Nearly 19 years after its original run, Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z finally got a sequel in the form of Dragon Ball Super. Initially, fans were so excited and scared - hyped for the epic battles filled with tenacity and perseverance, but terrified for how it could easily flop. But Super actually did a decent job. It showed up with blue-haired transformations, the very first female Super Saiyan, and hilarious vegetable-pun names. (We’re looking at you, Kale). While there were definitely some rough patches with the series, Super delivered the signature action-packed, tenaciously long, ridiculously OP fights that Dragon Ball fans love.
With a large cast of new characters, the 2015 TV series sequel reorganized the hierarchy of the most powerful Dragon Ball characters and paid a lot of combat homage to the original series. But fans of Super know, deep down, that the show was far from perfect. In fact, there were several instances where the logic in Dragon Ball Super was questionable. Many of us just glossed over these imperfections at the time, but looking back, the things that don’t quite make sense are actually funny. DB fans have created some awesome comics and memes that poke fun at the logical fallacies in Super and you can only understand them if you’ve seen the show. From comical plot devices to illogical conclusions, these hilarious fanmade comics will make you chuckle as you recall those moments in Dragon Ball Super.
20 Blue Super Saiyan?!
Fans of Dragon Ball Super know that one of the coolest things from the show is the Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan transformation, otherwise known as Super Saiyan Blue. The form is triggered by fusing godly powers with the Super Saiyan transformation. Super Saiyan Blue looks just like the first Super Saiyan transformation, but with cyan-colored hair. Frieza comments in Dragon Ball Super:
“So what is this? Super Saiyan with blue hair dye?”
Why does the hair turn blue? Supposedly, the powers of a god are “crimson” and when mixed with the “orange” hue of the Super Saiyan transformation, you get that bright cyan color. You know who else has blue hair? Bulma, the human scientist married to Vegeta.
19 The Way Time Passes In All The Dragon Ball Shows
The passage of time is something that has always been fluid, flexible, and flimsy in the Dragon Ball universe. One of the most famous examples is how it takes 8 episodes for Namek to explode - something that supposedly happens in 5 minutes. All the Dragon Ball shows have always had this strange relationship with episodes and the passage of time in the plot, and Super is no exception.
The Tournament of Power arc features 34 episodes that detail different fights. And those 34 episodes are each about 23 minutes of run-time, but only encompass 48 minutes of actual time passing in the Dragon Ball Super universe. That’s over 700 minutes of airtime to cover 48 minutes of story. Gotta love that pacing.
18 Behold, The Evil Villain Called Black Goku!
Fans of Super know of Black Goku. Black Goku, also known as Black, is from the Future Trunks arc and is also from the future. If it isn’t clear from his name or his dark costume or his flat one-dimensional character, Black Goku is evil. There are several illogical problems with this. Just because one adds the word “black” to the front of the protagonist’s name does not mean the character is suddenly “bad.” Racist much? There are plenty of other ways to create a dark and evil “mirror copy” of a main character, yet the Super writers decided to take the easiest and dumbest route.
Add to Black’s character the fact that he’s very flat in personality and motivation, and you’ve got a really boring villain. The concept of an evil version of Goku could have been very fascinating, yet instead of putting some time and thought into the idea, the creators of Super decided to just be lazy. They could have come up with so many twisted scenarios, complex relationships, and deep motivations, but nope. All we got was a lazy attempt at a seriously dumb copy of Goku.
17 The Epic Fight Between Vegeta And Toppo That Had Meant Nothing
Every Vegeta fan remembers the awesome fight against Toppo in Super. It’s one of Vegeta’s most amazing moments, where he reflects upon his humanity and family. But it’s actually one of the dumbest fights in the whole series for several reasons. For starters, he beats Toppo and then proceeds to think about how far he has come and what he has to lose. Then he decides to self-destruct with a Final Explosion to, er, ensure Toppo’s already defeated state?
Let’s be clear: it was great seeing Vegeta’s personal journey during the episode. But the logic behind this scene was completely irrational. Vegeta beats people all the time. Why does his victory over Toppo suddenly spark his inward reflection? It would have made more sense for Vegeta to get crushed and then think back on his life, which would have easily flowed into the reason for his use of the Final Explosion move. Why use an OP move that harms yourself when you’ve already defeated your opponent?
