also that annoying Kale should've been eliminate sooner than later and her manga version is much better too.
We're waiting until the manga version is over to continue as to have a thorough evaluation, so you may want to hold back on making a review just yet, especially since you've already brought the manga into your evaluation.

Also, 8/18 isn't divisible :wtf
 

Let's Go Fearless!

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Captain Cadaver said:
Fearless Instinct said:
ToP: 8/18

It was great spectacle but there are things that was dragged for no reason other than fill the time IMO. A lot of great fight from Goku Vs Jiren and Hit Vs Jiren. Also that annoying Kale should've been eliminate sooner than later and her manga version is much better too.
We're waiting until the manga version is over to continue as to have a thorough evaluation, so you may want to hold back on making a review just yet, especially since you've already brought the manga into your evaluation.

Also, 8/18 isn't divisible :wtf
Then that rating is just for anime. Also corrected mistake. :ladd
 

Pocket-Gog~

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I'll just slip these in. :donovan3

Battle of Gods (Manga)

Review: 0.4/10

I think this is a suitable rating for this arc. The arc is ultimately just a tl;dr version of the movie, which means that it's existence is redundant in every sense of the word. However, I did enjoy the details that Toyotaro added to it, Champa and Vados gathering the Super Dragon Balls was a really nice touch, and meant it wasn't completely redundant. Showing how and why Shin defused from Kibito, etc. It's just a shame that there's absolutley no reason to ever read this when you can flick the TV on and watch BoG the movie.

Universe 6 Arc (Manga)


1/10 out of 10.

This arc had some good gags, Beerus and Champa banter was fun, Piccolo getting roasted was 10/10. The fight choreography was good. This review is pretty much going to consist of reviewing the fights, because that's all this arc is.

That's it.

Tension and stakes in this arc didn't exist, if Goku and friends had lost they literally would've just switched places with U6's Earth. There wasn't even the threat of death because that would disqualify you. It also didn't help that only Hit was a threat to Goku and Vegeta, and even then... he wasn't all that big of a threat as we're shown his Time Skip stops working if you're stronger than him, and SSJB was stronger than him.

The characters introduced in this arc are terrible at best. Champa is just Beerus, but fat, Vados is just Whis, but uh, implied to be more sneaky(?)

Botamo doesn't have a character, Magnetta doesn't have a character too, both of these fighters should never have been here in the first place.

Frost is just less evil Freeza, I actually like how he's just an asshole instead of being Freeza but reskinned in the anime. However, he's ultimately a very shallow character. At least the bait and switch was fun, and how he disliked being in the tournament.

Cabba is horrible, he's just some polite goody two shoes, annnnnnnnd that's it. Despite being shown and stated to be some experienced fighter, he was utterly incapable of going Super Saiyan, and had never even heard of it before that tournament. Yet he turned Super Saiyan the moment Vegeta uttered a threat to him about destroying Planet Salada.

Hit was just stoic, and a assassin, that's the full extent of his character here. However, Timeskip was cool before it was trivialised.

Monaka had nice nipples.

Despite being a tournament all of the fights were terrible. There has to be something beyond action, and there really was nothing here, no plot threads, no fun or interesting characterisation, no real stakes. What a joke.

Botamo V Goku was a joke, it was literally Goku punching Botamo a couple of times before dragging him out. Nothing more than a waste of pages. Magnetta V Vegeta was boring to read, just Vegeta trying to pick up Magnetta, failing, and then trying to destroy the ring. The gag that Magnetta couldn't take insults wasn't fleshed out, nor was it funny.

Frost V Goku was honestly the best in terms of fight choreography, and hand to hand combat. However, this fight was hurt by the fact that Frost was embarrassingly outclassed by Goku in every way, and that Goku was just playing with his food the entire time. I do like how Frost won, it was pretty creative and managed to defeat the gap in power between him and Goku.

Even though it got undone and Goku came back.

Piccolo V Frost was worthless in every sense of the word, just Piccolo attempting to tire Frost out by running around the arena, what a joke.

Vegeta V Frost was terrible and shallow fanservice. If you're a Vegeta fan you might like it. Vegeta gets to beat up and pummel Bootleg Freeza, and pay back everything Freeza did for him. It's pretty much Vegeta getting a shitty hurrah moment.

Vegeta V Hit was a hilarious stomp, and it proves that no matter what Vegeta will always be 2nd fiddle to Goku.

