Dragon Ball as fans currently know it may not be around for much longer. While no one knows for sure what will come after the Black Frieza Saga, the Dragon Ball Super manga catching up to Dragon Ball Z’s epilogue would make for the perfect time to launch into a brand-new series. Assuming that another Dragon Ball Super movie is on the way as well, there’s a clear way for it to please fans, and for it to act as a transition between eras.
Dragon Ball has a tradition when it comes to closing out eras, making it obvious what the next Dragon Ball Super movie needs to be about. Nearly every anime in the Dragon Ball franchise has ended with a tournament, and a Dragon Ball Super film focused on a tourney would be something wholly new. Whether it was a more exciting adaptation of the «End of Z» or the much-desired sequel to the Tournament of Power, there’s a lot that this movie would be able to accomplish.
The Next Dragon Ball Movie Needs to Be a Tournament
A Tournament is the Only Proper Way to Close Out Dragon Ball Super
Dragon Ball and tournaments go hand-in-hand. Not only did Dragon Ball help to define the formula for tournament arcs in battle Shonen anime, but nearly every installment of the franchise has concluded with one. Dragon Ball ended with the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, Dragon Ball Z ended with the 28th World Martial Arts Tournament, Dragon Ball GT ended with the 64th World Martial Arts Tournament, and the Dragon Ball Super anime concluded with the Tournament of Power. To date, only Dragon Ball DAIMA has broken this trend.
The franchise can make up for this by closing out Dragon Ball Super with one last tournament following the ending of the Black Frieza Saga. A new movie would be the best way to portray Super’s final tournament. There has never before been a Dragon Ball movie primarily centered on just a tournament, it would form a trilogy with Dragon Ball Super: Broly & Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, and it would be able to correct the biggest issue with the Tournament of Power. As incredible as certain moments in the Universe Survival Saga were, the overall pacing of the arc was dreadful, seen by most as overly-long and padded out.
With only 90-120 minutes to work with, Dragon Ball Super would be forced to tighten its focus. While things may change during the Black Frieza Saga, Dragon Ball is more primed for a tournament than ever before. According to Toyotarou, Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Piccolo, and Broly are all roughly equal in power. Never before have so many of the Z-Fighters been on the same level of power. WIthout even taking their opponents or the tournament’s format into account, the film would be completely unpredictable, it would carry a sense that anyone could win the competition, and it would allow fans to see exactly how Dragon Ball Super’s 5 main characters really stack up to one another.
Dragon Ball Super Has Multiple Options For What Type of Tournament it Wants to Portray
Dragon Ball Super Can Either Remake a Past Storyline, or Tell a Brand-New Story
Of the two Dragon Ball Super movies, one was a remake of a 90s Dragon Ball Z film, while the other told an original story. There’s no set expectation for what a Dragon Ball Super film should be, and that gives it the freedom to do whatever it wants. Even narrowing down its options to a tournament-driven story, Dragon Ball Super would still be able to go in multiple potential directions. A long time coming, Super has nearly caught up to the «End of Z,» and there’s no time left in the established Dragon Ball timeline for anymore timeskips or longer stories before it does so.
As it so happens, Dragon Ball Z‘s epilogue is centered around the 28th World Martial Arts Tournament. In its original depiction, the tournament itself wasn’t the focus of the story, simply serving as a means for Goku to meet and fight Uub. If Dragon Ball wanted to continue honoring Akira Toriyama, then Dragon Ball Super’s final tournament could expand on the ending of his manga’s final arc. Not only would it have the potential to be highly emotional, and to feature plenty of fun battles, but if Uub and Pan are to play major roles in the franchise moving forward, as the original «End of Z’ set them up to, then a movie would be the perfect launching pad for them as new protagonists.
