Dragon Ball Super Volume Four continues the Future Trunks arc.

Dragon Ball Super Volume Four
Written by: Akira Toriyama
Art by: Toyotarou
Publisher: Shueisha
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: January 1, 2019

With all of the changes that were made to the story in the manga in Volume Three, it wasn’t surprising that the changes continue in Volume Four. In this version, Bulma never goes to the future in the time machine. Goku still learns the Mafuba from Master Roshi, but unlike the anime version, he brings something along he thinks is the seal for the pot… but actually isn’t. Also, it’s Goku who attempts to perform the Mafuba in the future instead of Trunks, who was forced to figure out how to do it in the anime and try to seal away Zamas. It should also be pointed out that Yajirobe and the various people Trunks and Mai were with in the anime are nowhere to be seen in the manga telling of the story.

To be honest, it didn’t make a lot of sense for Bulma to accompany the others to the future. I also appreciated the fact that it was Goku who performed the Mafuba. When the pot broke in the anime and Trunks was forced to fix it and to figure out the Mafuba on his own, I thought it kind of bogged down the story. By removing those aspects, it helped the story to feel like it was naturally progressing in the manga.

I forgot to mention that at the beginning of Volume Three, Future Trunks is shown in a flashback during his timeline that he trained with Kaio-shin and Kibito… which is something that wasn’t part of the anime’s version of the Future Trunks arc. This fact becomes important near the end of Volume Four because it allows him to do something that no one else in that timeline can do.

Overall, after reading Dragon Ball Super Volume Four, I felt that this was an interesting way to tell a similar story to what is seen in the anime, and it gives readers who are familiar with the anime another way to see this story and these characters. From an interview that’s published at the back of the volume, it comes across that the changes to the story were Toyotarou’s ideas. I have to give credit to Toyotarou for taking these chances with the story, and I think that most of the changes helped to make the story a little stronger. Hopefully this will still be the case in Volume Five, since the Future Trunks arc doesn’t conclude at the end of Volume Four.

Outside of the story changes, Volume Four includes the action and humor that fans of Dragon Ball Super have come to expect from this series. The fight scenes are well paced, and they feel natural.

When it comes to the art, I also have to give Toyotarou credit for capturing the look and feel of the characters from the Dragon Ball franchise. I realized I hadn’t really mentioned this in the reviews for the previous three volumes of the series, so I wanted to make sure I said that here.

Readers who have read and enjoyed the previous three volumes of the Dragon Ball Super manga likely won’t have any real complaints when it comes to Volume Four.

Dragon Ball Super Volume Three focuses exclusively on the Future Trunks arc.

Dragon Ball Super Volume Three
Written by: Akira Toriyama
Art by: Toyotarou
Publisher: Shueisha
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: July 3, 2018

In a note at the end of Volume Two, Toyotarou made a comment that there would be some changes to the Future Trunks story arc in this volume. It becomes clear early on in Volume Three that the telling of this story in the manga shares a lot of the same basic plot points and revelations as the anime, but the way these plot points and revelations are made differ quite a bit between the two tellings of the same story.

One of the biggest changes is that Kaio-shin and Kibito are heavily involved in what happens in the 10th Universe in the normal timeline. We see the two of them training with Zamas, and they are the ones who go with Beers and Whis after Kaio-shin learns the truth about Zamas and Goku Black. In the anime, Goku was involved in the story with the 10th Universe. Because of this change, Goku doesn’t fight with Zamas, and Zamas learns about Goku and his fighting style through videos uploaded to GodTube (which is apparently the gods’ version of YouTube).

A scene that appears in the manga telling but not in the anime is some of the characters playing a video game that’s supposed to the Dragon Ball universe’s version of Mario Kart (which becomes evident when one of the characters throws a turtle shell). Admittedly, while this was an amusing and fun scene, it wasn’t absolutely necessary for telling the story. Later, Beers is upset about losing the game, so he orders (and chugs down) a whole barrel of beer. Again, something that wasn’t seen in the anime. Although, I have to say that it’s amusing seeing Beers guzzling down a whole barrel of beer, and it works as a lead-in to Whis getting the call that Goku is being summoned by Zeno.