Goku V Hit started out great in terms of action. Goku managing to counter Hit's time skip by predicting where Hit will attack was creative, and fun for this franchise which by this point had devolved into who has the best transformation. However, this didn't last, the fight turned into a complete bore when Goku proceeded to turn into SSJG and just straight up overpowered Hit and his ability. Then Hit powered up, and then Goku powered up even more and managed to overpower Hit and his technique some more proving that Dragon Ball's fights nowadays are shit. This fight made Hit look pathetic, his ability was rendered obsolete.

Then Goku gave up willingly.

Monaka V Hit was the greatest stomp in all of Dragon Ball.



Future Trunks Arc (Manga)

Review: 0.5/10.

I'll be splitting up this review into likes and the avalanche of fuck ups that this arc is.

I really liked how Shin and Kibito were both active players in this arc, it really made up for how they were both useless in the Boo Saga. I enjoyed the Golf Cart gag, and the gags in general besides Kid Mai liking Future Trunks. Also the foreshadowing for Trunks being the apprentice of a Kaioshin.

Guess that's it.

Now for the fuck ups.

Arguably the greatest mistake this arc committed was giving Goku the Zen'Oh button. It renders the entire conflict with Zamasu as nothing more than a titanic waste of time. Every idea, Goku mastering SSJB, Vegeta using SSJB and SSJG in tandem with each other, Mafuba, Vegetto, every-time the characters risked life and limb, is completely negated by the fact that Goku had the literal "I win button." The only argument against Goku using it (the only reason why he didn't use it was because he forgot, if he hadn't he would've used it at any point prior they were backed into a corner) was because Zen'Oh would simply destroy the timeline. However, I have to question how that's important in anyway shape or form. The series itself didn't make a big deal about Trunks and Mai losing their home, instead quietly ushering them to a new timeline without the slightest fuss.

The arc was also well versed in the art of bait and switch, it establishes multiple plot points and builds them up as the solution and the finial hope before pulling the rug under it. The return of Vegetto, the fusion of Goku and Vegeta, confirmed by Shin to be even stronger than Beerus himself... beats up Zamasu for about 11 pages before defusing. He does absolutely nothing of worth, you could cut Vegetto out of this story and the story wouldn't be impacted in the slightest. He's the very epitome of shitty and tasteless fanservice.

Mafuba was also built up, there was quite a bit of time spent training. It actually works, it seals Zamas... However, it was ultimately undermined by Goku somehow getting the wrong seal, because of that Zamas is then released. Like Vegetto it didn't impact the story in any meaningful way and it could be cut out.

Beerus himself is already a sloppy retcon that completely changes the entire story of Dragon Ball, and he could be argued to be a plot hole too. However, by establishing that if all the Kaioshin died, the Gods of Destruction died too, makes the entire events of the Boo Arc asinine. With just the events of Battle of Gods, you can make the argument that Shin wouldn't want to call the purple cat because he'd just destroy everyone...

Now? If Shin dies Beerus is dead fucking meat. There was literally no reason to not call the God of Destruction to flick the wad of bubblegum known as Boo out of existence. Old Kai does exist, but through Beerus's dialogue it's pretty much implied he doesn't know who the hell he is, so there's no reason why he wouldn't do it.

The asspulls which sprung up at the finale in a constant wave. Goku suddenly having Mastered Super Saiyan Blue the whole entire time, a form which gives him the power to go toe to toe with Merged Zamas was complete shit. Goku having Hakai the whole entire time was complete shit. Goku could have ended this whole entire arc in an instant without the Zen'Oh button if he wanted too.

Zamas is a complete embarrassment of a villain. To start, having Zamas get ahold of the Super Dragon Balls not once but twice was a mistake. Zamas had the perfect opportunity to end this arc before it even began by simply wishing all the mortals away, but instead he decided to waste it on switching bodies with Goku and wishing for immortality. This is completely nonsensical and character breaking.

I also only refer to Zamas as it's really only Zamas. Goku Black is just Zamas, Zamas is Zamas, Merged Zamas is Zamas. It's really fucking boring when Zamas is nothing more than a brutish lunatic who loses his cool at the slightest second. He rants on for ages about the inferiority of humans, the superiority of gods, and his plans, all the fucking time. And by the time he becomes Merged Zamasu he's nothing more than a caricature of even this amazingly enough, with his first action spamming Ki Blasts while screaming how all the other gods weren't needed.

