The latest issue of the Dragon Ball Super manga picks up with the final minutes of the Tournament of Power, in which Goku has manifested his Ultra Instinct power and prepares to battle the mighty Jiren of Universe 11. And Whis’ plan for the two of them comes to fruition.
As it turns out, Goku’s incredible increase in power through Ultra Instinct still isn’t enough to outpace Jiren’s bottomless potential to increase his power level through sheer will to get stronger in battle. Goku ultimately exhausts the Ultra Instinct power and finds his body severely depleted as a result. That’s when Goku gets a major save from none other than Vegeta, who makes the unprecedented decision to team up with Kakarot for a tag-team attack to finish Jiren.
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Unlike in the Dragon Ball Super anime, Goku and Vegeta’s dual assault against Jiren is highly effective, with the two Saiyan warriors of Universe 7 showing an incredible level of synchronicity in their tag-team attacks against Jiren. Goku tells Vegeta that the “two-on-one training against Whis sure is paying off…” Even Lord Beerus is impressed with how Goku and Vegeta are functioning almost as one, and that’s when the God of Destruction has a major realization: this was all Whis’ doing.
As they are sitting in the stands watching the fight, Beerus says the following to Whis: “Whis… That training with them was all to make them work on combo moves?”
To which Whis responds with his signature laugh, “Ho Ho Ho… And they were none the wiser.”
As the chapter ends, Goku and Vegeta are standing side-by-side with Jiren on the ropes, pledging to unite for their final assault against the Universe 11 powerhouse.
This small but important change from the Dragon Ball Super anime helps to connect Goku and Vegeta’s evolution during the Tournament of Power to the larger arc of Whis’ influence and training throughout the Dragon Ball Super series. Many fans have speculated that the angel’s training of the two Saiyan warriors has some higher purpose that has yet to be revealed — and if that’s true, then the manga seems to be sowing those narrative seeds much better than the anime.
To be fair, Toyotaro will probably take the Dragon Ball Super manga into its next installment before the anime picks up after the events of the upcoming Dragon Ball Super: Broly movie. In that sense, the next story of the books would need to start getting built up now, whereas the anime can later implement whatever ideas the manga introduces and fleshes out.
The most interesting question in all this, is how this Goku/Vegeta tag-team technique will factor into the manga version of Broly, and the possible introduction of a Super Saiyan God tag-team fight, or SSG Gogeta fusion.
Dragon Ball Super: Broly will hit Japanese theaters in December, and is expected to arrive in the U.S. on January 16, 2019. Dragon Ball Super is currently airing its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m. ET. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release of the series is complete and available to stream on Funimation, VRV and Crunchyroll.
