Dragon Ball Super Should End With the Black Frieza Arc

Dragon Ball Super is currently in the middle of a hiatus with no announced plans to return, but the manga should come back for a final arc to help resolve the massive Black Frieza cliffhanger to help end it all officially. Dragon Ball Super has been on a hiatus since the passing of franchise creator Akira Toriyama last year. The final chapter of this run wrapped up the epilogue for the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero arc, so it seemed like a fitting conclusion at the time should the series never return. But unfortunately, there’s still one lingering cliffhanger that’s too juicy to pass up.

Dragon Ball Super has teased that while it might be on a hiatus for now, there’s still interest from series artist Toyotaro (and publisher Shueisha) that it could continue with new material in the future. There was a brand new one-shot that showcased more of Goten and Trunks’ side of the story before the events of the Super Hero arc, so that could be the first sign of continuing with even more. It’s going to be a dangerous tightrope to walk for the series’ future, so maybe the best option is to come back for one final arc to bring it to a proper ending.

Dragon Ball Super Needs an Official Ending

The unfortunate nature of Dragon Ball Super’s limbo is the fact that the series still needs a proper ending. While it’s taking place before the end of Dragon Ball Z‘s final time skip years into the future, there was still plenty of room to explore with new stories. It’s what had interested fans about Dragon Ball Super in the first place. Because while Toriyama was not directly crafting the manga or anime releases, the creator was offering new ideas and stories to expand on the Dragon Ball universe in new ways never seen before. So while it was set before the time skip, it was also a fitting sequel.

It’s something that really drew fans to Dragon Ball Daima‘s anime release as well. This anime picked up right after the events of the Majin Buu arc and before Beerus and Whis arrived during Battle of Gods, and helped to expand the Dragon Ball world in some notable ways. While the end of the series did create some unusual trouble for fans’ understanding of the overall timeline, it did get to have a proper ending at the end of the day. It’s something that has eluded Dragon Ball Super as it was continuing to open up the multiverse in some wild new ways.

Dragon Ball Super had a lot more room to play with in the timeline as there’s still many years between where the series is at the end of Super Hero and at the end of Dragon Ball Z. With so many new additions to the lore with the multiverse alone, it really seemed like Dragon Ball Super was primed to go on for a very long time with new stories to continue for multiple years to come. But since we’re no longer in a place where that could happen, there’s a fitting place to end with a full circle villain that has been a thorn in Goku and the Z Fighters’ side since the earliest arcs of the series.

Black Frieza Is a Perfect Final Dragon Ball Villain

Dragon Ball Super opened up the franchise to a potential multiverse of new stories, but we’re in a much different world for the series now. Without Akira Toriyama overseeing the project, it’s likely going to be tough for Toyotaro to properly continue the series in the way fans are hoping for. The best middle ground in all of this is for Dragon Ball Super to get its final arc and have a proper ending to the story. It’s not going to be what fans might want considering the potential, but Dragon Ball Super (and Dragon Ball as a whole) is not going to be the same either way without Toriyama around. Especially because the entire “canon” of the series will no longer be as concretely defined in any potential future releases.

To get around this, the best way to go is for one final Dragon Ball Super arc to fully explore that final massive cliffhanger. At the end of the Granolah the Survivor arc, it was revealed that Frieza had become the new strongest warrior in Universe 7 after stumbling on a Hyperbolic Time Chamber out in space and training for ten years of time within it. This gave Frieza a brand new form, Black Frieza, and with it he took out both Goku and Vegeta with a single punch. Also being sure to defeat the seemingly immortal villain Gas in the process (after Goku and Vegeta struggled for an entire arc to deal any damage to). Ever since, fans have been obsessed with this idea.

The Dragon Ball Super manga then continued with an adaptation of the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero feature film that had an additional prologue and epilogue that included brand new story bits. It was revealed that Goku and Vegeta had taken Broly to train on Beerus’ planet in the hopes of catching up to Frieza. By the end of the arc, they also had Gohan Beast and Orange Piccolo who had reached strong enough forms to fight against Frieza on what could be an even playing field. Now it’s just a matter of bringing this fight to the page.

The question from that point on would then be whether or not this would be a satisfying final battle for the series. Frieza has been the most recurring villain in the franchise, and has survived death multiple times to provide new threats in some of the biggest arcs in Dragon Ball Super overall. Playing key roles in the Resurrection F, Tournament of Power, and Granolah the Survivor Arcs, there’s really no villain who’s going to be a bigger and more notable threat than Frieza at this point. Which is now even more true thanks to his new form.

If Dragon Ball Super’s Manga Ends, The Anime Can Return

Facing down Frieza in this way with a fully mastered Ultra Instinct and Ultra Ego would allow Dragon Ball to have a thematically fitting end as they finally bring down the foe that’s been giving them the most trouble all this time. More importantly, if Dragon Ball Super has a proper ending with a Black Frieza arc then it’s likely that the anime can make a full comeback of its own. Dragon Ball Super’s anime release has also been in a state of limbo since it ended its run back in 2018. While the stories had continued with Dragon Ball Super: Broly and Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero (and in the manga), it’s a far cry from the hopeful return of the TV anime.

A potential new Dragon Ball Super anime would pick up from where it left off with new adaptations of the Galactic Patrol Prisoner and Granolah the Survivor arcs, but it would then face the issue of not having a proper climax like seen before. The Tournament of Power was a fitting place to end the original anime series because it was an explosive arc filled with many episodes worth of fights, and got to end with that surprise team up between Goku, Frieza and Android 17. So a new anime needs that kind of ending too. It couldn’t just end with Frieza’s return in this new form.

Giving Black Frieza the final Dragon Ball Super arc would then leave room for a potential return for the anime. It can adapt the manga’s three remaining arcs to screen, and come to an end with a potentially explosive finale between Goku and Frieza once more. Frieza’s new force will likely be much stronger as a result of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber as well, and this will give all the other fighters something to do as it ends. But ultimately, it will allow a new Dragon Ball Super anime enough room to explore a proper comeback rather than returning to adapt an (as of now) incomplete series.

Because that would be the worst aspect of a new Dragon Ball Super TV anime at the moment. For as much as fans want to see a new series (especially after seeing how big of a deal Dragon Ball Daima turned out to be), Dragon Ball Super‘s return would be premature before settling its manga’s future. It would only adapt the two new arcs available, and then comes to an end with a fizzle as fans wait for more. That seems like it would be an even bigger disappointment than not seeing new episodes, so it’s probably best to avoid it before there’s an actual ending. Luckily, there’s one right in Dragon Ball Super‘s already made path.

Do you want to see Dragon Ball Super end with Black Frieza? Do you want to see it continue even further? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments!