Dragon Ball Super: Why Granolah Might Be The Best Arc Of The Series

Dragon Ball Super's Granolah arc is now in full swing, and it has the potential to be the best arc of the series, so far. In just a few recent chapters of Dragon Ball Super's manga, the Granolah Arc has radically transformed and expanded the entire Dragon Ball canon. It's also gone deeper than the usual fan-service gimmicks the series has been criticized for. The Granolah Arc is taking everything from why Goku and Vegeta are leveling-up again, to why the conflict with the villain is happening, and adding much more depth and complexity than Dragon Ball Super fans are used to.

Best of all: Dragon Ball Super's Granolah Arc is adding new and fresh elements to Dragon Ball, instead of just re-painting old stuff.

(Warning: Dragon Ball Super Manga Spoilers Follow!)

If you haven't been following Dragon Ball Super's manga, here's a quick breakdown of the current Granolah Arc:

The first really interesting thing is that Dragon Ball Super's Ganolah Arc is a direct continuation of its previous Moro Arc. Dragon Ball Z started a tradition of putting time skips in between its major arcs - and Dragon Ball Super hasn't been much different. The exception was the non-consecutive tournament arcs (the Tournament of Destroyers and Tournament of Power), which were connected and consequently became the series' most popular arc, in the larger sense. With the Granolah Arc, Akira Toriyama, Toyotaro, and the editor team are doing something even more ambitious with Dragon Ball Super: growing a new story out of nearly all the major storylines that preceded it.

Dragon Ball Super's new arc introduces the titular Granolah, a bounty hunter from the planet of Cereal. Long ago, Freeza unleashed his army of Saiyan Great Apes on Cereal, decimating its native population, the Cerealians. Granolah is one of the sole survivors of that genocide and has never forgiven Freeza or the Saiyans for his people's decimation. Granolah is steered into taking vengeance on both the Saiyans and Freeza by a new criminal group called the Heeters - who also sold off Planet Cereal to a new race of inhabitants, and contain their own warrior who is secretly packing more power than Freeza himself.

That's an exciting setup for a new Dragon Ball battle, but the Granolah arc has taken it another step: Granolah's quest for vengeance led to the discovery that his Namekian friend and roommate, Monaito, has his own set of Dragon Balls (just two pair) able to summon their own Eternal Dragon. It's not just Monaito: we learn that Namekians aren't aliens - they're beings from an entirely different dimension, and there more of them, and more Dragon Balls, out there in the universe. In that alone, the Granolah Arc has opened the door to a much bigger and wider Dragon Ball Universe the franchise can build on. As for now, Granolah uses the new Dragon Balls to become nothing less than the strongest warrior in the universe!

It doesn't stop with expanding the entire Dragon Ball franchise and lore: the Granolah Arc has done what Dragon Ball Super has largely failed to do: it's given both Goku and Vegeta their own distinct paths of power to pursue. The nature of those powers (Goku's Ultra Instinct and Vegeta's Destroyer God powers) are actually tailored to each Saiyan hero, providing actual personality and meaning to those powers evolving and growing. It's far beyond simple carbon-copy color changes and brighter auras - and Dragon Ball is so much better for it.

In the end, Dragon Ball Super's Granola Arc is looking like the best (and most relevant) story arc of the series - and that's before any of the big battles have even begun.

Catch up on Dragon Ball Super's Granolah Arc via Free Chapters online at Shonen Jump Magazine.