16 The Painfully Memorable Art Of Super
There’s a 19-year gap between Dragon Ball Z and Super, yet the animation and art seemed to progress backward. Fans of Super will recall how it was mind-boggling to see the terrible artwork in the first handful of episodes of Super. There were arms that were drawn backward, faces that had the wrong structures, hairstyles that didn’t match the characters, and wonky body proportions galore.
The quality of the art in the TV series upon airing was so poor that Toei actually went back and redid a lot of the episodes for the Blu-Ray release. They fixed the comical face structures and amateur body lines, restoring the signature muscular physiques and detailed hair. However, for some Dragon Ball fans, they will always be haunted by the memories of just how terrible the show looked when it first aired.
15 Goku Didn’t See Cell As A Real Threat
Goku has fought many formidable enemies throughout his lives, deaths, and resurrections. From planet attackers to gods, Goku has faced countless opponents and defeated them with reckless abandon to achieve a deity-like status. Oddly enough, Goku has bitten a handful of opponents in a few select battles. Some fans have concluded that these specific opponents are the most powerful and threatening figures in the history of Dragon Ball, which is why Goku decided to, er, bite them at one point.
You know who Goku has never bit? Cell.
Sorry, Cell - Goku didn’t see you as a super serious danger to his world. You’re just a plain old green alien who honestly wasn’t a real threat.
14 Amazing Plot Changes, Guys. Really.
One of the most nonsensical plot ideas for Dragon Ball Super is the existence of Super Dragon Balls. Let’s think about this. There are already different kinds of dragon balls, such as Earth Dragon Balls and Namekian Dragon Balls. These two sets come with an insane wish mechanism where, if you gather the full set of seven, a dragon grants one (or three) wishes. There are limitations, of course, such as not being able to revive someone who has been dead for longer than a year. Despite certain restrictions, these orange orbs are ridiculously powerful.
Yet in Super, the writers decide that they’re going to inflate the capacity of dragon balls by making Super Dragon Balls. These “super” balls are the size of planets that summon the Dragon of the Gods to grant a wish that breaks the limitations of the original dragon balls. Okay… But why? Sure, the normal dragon balls have certain rules, but they’re still granting wishes on a crazy level. There was no reason to introduce such OP dragon balls in the first place, yet that’s what happened.
13 Tracksuits Are Fashionable…?
Clothing and costumes are an important part of a character’s personality and appearance. For instance, take Master Roshi’s sunglasses and turtle shell backpack. It tells the audience a lot about his character. Yet in Dragon Ball Super, two characters are wearing tracksuits - Android 18 and Gohan. This doesn’t make any sense. Most fighters don Gi or Battle Armor as their main garb, given their combat tendencies. Yet here we have not one, but two characters in tracksuits (albeit in different colors, as Android 18 wears pink and Gohan wears green).
Tracksuits don’t really make any sense in the world of Dragon Ball. There isn’t much modern clothing worn in fights - usually, people are shirtless (to show those ripped abs) or wearing Gi or some kind of alien armor. So… Why are there two characters with tracksuits? Did they go shopping together at a mall somewhere? Do they work out together in their free time? Why are they the exact same tracksuits, just in different colors? Are they a couple?
12 Frieza Disappears For A Few Episodes
There was a time during the Tournament of Power part of the Dragon Ball Super series where Frieza was last seen “napping behind some rocks.” Then, for two episodes, there is no sign of this man. He magically reappears in Episode 130, “The Greatest Showdown of All Time! The Ultimate Survival Battle!!” The characters are shocked to find that he is still alive and kicking, and the story just keeps chugging along as if nothing is wrong with his unexplained absence spanning two episodes.
What makes Frieza’s disappearance even weirder is the fact that he’s such an integral part of the last section of the Tournament of Power. It’s almost as if Dragon Ball Super has too many characters to give enough screen time to, including one of the main antagonists in the final stages of the tournament…
11 Vegetables Are The Name Of The Game
It’s a well-known fact that Akira Toriyama names his characters after jokes and wordplay. For example, take Son Goku, the main character of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. His Saiyan name at birth is Kakarot, which eerily sounds like “carrot.” Then there’s Raditz, which is much closer to “radish,” and Broly, which is obviously short for “broccoli.” There’s also Pan (“bread” in Japanese), Oolong (like the tea), and Vegeta (literally short for “vegetable”).