Speaking of when Goku goes to see Zeno, I don’t remember Zeno asking Goku to give him a nickname in the anime. Here, Goku suggests Zen-chan, and Zeno gladly accepts this suggestion. When Beers learns about the nickname Goku gave to Zeno, he still freaks out. However, with this freak out, he already knows that Goku has given him this nickname. In the anime, Beers doesn’t know anything about the nickname until Goku uses it to address Zeno. While the freak outs of Goku using the “Zen-chan” nickname are amusing in the anime, I think it makes more sense that this is something that was agreed upon by Zeno before Goku uses it in public for the first time.

In a lot of ways, I have to admit that I actually kind of prefer how this portion of the Future Trunks arc is portrayed in the manga. Goku accompanying Beers and Whis on the trips to the 10th Universe in the anime kind of feels forced, and to me, it makes more sense for Kaio-shin and Kibito to be the ones going there. Yes, we lose the angle of Zamas fighting Goku and experiencing his power first-hand, but I think he can also get a decent sense of Goku’s ability through the GodTube videos. While GodTube is mentioned in the anime, it isn’t quite as important as it is in the manga. It’s going to be interesting to see how the changes made to the story in Volume Three will continue to affect the story in Volume Four, since the Future Trunks arc will be continuing in it.

When it comes to the Future Trunks arc, already having familiarity with the story from the anime has been both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, I already have a pretty good idea of what to expect in the story. But on the other hand, the changes that have been made in the manga telling are really standing out like a shore thumb. As I said earlier, though, I think that overall, the changes to the story make the manga telling a little stronger. Hopefully, this will continue to be the case as the Future Trunk arc continues in the Dragon Ball Super manga.

Readers who enjoyed Dragon Ball Super Volume Two will likely continue to enjoy the story as it continues. First time readers for this volume who are already familiar with the Future Trunks arc from the anime will need to realize that there are some significant changes between the two tellings and to not expect the story to be as similar to the anime as the previous arc of the manga had been.

Additional posts about Dragon Ball:

• Manga Review: Dragon Ball Super Volume Two
• Manga Review: Dragon Ball Super Volume Four

Dragon Ball Super Volume Two continues the battle between the 6th and the 7th Universes.

Dragon Ball Super Volume Two
Written by: Akira Toriyama
Art by: Toyotarou
Publisher: Shueisha
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: December 5, 2017

Volume Two opens by continuing the fight between Goku and Frost. Just as Goku seems to have the upper hand, Frost suddenly cases Goku to go flying out of the ring. Of course, this surprises everyone. Piccolo goes up against Frost next, and Piccolo ends up meeting the same fate. Jaco, though, picks up on the truth and objects to the result, saying that Frost is cheating. When the referee determines that Jaco is right, Frost is disqualified. However, Vegeta wants to fight him, and insists that Frost be reinstated and that Piccolo withdraws. Piccolo has no choice but to agree.

My guess is that since Frost looks so much like Freeza, that Vegeta wants the chance to fight and defeat him. While this may not be Freeza, I think Frost is a close enough replacement in Vegeta’s mind. I did appreciate how quickly Vegeta ended up defeating Frost.

When it comes to Frost, I liked how he was initially depicted as being a hero and the complete opposite of Freeza. Because of this depiction, characters like Goku were more willing to put down their guard around him. In the anime version of this story, which I saw before reading this volume, I picked up that something was a little off about Frost and that I didn’t totally trust him. Unfortunately, this was a case where seeing the anime first ruined the surprise for me when I encountered it in the manga.

Vegeta’s next opponent is Otta Magetta, a robot man from the 6th Universe. This fight actually ends rather quickly in the manga, with Vegeta coming out on top due to what he says rather than from the actual fight. This particular battle was definitely portrayed as taking longer in the anime version. While the anime version wasn’t stretched out for terribly long, I actually appreciated how quickly this fight went by in the manga.

