Dragon Ball Super’s anime can’t come back without making sure to settle one of its biggest cliffhangers, or else fans are going to be met with the same problems later. Dragon Ball is now celebrating the 40th anniversary of the late Akira Toriyama’s original manga hitting the pages of Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, and is kicking off the year strong with a major event with promised announcements for the franchise’s future. And as part of that event, fans are hoping to get an update about Dragon Ball Super‘s potential anime return.
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Dragon Ball Super’s manga release has continued its story far beyond the events of where the TV anime and Dragon Ball Super: Broly end, and has a lot of material that would be perfect for a continuation of the anime adaptation. But unfortunately, the manga is now in the midst of a massive cliffhanger involving Frieza that has yet to be resolved at this point. So if the anime has any hope of coming back for another season, the manga needs to make sure to wrap up that Black Frieza arc before fans are caught in yet another hiatus.
Dragon Ball Super’s Anime Can’t Comeback With Addressing Black Frieza
Dragon Ball Super is in an odd place with its story when it comes to the anime’s adaptation of it. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is officially the final story taking place within the current timeline of the anime. It takes place after the events of the Galactic Patrol Prisoner and Granolah the Survivor arcs seen in the manga, and the manga even takes it further with its adaptation of the film. It includes an additional few chapters of prologue to the film to reveal more of its super hero themes, and adds a bit of an epilogue to further cap off the story seen in that original film.
So for fans who have just followed the anime, they’ll have no idea that Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero skips over the events of two major battles that Goku and Vegeta have faced by that point. Which also means that the anime skips over the largest cliffhanger looming over the film’s story. During the Granolah the Survivor arc that takes place before the film, it’s revealed that Frieza had actually found a Hyperbolic Time Chamber and has trained for ten years’ worth of time to unlock a godly new Black Frieza form that makes him the strongest being in Universe 7.
Black Frieza immediately defeats Goku and Vegeta with a single punch upon this debut appearance, and heads off to do more evil deeds in the future. This is why Goku and Vegeta are training on Beerus’ planet together with Broly in the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero film, and why they’re so desperate to get as strong as they possibly can. This story lingers over Dragon Ball Super’s future, and it’s one that any potential anime adaptation will be forced to addressed on its return.
Dragon Ball Super’s Anime Needs Time and Room to Continue
Dragon Ball Super‘s anime will also likely return in a much different way than the first time around. Toei Animation has been shifting their anime release schedule for One Piece in the year to come, and will movie to a seasonal debut for its episodes going forward. This might end up being the case for Dragon Ball Super as well. It won’t have a triple digit count episode run, but instead will likely return for multiple seasons of episodes. This is the perfect path to take for the two missing arcs from the manga.
Dragon Ball Super’s manga would first need to return in order to wrap up the Black Frieza cliffhanger, and it’s possible that the multiple years it would take to adapt both the Galactic Patrol Prisoner and Granolah the Survivor arcs would buy the manga time to end that story satisfactorily. Because if the anime returns before the manga solves Black Frieza’s cliffhanger, anime fans will then find themselves waiting on Black Frieza’s return in a couple of years. It’s just forcing fans to wait through yet another cliffhanger. Kicking the can down the road.
To avoid facing this cliffhanger at another date, Dragon Ball Super needs to wrap up the manga’s version of Black Frieza before it gets to the anime. The anime does have the potential to even swap these ideas and wrap up the Black Frieza story through the anime release first, but either way it needs to get settled before a plan is set in place to continue the anime. Frieza’s just too big of an icon for the franchise to ignore in such a position otherwise.
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