It’s been over two years since the world lost manga artist and writer Akira Toriyama and it’s been about that long since the unofficial end of Dragon Ball Super. The manga and anime series was the official sequel to the hugely successful and mega popular Dragon Ball Z. The final chapter, 103, was released in March of 2024 in Toriyama’s native Japan while English speaking readers have had to wait two years for the collected final volume to be released elsewhere. Sure, the chapters are all made available much sooner via the Shonen Jump app, but I’m still one of those digital deniers clinging to physical media with just about everything I consume. It was a long two years of waiting, but had this volume arrived shortly after Toriyama’s passing I probably would have been a blubbering mess. Having two years to process such a monumental loss may have been a good thing.
After the anime series ended, I went back and picked up all of the volumes of Dragon Ball Super as well as the ones that followed. Super the manga did not end and continued on with two full arcs of Dragon Ball goodness. The manga did bypass the Broly film, but chose to adapt the Super Hero movie and even fleshed it out more with a short arc featuring Goten and Trunks as super heroes in the same style as The Great Saiyaman. The collected volumes are published by Viz Media in the US and the artwork contained within is in black and white. Since Toriyama’s passing, artist Toyotarou has taken up the mantle of an introduction to the volume usually with some nod to Toriyama. For this particular one, he notes that Toriyama often advised him on how to better be a manga creator (a mangaka) and he expresses a desire to keep those lessons in mind for as long as he’s a mangaka himself. Toyotarou is always deferential to Toriyama when speaking on the subject of Dragon Ball and it will be interesting to see if that changes should the manga continue in some way.
As for the story, it’s a post Super Hero one where we find the remnants of the Red Ribbon Army, lead by Carmine, seeking to exact revenge upon Gohan for thwarting their plans with Cell Max. And to do that they want to recruit the newest super heroes in town: Saiyaman X-1 and Saiyaman X-2. Unfortunately for them, those happen to be the alter egos for Trunks and Goten and they’re not going to help the Red Ribbon Army take down Gohan. Elsewhere, Vegeta, Goku, and Broly are training with Whis on the planet of Lord Beerus. It’s while Vegeta and Broly are dueling that they learn about Gohan’s sudden burst of power and his conquering of Cell Max. It seems they were so engrossed in their training they didn’t notice, but are immediately curious about what the son of Goku is capable of now. Goku decides to pay his son a visit just as Carmine and a soldier are arriving at Gohan’s house with Trunks and Goten along for the ride. Goku can’t be bothered with what’s going on and instead brings everyone to the planet of Lord Beerus. There, Carmine and his lone soldier get to bare witness to what these Saiyans are capable of first with Trunks and Goten taking on Gohan followed by father and son. It’s a simple story and a breezy one as Goku is just out to test the limits of his son with the hope of reaching the conclusion that he doesn’t have to worry about Earth so long as Gohan is there to protect it.
The ending of this story received some additional press because Toriyama apparently requested a change. During the fighting, Goku and company find out about Piccolo’s new power-up as well and naturally Goku wants to see it as well. Vegeta is also curious, but also concedes that he needs to head home or else Bulma might lose interest. When Goku and Gohan return to Earth to find Piccolo he has to decline a sparring session because someone needs to pick Gohan’s daughter, Pan, up from school. Goku tags along at Piccolo’s insistence since he apparently forgot his granddaughter’s name and we get a wordless exchange to close out the story of Pan elated to see her grandpa and Piccolo waving bye to her teacher. The way the scene is illustrated it’s as if Piccolo is waving “bye” to the reader, and since Piccolo was Toriyama’s favorite, it’s been interpreted as his way of saying “good bye.” Right in the feels.
Volume 24 actually doesn’t end there, but with a prequel chapter about how Trunks and Goten decided to become super heroes. Toyotarou explains it was something he wanted to do initially, but just didn’t have the time for it. With the story over (and Shonen probably not minding extra content) he was able to go back and do it and it’s a fun little story, though in this format it’s definitely a tonal shift following the end of chapter 103. I even put my copy down for about a week before I picked it back up to read the prequel chapter.
As the present conclusion to Dragon Ball Super, this is a nice little end. It’s basically a slice of life story just set in the world of Dragon Ball where titanic battles are an everyday thing. The anime is expected to resume in the not too distant future following a remake of the first arc with Beerus. I do wonder, when it finally gets to this final scene, can it possible land with the same impact? Maybe Toriyama can be inserted somehow into it either via a caricature or his little avatar of himself with the mask? Should the manga continue in the hands of Toyotarous, there’s plenty more to explore as Goku still hasn’t seen Piccolo’s new form, Broly is striving to harness his own power, and Frieza is still out there somewhere. If not and it ends here then it’s a sweet ending and one I much prefer to how Dragon Ball Z originally ended with Goku abandoning his family to go train Uub. If you’re a Dragon Ball fan, you have probably read this already so this isn’t exactly a review, per say. This is more of a chance for me to acknowledge the end of the series while it was in the hands of Akira Toriyama and an opportunity to say “Thanks,” and that I’m going to miss that guy.
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