Dragon Ball’s Creator Confirmed Why Super Can Never Live Up to Z With One Sentence

In Dragon Ball Super, Goku and his fellow Z-Fighters continue to fight the good fight against foes who strive to make their friends, family, world, and entire universe suffer. And although Super is a comparatively popular and generally well-received follow-up to Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama has revealed why its fights can never live up to its predecessor’s, with his reasoning being a bit of a surprise.

A direct continuation of Dragon Ball Z, which is itself a sequel to the original Dragon Ball series, Dragon Ball Super catapulted the franchise into familiar territory that thankfully still found ways to give fans fresh and exciting takes on beloved characters and scenarios they’ve grown fond of seeing over the years.

Speaking during an interview leading up to last year’s Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie, Akira Toriyama is at one point asked about his thoughts on 2019’s Dragon Ball Super: Broly film, leading him to reveal that the reason Super’s fights can’t top DBZ’s is because Toriyama doesn’t script Super‘s battles in detail anymore, and instead simply writes “and now these two characters have a big battle.”

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Dragon Ball Super’s Battles Are More Simplified Compared To Dragon Ball Z’s

To put this quote into more context, Toriyama prefaces these words while commenting on DBS: Broly’s stunning battles, saying, “Those battle scenes are wonderful, as is traditional in this series, and I’m always very moved by them.” Going on to speak about Super again, Toriyama remarks, “Thanks to that, I can just write ‘and now these two characters have a big battle’ in the original script, and rest easy knowing that this will get turned into an incredible battle,” telling fans that he has essentially stepped away from having any direct involvement in what happens during a fight in Super’s continuity.

A quote that encapsulates a criticism consistently leveled at Dragon Ball Super, this change in Toriyama’s approach to writing means that most battles aren’t driven by story reasons, instead revolving around who can fight in the most visually stunning, stylish, and “cool” way. Obviously, there are outlying bouts that rival the best of DBZ, like Goku vs. Hit, which felt like a return to form, but too many battles simply aren’t dynamic enough to stand out on their own. Furthermore, fights in DBZ couldn’t be boiled down to “and then they battle” because those brawls were constantly evolving as Goku and pals had to rethink strategies and adapt their techniques continuously, with Goku’s fight while sizing up Perfect Cell during the Cell Games being a perfect example.

Dragon Ball Z’s Fights Are Superior To Most Of Dragon Ball Super’s

It’s undoubtedly a bit of a letdown to know that Super‘s fights may never reach the blistering heights or even the relative complexity of DBZ’s most epic brawls, but Super does have its moments where watching one inconceivably powerful being beat down another similarly omnipotent fighter comes across as something layered and unique, Goku, Frieza, and Android 17’s fight against Jiren being another such example. Dragon Ball Super needs to take a page out of Dragon Ball Z’s book, so here’s hoping Super‘s eventual return to the anime space does justice to what came before it.

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Dragon Ball Super

Dragon Ball Super is a sequel to the original Dragon Ball series as well as the fan-favorite Dragon Ball Z anime. Dragon Ball Super takes place ten years after Majin Buu is defeated and follows Goku and his friends on all-new adventures. Much like its predecessors, Dragon Ball Super was praised throughout its 131 episodes.