Like many in the Western world, the first anime I religiously followed was Dragon Ball Z. The adventures of Goku and his friends as they protected the world from ever increasing threats kept me coming back every week. I also started watching Dragon Ball, the prequel series that showed Goku as a kid and how he met everyone for the first time. I suffered through Dragon Ball GT, a sub-par series that even devoted fans acknowledged as being a weak entry. Dragon Ball Super, a welcome return to form, premiered three years ago and is slated to end this month. I don’t know what the future holds for the franchise, but if this is the end, I decided to look back and see what made this series work.
Over 9000
The main point of any version of Dragon Ball was the fighting. Characters would fight each other over three or even six episodes. Dragon Ball was never afraid to say that sometimes, the hero might not be strong enough to beat the villain. With Frezia, Goku was evenly matched by a creature who admitted that he had never trained and was only using a fraction of his power. This lead to suspension, as the viewer didn’t know if the good guys would win.
Training for a fight was also important. No other show showed the heroes training for a fight. These were heroes who were strong, but still needed to be at their best to fight an intergalactic villain, or compete against each other in a tournament. Goku, and especially Vegeta, had this desire to be the best. This might not have been the best trait for heroes to have, but it made them seem more real. These were not cardboard cut outs of heroes, they were people who sometimes had very human failings.
Super Saiyan God
What made Dragon Ball Super so much better then GT was a return to what made Dragon Ball great, mainly story arcs with big bads at the end. GT tried to get too cute, making Goku a kid again and introducing characters that took away from the characters we knew and loved. Super trimmed down the fat and brought back characters we knew and took them in unexpected directions. The new characters, such as Beerus, felt like they fit in to the Dragon Ball Universe.
Of course, the real fun is seeing what new levels of power Goku and his Sayan friends could get to in the new series. While the first Super Sayian transformation is still on of the best moments in any television show, the levels such as the Super Sayian God and Ultra Instinct made sense in this show. The opponents were not aliens or androids, but gods themselves. The different powers, and the different color hair, were the only things that gave our heroes a fighting chance.
Until We Meet Again
The legacy of Dragon Ball will be of a show that all other action anime owes some debt to. Fighting and character development were miles ahead of anything when it started and will be the gold standard for future shows. If this is the end, I’m glad Super was the show to end it on. It rekindled my love for one of the first anime I ever watched. It deserves to be celebrated, and to go out on it’s own terms. Besides, there might be another movie in our future.
