Dragon Ball Super Producer Addresses Anime’s Power Level Inflation

Is it over 9000 or 900,000? When it comes to Dragon Ball these days, it is almost impossible to tell just how powerful Goku is these days. The character began to tip the power scale back in Dragon Ball Z when he quickly gained new Super Saiyan forms, but no series has given Goku a push like Dragon Ball Super. Since the anime debuted a couple years back, the show has turned Goku and Vegeta into Super Saiyan Gods and even added another transformation on top of that. The power level inflation between the two Saiyan leads has been called out of control by many, but there is one executive on-staff who is trying to ease irate viewers.

After all, if you ask producer Hiroyuki Sakurada about Dragon Ball Super’s strength inflation, it is nothing to be concerned about.

Recently, the show’s producer sat down with Mantan Web to talk about Dragon Ball Super and its ‘Universal Survival’ arc. Sakurada took time to explain why characters like Roshi were included in Universe 7’s line-up, but the producer also made sure to appease fans who were upset with the show’s power scaling.

“There are more surprises further along in Dragon Ball Super” Sakurada explained. “I think that they seem to have a richness. When a new arc starts, whatever happens after this – Mr. [Akira] Toriyama will break through it, even if the scale is too big this time. I do not worry about inflation,” Sakurada said.

“The concern [about inflation] of this time will be surpassed,” he finished.

Of course, fans of Dragon Ball Super aren’t quite sure how the power level concern can be retconned at this point. The ‘Universal Survival’ arc particularly irked fans about the issue when it became known that Universe 7 was considered one of the multiverse’s weakest. There are still fighters out there strong enough to challenge Goku aside from Gods of Destruction, and fans were quick to voice their confusion about the revelation.

For some time now, it has been difficult to track the power progression of characters like Goku because they have no limit. There is no ceiling to the character’s potential, and heroes like Krillin and Tien were left behind long ago. Now, characters like Gohan and Future Trunks have even failed to live up to Goku’s status, but Android 17 was somehow able to block Goku recently when the fighter went Super Saiyan Blue.

As the ‘Universal Survival’ arc moves forward, Dragon Ball Super has a chance to finally bring a scaling system back to its power levels. That is, if Toriyama is interested in such an act. The creator may be tired of the traditional ranking system and wish to base character’s strength in the spur of the moment.

Still, fans may not be pleased with that. As you can see in the following slides, plenty of viewers are already pretty peeved about the franchise’s recent power inflation. Yikes!

Dragon Ball Super‘s “Universal Survival” saga is part of the recent simulcast agreement that sites like Crunchyroll and Funimation have scored. Dragon Ball Super airs on Crunchyroll Saturdays at 7:15 p.m. CST. Toonami will begin airing the English dub on Adult Swim Saturdays at 11:30 p.m.

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