Dragonball Super manga Volume 5 (Chapter 28)

 By Mark Rodriguez

The crew resumes regular life after the events of the Goku Black arc. Goku is living his regular life and working as a farmer. Vegeta is training with Whis and learning to contain the Super Saiyan Blue within himself similar to what Goku did earlier. Bulma is now pregnant with her second child. Goku remembers the Universal Tournament that Zeno, the Lord of Everything, wanted to do someday. Despite the warnings of how dangerous and unpredictable Zeno Sama can be, Goku activates the button he was given and is warped away to see him. What will happen now?

Chapter 28- The Gods of Destruction from all 12 Universes

On Beerus' planet, the Oracle Fish asks where Goku went. Lord Whis tells him that he want to see Zeno Sama. Beerus says this is horrible and wonders who let Goku meet him to begin with. Whis reminds him that he showed up thanks to the tournament he held with his brother Champa. Beerus sees that it was his fault.

On Zeno's planet, the two Zenos are playing universal chess, with each piece representing an actual universe. Both of them see that they have five pieces each and ponder that there are too many of them. They decide they should get rid of some. One of the Zenos asks the Grand Priest how the mortals are doing in the 12 universes. 

The Grand Priest says that Universe 1 is in the lead, with Universe 12 being second since it recently started developing rapidly. He says there has been little development in the other universes. The Zenos decide it's too much of a hassle to watch over so many universes. The Grand Priests asks if they want to get rid of a few.

The Zenos decide that 4 universes are enough and they should wipe out the other eight. The Grand Priest will alert their guides. Just then Goku arrives and the Grand Priest senses they have a guest. Goku reminds the Zenos about the inter-universal tournament they promised and asks when it's happening. The Zenos forgot about it and realize they can't hold the tournament if they wipe out the other universes beforehand.

Zeno announced that they will start the tournament. Goku asks when this will be and the Grand Priest says it will take place in five tiks, which would be 40 Earth hours. Goku is about to leave to get ready, but the Grand Priest says he must stay and wait until he's contacted all the Gods of Destruction. 

Grand Priest contacts all of the Angels of the 12 universes. In universe 10, that god of destruction is angry that Zamas caused all that trouble and that Gowas went to Beerus for help. He says that Beerus is his least favorite God of Destruction. Just then his Angel alerts him of the Grand Priest's call. We see several Angels and Gods get the call, including Helles from Universe 2.

Elsewhere, Lord Belmod from universe 11 is being worshipped with several woman feeding him fruit. His Angel arrives with the message when one of the girls pulls a knife on her for interrupting. Belmond turns her to dust and says he was planning to destroy the planet anyway, when he gets the message from the Grand Priest. 

The Grand Priest summons all the Gods of Destruction, Angels and Kaioshins to see him at once. Rumsshi tells Gowas that he's in trouble if he gets punished over the Zamas situation. Everyone is soon ready, except for universe 8 as its Angel informs them that her God of Destruction went to the restroom. 

A minute later, the Grand Priest summons all the deities from the 12 universes, which impresses Goku. Sidra from Universe 9 can't remember the last time they had an emergency call. Helles is surprised to see that there are two Zeno Samas. Champa is angry at Beerus since he sees that Goku is there. Quitela from universe 4 notices that 'Beerus did something again'.

Among all the deities, Grand Priest notices a large man alongside Belmond and asks about him. Belmod introduces the man as Toppo. He explains that he is planning on retiring soon so he has been preparing Toppo to be the next God of Destruction. He was brought along to gain some experience. The God of Destruction is done with the bathroom so he is summoned as well, alongside his Angel and Kaioshin. The Grand Priest says he has an announcement as everybody worries.

The Grand Priest announces the Tournament of Power, that confuses everyone. Champa says Goku made that tournament a reality. Lord Mosco from universe 3 says something and is quickly silenced. When asked what he said, his Kaioshin says he was only concerned with how little time they have to prepare. Zeno asks if that's a problem and universe 3's Angel assures them that it's fine. 

The Zeno Sama that came from Trunks' future timeline doesn't know what's going on, and Grand Priest realizes he never seen a Tournament of Power before. The Grand Priest decides to whip up a Zen Exhibition Match. A stage has been set and the Grand Priest tells the Gods of Destruction to step up. Everyone is surprised. The Grand Priest says they are the gods of their associated universes so they'd make great representatives. Goku is excited. Champa is nervous since he hasn't trained in decades. 

The gods take the stage and Quitela asks about the rules. The Grand Priest says there will be a prize for the final two. He also says anyone that refuses to fight giving it their all will be destroyed by Zeno. Quitela tells Beerus now is a chance to see who the strongest is. He had defeated Beerus in an arm wrestling match, to which Beerus says is not the same as hand to hand combat. Goku wishes Beerus luck, and Beerus says this is all his fault. He stops as he notices he blurted that out in front of all the other gods.

The gods realize this is Goku's fault, a mortal from universe 7, so they now know who to go after first. They already don't like him and Belmod says the last emergency call they had was because all of the universes were going to be erased thanks to Beerus. Kaiohshin asks Whis what happened before. Whis says it started before he was appointed Kaiohshin of universe 7. Zeno Sama held an All-Universe Hide and Seek Invitational Tournament.

For that tournament, Beerus went to hide and fell asleep for 50 years. Zeno Sama was enjoying the tournament and became furious when Beerus never came out of his hiding spot. The rest of the gods had to go through great effort to calm Zeno down, so they still hold animosity towards Beerus. 