An alternative possibility for the next Dragon Ball Super movie would be for it to remake Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound. While the tournament in this non-canon 90s movie isn’t the main point of it, it does feature prominently during its first half. Bojack and his Galaxy Soldiers have some of the most untapped potential of any Dragon Ball Z movie villains, and it wouldn’t be hard to integrate them into a more tournament-focused story.
It’s also worth considering that the next Dragon Ball movie might not be a Dragon Ball Super movie. Dragon Ball DAIMA was filled with loose plot threads, and its final scene featured suspiciously high-quality animation. There’s no better time for a Dragon Ball DAIMA movie than now, a Demon Realm tournament would give the film a chance to show off the magic system that the television series barely touched on, and it would be nice for Dragon Ball DAIMA to not be the only Dragon Ball anime to end without a tournament.
Nothing Would Make Fans More Excited Than a Second Tournament of Power
Fans Have Spent Nearly a Decade Speculating About What a Second Tournament of Power Could Be Like
For all the other valid paths that the third Dragon Ball Super movie can take, nothing would get Dragon Ball fans in the seats like a second Tournament of Power. The idea of a second ToP is a subject fans have been discussing since before the first Tournament of Power was even over and, with a movie budget behind it, its endless fighting could be absolutely spectacular. A new Team Universe 7 would give the Z-Fighters the chance to prove how much they’ve all grown, their strongest rivals from the first tournament could demonstrate their own growth, and the four universes who sat the first Tournament of Power out could get involved.
There are multiple ways Dragon Ball Super could justify giving fans a second ToP. It could come as a result of fallout from the Black Frieza Saga, it could be tied into the universes erased by Zeno long before Dragon Ball began, or the Omni-Kings could simply be as eager to see which of the Z-Fighters is really the strongest as the fans are. The story definitely wouldn’t be the point of a film like this, but it would elevate the film if it either tied in thematically to the Black Frieza Saga, or if it laid the groundwork for future stories.
Many of the most popular characters introduced in Dragon Ball Super haven’t been citizens of Universe 7, and a Tournament of Power 2 is the only real chance that fans have of seeing most of them again. Naturally, this also means it’s the only way fans will get to see some potentially amazing fights and re-matches featuring them. As much as Universe 7’s greatest heroes have grown, there’s little reason to believe the likes of Jiren, Top, Hit, and the Universe 6 Saiyans haven’t found ways to keep pace with them. Jiren could showcase just how powerful embracing teamwork has made him, Hit could be armed with more time-manipulation tricks than ever, and Cabba, Caulifla, & Kale could all have access to new transformations.
As fun as it would be to see them all again, the main antagonists of the movie could be the strongest warriors from Universes 1, 5, 8, and 12, who could easily become fan-favorites in their own right. Dragon Ball Super’s Black Frieza Saga is likely to feature the most climactic and dramatic fights to save the universe of the Z-Fighters’ lives. The movie that follows the arc won’t be able to top it, but it could do something similar, and be the most exciting tournament in the franchise’s history. It would be fresh, it would feature all the series’ heroes at their most powerful, the budget a movie would have would allow it to put the fights in every other Dragon Ball tournament to shame, and it could close out Dragon Ball Super with the bang it deserves.
Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball tells the tale of a young warrior by the name of Son Goku, a young peculiar boy with a tail who embarks on a quest to become stronger and learns of the Dragon Balls, when, once all 7 are gathered, grant any wish of choice.
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Dragon Ball Z
TV-PG Action Adventure Sci-Fi Comedy Super Power Fantasy Martial Arts Shounen 8 10 62
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Masako Nozawa
Ryou Horikawa
With the help of the powerful Dragonballs, a team of fighters led by the saiyan warrior Goku defend the planet earth from extraterrestrial enemies.
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Dragon Ball Super
Action Sci-Fi Animation Fantasy 78
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Sean Schemmel
Jason Douglas
With Majin Buu defeated half-a-year prior, peace returns to Earth, where Son Goku (now a radish farmer) and his friends now live peaceful lives.
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