Dragon Ball Super

   Dragon Ball Super (Japanese: ドラゴンボール超スーパー Hepburn: Doragon Bōru Sūpā?) is an ongoing Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation that began airing on July 5, 2015. It is a sequel show to the Dragon Ball manga and the Dragon Ball Z television series featuring the first new storyline in 18 years. It is set after the defeat of Majin Boo when Earth has become peaceful once again. It is broadcast on Sundays at 9:00 a.m. on Fuji TV.

 Plot

  Several months after the defeat of Majin Boo, peace has returned to Earth. Son Goku has settled down and now works as a radish farmer to support his family. His family and friends live peaceful lives. However, a new threat appears in the form of Beerus ( Bills ) , The God of Destruction (破壊神ビルス Hakaishin Birusu) who is considered to be the most terrifying being in Universe 7. Beerus is eager to fight the legendary warrior whom he had seen in a prophecy, known as the Super Saiyan God (超スーパーサイヤ人ゴッド Sūpā Saiya-jin Goddo). To protect Earth, Goku transforms into the Super Saiyan God to fight Beerus and despite losing, the match appeases the God of Destruction enough so that he decides to spare the planet. This part of the series retells the events of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods.

   While Goku and Vegeta leave with Beerus and his aide Whis for training, two remnants of Freeza's army arrive at Earth and use the Dragon Balls to revive him. Freeza then gathers his forces and returns to enact his revenge on Goku and his friends, but despite getting strong enough to attain a new transformation, he is once again defeated by Goku. This part of the series retells the events of Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F'.

   On a later occasion, Champa, Beerus' twin brother and the God of Destruction from Universe 6, appears and convinces him to hold a tournament between the best fighters from each god's universe for the possession of Earth. Goku and some of his friends join the tournament, which ends in a surprising victory for Beerus' team after the strongest fighters from each side, Goku and Universe 6's Hit end up forfeiting.

   After the tournament is completed, Future Trunks reappears, bringing news of a new, powerful enemy resembling Goku, known as Goku Black (ゴクウブラック Goku Burakku). Goku and the others eventually discover that Goku Black is actually a Kaiō-shin from Universe 10 named Zamasu, who hijacked Goku's body from a different timeline as part of his plan to attain immortality and wipe out all mortals.

   Some time after the threat of Zamasu is eliminated, a new tournament is organized by Zen-Oh, the king of all universes, featuring teams of fighters from each universe, introducing the Universe Survival Saga. Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Kuririn, Android 17, Android 18, Piccolo, Tenshinhan, Kame-Sennin, and Majin Boo join the tournament as representatives for Universe 7 in a battle that can decide its fate.

Production 

   In addition to his role as series creator, Akira Toriyama is also credited for the "original story and character design concepts" of the new anime originally directed by Kimitoshi Chioka. Toriyama elaborated on his involvement with the "Future Trunks arc" saying he created the story based on suggestions from the editorial department, "As with last time, I wrote the overall plot outline, and the scriptwriters have been compiling and expanded the story content into individual episodes, making various changes and additions, and generally doing their best to make the story more interesting." Toei Animation producer Atsushi Kido previously worked on Dragon Ball Z for a brief time during the Freeza arc, while Fuji TV producer Osamu Nozaki said he has been a fan of the series since childhood. Morio Hatano, series director of Saint Seiya Omega (episodes #1-51), began sharing the series director credit with Chioka beginning with episode #33, before taking it over completely with #47. Beginning with Episode #68 Hatano Morio shared the role of series director with Kōhei Hatano (no relation), another storyboard artist and episode director for the series.

   Masako Nozawa reprises her roles as Son Goku, Son Gohan, and Son Goten. Most of the original cast reprise their roles as well. However, Jōji Yanami's roles as Kaiō-sama and the narrator were indefinitely taken over by Naoki Tatsuta as of episode 12, so that Yanami could take medical leave. Kōichi Yamadera and Masakazu Morita also return as Beerus and Whis, respectively.

   The first preview of the series aired on June 14, 2015, following episode 157 of Dragon Ball Kai. The next day, the main promotional image for Dragon Ball Super was added to its official website and unveiled two new characters, who were later revealed to be named Champa (シャンパ Shanpa) and Vados (ヴァドス), respectively. A thirty-second trailer including the new characters was uploaded to the series' official website on June 26, 2015.

International production and broadcasting  

   Dragon Ball Super received an English-language dub that premiered on the Toonami channel in Southeast Asia and India on January 21, 2017. This dub is produced by Los Angeles based Bang Zoom! Entertainment for the Asian market. A sneak preview of the English dub aired on December 17, 2016, and featured the first episode.

   Starting in 2016, the series has been aired in Israel on Nickelodeon and in Portugal on SIC. 

   On October 10, 2016, Toei Animation Europe announced that Dragon Ball Super would be broadcast in France, Italy, Spain, and English-speaking Africa in Fall 2016.

   On October 19, 2016, Toei Animation announced an official English sub of the series would be simulcasted legally on Crunchyroll, Daisuki.net, and Anime Lab beginning October 22, 2016.

