‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Has ‘Dragon Ball Super’ Comparing Thanos to Jiren

Fans of anime have been pleasantly surprised by just how much the genre has seemed to influence Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War. We’ve broken down some of the film’s nods to anime like Naruto, while series like My Hero Academia have officially tied themselves to Infinity War. However, the biggest point of comparison has no doubt been Avengers: Infinity War and the Dragon Ball franchise. Today’s fandom theory breaks down why Infinity War‘s big bad, Thanos, is basically just Jiren from Dragon Ball Super‘s Tournament of power arc:

That connection between the tragic stories of both Thanos and Jiren is hard to unsee. Both were men who tried (and failed) to prevent the death and destruction of their homelands and were twisted as a result; both then tried to battle their way through hordes of opponents to obtain mystical items that could remake the universe according to their respective wishes. Both characters even had a squad of warriors helping to fulfill the mission!

However, in the end, only one of these figures walked away victorious. Thanos got the Infinity Gauntlet and erased half of all life in the universe; Jiren got his butt kicked by the combined might of Goku, Freeza and Android 17! Ironically enough, Thanos is pretty much the sort of evildoer that slaughtered Jiren’s people and later his fellow warriors and master. Moreover, Thanos’ goal of erasing half of life in the universe is exactly the sort of cosmic threat that Jiren and the Pride Troopers of Universe 11 would fight against – which brings us to the next topic of fan discussion:

Who would you pick in a Thanos vs. Jiren fight (without the full Infinity Gauntlet obviously)? Let us know in the comments!

Avengers: Infinity War is now in theaters. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6th, Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 5, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.

Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonamiprogramming 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.