For nearly ten years, anime fans have eagerly been awaiting the return of Dragon Ball Super. However, despite newfound hopes that their patience will soon be paying off, a potential sequel to the modern-day revival of Dragon Ball could be doomed to fail. And the source of this failure could be an issue that the anime has struggled with before.
“Dragon Ball Super 2” might be announced in 2026, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be worth the wait. For several reasons, it will have no choice but to adapt Dragon Ball Super: Broly into an arc before it gets to the Galactic Patrol Prisoner Saga and Granolah the Survivor Sagas, and it will have to adapt Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero into an arc before it adapts the upcoming Black Frieza Saga. Dragon Ball Super’s movie recap arcs nearly sank it right out of the gate, and there’s zero guarantee “Dragon Ball Super 2” will be able to replicate the original’s eventual success.
Dragon Ball Super 2 Has to Recap the Broly and Super Hero Movies
For those who don’t follow all forms of Dragon Ball media closely, the more casual audience, the current state of Dragon Ball Super’s canon is a mess. Anime-only viewers, who make up the majority of the Dragon Ball fandom, either have no idea what the Galactic Patrol Prisoner and Granolah the Survivor Sagas are, or only know about them second-hand thanks to YouTube videos.
While it’s less of an issue, since every DB fan has seen Dragon Ball Super: Brolyit’s still also true that the manga completely skipped over the storyline that introduced several new important characters, one of whom is now being given the same front-and-center status as Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, and Piccolo. This is without even addressing the discrepancies between the transformations Goku and Vegeta have access to between canons, and the numerous differences between Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero and the manga’s Super Hero Saga.
“Dragon Ball Super 2” has no choice but to recap the events of Dragon Ball Super: Broly and Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. While existing fans may have all seen the former, new fans that “Dragon Ball Super 2” will attract will have no idea who Broly, Cheelai, or Lemo are when they appear later on if their origin story isn’t told here. And, with the manga and movie versions of the Super Hero storyline being so different, the anime needs to recap it so that viewers old and new know exactly what happened in “Dragon Ball Super 2’s” continuity, as well as so the timeskip between the Granolah and Black Frieza Sagas doesn’t seem so out-of-place.
There’s also the simple matter that, without the recap arcs, “Dragon Ball Super 2” would be a far shorter anime than fans want it to be. Between the Moro and Granolah Sagas, the series could, at most, squeeze out 22-24 episodes. And since the Black Frieza Saga hasn’t even started yet, that would be all fans would get for years until Toyotarou finished writing the manga.
The Battle of Gods & Resurrection ‘F’ Recap Arcs Nearly Killed Dragon Ball Super
In modern times, Dragon Ball Super is outrageously popular, arguably having an even stronger following than DBZ. However, fans who were present when the anime premiered in 2015 will remember that this wasn’t always the cast. When it began with recaps of the Battle of Gods and Resurrection ‘F’ Sagas, Dragon Ball Super became a laughingstock across the entire internet, and most fell under the impression that this insult to DBZ shouldn’t exist at all.
“Dragon Ball Super 2’s” recap arcs, if made properly, can easily avoid the most infamous aspect of the original’s. The thing that drove fans the most up the wall about early Dragon Ball Super was its utterly unacceptable art, and stiff, clunky animation, and there’s no need for its sequel to suffer from these issues as well.
Where “Dragon Ball Super 2” is really going to struggle is with the writing of the Broly and Super Hero Sagas. The stories of these arcs were not designed to be lengthy in anyway, both having originally been told as 100-minute movies. It is going to be a genuine challenge for Toei Animation to turn these films into 9-12 episode arcs, totaling approximately 198-264 minutes, without turning them into boring, slow-paced slogs like the Battle of Gods and Resurrection ‘F’ Sagas.
“Dragon Ball Super 2” has the potential to be one of the biggest new-gen anime. But, in an ironic twist, an adaptation of the best Dragon Ball movie ever could be what keeps the series from reaching the heights of its predecessor. Manga fans desperately want to see animated versions of the Moro, Granolah, and Black Frieza Sagas, but casuals may not be willing to sit through inferior versions of movies they’ve seen before.
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Dragon Ball Super
- Release Date
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2015 – 2018
- Network
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Fuji TV
- Showrunner
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Tatsuya Nagamine
- Directors
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Ryota Nakamura, Masanori Sato, Kenichi Takeshita, Takao Iwai, Hideki Hiroshima, Masato Mitsuka, Kazuya Karasawa, Ayumu Ono, Takahiro Imamura, Tatsuya Nagamine, Kôjiro Kawasaki, Kouji Ogawa
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Masakazu Morita
Whis (voice)
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Masako Nozawa
Son Goku/Goku Black/Son Gohan/Son Goten (voices)
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- Created by
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Akira Toriyama
- First Film
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Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies
- Latest Film
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Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero
- First TV Show
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Dragon Ball
- Latest TV Show
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Dragon Ball DAIMA
- First Episode Air Date
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April 26, 1989
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.
