As I have done reviews for both Dragon Ball Super part 1 and 2, it only makes sense to review the home release Blu-Ray set of part 3. If you’ve watched the series up to this point you’re going to be pretty excited for this set. It contains 13 fast paced episodes and best of all, it’s the first arc of original content for Dragon Ball Super and isn’t primarily based on one of the pre-released films.
Following suit with the part 2 set. This collection also starts off with the final episode of the previous arc. Which seems to be the going norm now, seeing as the first season of Super was 14 episodes long but the collected sets only contain 13 episodes a piece. Always leaving the finale missing, it’s no different here.
It’s Universe Vs Universe
The story wraps up the Frieza battle that was the key focus of the part 2 set and for the first time so far in Super we’re getting a brand new original story arc. This set focuses on the Universe 6 saga. It begins when Champa, introduced as Beerus’ twin brother and Vados as Whis’ older sister arrive on Beerus’ planet. We then learn that there are twelve parallel universes in the Dragon Ball lore. The one our main cast reside in is universe 7 and Champa and Vados has arrived from it’s sister universe 6.
In universe 6, Earth has been reduced to a baron wasteland meaning the best food in the universe doesn’t exist in universe 6. So Champa proposes a tournament take place with the winner getting to keep universe 7’s Earth. Because if you haven’t learned by now in Dragon Ball, if the battle isn’t life and death it’s usually over food. For added incentive Champa offers up as his prize, the Super Dragon Balls. Planet sized wish orbs that look just like the Dragon Balls we’re familiar with only a lot bigger and much more powerful.
The Best Type Of Dragon Ball. A Tournament
The remainder of the set consists of Goku and Vegeta assembling their 5 man team for the tournament, training in the hyperbolic time chamber and competing in the tournament that takes place on a vacated nameless planet located between universe 6 and universe 7.
In between the action of preparing for the tournament and the tournament itself there are some great side plot episodes and certain scenes scattered throughout that act as a good break from the more serious aspects of the season. These also provide new information that push the plot forward. Such as the episode where Bulma and Jaco travel to another planet to request to meet Master Zuno, a being that knows all, to ask him for more information about the Super Dragon Balls.
Being a season about a tournament I knew it was likely to be great before viewing. This isn’t the first time a tournament has featured in Dragon Ball. There were quite a few of the martial arts tournaments scattered throughout the many seasons of both Dragon Ball and Z. They are great because they often involve many interesting characters and the pacing is generally perfect. Due to having to feature so many fights it’s rare for a single battle to overstay a single episode or two. Keeping things moving at a steady pace, as we can all admit some of the battles in the Z series do tend to linger.
On It’s Way To Being The Best Dragon Ball Yet
There’s a great interview in the extra’s of disc 2 where Sean Schemmel states that he believes that Super may be looked back on as the best iteration of the Dragon Ball series if you look at the whole package. It has a near perfect blend of action and humour and the people at Toei in Japan that produce the series have learned over the many years of producing DBZ that there were problems with the pacing and have worked to resolve that here in Super. I completely agree, Super has been great so far fitting many of it’s core story arcs into 13 episode blocks and has managed to tell a new interesting story that expands on characters we’ve grown up with and has me wanting plenty more.
As briefly mentioned above the extras on the home release Blu-Ray include an 18 minute interview with Sean Schemmel (Goku, King Kai) & Jason Douglas (Lord Beerus) moderated by Justin Cook (Director and voice of Raditz, Dende) where they discuss how far Dragon Ball has come, the incredible fanbase that come to conventions and detailed talks about voice acting and their respective characters. It’s definitely worth a watch. The set also includes the textless openings and closings seen in this season and trailers for other upcoming Funimation properties.
Final Thoughts
This collection of Super is the best one yet. While part 1 and 2 were both great there’s something special about seeing new Dragon Ball content that hasn’t been told in another form before. The animation and crisp character designs continue to be pleasant on the eyes (there are some in-between frames with minor hiccups). The plot pacing in this set is some of the best we’ve ever gotten from a Dragon Ball arc, it’s jammed full of content but is never overwhelming or boring. I’m eagerly awaiting the next collection as I’m loving where Dragon Ball Super seems to be heading.
A Blu-Ray review copy was provided by Madman Entertainment for the purpose of this review.
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9
- + First arc of original content for DBS
- + Fantastic pacing throughout.
- + Perfect mix of action, humour and storyline
