Dragon Ball: Is The Next Arc Just A Stop-Gap?

Dragon Ball Super will continue on into a new arc, now that the Moro Arc is reaching its end. In a surprise move, the new Dragon Ball Super story will pick up directly from the ending of the Moro Arc. Moro unleashed a bunch of very dangerous beings back into the universe during his jailbreak at the Galactic Patrol Headquarters. Now those bad guys need to be dealt with, so Goku and Co. have their work cut out for them. However, while Dragon Ball Super‘s new “Granola The Survivor” storyline seems to offer a new adventure in the Dragon Ball Universe, we do have to ask: is Dragon Ball Super‘s new arc just a stop-gap?

In case it needs clarifying, a “stop-gap” is a temporary way of dealing with a problem or need – usually while waiting for a better solution to present itself. In that sense, there are several ways in which Dragon Ball Super‘s new arc could fairly be looked at as a stop-gap for the franchise.

Stall Time

The first reason that Dragon Ball Super could use a stop-gap story is simply to stall for more time. The Dragon Ball Super manga is the only official Dragon Ball story content around – really the only thing still propelling the franchise in the mainstream lane that the series has been running in for the last few years. They may just need to keep the thing going right now, to feed fans what content they produce. There could be larger plans for the franchise in the works, but clearly, those plans still need time to be developed. Until then, “Granola the Survivor” can keep fans occupied with easy hooks they’re already interested in (Ultra Instinct, godly power, the large galaxy/multiverse).

Running Out of Room

The other reason Dragon Ball Super may need a stop-gap story right now is that the series is legitimately running out of room in which to operate. Dragon Ball Super is taking place within the span of years between the end of Dragon Ball Z‘s Majin Buu arc, and the series’ flash-forward epilogue, set years in the future where Goku takes on the god-powered Uub as his protege. Given how much time the series has already eaten up, Dragon Ball Super doesn’t have a lot of time-jumps left in its pocket before the DBS and DBZ timelines have to sync up. Keeping the story on a more day-to-day pace may help stretch out its viability.

Building Up Content

While the manga has been good enough to keep Dragon Ball Super rolling, fans are no doubt waiting for that next anime or feature film. In the case of the next installment of Dragon Ball Super anime, getting enough content built up to sustain could still be a challenge. In that sense, rattling off stories back-to-back and keeping them connected would certainly help to give a new anime ample content, as these manga storylines can be padded even more to help get an anime episode count up.

So will “Granola The Survivor” feel like anything less than a full-fledged Dragon Ball Super storyline? Hopefully not. But as stated, keeping the time between arcs tightened can help fill-out many additional years of Dragon Ball Super storytelling. But until we get an official announcement about a bunch of Dragon Ball Super spinoffs, that’s the best we’ve got.