Dragonball Super manga Volume 3 (Chapter 20)

 By Mark Rodriguez

Goku and Vegeta join Trunks as he returns to his future timeline. They face Goku Black for the first time who revealed he can turn Super Saiyan. Black is no match for Vegeta, but just as they thought they've won, Zamas appears. With Goku Black being revealed to be Zamas having switched bodies with Goku in an alternate timeline, the appearance of Zamas himself causes confusion for the heroes.

Chapter 20- The Zero Mortal Project

Goku, Vegeta, Trunks and Mai see Goku Black and his new partner. Trunks' recognizes the Kaioshin clothing and wonders if the other guy is Zamas. Goku is confused because this would mean there are two Zamasus.

Kaioshin, Beerus and Whis find Bulma but she tells them that the Saiyans have already left to Trunks' future. Kaioshin explains that Goku Black is actually the Zamas from the current timeline that had already switched bodies with Goku, but he has teamed up with the Zamas of Trunks' future timeline as well. Elsewhere, Trunks has come to the same conclusion. Goku only understand that now they have two enemies to fight. Vegeta says they're still fleas to him.

Zamas asks Black why Goku and Vegeta are there, and he doesn't know. He does note that Trunks is here and that Mai survived. Zamas was away since he was checking on the other parallel worlds, they will have no trouble eliminating all mortals from those worlds when compared to this one. Just then Zamas notices that a new ring was created. Vegeta appears behind them and tells them Beerus probably killed present day Zamas which created a parallel world where he no longer exists. Black now figures that Goku and Vegeta are from the past and they will not pose a threat since there isn't room for them in the future. Vegeta says they'll be the ones disappearing.

Vegeta flies in to punch Black, who flies away to avoid it. They both take to the sky but Black is now able to avoid all of Vegeta's attacks. Black fires off several blasts that Vegeta also avoids and flies around to attack him from behind. Suddenly Black is in front of him, ready to blast him. Goku notices that Vegeta is now getting attacked. 

Goku Black explains he was expecting to gain all of Goku's power upon switching bodies, but he was wrong. He couldn't even turn Super Saiyan at first. He soon learned the true nature of the Saiyans. Trunks tells Mai that he means that Saiyans can get stronger if they are able to recover from near death experiences.

In the current timeline, Kaioshin explains this to Beerus and Whis. He also says this is why Black teamed up with his other self, anyone trained as a former Kaioh Sama can heal people as quickly as Kibito can. By repeating this process, Goku Black can increase his strength which explains why he went to visit parallel worlds.

Vegeta is down and out and Goku rushes over to give him a Senzu Bean. Vegeta eats it and flies back up to continue the fight with Black. Mai says they just would have give Vegeta a Senzu every time he's down. Vegeta and Black trade punches, but Vegeta seems to get the worst of it. Black hits him in the gut and then kicks him back down to the ground. Trunks tells Mai that Goku and Vegeta probably can't use that ability because at this point they probably already hit their limits.

Goku Black tells Vegeta that his level is perfect for helping him increase his strength. Zamas lands behind him and heals him up. Black says the more his damaged cells regenerate, the more the soul of a god and the body of a Saiyan become one in the same. As he heals, he tells them his power has reached new heights and they have no way to save themselves. Black begins to power up. Black transforms and has pink hair. Zamas says when a deity surpasses Super Saiyan God their hair turns crimson. Black is impressed and says he'll stick with their naming customs and call this form Super Saiyan Rose.

Goku tells Vegeta that they should start working together. Vegeta says he can handle it, but tells him to take care of Zamas since they'll never get anywhere if he can just keep healing him up. Goku calls out Zamas as his opponent and he agrees. Goku and Zamas fly to the top of two buildings.

Vegeta and Goku Black continue their fight as Goku turns Super Saiyan Blue and fights Zamas. After a short exchange, Goku determines Zamas isn't as powerful as Black and will finish this now. Zamas uses telekinesis to throw objects at Goku like barrels, a sewer lid and pieces of wood. Goku easily dodges them all and Zamas hurls a broken lamp post with sharp edges, which Goku easily swats back at him. Zamas is impaled by the lamp post.

Goku says he has a chance, he can use the Dragonballs to put everything as it once was. Zamas pulls the lamp post out and his body is healed from the wound. He says the Dragonballs no longer exist since he destroyed them after his wish. He knows he is weaker than the others but he can't lose his position as a god in exchange for strength. Instead he wished himself to be immortal.

Goku says that's not fair. Zamas makes Goku's bag of senzu beans appear in his hand and burns it to ashes. He says the gods have their own way of fighting as he freezes Goku up, raises him to the ground and drops him down violently. Goku Black beats Vegeta down saying it doesn't matter what world they come from, nothing will stop their Zero Mortal Plan as it will be carried out to all worlds. Trunks runs to his father's aid, who is now unconscious and back to his base form.

Trunks tells Goku they need to retreat, if this continues they will all die. Zamas and Black decide it's about time to finally kill Trunks. Black thanks Trunks for helping him achieve this level of strength. Trunks tells Goku and Mai to cover their eyes and he uses the Tai Yo Ken to blind Zamas and Black. Once the blinding flash of light is gone, they notice that the heroes are gone. 

