Dragonball- It's time to go beyond Z or end it

 By Mark Rodriguez

So while the Dragonball Super anime has ended for a few years now, and the Dragonball Super Broly movie is over a year old as well, the Dragonball Super manga has actually continued past the Tournament of Power and  Super Broly movie. As this new arc, nicknamed the Moro Arc after its main villain is coming to a close, the question is where do they do from here? Also before you get into this article, I really hope you know your DBZ because there are just waaaaaay too many characters to take the time out to explain who everyone is one by one.

Dragonball and Dragonball Z is one of the longest running anime and manga series since the 80's and while it seemed it was put to pasture after Dragonball GT ended in 1997, the only thing left was for the American dubs to catch up. Despite this the love and nostalgia for the series lived on with videogames and the occasional special here and there that would bring back the characters (like the Yo, Son Goku and his Friends Return), until it made it's first step for a big comeback with the movie Battle of Gods in 2014.

For a super quick recap, Dragonball follows the story of Son Goku, a young martial artist that met Bulma, a girl looking for the Dragonballs, 7 magical orbs that can grant any wish if you can find them all. During several quests for the Dragonballs, Goku would met a long list of friends and rivals, perfect his skills thanks to Master Roshi and Martial Arts Tournaments, and eventually in DBZ save the world from villains like Freeza and Cell that are powerful enough to destroy entire planets if they wanted to.

The final arc in Dragonball Z would the Buu saga, and afterwards the series would jump 10 years for the final episodes of the series as Goku would decide to leave for a bit to train Uub, Buu's human reincarnation for one epic fight someday.

Now this mini-saga, known to some as 'End of Z arc' has most of the characters already looking pretty old. Some of the humans like Bulma and Krillin are showing their age, and Goten and Trunks are now teenagers, rather than the kids we knew in the Buu arc. So if we wanted to continue the story onwards, these already older characters would have to get even older.

This is where Dragonball GT came in, the first attempt to continue the story past DBZ taking place 5 years later. While many disliked it back then, and many dislike it even more now that we have Super to compare it to, back then that was all we had. For better or for worse that was the continuation of the Dragonball story and honestly, it did kinda hurt to see all our favorite non-Saiyan characters get so old.

Battle of Gods, Resurrection F and Dragonball Super overall took things in a whole different direction to keep the cast young and fresh. Rather than take place after End of Z, Lord Beerus would start causing trouble sometime during the 10 years gap between the Buu saga and End of Z. In fact the entire Dragonball Super series takes place in this ten year time gap. While it wasn't so bad before when we only had a few arcs to worry about... now it's starting to get ridiculous.

Dragonball Super's main arcs consist of Lord Beerus' arrival, the resurrection of Freeza, the tournament between Universe 6 and 7, the Goku Black arc and wraps up with the Tournament of Power. Then we have the events of the Super Broly movie and finally we have the current Moro arc.

For those that don't read the manga, the latest arc involves a super powerful mage named Moro that was locked away for centuries because he was too powerful to kill. He has managed to escape and the Galactic Patrol has enlisted Goku and Vegeta to help take him down. Moro has powerful magical abilities and can also control the energy of the entire planet he's on, even to the point of 'turning off' Goku and Vegeta's Super Saiyan forms and not allowing them to use ki attacks. Similar to Piccolo Daimaoh in Dragonball, Moro starts off rather aged looking after years of captivity but after absorbing the power of enough planets, ala Galactus, he is able to obtain a younger look, which of course would increase his power insanely.

Like previously mentioned the arc is getting into its final chapters, but again the question is where do we go from here? I'm 99% sure we're eventually getting one more anime series out of this, wether it's still called Dragonball Super or something else, but to do that I'd say you'd need at least 1 or 2 more arcs. They can do what Super did and adapt the Broly movie into anime episodes, but I don't think the Broly and Moro arcs would be enough for a decent episodic run. 

Now if you were to ask ME, I'd say enough is enough. I'm not saying end the series, as I know that nobody wants that, however, just how many more universal-ending situations can you somehow cram into those 10 years between the Buu saga and End of Z???? One noticeable detail in the battle between Goku and Uub is that one of Uub's punches was strong enough to make Goku's arm numb when he blocked it. Originally this the Goku that has faced the likes of Freeza and Cell, and Majin Buu was more powerful than them. If we now take Super into consideration, this is now a Goku that has traded blows with Lord Beerus, Jiren and Moro, characters that are insanely more powerful than Majin Buu..... just how powerful will Uub be now to still make Goku's arm numb?

I'm saying it's time to make the final (maybe?) arcs actually take place during End of Z or afterwards. Since Super took the time to re-do the Battle of Gods and Resurrection F movies into episodes of the anime (and in the manga, Battle of Gods arc)... it should be no problem for them to do a quick re-do of the End of Z arc, now taking newer things into consideration like the existence of Super Saiyan Blue and Lord Beerus and whatever else. Perhaps this time Lord Beerus and Whis are sitting with the heroes as Goku fights Uub. I'd say the manga version can just do a 'this takes place after End of Z'  and move on, while the anime actually animates those episodes as sort of a filler retcon arc or something. It would also make sense to have the filler somehow explain why after the stuff they've been through Uub is still a big deal. You'd think Goku would be far more interested in sparing with Broly than he would be taking the time to train Uub from the ground up.

I mean something has to be done. Moro was already pushing it, but to whip up some new villain or threat somehow even more powerful than him and STILL make it take place before End of Z would just be stupid at this point. At the very least I'm asking, make Goten and Trunks teens already. During the course of Super they have shown the birth of Pan and Bra, and we see them as babies, so we are seeing some of the End of Z characters being introduced, but it does look weird after so many arcs to still see Goten and Trunks look the way they did during the Buu saga. It would at least make it feel like some time has passed. As it is, it almost feels as if all of Super took place in a year or so, and that's including Broly and Moro. 

I'd say the anime can probably do a few fun filler episodes of us seeing Goku actually train Uub. I'd say make some new villain that would cause trouble for the rest of the crew while Goku is training Uub. Maybe near the end have Goku and Uub return to help save the day. Honestly I'd say keep Goku out of the arc altogether but you know they'd never do that. You just know he'll come in near the end to finish the villain off. This arc would be somewhat similar to the Bebi arc in GT, where the villain was causing trouble while Goku was away, except in this case it would be because Goku was off with Uub. 

Now if they had balls of steel, they would make the final arc end heavily hinting that while Goku and Vegeta did indeed save the day this time, there would be more emphasis on the next generation. Like imply that Goku and Vegeta can hang it up and finally pass the baton over to Goten, Trunks, Pan, Bra and Uub should another threat arrive.

Of course they won't do that and it's highly likely we will get one or more arcs somehow still taking place during the time gap. From what I understand there will be some talks between Akira Toriyama (creator of Dragonball), Toyotaro (the guy working on the Super manga with Toriyama's blessing) and whoever else is involved on where they plan to take the series, but it sounds like they're more concerned what direction Goku will be headed with his Ultra Instinct form rather than wether or not they will go past End of Z or retcon it or whatever. We should find something out by the end of the year as the current arc is due to end any month now. All I ask the power at be is please at least consider making it take place after End of Z or at the very least age Trunks and Goten.

Also guys, you sideline Broly, Really? People would love to see Broly and Moro fight it out, you really gonna squander that chance?