The Dragon Ball Super manga isn’t an exact retelling of the anime’s story. These are the biggest differences between the two.
The famous comeback of the Dragon Ball franchise’s anime series in 2015 also saw the revival of Toriyama’s legendary manga, this time with lifetime fan Toyotar in charge of the script and art, while the series’ original author oversees overall production. Despite the fact that the anime and manga versions of Dragon Ball Super are essentially the same tale, there are significant changes between the anime and manga versions of Dragon Ball Super, which were released around the same time. .
Due to the manga’s monthly release schedule, the anime series would also be charging ahead with its own tale; nevertheless, due to the desire for both to reflect the same canon, the anime and its feature films have had a significant effect over what would normally be the source material. Despite this, there are some clear discrepancies between the anime and the manga, thus here are some of the most significant variances between the Dragon Ball Super anime and the manga.
Saw The Movie? Great, Moving On
Source : AnimeDub A
The 2013 film Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods is one of the greatest deviations. This film introduced the Super scene, and the anime and manga adapted its events. Champa and Vados first appear in the manga collecting Super Dragon Balls. The manga series doesn’t retell the Dragon Ball Super movie plots, but it uses occasional references to them to keep the story arcs in order. The Resurrection of Frieza occurs in both the film and manga, however the manga barely spends a few pages discussing it.
The events of Dragon Ball Super: Broly were also kept out of the manga, except for a double-page spread depicting the conflict before the Moro Arc.
Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero takes place after the anime’s Tournament of Power and Moro Arc. Since the anime ran weekly and the manga monthly, plus the canonical Dragon Ball Super movies, the former quickly surpassed the latter while depicting the same core events. The Dragon Ball Super anime and manga flow into each other, similar to Akame ga KILL!
Elite Warrior
Goku and Vegeta use Super Saiyan God and Super Saiyan Blue differently in Dragon Ball Super. Vegeta can transform into Super Saiyan Blue in Resurrection F, putting him on par with Goku, but he’s never shown performing the precursor ceremony. In the manga, Vegeta uses Super Saiyan God to overcome Super Saiyan Blue’s stamina loss during the Zamasu Arc.
This drawback only appears in the manga edition. Vegeta’s wisdom caused him to employ Super Saiyan God before attacking, then convert into Super Saiyan Blue. During the Broly encounter, Vegeta debuted his Super Saiyan God form. The anime version of Goku combines Super Saiyan Blue’s power boost with the Kaioken. Manga lacks this composite form.
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The Ultra Instinct Phenomenon
In the manga, Ultra Instinct is a state Goku attains through intensive training under several masters. One of Goku’s most prominent teachers is seen using a shockingly similar technique. Master Roshi has great mobility during the Tournament of Power, showing invincible even against Jiren if he stays focused. Beerus and Whis thought the old man’s instinctive dodging was divine.
Whis explains Ultra Instinct in the anime as separating a fighter’s consciousness and body, allowing the body to unconsciously escape and attack. Master Roshi is key to Goku’s initial use of Ultra Instinct in the manga.
Multiverse of Madness
A 10th Universe Supreme Kai apprentice goes insane and wants to annihilate all mortal existence through time travel and body swapping, pitting Future Trunks against a strong antagonist. The anime and manga depict Zamasu, later known as Goku Black, differently. The primary villain does not acquire his Super Saiyan Rosé form immediately. He suffers a battering from Vegeta and is healed by his other self before tapping into his power, thanks to the Saiyans’ Zenkai Boost. In the anime, Zamasu’s power-up occurs while he’s suffering damage, which is distinct from the franchise.
Goku perfects the Super Saiyan Blue form in this arc, discovering a technique to regulate its massive stamina loss by managing its shifting aura. During the anime’s climactic confrontation against Fused Zamasu, the villain merges with the world itself, proving unbeatable until Zeno intervenes. Fused Zamasu, on the other hand, offers a different difficulty in the manga, since being split in half with the Z-Sword simply resulted in a Hydra-esque dread of numerous reproducing Fused Zamasu, all of whom had the same degree of power as the original.
Miscellaneous Abilities
Zamasu and Goku Black’s partnership allows him to fight and heal eternally. This is due to Trunks’ healing skills as Zamasu’s apprentice in his own realm. Future Trunks kept this power after becoming Supreme Kai’s apprentice during his timeline’s Majin Buu Saga and used it to save countless characters.
Trunks lacks these abilities in the anime. It’s also worth noting that the anime version of Future Trunks essentially creates an entirely new branch of Super Saiyan transformation in what’s known as “Super Saiyan Rage.” In the manga, there is no Super Saiyan Rage.
More Depth?
The anime and manga also convey key topics differently, such as character relationships and the overall chronology of events. The manga has significantly less discrepancies, especially when it comes to character powers and the overall tale. This is visible in things such as Kale’s connection with Caulifla, as well as the character of Kale herself, which is given more attention and development in the manga. Her love for Caulifla is important to her character, however the anime exaggerates Kale’s dependency on her Berserk State.
In the manga, Kale hides her true skills out of respect for Caulifla, who found her and brought her in off the streets, and the Berserk State has limitations, unlike in the anime. In the manga, Kale is depicted as her own character rather than as an extension of Broly. Gohan even gets to battle the fusion of Caulifla and Kale, Kefla, in a fight that does not appear in the anime.
In both the anime and manga, Android 17 wins the Tournament of Power; however, the actual sequence of events leading up to his victory differs greatly. In the manga, Android 17 and Frieza devised a scheme that would leverage the turmoil of the tournament’s battle royale structure to save power while ensuring that someone from Universe 7 was always present. The manga version of events reveals that 17 could not have started his internal bomb because Krillin wished it away after the Cell Saga, however in the anime, 17 survives the explosion with little explanation.
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