When I was a kid, I didn’t really understand what anime was. I encountered the occasional show here and there, and I began to realize that animation could be much more than the cartoons I’d grown up with. But it wasn’t until Cartoon Network started showing episodes of Dragon Ball Z in the afternoons that I was really hooked by anime. The fight scenes, when they happened, were amazing, and the characters quickly grew on me.
Since then, I’ve truly grown to love the Dragon Ball universe. While I haven’t done a truly deep dive (I’ve never watched all of GT, nor have I read the manga), I’ve spent a fair amount of time watching Goku and friends.
I started watching Dragon Ball Super back when my daughter was born in 2016. I was spending a lot of hours awake at night, and Dragon Ball Super helped me keep my eyes open. I’ll admit that I wasn’t impressed at first. I started by watching the movies, so going back and watching the episodes felt like a much slower rewatching.
But as boring as fighting tournaments sounds as a plot point, I really got sucked into the story by the end. What I enjoy about Super is the perfect balance of fan-service and new action. While there is certainly still some filler, no longer do we have full episodes of powering up. The action, especially near the back half of the series, moves quickly, and in my opinion, the animation is gorgeous. The powers and abilities demonstrated here, as well as the action sequences, are stunning, and I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for Goku.
I won’t argue that the series is perfect – that would be hard to say about any 130+ episode series, but I really, really enjoyed it!
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