Dragonball Super manga Volume 5 (Chapter 26)

 By Mark Rodriguez

We're at the final hour in the battle against the fused God Zamas. Goku has learned to contain the powers of the Super Saiyan Blue within himself and fight him long enough for his hour to expire. However, due to Goku Black and Zamas being the same person, rather than defuse, their bodies were tearing each other apart while still being stuck together. Trunks took this chance to slice them in half and then impaled Goku Black. However both halves would turn into a fully formed God Zamas, complete with regenerative powers. On top of that, now there are several God Zamases popping up and outnumbering the heroes.

Chapter 26- The Decisive Battle! Farewell, Trunks!

Goku, Vegeta and the rest can only watch in disbelief as the group of Zamases start to walk towards them. Kaioshin asks Vegeta to take his hand. The Zamases all swoop down at the heroes and Goku manages to grab onto Kaioshin just in time for everyone to get away.

The heroes appear near Trunks' time machine. Kaioshin says he can return with Gowas by using the Time Ring, and the rest can go using the time machine. Goku says they can't just leave Zamas alive since he said he was going to destroy the parallel worlds too. Zamas appears and says he'll destroy more than just parallel worlds and asks if they plan to escape with their time machine again. The heroes see that they are surrounded by a seemingly infinite number of Zamases.

Zamas says it doesn't matter where they escape to, he will never stop chasing them. Gowasu says the Time Ring won't let him travel to the past. Zamas says he has a time machine of his own in Universe 12. Gowas remembers once telling Zamas that a human in Universe 12 managed to create a time machine. He says he can start the Zero Mortal Project in the past and he will go and wipe out mankind in the timeline where they came from. The Zamases start walking towards them and say they should just accept their deaths at their hands.

Vegeta tells the others to go without him, he will stay and fight til the end. Goku says he'll stay too. Trunks asks what they're doing and Goku tells him to go back to the past. Vegeta tells Trunks that he has Mai to protect, and he should go back and protect Bulma. Kaioshin tells Trunks to close the hatch of the time machine before it's too late. Trunks reluctantly does so and the time machines takes to the sky.

Now alone and staring down a never-ending army of Zamases, Goku asks Vegeta if he has a plan. Vegeta says they should just go wild until they die. Goku understands and says they'll do this together. Goku and Vegeta power up and Vegeta says at least he'll get to see his biggest pain die. Goku says he doesn't have an ounce of strength left and wishes he could at least go crazy as a Super Saiyan. He wishes he still had a senzu and finds something in his gi. He pulls out the button that Zeno gave him.

Goku asks Kaioshin if the Zeno Sama from this alternate future would still be around. Kaioshin says he should be since nobody can defeat him. Goku tells Trunks to wait and that they'll all be heading home together. Goku then pushes the button. 

Zeno Sama suddenly appears and falls on his face. Everyone is surprised and Zamas is shocked to see him, asking why he showed up. Goku introduces himself and this Zeno Sama doesn't know him and asks if he is the one that called him. Goku says he is a friend of his from an alternate timeline. 

Zeno Sama looks around and notice that everything is destroyed. Goku tells him that Zamas is the one responsible. Zeno says there's so many of them and Goku says they're all bad guys. Zeno Sama says this is annoying and Goku asks if he wants to erase them all. He says his does and all of the Zamases try to get away. Zeno Sama extands his arms and energy forms around his hands. He won't just erase the Zamases, but also the world. 

Goku and Vegeta rush back to the time machine and Gowas and Kaioshin use their time rings. Zeno erases everything as the heroes make their escape. All of the Zamases are completely destroyed and the world that Trunks once knew is now an empty void. Elsewhere, the Time Ring created due to Trunks traveling through time cracks and falls apart.

Goku, Vegeta, Trunks and Mai return to the regular timeline and Bulma and the others run over to greet them. Bulma hugs Vegeta as she fights back tears, current Trunks hugs his future self and current Mai gets to meet her future self. Kaioshin, Gowas, Kibito and Elder Kaioshin all arrive too. 

Kibito heals up everyone and Goku thanks him. The Elder Kaioshin says Trunks' entire timeline has been destroyed. Gowas says Zeno Sama destroyed it along with Zamas. Kaioshin says it's still betetr than everything being destroyed. 

Pilaf and Shuu notice that there is only a future Mai but no future versions of themselves. Pilaf calls Mai over and she recognizes Pilaf and Shuu. Mai says Pilaf looks like he's doing well. Pilaf wants to ask her what happened to them in the future but Trunks calls her over to greet Lord Beerus.

Goku tells Beerus that they defeated Zamas. Beerus can see they had a hard time and says they didn't have the power to beat him after all. Goku knew he would say that and Beerus wants to know everything that happened.

Later on, everyone is having a feast at Capsule Corp. Trunks and Mai enjoy the food and the current day Mai sees how happy they are together and gives up. 

