Dragon Ball Super‘s latest arc — a retelling of 2022’s feature film Super Hero — is well underway. While the latest two chapters have offered a faithful retelling of the movie’s events, the arc actually opened with a manga-original prologue focusing on Trunks and Goten.
Inspired by a new superhero movie, “Cleangod,” Trunks and Goten adopt the crimefighting personas of Saiyaman X-1 and X-2. Through their superheroics, the pair inadvertently uncover a criminal plot by Dr. Hedo, the grandson of Dr. Gero and inventor of the Gammas and Cell Max in Super Hero.
Trunks and Goten’s Escapades Are a Welcome Reprieve
The arc is relatively brief, lasting only three chapters before the main bulk of the Super Hero arc begins proper. Regardless, these chapters are some of the most enjoyable in all of Super, as Trunks struggles to balance his school life with his superheroic pursuits and contends with his crush on Mai, all the while blissfully unaware of the wider sinister plot brewing in the background.
The format of these chapters also demonstrates how flexible Dragon Ball can be as a series. Super has struggled with a non-stop escalation of its scope and stakes — a problem that arguably started back in Dragon Ball Z. As a result, many of the series’ supporting cast members have been left behind, unable to contribute as much as Goku and Vegeta, who have grown exponentially stronger over the years.
Trunks and Goten may not be as powerful as their fathers, but these chapters demonstrate that they’re able to carry a story in their own right and have worth as characters beyond just fighting prowess. Watching Goku’s decades-long progression as a martial artist may be the backbone of Dragon Ball as a whole, but the prologue to the “Super Hero” arc shows that slice-of-life side-stories focusing on other members of the cast can still work and feel faithful to the spirit of the series.
The Arc Shows Toyotarou’s Willingness to Revisit Abandoned Concepts
The underlying concept of the arc — that of its high-school-going Saiyan protagonists using their powers to become superheroes on the side — isn’t one unique to Super. These chapters owe a lot to the early “Majin Buu” arc, in which Gohan does much the same as his brother and Trunks do here, adopting the persona of the Great Saiyaman while attending Orange Star High School.
Sadly, the original Great Saiyaman story ended abruptly to make way for the main crux of the “Majin Buu” arc, focusing on Goku’s return at the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament and the ensuing resurrection of Buu. While the Saiyaman X chapters may be a mere prologue to the main Super Hero arc, they at least have an overarching plot line that is satisfyingly resolved by the end of the three chapters, making it fully functional when viewed in isolation as a self-contained story.
Through these chapters, Super author Toyotarou revisits concepts previously abandoned by his predecessor, willing to embrace low-stakes stories focused on the side cast. As a result, these chapters have made many fans hopeful that other characters may receive similar treatment in the future and can be proactive contributors in a story without needing to catch up with Goku and Vegeta.
Which Other Characters Would Benefit From Slice-of-Life Arcs?
The series could shine a light on underutilized dynamics, such as Mr. Satan and Majin Buu as the former struggles to keep his cover as the supposed strongest man in the world, or Bulma could get some focus in an arc showing the day-to-day operations of Capsule Corp. Yamcha’s baseball career is ripe for exploration, as the notion of a superpowered being dominating an athletic field at the expense of his normal peers would be a solid premise for both drama and comedy.
A mini-arc exploring the long-neglected Tien as he comes to terms with the fact that despite his devotion to martial arts he will never quite catch up to his eternal Turtle School rival Goku could serve be the long-awaited resolution the character deserves. And then there’s Krillin, whose escapades in the police force have already been briefly shown in the “Super Hero” prologue, with plenty of room for expansion in a broader arc.
Slice-of-life Dragon Ball stories rank among the series’ most beloved entries, from the famous Z driving school episode to the Super interdimensional baseball episode. Despite this, the series seems reluctant to fully embrace this angle, but the “Super Hero” prologue shows that low-stakes stories about these characters can work wonders even in a serialized format. Hopefully, these chapters are a sign of more to come and an indication that Dragon Ball doesn’t feel the need to constantly expand in scope to remain compelling.