10 Things I Wanted From the Dragon Ball Super Anime's Rumoured 2023 Return

When I put this list together in July 2022, the heavy rumour in the Dragon Ball world was that the Dragon Ball Super anime would be coming back in 2023. Here are the top 10 things I wanted from it when it returned. This is my Dragon Ball Super wish list.

The rumour had been building for a couple of weeks at that point, but there were no dates and not much information. We did not know if Sumitomo would be doing the music, or Naoki Sato, who did Super Hero. We did not know who would be involved behind the scenes, whether that meant Shintani, Kubota or Tatsuya Nagamine. I have more than 10 ideas, but these are 10 things I definitely wanted to see. I wrote them down as bullet points and expanded on each one.

Toei Animation needed a longer preproduction schedule than Dragon Ball Super had

Number one was pretty much a given. I wanted Toei Animation to have all hands on deck for the new anime. Dragon Ball Super was announced in April 2015 and went into preproduction that same April, and that is why episode 5 looked so bad and why the animation was rushed. The production was a mess behind the scenes. That is not a secret anymore. A lot of us have talked about it, and even directors have talked about how it was a rushed project.

They had to take their time with this one: plan things out and storyboard things out so we would not get any terribly animated episodes. To me that was a given based on the timetable I was seeing. It is also worth remembering that a new movie had been confirmed for a few years down the line, so the next film was already being talked about internally. I did not know anything about what it would be about. I hoped it would be set after the end of Z, because Super Hero sits right on the edge of it.

A Broly arc should adapt Toriyama's full three hour script

If the anime chose to retell the Broly story, the way it retold Battle of Gods and Resurrection in the first two arcs of Super, I wanted the full three hour Toriyama script adapted and produced well. Tatsuya Nagamine, the director of Dragon Ball Super: Broly, talked about getting a script from Toriyama that was pretty much three hours of material. They had to cut it down for the film, which as I recall runs about 100 minutes. I wanted them to take everything Toriyama wrote and adapt it.

I will be honest, though: I was not sure I wanted them to do it at all. Dragon Ball Super: Broly looked so good. The animation was so crisp and beautiful that I could not see a TV version looking as good, just like how the Battle of Gods movie looked better than the Battle of Gods arc. If they did it, I wanted it done in a way that made sense and was done well.

Super's fights should be longer and paced more like Dragon Ball Z

Number three was longer fights paced more like DBZ. I wanted Dragon Ball Z style strategic fights. Super gave us some of that, but I wanted more. To be clear, I was not asking for it to be super slow. I did not want the five minutes on Namek from Frieza.

What I wanted was slower, strategic fights. If you go back to Dragon Ball and Z, a lot of the fights had Goku, or whoever was fighting, strategically working against his opponent, with different segments to the fight. That is how I wanted Super's fights to be from then on, because I do miss that style.

Toriyama's 2013 galactic patrolman manga deserved a TV special leading into Broly

Number four was a TV special based on Toriyama's galactic patrolman manga. Toriyama's return to manga was in 2013 with that manga, and at the end of it he first released Dragon Ball Minus. That is not an OVA or animation; it is a one shot, and it is the story that first introduced Gine. I would have liked a 45 minute or one hour special of it. It is a fun little story, and I loved that manga.

It could also work as a lead in. If you start with that manga, Minus is in the back part of the book. If the Broly movie started with the Minus material, you could do the patrolman story, go into Bardock and the end of the Saiyans and the death of Planet Vegeta, and then into the Broly story, and it would flow. If they were going to do it, that is how I wanted it done.

The Moro arc needed more backstory on Moro, the Grand Supreme Kai and the prisoners

Number five was about the Moro arc. When it got adapted, I wanted more backstory on Moro versus the Grand Supreme Kai and on the prisoners. We got a little of that in the manga, and I wanted them to expand on it. The beginning of the Moro arc was great; I thought the first half was great.

This is how you use filler properly. A lot of anime fans do not like filler, and I kind of understand why: you want things as close to the manga as possible. But there is room here to tell more stories, flesh things out and give more context, because Dragon Ball lore is great. We do not get enough of it, and I would love to know more.

Bring back Dragon Ball Super's slice of life episodes

Number six was slice of life. I loved the baseball episode of Super, the birthday episode, and the episode where Goku and Vegeta trained with Beerus and Whis and had to do all those chores. Dragon Ball Super's filler and slice of life material was some of the most fun stuff Super produced. I thought its producers were really good at it, and I would have loved to see more of it when the show came back.

Number seven is the one we have been asking for for years

Number seven was one that, in my words, needs nothing more said: "Everybody wants it. We've been talking about it for years. Give it to us already."

A Tournament of Power 2 with the four universes that sat out the first one

Number eight was another universal tournament, this time with the four universes that did not compete. Universe 7 was completely stacked compared to the first Tournament of Power. You had Goku with a stronger, mastered Ultra Instinct, Ultra Ego Vegeta, Broly with what seems like unlimited potential and incredible power, Beast Gohan, and Piccolo with two new forms. Those five alone, not even counting Granolah or anyone else who might compete for Universe 7, would be enough to really handle some people in the multiverse.

I wanted Jiren back, training and stronger. It did not have to be the final arc, but I wanted one more tournament with different stakes. Do not make it about a universe getting destroyed; change the story up, but give us another battle royale, done even better.

Go past the end of Z with a god tier villain who can challenge Beerus

Number nine was moving the story past the end of Z. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is set roughly a year, or maybe 16 months, before the end of Z, meaning the last three episodes of DBZ covering Goku meeting Uub and the 28th Tenkaichi Budokai. That is the end of the manga. GT exists after that point, but it is in a different continuity. I wanted a new story driven by Toriyama and Akio Iyoku set after the end of Z.

We have seen them rehash everything from Frieza to Cell, plus things like an evil Goku, and Moro is basically a demon. I wanted a villain who could challenge Beerus, something like an evil god of destruction or a fallen angel, like what they did with Zamasu but not a Kai. I wanted the multiverse in trouble and even the Grand Priest involved. We have been wanting to see Beerus go to full power since 2013, almost 10 years before I wrote this. I thought the time had come.

Shift the focus to the next generation, with Goku and Vegeta as mentors

Last but not least, I wanted Goku and Vegeta moved into a mentor role and the story shifted to a new group. I believe they will eventually have to do this. Masako Nozawa is older; she was still in good shape, but anything could happen. Dragon Ball has already lost the voices of Bulma and of King Kai, who was also the narrator. Both passed away, and Nozawa was the only one left from that first episode of Dragon Ball.

I thought the time had come to begin the next generation, maybe led by Gohan or Pan, with Uub and the Universe 6 Saiyans. It would not even have to be called Super; it could be Dragon Ball Next Gen or whatever. I wanted Goku and Vegeta to slowly move into Jedi master mode, training people, with the story eventually shifting to them. I did not believe Japan had a replacement for Nozawa. I do not want anything to happen to her; we all love her, and it would be catastrophic for Dragon Ball. But I thought the move was to put the focus on Pan, Goten and Trunks.

That was my top 10, though there are a lot more. What would have made your own Dragon Ball Super wish list?