Goku and the rest escape through the sewers as Trunks mentioned that Gohan taught him the technique a long time ago. Trunks says this went beyond anything he was ready for, he didn't count on Black having an ally that was immortal. Goku mentions that long before he was born the world was attacked by a powerful monster (Piccolo Daimaoh) and at the time the only ones that could fight him off were Master Roshi and his master Mutaito. They managed to seal him away in a rice cooker with a technique called the MaFuBa. They can get Master Roshi to teach them how to do it. Trunks says it seems their only option is to seal them away, so they need to return to their timeline and do this. 

Black and Zamas can't locate the heroes, since the Saiyans are good at hiding their ki. However Mai doesn't know how to do that and Goku Black senses her ki. He takes Zamas's hand and they teleport to their location where Mai is hiding under a blanket, presumably with the others. The gods tell them it's no use hiding. Mai cocks her gun and kicks the blanket away, revealing dummies in their place. 

Trunks leaps in from behind and rams his sword through Zamas and punches Black away. He tells them it's already too late and the others have gotten away. Goku and Vegeta are in the Time Machine. Black is about to blast it out of the sky but Trunks punches him away. Black grabs Trunks by the face and slams him down, telling him not to get too cocky. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the Time Machine vanish. He says it's all up to them now.

There is no gag page for this chapter, but the manga volume ended showing a few panels that Toriyama told Toyotaro to correct. Mostly Zamas' first appearance and toning down Kaioshin's surprised reaction (upon Zamas mentioning taking out useless beings in an earlier chapter) to not make it so over-the-top for such a divine being.

My Thoughts-

So the fight continues and things get interesting. The Saiyan Zenkai boost makes a comeback as Zamas is able to heal up Goku Black every time he gets injured which helps boosts his strength. He want from someone who couldn't turn Super Saiyan to now being able to transform into his own version of Super Saiyan Blue, but with a crimson color instead.

There is some dispute whether the form is called Rose (as in the flower) or Rose' (pronounced Rosay). Going from the original Japanese version, it's spelled ロゼ which is pronounced Ro Ze, and when I look it up independently there's even a Japanese singer named Rose' with the same spelling. It doesn't seem to be pronounced as strongly in the Japanese version that I could tell. Having seen the original as the episodes came out live back in the day thanks to Crunchyroll and I never once thought it was pronounced Rose' until the dub came along.

The dub also heavily emphasized the 'u' sound for both Zamas and Gowas. While in Japan the name would be spelled Zamasu due to the phonetics, the u is silent as anyone watching the original version can tell. 

The fight played out very differently when compared to the anime version. The anime version had Mai lead a group of resistant fighters that don't appear in the manga. Likewise Yayirobe somehow survived the androids and is with them. Both factors come into play here. 

In the anime version, Vegeta is pretty much out of the fight due to being impaled by Goku Black in the previous episode. Instead of Goku impaling Zamas with a lamp post, this time Trunks steps into the fight and runs him through with his sword. This would be when Zamas would reveal that is immortal. 

As Goku and Trunks are about to be defeated by Black and Zamas, Mai and her soldiers throw smoke bombs at them. Somehow this is enough to make actual gods retreat, just long enough for Yayirobe to grab Goku and Trunks and run off with them. Mai also escapes with Vegeta. Black and Zamas try to find their ki but can't separate it from the regular humans. Mai loads the unconscious Goku, Trunks and Vegeta back into the time machine and sends them off.

Also it is at this point where Zamas sees his master Gowas watching the fight between Goku and Hit on Godtube and gets angry at seeing Goku using god energy. He then goes to visit Zuno to get more information on the Super Dragonballs. So these events that we have already seen in the manga also happen here but in a different order. While the manga has already solved the mystery about Goku Black being the Zamas from another timeline working alongside this other Zamas, the anime is still keeping Black's identity a secret.

Also the panel of Vegeta and Goku Black punching each other at the same time looked like a callback to when Goku and Black did the same thing in their first fight.

I have to admit though, Trunks using the Tai Yo Ken to escape from Black and Zamas is way better and makes a lot more sense than soldiers using smoke bombs that should mean nothing to gods like them. They retreated? Really? They couldn't just wave their hand to create a gust of wind and blow the smoke away or something? 

One last thing to bring up for the manga version as opposed to the anime was that here it was Goku that brought up the Ma-Fu-Ba technique used by Master Roshi. The problem is that Goku wasn't around when Roshi was mentioning the Ma-Fu-Ba and showed it to Ten Shin Han during the Piccolo Daimaoh arc. I'm assuming Roshi told him the story sometime over the years? In the anime version, in a later episode, Piccolo is the one that brings it up which makes more sense, especially since he used a reverse version at the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai.

The action in the manga is heating up and the heroes were forced to retreat. What will Trunks do against Black and Zamas all on his own now? 

One funny coincidence is that I ordered some Dragonball Super blind box figures from Tokyo Otaku Mode. I was hoping to get Kefla at the time and actually got Goku Black. He looked kinda silly, but it seemed everyone from that set did, and I'm sure it wasn't intentional.