There was potential in Zamasu for complexity. However that was completely shat on with Gowasu outright stating that Zamasu always hated humans from the start.
 

Void

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Captain Cadaver said:
We shat on it so much it made it worthless when it's pretty much destined to receive a bunch of 0-1/10s. :troll

61480422.jpg


Just waiting for the manga version of the arc to end so we can fully compare and contrast.

Berserk will finish and CC's ToP review will come out before Winds of Winter.
 

Captain Cadaver

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Well, it's finally time to make on to the Tournament of Power Arc.

(General reminder that the OP states the lowest score possible is a 1/10, before everything jumps in with 0/10s. Even if they do, they'll be treat as a 1/10).


It goes without saying that like all of Super, the arc has no tension due to the inherit flaw of placing a series before the end of Z and obviously plot armouring all the main cast because of it. This flaw could've been avoided had the main point of view been changed to one of the other Universes to add a sense of drama by fleshing out their characters. Unfortunately, nothing of the sort happened as all the characters from other Universes were 1-dimensional and only a handful weren't fodder to the bulk of the U7 cast, making the hype that had been given for there being other Universes near the start of Super completely hollow. Moreover, none of the fights were entertaining as despite having advertised itself as a battle royale that would require tactics, it never delivered in that regard and the closest thing to a tactical manoeuvre would be Freeza and #17's teamwork against Jiren.

On the subject of those U7 characters, talking about them helps show the quality (or lack thereof) of the arc. Boo's absence for a rehash of his role in the U6 Arc and his role in the ToP could have helped the writing quality by his healing excusing Goku and Vegeta not going down easily and having the stamina to keep powering up. Kuririn, Ten and #18 weren't given much focus in terms of general use or characterisation, so moving along. Piccolo was wasted by being caught off-guard by Damon when #17 could hear him despite Piccolo having always been the member of the main cast noted for his hearing, not to mention #18 couldn't hear Damon and was taken out by an off-guard attack. Gohan's power up was ridiculous of going from his Boo Arc Ultimate level to SSJ Kefla's equal just from adapting over the course of the battle. Where was that skill when he was getting stomped by Gotenks Boo?
Taking a detour and talking about Kefla, Potara showed the arc had no sense of internal logic. Any rules in the ToP were quickly thrown aside if Zen-Oh just found it "cool" such as Potara.
Back on the main cast, Roshi's character arc was ruined. His role of retiring from the battlefield after reaching his peak and falling behind was a decent end to his development, yet Super ignores all that by having him being the most skilled member of the main cast to the point of taking on Jiren and even in terms of physical ability, he had improved to a level he could still dodge Magetta's attacks. This would have been excusable had he always been shown to be a fighter who's skill had been honed from his centuries of experience, but this is a guy who almost lost to 12 year old Goku who had only a basic or adept martial arts skill. Vegeta regressed a lot in this arc with how much he focused on "muh pride" like his Cell Arc self despite that completely going against his development at the end of the Boo Arc and his asspull of Super Saiyan Blue Evolution was pointless when it changed nothing in the plot. #17 was practically a Gary Stu, often being the one in the spotlight such as having better hearing than Piccolo and being the one to take home the win with his unforshadowed strategy, as well as awkwardly being revealed to be PSSB tier at the end for little reason other than Toriyama liking him. His wish to revive the other Universes also left there being no consequences from this arc. Freeza also had barely any role in the arc beyond trolling people and being arrogant, which no longer had any impact after being revived for the 3rd time offered nothing new to his character and made a once entertaining villain completely stale.
Finally, there's of course Goku. Despite the stakes of the battle for he and the other Universes, he never seemed to hold any responsibility for his actions despite Universes being erased and his Saiyan/Freeza/Cell Arc self having felt a lot of anger towards the death of even a few hundred innocents. Along with that, his Ultra Instinct transformation came out of nowhere and ultimately proved useless when it was neither a permanent power up nor what defeated Jiren. From a plot perspective, Jiren needn't have been Hakaishin tier when he wasn't a permanent benchmark Goku surpassed in his growth of power.

Overall, this was just as pointless an arc as any of Super as nothing was lost or gained from it, with it having taken the current spot as worst arc of the Dragon Ball manga (except maybe DBH material I have no interest in).

