The return of the Dragon Ball franchise throughDragon Ball Superreignited the passion of countless fans who grew up with Dragon Ball Z. The show has familiar characters,epic fight scenes, and the power to crash multiple websites' servers by introducing a new transformation.
Super is unique because the anime was released before the manga. This makes the changes in the two mediums different because the anime is usually adapted from the series' manga and not the other way around.
8Goku’s Image Training
Reimagining Old Foes
Dating as far back as the original Dragon Ball, mental fortitude is a recurring theme in the Dragon Ball franchise. Even more casual fans may recognize the training method as something used by popular characters like Tien, Piccolo, and even Goku.
Dragon Ball Super’s anime and manga both start with Goku and Goten tending to their farm. Goku eventually asks Goten to drive the tractor as he gets some training done. In the anime, this leads to a funny scene where Goku goes Super Saiyan and starts punching and kicking the air. The manga takes things further by showing what goes on in Goku’s mind. He mentally fights Cell, Frieza, and Kid Buu, making for an awesome couple of panels.
7The Super Saiyan God Ritual
The Manga Doesn’t Care
Super Saiyan God is the first new transformation Goku gets in Dragon Ball Super. Instead of achieving it through his own merit, it requires a ritual that involves the other Saiyans on the planet. This includes Vegeta, Gohan, Goten, Trunks, and the unborn Pan, who’s still inside Videl.
The anime gives this transformation a lot of importance, dedicating an entire episode to it. On the other hand, the manga just glosses over the entire thing. On a single page of the manga, the characters summon Shenron to ask about the transformation, Videl announces that she’s pregnant, and the Saiyans perform the Super Saiyan God ritual.
6Goten And Trunks
Some Development Please?
Goten and Trunks got their chance to shine during Dragon Ball Z’s Majin Buu Saga. The twoshowcased their Super Saiyan transformations, participated in both divisions of the World Tournament, and even fused to fight Majin and Super Buu. However, the Dragon Ball Super anime barely shows the two. In general, most anime lack the privilege of the slower pace that manga can take, so they lack more detailed character development.
The Dragon Ball Super manga has a whole side story where Goten and Trunks protect the wildlife preserve when Android 17 is away fighting in the Tournament of Power. It also shows Goten and Trunks in their teen years going to school and just being more than the one-note characters the anime makes them out to be, adding to their personalities.
5Fused Zamasu’s Final Form
Shadow Clone Jutsu?
In Dragon Ball Super, Zamasu acquiresthe Dragon Ballsand wishes to become immortal before attempting to murder all mortals alongside a different Zamasu who took over Goku’s body and named himself Black. The two Zamasus fuse using the Potara to ironically be called Fused Zamasu. The ending of Fused Zamasu is the same in the manga and the anime; Trunks slices his body into pieces. However, what happens next differs in both mediums.
The anime shows Merged Zamasu’s immortal soul merging with the universe, and becoming an unstoppable force for the Z Fighters. This forces Omni-King Zeno to wipe out the entire universe. The manga takes a different route as Zamasu and Black’s fusion runs out and Trunks uses his sword to separate the two. They shortly refuse but start infinitely multiplying, prompting Zeno to eradicate the world like his anime counterpart.
4The Super Saiyan Blue Transformation
When In Doubt, It’s Blue Time
The manga makes all the characters more consistent and balanced compared to the anime. The power scaling is also more logical. The anime focuses significantly on the Super Saiyan Blue state and characters use it frequently even though it drains stamina. You see characters like Krillin and Android 17 going toe-to-toe with Super Saiyan Blue, which is supposed to be the pinnacle of Goku’s strength for a good chunk of the show.
The manga shows characters using Super Saiyan Blue sparingly because of its drawbacks. A good example of this is how the anime and manga handle Vegeta using Super Saiyan Blue. The anime makes him extremely powerful and has him using the transformation all the time, but the manga has him losing to Hit because of excessively using the blue form. To counter this drawback, Vegeta uses Super Saiyan God against Goku Black to conserve his energy, showcasing character growth.
3How Goku Unlocks Ultra Instinct
A Form Long Time Coming
In the anime, Goku unlocks the Ultra Instinct state when Jiren deflects the Spirit Bomb, and he’s about to be erased. While unconfirmed, the scene is shown in a way that makes it look like Goku absorbed the Spirit Bomb and unintentionally tapped into the new transformation. This would make Ultra Instinct the second transformation Goku unlocked by being at the right place at the right time, as something similar happened with the Super Saiyan God ritual.
The manga ensures things are more logical. The transformation is first teased when Master Roshi reminds Goku of the state of independent consciousness that all of his teachers wanted him to perfect. Roshi then fights Jiren in a way reminiscent of Ultra Instinct, paving the path for Goku to tap into the Ultra Instinct Omen state. This state of nothingness is also why Ultra Instinct Goku is always calm and collected in the manga, while the anime occasionally has him get angry.
2Goku Using Kaioken Against Hit
It Just Doesn’t Happen
The Kaioken is a fan-favorite transformation Goku first used in the Saiyan Saga way back in Dragon Ball Z. Unlike the Super Saiyan transformation, the Kaioken forces the user’s body to go beyond its limits and increase core attributes. One of the most hyped moments in the Dragon Ball Super anime was when Goku paired his Super Saiyan Blue transformation with Kaiokenwhen fighting Hit.
The anime also answered fans' questions, like how Goku couldn’t pair Kaioken with his basic Super Saiyan transformations since only Super Saiyan Blue gave him the required ki control. You may not know if you have just watched the anime that Goku doesn’t use this form against Hit at all in the manga. Instead, he utilizes the base Super Saiyan, Super Saiyan God, and Super Saiyan Blue transformations to perfectly outmatch his opponent before giving up in classic Goku fashion.
1Kefla’s Elimination In The Tournament Of Power
Early Signs Of The Beast
The manga and anime handle the defeat of Kefla in a significantly different way. In the anime, the fused Saiyan was suggested to be one of the stronger warriors in the tournament, forcing Goku to use his Ultra Instinct Sign transformation to eliminate her with a decisive Kamehameha that broke the internet. However, the manga handled Kefla differently by pitting Gohan against the fused Saiyan.
After a fight that primarily took place off-screen, Gohan and Kefla eliminated each other. Considering Gohan’s Ultimate form is stated to be extremely powerful and how the hybrid Saiyan had been sidelined a lot in Dragon Ball Super, having him defeat a major threat in the manga perfectly cemented him as a force to be reckoned with. It also set up his Beast transformation for the Super Hero arc.
