'Dragon Ball Super' Sees Goku Question a Major Shonen Trope

Dragon Ball isn't exactly known for Deadpool-like flashes of intense self-awareness, even though the series has gotten pretty meta at various points. Well, the latest chapter of the Dragon Ball Super manga contains a gag that has Goku not only question a famous trope of the series, but one that runs through so many shonen manga series.

This latest chapter of Dragon Ball Super's new "Galactic Patrol Prisoner" arc sees Goku and Vegeta taking on new villain Moro on the planet New Namek. Moro reveals powerful magical abilities that allow him to turn the planet's core energy into a fearsome array of energy blasts and geothermal manipulation. Vegeta uses some Muhammad Ali-style "rope-a-dope" tactics to lure Moro into a false sense of security, before thrashing the villain hard.

Moro proves to have much more resolve than that, though: in a further reveal of his might, the ancient sorcerer conjures his own evil version of a Spirit Bomb out of the life energy of the planet and its people, but instead of throwing the bomb at his foes, Moro consumes the giant ball of energy, which activates a Super Saiyan-style power-up inside of him. The process of gathering and incorporating all that energy takes a moment, and in a very "un-shonen" moment, Goku states the following observation of the situation: "Shouldn't we just attack while he's charging up, Vegeta?"

Yes! You heard right! A Dragon Ball character actually acknowledging and even challenging one of the oldest (and silliest) tropes in shonen manga: characters in a fight standing and waiting around while an opponent goes through a very long, and loud, charge-up process. The Dragon Ball franchise alone has overextended this genre cliche; there was so much time spent in the Dragon Ball Z anime that was dedicated to sequences of characters standing and screaming as they charged up their battle power in bright aura displays.

Dragon Ball is far from being the only perpetrator though: Naruto, One Piece, Bleach... the list of shonen's "dramatic charge up" moments runs long and deep. It's nice to see Toyotaro and Akira Toriyama having fun with Dragon Ball's reliance on it, hopefully as a signal that with realization comes correction?

Dragon Ball Super: Broly is out now. Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami block Saturday evenings. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release is available to stream on FunimationNOW, VRV, and Crunchyroll.

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