This trend just keeps on giving in Dragon Ball Super. You’ve got Caulifla, a shortened version of “cauliflower.”
And then you’ve got Kale.
Yeah… There was no attempt to even change Kale’s name to be a somewhat veiled reference to the dark and bitter vegetable. While it is certainly comical to have such “punny” names, it is a bit illogical. There’s no way that all the best fighters in all these different worlds are named after vegetables.
10 Wow, The Pride Troopers Sure Look Familiar
During the Tournament of Power arc in Dragon Ball Super, a team from Universe 11 came with Toppo as their leader. The team was compromised of the strongest members of an elite squad called the Pride Troopers, who banded together in their quest for justice. They wear black and red spandex suits like superheroes but actually cause havoc in their misinformed quest for the greater good.
What’s uncanny about the Pride Troopers is that a fan of Super realized there was a resemblance to something from their childhood - the Looney Tunes. They singled out Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, and Yosemite Sam and compared them to a scene in the Tournament of Power, and found that the Looney Tunes characters hilariously look like Jiren and his pals of the Pride Troopers. Coincidence? Who knows.
9 Vegeta Is A Better Parent Than Goku
Goku is the hero that saves the day, the man who does what gods cannot, the man who gains the respect of the ultimate entity of all universes. Yet for some reason, he doesn’t know how to be a good parent. This isn’t to say that all heroes make good parents. Of course not. But you’d think that Goku could at least be better than Vegeta at parenting, right? Vegeta, the man who used to be evil and murder people? The man with serious anger issues?
Most fans of Super will be quick to tell you that Goku is actually a terrible parent. Vegeta has already raised his first child and has been a better father figure to Trunks than Goku has been to his own son. This comic points to the fact that even though Vegeta is an angry and prideful Saiyan, he is weirdly a more caring guy than the carefree and chipper Goku.
8 Universe 7 Is Messed Up, Jiren
Dragon Ball Super introduced a ridiculous amount of new characters from various universes. One particular character named Jiren had a tragic story about how his parents and teammates were ended in Universe 11. When the audience learns of this, it’s hard for them to sympathize with him. Why?
Because Universe 7 is much more screwed up.
You’ve got Vegeta (and technically all Saiyans), who lost their entire planet, and you’ve got Goku, who took the life of his own grandfather and mentioned it only once. The amount of tragedy, murder, and destruction in Universe 7 actually borders on the nonsensical, which is why when Jiren shares his backstory, it’s just meh. Jiren, you ain’t got nothing on the characters in Universe 7.
7 Beerus’ Childhood Photo
Beerus is one of the first new antagonists introduced in Dragon Ball Super. As a God of Destruction, Beerus’ appearance doesn’t really make sense. He’s an anthropomorphic cat who is purple with deity status. It’s kind of funny, if you really think about it. Akira Toriyama revealed that Beerus is based off of a real cat he had, which outlived a severe medical illness despite the odds stacked against it. While there are alien races like the Namekians and the Frieza race, none of them look like the domesticated animals on Earth.
What’s more is that Beerus supposedly wiped out the dinosaurs because they “took a rude attitude” with him and in the Dragon Ball movie, Battle of Gods, he used chopsticks to beat the Z fighters. That’s right - chopsticks. A purple cat with chopsticks defeated the likes of Piccolo, Android 18, and Tien Shinhan.
6 Searching For Dragon Ball Super On The Internet
For some reason, it’s really hard to find pictures of Dragon Ball Super on the Internet. You get a mash of pictures from Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, and all the Dragon Ball movies. Sprinkled between all these images are a few Super images, and even then, you can’t always be sure they’re actually part of the correct TV series. It’s not like you can search for just “Super,” or “DBS,” either. Oh, and let’s not forget all those screenshots from the Dragon Ball video games, or the manga covers, or the fan art that also pop up when searching for Super pictures.
Oddly enough, the meme above isn’t from any of the official Dragon Ball series, either. It’s actually fan art, which accurately depicts the difficulty in finding Dragon Ball Super images. Only hardcore fans of the franchise will know the artwork of all the shows, games, and fan-created content well enough to know what is of Super and what is not.