1/10



Anime-wise, things were far worse. Going back to the characters of other Universes, they were made even worse. Whilst given more attention than in the manga, it backfired as aside from Obuni, Saonel and Pirina, they all went from having sympathetic qualities to being completely villainised when facing anyone from Universe 7 or 6. It didn't help that so much time being given to these fodder slowed down the pacing of the arc heavily, especially Ribrianne being one of the most pointless and annoying characters in the franchise. Also, despite taking more time to build up the characters from the other Universes as genuine threats, all but Jiren proved irrelevant. Damon's initial absence tried to hype up Universe 4 as the true threat only to be an episodic villain. Kale was hyped up as being MAXIMUM only to be about SS3 Goku level, etc.

Going back to the U7 cast, the anime made them all far more inconsistent or incompetent bar Roshi. Kuririn let his guard down completely despite knowing the danger and #18 proved of little use in defending her husband. Tenshinhan was made even more pathetic by losing via double-KO to a forgettable character rather than being beaten by an established character like Frost. Piccolo was made more inconsistent as despite using his arm stretching to save Gohan, he never used it to save himself. Goku had a few problems in this, but I'll get into that later. Gohan was made completely inconsistent and disappointing as despite having been initially presented as changing and balancing between a family man and warrior, all that development became pointless when he kept relying on other characters and holding back for little reason. Vegeta's regression was even worse in the anime with how he only started thinking of his family very late into the tournament and was given far more plot convenience with how he lost no stamina permanently from spamming SSBE and using Final Explosion. #17's plot armour was even greater with him going from SSB tier at best to taking on Jiren alone and unlike his manga self, there was no stategy in his explosion and he only survived because of plot armour. Freeza was completely ruined as despite the complete hatred he had for Goku and the other Saiyans, he ended up just becoming a grumpy ally by the end like Cell Arc Vegeta when he had no pivotal moment of change to cause this.
Finally, we have Goku and everything about him was worse than ever. Unlike the manga, which points out he was the one who essentially saved the lesser Universes from inevitable destruction, the anime makes the other Universes completely braindead by blaming him for being the one to give them a fighting chance. His conservation of stamina was even more of a poor way of prolonging the plot, especially when he had no reserve in immediately going SSB whenever it was required, but despite having Shunkan Ido, he hardly ever used it for saving allies from falling out the ring. On that point, most characters with abilities to save them or their allies from ringout, when they were in the position to use them had no logic and was pure plot convenience. Also, his way of achieving Ultra Instinct was just as stupid as the manga as being damaged by the Genki-Dama contradicts the Saiyan Arc usage of it and him powering up through being hit by it had no real foreshadowing. Also, despite it being a drain on his stamina, he never really ran out and instantly regenerated it most of the time.
The only U7 character better than their manga self was Roshi, since he at least provided a reason as to why he was no longer in retirement, though even he was ruined overall with his power up coming out of nowhere, his spamming of the Mafuba making Zen-Oh's care for rules even less, the moment that could've lead to his death being something that could've and didn't provide more drama and the Yurin episode practically turning him into a rapist.

Also in terms of new characters, there were a few stand outs in terms of terrible. Jiren was far blander than his manga self with how all he cared about was "muh strength" and Toppo was made inconsistent with his asspull power up coming from abandoning his justice when he made apparent to Dyspo a dozen episodes prior justice no longer mattered.

Along with all that, things were made even more pointless with how the requirement of the winner's wish being a benevolent one made any sense of tension or loss in the arc even more worthless when there was never any threat. Absolutely hollow and leagues worse than the manga version. If I hadn't already made it apparent 1/10 was the limit, this would be a definite 0/10.
 

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ToP Manga: 4/10 (no pun intended to those who know what it's mean :alex)

Anyway, this arc was boring and forgetful. Most of the fights were lame except for Freeza Vs U6 Saiyans which I thought was cool. Kale eliminating the other universe was good in execution but terrible in paper IMO. The ultra instinct was the biggest let down of them all where Roshi giving Goku an advice of all people where Toyo have to dumb Goku down like an amateur. The anime did it better when it comes on ultra instinct all the way to mastering it especially the way Goku learning how to defense and offense during the entire tournament. Another letdown was most of the characters were treated like a jabronies and nothing else, very bad indeed. I guess Toyo was forced to end this arc fast just they can promote the Broly stuff which hurt a lot IMO.
 
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