New ‘Dragon Ball Super’ Arc Revisits the Franchise’s Best Plot Device

While we wait to hear official details about the next phase of the Dragon Ball Super anime, the manga series is moving ahead into a pivotal new arc. That storyline, the “Galactic Patrol Prisoner” sees an ancient fighter and sorcerer named Moro get sprung from the Galactic Prison. In the latest chapter of the manga, we learn more about what Moro’s evil intentions are since gaining his freedom, and that reveal has taken Dragon Ball Super right back to its tried-and-true series roots!

As it turns out, Moro was sprung from prison by a crook who heard tell of the Namekian Dragon Balls from a member of the Freeza Force he was locked up with. That thug is using Moro’s unique sensory abilities to locate where the planet New Namek is hidden; a scene with the two evildoers reveals that this crook and Moro have worked out a deal in which the crook helps Moro gather the Namekian Dragon Balls in exchange for one of the three wishes they grant. That works just fine with Moro, who seems to be interested in just one wish, and whatever it is, it’s assuredly not going to be good for the rest of the universe.

The original Dragon Ball series was built around the idea of Goku and co. on a constant race to gather Earth’s Dragon Balls, often before some evildoer got ahold of them first, and enacted some kind of terrible wish. As Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super have exponentially expanded the franchise mythos, the hunt for Dragon Balls has almost become a second-hand gimmick in the series, as the balls are often gathered and used to advance minor plot-points (see, Dragon Ball Super: Broly). Having the Dragon Balls serve as the main MacGuffin at the heart of a storyline is nice little throwback that helps the “return to form” trend that’s been occurring in the series since the end of the Dragon Ball Super “Tournament of Power Arc”. It’s going to be interesting to see if the balls ultimately are used as a minor plot-point once again (like restoring Moro’s magic), or if they will wreak some kind of bigger havoc in the universe.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly is out now. Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release is available to stream on FunimationNOW, VRV, and Crunchyroll.