Next, Vegeta is up against Cabbe, a Saiyan from the 6th Universe. Of the fights Vegeta has in Dragon Ball Super Volume Two, this was by far my favorite. Vegeta finds a way to turn the fight into a lesson for the young Saiyan from another universe without making it appear so at first. When the reader realizes what Vegeta is up to, it makes a whole lot of sense. The characters in the story also give some amusing commentary on the proceedings. But even with the lesson, Vegeta still wins the match against Cabbe.

Vegeta’s next opponent is the assassin, Hit. Unfortunately, even in his Super Saiyan Blue form, Hit is easily able to defeat his opponent. And thanks to a successful argument a little earlier, Goku is allowed to compete again because Beers proved that Frost had cheated when he knocked Goku out of the ring.

The fight between Goku and Hit becomes quite intense, and it turns out Goku is giving Hit more of a challenge than he had anticipated. But in the end, Goku jumps out of the ring to give himself a ring out, because he wants to see how strong Monaka is. Unknown to both Goku and Vegeta, Monaka is really a wimp who Beerus claimed was really strong in order to motivate the two Saiyans to train. Well, let’s just say that when Monaka enters the ring, we’re given a very amusing conclusion to the battle between the two universes.

But as the battle ends, a new character makes an appearance: Zeno, the lord of everything. Zeno may look small and cute, but he has the ability to destroy anything he wants if he’s provoked. Goku, not realizing just how powerful Zeno is, starts casually interacting with him, much to the chagrin of the deities present. But Zeno takes this well, and says he’s interested in having a martial arts tournament with all of the universes participating.

The final two chapters of Volume Two begin the next arc, which sees Future Trunks returning 17 years into the past to the timeline where Goku, Vegeta, and the others survived. It turns out there’s a new threat facing his timeline.

When we see the main cast in the past, they’re gathered at Capsule Corp. Trunks, along with the young Mai, Shu, and Pilaf, is being taught by a new teacher hired by Capsule Corp. to teach the kids. In this telling of the story, the teacher is depicted as being not as smart as she is in the anime. Because of something she does, she ends up teaching the kids about time travel and its consequences because she looked at the wrong book. This time travel explanation doesn’t appear at all in the anime telling of the story. Then again, that’s probably a good thing, because it would have bogged down the story in the anime medium.

But it’s after this lesson that Future Trunks arrives in the time machine. Unfortunately, Beers and Whis are both there, and they learn about the time traveling Trunks had done previously… and they are unhappy to learn about it, since manipulating time is a serious crime.

After Future Trunks tells them what happened and that he doesn’t have fuel to go back to his time, Bulma realizes that she’s currently developing what becomes the fuel for the machine. She begins working on getting more made so Trunks, Goku, and Vegeta can go to the future timeline to take on the new threat there.

For me, it’s interesting to now be reading this section of the manga after watching the Dragon Ball Super anime first. I definitely picked up on how this telling has shortened down the fights for the tournament that took up most of this volume. I also noticed storytelling differences between the manga and the anime for the portion of the Future Trunks arc that’s included here. While the example of the teacher that I provided earlier in this review is the most blatant change, I did pick up on another change between the two tellings. But even with the changes between the two mediums, I still enjoyed the story while reading the manga.

Obviously, this manga will be best enjoyed by readers who are already familiar with the Dragon Ball franchise. If you’re a Dragon Ball fan who hasn’t delved into this portion of the franchise yet, I think the manga version of Dragon Ball Super is worth reading to get a taste for this era of the franchise. If you’ve watched the anime version of Dragon Ball Super but haven’t read the manga telling, I would recommend reading it. While an anime viewer will already be familiar with the story at this point, the manga provides another good way of telling the story.

Additional posts about Dragon Ball:

• Manga Review: Dragon Ball Super Volume One
• Manga Review: Dragon Ball Super Volume Three