   On November 4, 2016, Funimation announced the company acquired the rights to Dragon Ball Super and will be producing an English dub, with many cast members of their previous English-language releases of Dragon Ball media reprising their respective roles. As well as officially announcing the dub, it was also announced they will be simulcasting the series on their streaming platform, FunimationNow. On December 7, 2016, IGN reported that the Funimation English dub of Dragon Ball Super would air on Adult Swim Saturdays at 8 p.m. with an encore showing in their Toonami block later that night at 11:30 p.m. beginning January 7, 2017. This was later confirmed on Toonami's official Facebook page. The North American premiere of Dragon Ball Super was watched by 1,063,000 viewers for its 8 p.m. showing on Adult Swim.

Music

   Norihito Sumitomo, the composer for Battle of Gods and Resurrection 'F', is scoring Dragon Ball Super. An original soundtrack for the anime was released on CD by Nippon Columbia on February 24, 2016.

   The opening theme song is "Chōzetsu☆Dynamic!" (超絶☆ダイナミック！ Chōzetsu Dainamikku, "Excellent Dynamic!") by Kazuya Yoshii of The Yellow Monkey. The lyrics were penned by Yukinojo Mori who has written numerous songs for the Dragon Ball series. The first ending theme song for episodes 1 to 12 is "Hello Hello Hello" (ハローハローハロー Harō Harō Harō) by Japanese rock band Good Morning America. The second ending theme song for episodes 13 to 25 is "Starring Star" (スターリングスター Sutāringu Sutā) by the group Key Talk. The third ending song for episodes 26 to 36 is "Usubeni" (薄紅, "Light Pink") by the band Lacco Tower. The fourth ending theme song for episodes 37 to 49 is "Forever Dreaming" by Czecho No Republic. The fifth ending theme song for episodes 50 to 59 is "Yokayoka Dance" (よかよかダンス Yokayoka Dansu, "It's Fine Dance") by idol group Batten Showjo Tai. The sixth ending theme for episodes 60 to 72 is "Chao Han Music" (炒飯MUSIC Chāhan Myūjikku) by Arukara. The seventh ending theme from episode 73 onwards is "Aku no Tenshi to Seigi no Akuma" ("Evil Angel and Righteous Devil") by THE COLLECTORS.

Related media

   The Dragon Ball Super anime is being adapted into a companion manga illustrated by artist Toyotarou, who was previously responsible for the official Resurrection 'F' manga adaptation. Toyotarou explained that he receives the major plot points from Toriyama, before drawing the storyboard and filling in the details in between himself. He sends the storyboard to Toriyama for review. It began serialization in the August 2015 issue of V Jump, which was released on June 20, 2015. Shueisha began collecting the chapters into tankōbon volumes with the first published on April 4, 2016. Viz Media began posting free English translations of the manga chapters to their website on June 24, 2016. There are plans for a print release in spring 2017.

  The anime episodes are being released on Japanese DVD and Blu-ray sets that contain twelve episodes each. The first set was released on December 2, 2015. The second set was released on March 2, 2016. The third set was released on July 2, 2016. The fourth set was released on October 4, 2016.

Bandai has announced that a line of Dragon Ball Super toys will be available in the United States in summer 2017.

Reception

   First impressions of the series' debut episode were mostly positive with the quality of animation being praised the most. Richard Eisenbeis of Kotaku praised the series' title sequence and said "My middle-school self is so happy right now, you guys." Jamieson Cox of The Verge also praised the title sequence and said that "Dragon Ball Super's intro will have you begging for its North American release". Cox was also surprised that, considering how popular the franchise is, the series did not launch internationally at the same time. He called it "a move that wouldn't be unprecedented" giving Sailor Moon Crystal as an example. Lucas Siegel of Comicbook.com praised the debut episode for its "laid back plotline" and animation style and said that the debut was "very much put out as a "slice of life" episode". Siegel also noted that the premiere episode was more of a "where are they now" introduction to the series that will eventually help build anticipation for "where will they be."

   However, the fifth episode received harsh criticism from Japanese and Western audiences due to its poor animation style compared to the previous four episodes. Dragon Ball Kai and Resurrection 'F' producer Norihiro Hayashida felt that the criticism was overblown. He said that people were criticizing the entire series based on a few bad sequences that were done by new animators. He went on to explain a quality decline in the anime industry that he believes is the result of studios cutting time given for post-production and not allowing for reviews of the final product. Toei Animation improved the animation for episode five's Blu-ray and DVD release.

   The twenty-fourth episode of the series also received harsh criticism from both Japanese and western audiences due to its poor animation style, which continued throughout several episodes compared to its previous episodes. However, the Champa Arc was praised for improving its animation. Episode 39 of the series was critically acclaimed for its improved animation and praised fighting sequences. Attack of the Fanboy reported that "Dragon Ball Super" episode 39 may be the best installment of the series to date. Goku and Hit's fight "starts off explosively from the get-go." The Future Trunks Arc also received generally positive reviews from fans and critics alike, with IGN's Shawn Saris acclaiming Episode 66, stating that, "Episode 66 of Dragon Ball Super has a few missteps but ultimately leads to a great final battle with Zamasu."