5 The Relationship Of Caulifla And Kale
Caulifla and Kale are two close friends from Universe 6 that are introduced in Dragon Ball Super. They share a bond that is similar to that of gang sisters, with Caulifla being a tough older figure to Kale’s more timid personality. What doesn’t make sense about their relationship is Kale’s obsessive devotion to Caulifla. There’s a scene in Super where Kale sees a guy named Cabba flirt with Caulifla, and Kale cannot contain her jealousy. Kale goes so far as to try to destroy Cabba in her fit of rage, but Caulifla calms her down and reassures Kale that she would never like Cabba in that way.
It seems that Kale’s jealousy may point to deeper feelings than a sisterhood, but it is unclear if this was the intention of the writer. The dialogue between the two suggest a mentor/mentee relationship that goes as far as a gang-like family bond. Then there’s Kale’s obsession with Caulifla. Because it’s not really explained, Kale and Caulifla’s relationship is an odd one that has left many Super fans wondering.
4 Krillin, The Unsung Hero Of Earth
Beerus, the purple cat-like God of Destruction introduced in Dragon Ball Super, is a food snob who considers himself a refined eater. As a powerful god, he destroys entire planets and cultures if he is displeased or feels wronged. Beerus’ right-hand man, Whis, knows that he can calm the God of Destruction down with food, and does so multiple times. In Super, Krillin offers Beerus some Russian Octopus Balls that Beerus thoroughly enjoys.
Because of how ridiculous Beerus’ anger is over trivial things like food, fans have joked that Krillin saved Earth by offering the Russian Octopus Balls to the cat god. And honestly, Krillin probably did save Earth from being destroyed. Imagine if he gave Beerus something awful to eat. The world would have ended right away, apparently.
3 Super Saiyan Blue Is A God Transforma-OOF!
One of the newest transformations shown in Dragon Ball Super is the Super Saiyan Blue form. Fans have been told that this transformation is attained from fusing the god-level powers with the Super Saiyan form. This would mean that Super Saiyan Blue is higher than god-tier power, right? Yet in the Tournament of Power arc, you see Goku in this greater-than-gods transformation being tossed around and stepped on as if he’s not that strong.
But… These small fries that are stepping all over him aren’t as strong as gods like Beerus, so what’s going on? The power levels just don’t make any sense during this arc, especially when Goku is in Super Saiyan Blue form.
2 Vegeta’s Role In Super Is The Same As It’s Always Been
Poor Vegeta. He’s always been the appetizer before the main course, the opening act before the main attraction. He’s always trying to be tough and be the hero, but his real role is just setting the stage for Goku (or Goku’s descendants). Take the Frieza arc, for example. Vegeta just went on a rampage of beating up a bunch of people, from Zarbon to Captain Ginyu. Yet when he reaches the final boss, he’s beat to a pulp in an instant. All that savagery and toughness that Vegeta built up defeating the minions? It means nothing. Why?
Because Goku is the real hero.
Then there’s the Cell arc. Vegeta is basically the bait, and everyone seems to know it but him. Sadly, Vegeta thinks he’s got the ability to defeat Super Perfect Cell, but it’s actually Gohan who has the power. Oh, and let’s not forget the Buu arc, either - Vegeta thinks he’s fighting Buu, but we all know that it’s really Goku fighting Buu. After all, who launches the Super Spirit Bomb to destroy Kid Buu? Let me give you a hint: it’s not Vegeta.
1 Zamasu’s Character Makes Very Little Sense
There are lots of debates about whether or not Zamasu is greatest villain in the Dragon Ball universe. His cruelty is discussed and analyzed very often. However, what about his motivation? There are some big holes in Zamasu’s character - ones that make no logical sense. For starters, Zamasu looks down on humans because he thinks they’re dumb for always starting wars and attacking each other. He thinks world peace is possible because of mortality, yet humans are too stupid and uncultured to achieve it. It actually quite upsets him.
Yet when Zamasu meets a “mortal” named Goku who is as powerful as the gods, he concludes that all mortals are evil because of Goku’s happy-go-lucky attitude. Yes, re-read that sentence. That is literally what makes Zamasu turn down the dark path. It makes no sense whatsoever. And the cherry on top? Zamasu’s original qualm with humans was their reckless savagery. But in his fury, Zamasu decides that he will eliminate all humans. Yup. Gotta love that consistency.
