'Dragon Ball Super' Manga is Making a Big Change to Goku's Ultra Instinct

The Dragon Ball Super manga is taking a decidedly different path through the Tournament of Power [...]

The Dragon Ball Super manga is taking a decidedly different path through the Tournament of Power than the anime did, and it is causing some big controversy within the fandom. Aside from some fan-fav characters getting unceremoniously eliminated from the story early on in the manga, there's one other big change on the horizon that is stirring up some ire among fans:

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from discussion Dragon Ball Super Manga Chapter 36.

As you can see in the Reddit threads above, the Dragon Ball Super manga will making a big skip in the middle of the Tournament of Power - namely, Goku's "Omen" Ultra Instinct! It's a matter that was revealed in an interview with one of the DBS series directors, and the manga's latest chapter seems to further confirm it.

Dragon Ball Super anime fans now know just how powerful (and visually stunning) Goku's complete Ultra Instinct state is in battle, but in true Dragon Ball tradition, we had to travel an incremental path in order to get there. Goku first manifested Ultra Instinct in his initial bout with Jiren; the power-up appeared a second time during Goku's fight with Kefla, the fused form of Universe 6 Saiyans Kale and Caulifla. The complete Ultra Instinct then came forth as Goku stepped up for his final battle with Jiren, and the rest is Dragon Ball history.

Those early versions of Ultra Instinct are known as "Ultra Instinct -Sign-" or "Ultra Instinct Omen." It's the incomplete form of the power-up, with Goku having spikier black hair, a more chiseled body, gray eyes, and a colorful blue aura. When complete, Goku's hair turns completely silver, his chiseled body gets more swole, and his aura takes on a much brighter shine, featuring a vibrant white light within the blue.

As stated in the discussion threads, the reason the manga will likely skip Ultra Instinct Omen has a lot to do with the completely different order of character eliminations and developments that Toyotaro has written into this manga version of the ToP. Jiren and Goku's interaction hasn't yet gotten deep enough for it to be a factor, and there's still a lot of uncertainty (read: doubt) that Kefla will be making an appearance in the manga. If Kale and Caulifla never fuse, than Ultra Instinct Omen has even less reason to be in the story.

The manga design for Goku's complete Ultra Instinct has already been revealed, so we know that we'll be getting the exciting power up in some form. Maybe that will be enough?

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Do you want to see all the steps of Goku's Ultra Instinct transformation in the Dragon Ball Super manga? Or just the completed form? Let us know in the comments!

Dragon Ball Legends mobile game is expected to be released sometime this summer. Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m. It is also available to stream on FunimationNOW and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release of the series is complete, and available to stream on FunimationNOW, VRV, and Crunchyroll.

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