Lord Beerus is surprised that Kaioshin went to the future too, seeing that if Kaioshin dies, he would die as well. He's surprised they even used Zeno Sama. Goku says it was the only thing he could think of and wasn't planning on him destroying the entire universe. Vegeta says he almost got them killed too and Bulma adds that now Trunks' timeline is gone.

Trunks says that they defeated Zamas and protected the rest of the parallel worlds. Whis says that having that many parallel worlds is never a good thing. Beerus says with that world gone, it restored the balance of parallel worlds, so it might not be a bad thing. Bulma points out that Trunks and Mai have no place to return to. Goku says Bulma mentioned that they wouldn't be able to return anyway. Bulma says she once thought so.

Pilaf comes in and tells the others that by changing the frequencies in the transporter they can visit other alternate futures. Bulma says she still has a long way to go though. Beerus is angry that they keep ignoring the laws of the universe. Whis says they can pretend they didn't hear that since they did keep Beerus alive this time. 

Goku remembers something and asks Bulma if she can refuel the time machine one more time. Bulma says he doesn't need the time machine anymore. Goku says he does and asks her again. Moments later, Goku and Trunks are back in the time machine in the empty void of what was once Trunks' timeline. Goku finds Zeno Sama that laments that everything is gone. Goku says he can take him somewhere much more fun and Zeno is excited to hear this.

Goku and Trunks return with Zeno to the current timeline. Beerus is shocked and tells everyone to pay their respects. Goku tells Kaioshin to take him to see the Zeno Sama of their timeline. Later on, at Zeno Sama's palace, Goku and Kaioshin escort Zeno Sama to meet his other self. Goku says he brought him the friend he promised. The two Zenos get along and run off to play. Goku is happy that it all worked out.

The Grand Priest asks Whis if this was his idea. Whis says this was all Goku's doing. Tha Grand Priest says this makes envious of Universe 7. Whis tells his father to come and visit some time. 

Later on, Gowas thanks everyone for their help and says he must return to Universe 10. Lord Beerus tells him to be more careful in picking an apprentice next time. Gowasu apologizes for the trouble he's caused them and leaves. Lord Beerus and Whis will take their leave as well.

Trunks tells Bulma that he wonders if he can return to his timeline with Mai to the moments before Darbura and Zamas showed up. Bulma says she's not sure but they should just stay with them. Trunks thanks her but they've made their decision. Whis says it's possible and Beerus says they'll end up creating another parallel world. Whis says Beerus created one already.

Bulma says he's not sure about Darbura but if Zamas appears again, he could still kill them. Kaiohshin explains that if doesn't die in the fight against Darbura, then the Lord Beerus of that timeline will still be alive, and he will able to help them. 

Goku asks Beerus that he has a technique that can kill immortals. Beerus says he doesn't, and Goku asks how he'd take down Zamas. Whis says they have something much handier than the jar they brought along (for the Ma Fu Ba technique). Goku asks why they didn't tell him that and Beerus says to stop complaining since this is part of their training. Beerus tells Trunks that he will let this pass this time. 

Whis reminds Trunks that they will be living in a timeline alongside another Trunks and Mai. Trunks figures that two of them would double the fighting power. Bulma sighs and says they can do as they wish. Beerus takes his leave and tells Trunks to make it count. Trunks says he will, and Beerus leaves with Whis.

Bulma gives Trunks and Mai extra food to take back with them. Kaioshin offers Trunks to stay with him and become his apprentice. Trunks says he never cared for such luxurious titles and only became an apprentice to help defeat Babidi and Darbura. Once he kills them, he planned to ask Kaioshin to resign from being his apprentice. Goku says he would then lose his healing powers which would have been a waste. Bulma says that's not the point and Vegeta says it's his way of settling things.

Kaioshin tells Trunks to say hi to his other self. Current Trunks tells his future self to visit sometime. Current Mai tells her future self to make Trunks happy. Current Trunks thought Mai liked his older self. She says she doesn't think she can catch up to their serious atmosphere. She says she likes the current Trunks best even though it will take a while for him to be as cool as his future self. Trunks blushes and says this is the first time that Mai said she liked him.

Trunks and Mai get into the time machine. Goku says he doesn't get what's going on but he understands his decision. If Trunks can create a better future, he'll be the one to do it. Bulma says to be happy and to say hi to her other self. Vegeta tells him to not slack off on his training and to get stronger. Trunks says he will and thanks everybody that helped him.

Pilaf asks Mai what will happen to him in the future. Mai realizes she never told him and says 'to think you will end up like that...' Trunks and Mai say their final goodbyes as the time machine vanishes. Goku says that Trunks will be just fine without them. Pilaf is left wondering what happens to him in the future.

There's an extra gag page of Pilaf trying to build his own time machine to save his future self. He tells everyone to prepare for the Future Pilaf Arc. 

My Thoughts-

This story has been full of all sorts twists and turns, and is the first arc to have all sorts of differences when compared to the anime version. Toyotaro was pretty much told 'there's an evil Goku who will be a Kaiohshin named Zamas, Future Trunks comes back, throw Vegetto in there, and end it with Zeno wiping out Trunks' timeline', and then fill in the blanks. So the anime and manga followed most of the same general beats, but the road to get there was extremely different.

Sadly they both came to the same conclusion that upset everyone. Having Goku just solve the problem by pushing a button. While in the manga version the heroes were surrounded by countless Zamases that would eventually go out and destroy everything, the anime version had Zamas become the sky... somehow. Both versions had Goku bring Zeno in, and in both stories, Zeno would wipe out the entire universe, barely giving the heroes time to escape.

I get that having Goku talk more with Zeno Sama will lead into setting up the following arc, but nobody likes the idea that if a villain becomes too much for the heroes... they can just ask the God of Literally Everything to pop in and wipe em out in a second. 

Throughout the series we have seen examples where people tried the easy way out but were unable to. They couldn't just wish the Saiyans away because they exceeded Sheng Long's power. Goku and Vegeta stopped Bulma from finding Dr. Gero and stopping him before he even created the Androids. While it makes sense why this wouldn't work in the following arc, it opens the door to ask why they just didn't try to call Zeno again against Moro, Gas, Cell Max or even the new Black Freeza. 

The other issue was it took away from Trunks defeating his own villian. In both versions, through different means, Trunks got to slice Zamas in half and 'end the story'. But then we'd see that Zamas somehow survived and turned the situation so hopeless, it led to Goku calling Zeno in. In my opinion, the story would have had a better conclusion had it just ended when Trunks killed Zamas. Sure the anime took a more grandiose approach with the Spirit Sword, but seeing how worn out and close to death both Goku and Vegeta were, the manga way worked too. Plus Trunks' cold method of just jamming his sword through an unconscious Zama's back brings it back to how cold and efficiently he took out Freeza and King Cold.

The manga did things a lot better than the anime version did. One of my biggest pet peeves where the heroes going back to the alternate timeline THREE TIMES, while the manga cut it down to two and make sure that second time HAD to count. The other one were all the time the heroes kept getting impaled by Zamas's blade attacks, without any signs of blood, and then being able to get right back and up and continue the fight as if nothing happened. I swear Saiyans must have their internal organs in different places than humans do and the villains don't know that.

The manga also added more interesting concepts, like the fact that Kaioshin are linked to the Hakaishin, the same way Piccolo was linked to Kami. We got to see Vegeta use the Super Saiyan God form, and Goku absorb the Super Saiyan Blue form within himself. Trunks also got restoration powers, and Zamas got to show off some new moves, even using the basic Super Saiyan form as well.

If there one thing the anime version had over the manga version, other than the added advantage of music, voices and seeing the fights in motion, were the cool down periods where Trunks got to see what happened to the rest of the gang after the Cell Games. He got to meet an alternate version of his former mentor, Gohan, who had now grown up, got married and had a family. Obviously, this wasn't the Gohan he was expecting, but this is a Gohan that wasn't killed by the Androids and lived long enough to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a scholar.

Likewise, Trunks also got to meet an alternate version of Android 18. Rather than the ruthless murderer he knew, this one was a lot more polite, and actually married Krillin and they have a kid together. I really wish we got to see something like that in the manga version.

I could do without Bulma trying to go back to her earlier Dragonball tricks and attempt to seduce Zamas though. Luckily Bulma stayed behind when they returned to the alternate timelines so we didn't have to see any of that nonsense. 

Going back to the ending, another complaint many people had was the fact that Future Trunks got horribly screwed at the end. No mater how bleak things got in the Android/Cell arc for him, he at least had his mother to come back to. Now he not only lost his mother, he also lost literally everyone he ever knew. His entire timeline was wiped out of existence. Even with this alternate timeline they'll be going back to, he'll not only have to have to co-exist with another set of Trunks and Mai, he will also have to eventually comes to terms with the fact that the Bulma he will be returning to is not his actual mom. No matter what, the Zamas from his original timeline still killed his real mom. 

Overall, I did prefer the manga version over the anime version. It just had so many interesting twists and turns. My major complaint was the power scaling near end with God Zamas not being as powerful as a fused warrior should be. Plot armor and story contrivances, God Zamas should have killed everyone the moment he fused, unless Goku and Vegeta fused into Vegetto seconds after. There's just no way Goku and Vegeta lasted so long against him unless Zamas was the weakest fusion ever or was purposely wasting his time. 

Now we will move on to the next big arc, where it will be another case of 'make sure this and that happens but it still needs to end this particular way'' type of mission for Toyotaro. Stay turned to see how different the Universe Survival Arc will be in the manga when compared to the anime.