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The Dragon Ball Super manga has been in the midst of a very complicated situation in the last few years, regardless of the quality of recent arcs. While the Moro and Granolah arcs have had some stellar moments, the fact that this has been the only consistent source of Dragon Ball content since the anime ended back in 2018, has left fans frustrated with the franchise's current state of affairs.
Now that Dragon Ball DAMAI has been announced, and is going to come out in the fall of 2024, this is the perfect time to dive into the Dragon Ball Super manga. The series has felt a bit stagnant in recent months with the Super Hero storyline and it would benefit the franchise if they moved forward with more pressing plot points.
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the Dragon Ball Super manga.
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The Dragon Ball Super manga and its current state of affairs
The Dragon Ball Super manga is not everybody's cup of tea, but it was what most fans of the series had during a large portion of the last five years. Once the Super anime concluded with the Tournament of Power back in 2018, most Dragon Ball content came from this manga, and despite some valid criticisms, it kept the franchise in people's minds for the most part.
However, now that a Dragon Ball DAMAI project has been announced, it is the right time to couple that with the manga being pushed forward with more ambitious stories. The current storyline of the manga has been centered around adapting the Super Hero movie, which has led to some people feeling that the franchise has stagnated a bit.
The Dragon Ball Super manga only managed to surpass the anime in terms of the amount of story once the latter concluded and the former no longer had to play catch-up. In that regard, although the makers of the anime also added lore and world-building of the series with the Moro and Granolah arcs, even going as far as surprising people with Black Frieza, this latest storyline feels like an underwhelming detour.
The future of the Dragon Ball Super manga
Despite the manga looking like it has a clear direction, other factors seem to be getting in the way, such as the Super Hero movie and the original ending of Dragon Ball Z. This keeps the Super manga from having a well-defined identity and forces Toriyama and Toyotaro to adapt a lot of different storylines into their series.
For example, Super takes place after the final battle with Kid Buu and before the ending of Z. Therefore, the timeline is getting closer and closer to that moment where Goku meets Uub, and this puts a certain limit on what the authors can do with the series, which is why a lot of fans would like a much more important storyline taking place at the moment.
The Black Frieza situation is interesting because he is now the strongest in Universe 7 and Goku and Vegeta have to reach his level or things can get out of hand. However, this has taken a backseat due to the Super Hero storyline and has made the only major source of canon content feel a bit underwhelming, which is something that fans would like to change moving forward.
Final thoughts
The Dragon Ball Super manga will continue, but it is important that Toyotaro and Toriyama pull off something that can get fans back onside after what has been an underwhelming arc. Dragon Ball DAIMA is still going to have to win the fans' approval and Super needs to make a solid comeback moving forward.
