Dragon Ball Super has just reached the end of one of the longest and most game-changing story arcs of the series, the “Galactic Patrol Prisoner Arc,” aka the ‘Moro Arc.’ Now that the Dragon Ball Super manga has reached the end of the arc, fans have several big questions facing them: One is, of course, where Dragon Ball Super goes from here; a new story arc is coming, but we have no idea where it’s going to lead. The other big question, however, is what to do about the Moro Arc when adapting it for the screen.
The Moro arc is easily a story that could fill an entire (long) season of a new Dragon Ball Super anime. But would the Moro Arc be better as Dragon Ball Super‘s next movie?
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At its heart, the Moro Arc works in two main stages: the battle for New Namek, and the battle for Earth. In between those two events, Goku and Vegeta had to split up and both do some much-needed soul-searching on their own, in order to unlock new powers. Both Saiyan heroes returned to Earth in time to stop Moro from ravaging the planet and killing off the Z-Fighters, but it took Goku and Vegeta coming together again and uniting their new powers to truly finish Moro off for good.
The Moro Arc’s story structure could definitely work as a feature. The story jumps right into the thick of things, with an epic flashback to Moro warring iwth the Gods, and the present day jailbreak that sets him free. It also picks up directly from the events of DBS anime’s ending, and the events of the Broly movie. Goku and Vegeta could have their face-off with Moro on New Namek – and lose so bad they nearly get slaughtered, within a clean 30-40 minute span.
That’s where things get a big tricky. Goku and Vegeta’s respective training arcs within the larger Moro Arc would be the hardest bits to proper develop within the span of a feature film. The training segments of the story lasted a month (or more), with Vegeta having to meet natives of Planet Yardrat (from Dragon Ball Z) and learn the secret of their “Spirit Control” power, while Goku had to train with Galactic Patrolman Merus in mastering Ultra Instinct. It’s not that these two segments of the Moro Arc, couldn’t be nicely done in a 25-30 minute film segment, it’s just that there’s two main concerns with doing it:
- The audience could get bored with lengthy training sequences. It could be broken up with sequences of Moro terrorizing the universe and attacking the Z-Fighters on Earth while Goku and Vegeta are away. But that would only heighten problem no. 2.
- The Goku/Vegeta training arcs in this storyline may actually deserve the longer format of an anime, as they come with some key character development for both Saiyan warriors – especially Vegeta, who has to overcome some big flaws of his past during this arc, in order to master Spirit Control.
As you can see, the middle portion of the Moro Arc is a risky thing to balance properly, but thankfully, a movie adaptation has one big saving grace: the end battle doesn’t have to be that long. As stated, Vegeta and Goku arrive back on Earth in the nick of time (in that order) to stop Moro, but while the manga dragged out the climatic fight, a movie could probably wrap up the whole thing in fifteen minutes or less.
So, doing the math, and looking at the story segments, a Moro Arc movie could actually fit everything into a 80-90 mintue runtime, which is the perfect length for a Dragon Ball Super feature.
The action speaks for itself: seeing Goku’s new Ultra Instinct abilities; Goku and Moro both fighting using Ultra Instinct; Vegeta’s Spirit Control battle with Moro; the finale combining Ultra Instinct and Spirit Control; it all begs to be seen on the big screen, especially in the “Shintani Style” that made Dragon Ball Super: Broly such a visual milestone for the series.
Do you think Dragon Ball Super‘s Moro Arc should be the series next film? Or are you hoping for the next anime to start?
You can read New Chapter of Dragon Ball Super Free Online. The anime is still on hiatus.