The Grand Priest calls for the match to begin and all of the gods get into their stances. As expected, all of the gods hone in one Beerus. Beerus uses his speed to evade all of the attacks. Goku is surprised that Beerus can dodge all of those attacks and asks what's going on. Whis explains that Beerus's body can sense the attacks and dodge them all on his own. Just then Beerus is caught in the grasp of the giant robotic Mosco. The gods fly in to attack Beerus, but he is able to power out of Mosco's grasp and get out of the way. The god land their hits upon Mosco instead.

Mosco falls over and the rest of the gods notice Beerus floating up above them. As they fly up after him, they notice it was Champa instead. Beerus, who was hiding under Mosco's arm says he used his brother as bait and charges up a huge energy ball. 

Beerus tosses the energy ball towards the gods and it causes a huge explosion. The Zenos are impressed and Goku asks if they're still alive after all that. As the smoke clears we see that Sidral made a forcefield just in time to take the blast and save everyone. Sidral is suddenly kicked in the face and sent flying. The others are surprised to see that Belmod attacked him. Belmod reminds the others that Beerus isn't the only enemy. There can only be one winner so they can't afford to be helping each other out.

The Zenos are enjoying the show and the Grand Priest says that the real fight is about to begin. Quitela is excited, while Beerus is angry. Goku is also excited to see where this fight goes. 

Bonus Story-

After the defeat of Zamas, and without a future to return to, Future Trunks and Future Mai prepare to live in the present day alongside their younger selves. Just then Gohan passes by and is surprised to see Trunks. Gohan says he's being going to the Gravity Room to train lately since he's been getting rusty and he hasn't been called upon whenever it's time for a fight lately. Trunks is surprised to see Gohan all grown up, which reminds him of the Gohan from his timeline that tragically died fighting against Android 17 and 18.

Gohan assumes that Trunks' future is also safe and peaceful since he saved it. Trunks is hit by these words, due to what really happened. Gohan wants to visit his future sometime and asks him how long they will be staying. Trunks says that they will be leaving in a few days, which surprises Mai. Trunks says Gohan can visit his future later on so he can see how peaceful it really is. Gohan says he's looking forward to meeting the future version of Bulma, which makes Trunks jump. Our Bulma says Gohan can be as insensitive as his father sometimes and he doesn't know what he said wrong.

Due to this, Trunks and Mai head back to their future during the peaceful period before Goku Black arrived. It is assumed that this time, Trunks will be ready and will quickly take him out.

My thoughts-

This saga has even more changes than the Goku Black arc which will make the manga one hell of a thrill ride once things get going. If we compare to this to the anime, episodes 77 and 78 of Super would be the ones that best coincide with this. The scene of the Zenos playing a game before they start getting bored was how episode 77 started, then we saw the stuff from the previous chapter like Goku running into the bandits and Bulma showing that she's pregnant. 

In the anime the Zenos were playing marbles, except each marble represented a planet, and as each marble shatters, the planets explode in real life. Stuff like that would be horrifying. Imagine your planet randomly exploding at the whim of some higher being. In the manga they were playing chess, but seeing as they still talked about 12 universes, they weren't actually being erased during their game.

While in the manga the Zenos were planning to wipe out universes before Goku shows up just in time, in the anime it's revealed much later that the Zenos were planning on wiping out the weaker universes anyway before the tournament was announced. They both carry the same overall story beat, but in the manga Goku literally shows up just in time before they were going to carry out the act. So in the manga Goku did save the universes from being randomly destroyed.

Another major difference is how the gods are introduced. I'm assuming Toyotaro had the power of hindsight, but the gods were properly introduced and most of them even had some scenes of whatever they were up to before they were summoned. I like the extra touch of Helles reacting to seeing two Zenos. I also liked the references to Zamas which showed the previous arc still left some repercussions that can't be  quickly forgotten.

Then we have the Zeno Invitational Tournament, which was to show the Zeno from Future Trunks' timeline how a tournament works. In the anime version, 3 warriors from universe 7 would face 3 from universe 9. This would pit Goku, Gohan and Majin Buu against Basil, Lavender and Bergamo. In the manga, the gods themselves have to fight, which also gives better insight on who they are and their abilities.

Another major change when compared to the manga was that in the anime Goku was able to leave and go to Kaiohshinkai so that the Grand Priest can announce the Tournament of Power to Beerus and Kaiohshin. It is there where they find out that the losers of the tournament will be erased by the Zenos. So far that hasn't been brought up in the manga just yet. 

Both versions are taking the story in different directions and it's too soon for me to say which one I preferred. I think the manga is taking this so far, due how all the new gods are being better introduced. We also see Toppo right of that bat (he was covered in a black cape in the anime at first) and already mentioned foreshadowing about him training to become a God of Destruction, which will come into play at the tournament. The main thing I like about the anime is this mini tournament finally gave Majin Buu a chance to shine and a chance to win a fight. It's the only actual fight scene where he won in the entire Dragonball Super anime. He fell asleep during the first tournament arc and he got whupped by Beerus in the Battle of Gods arc.

As for the bonus story, it was cool to see Future Trunks see the current adult Gohan and how he got a chance at life, which the Gohan he knew never did. In the anime Trunks had the chance to spend the day with him, but he never had that chance in the manga version of the Goku Black arc. It was nice to see it happen here, despite Gohan's words inspiring Trunks to head back to his timeline.

The final thing I'd like to add to wrap up the review is I like the fact that Super started with Kaioh Sama being too afraid of Goku talking to Beerus.... and now Beerus himself is the one that's horrified of Goku talking to Zeno Sama.