Dragon Ball Super Manga Chapter 91 Spoilers: Piccolo and Pan's Training Kicks Off the Super Hero Adaptation

Draft pages for Dragon Ball Super manga chapter 91 came out a day early, and this chapter begins the Super Hero movie adaptation portion of the story. We are past the prequel now and heading into the movie adaptation, with the full manga chapter due out about a week later. Credit goes to the translator who worked on these draft pages. The last chapter ended with Dr. Hedo getting locked up, and now some time has passed as we jump right to Piccolo.

Piccolo Picks Up Pan From School in a Scene Moved Earlier Than in the Super Hero Movie

The chapter opens with Piccolo picking up Pan from school. A scene like this does happen in the movie, but here it has been moved to before the Magenta and Dr. Hedo scene, which makes it a different moment rather than something contradictory to the film. It looks like Toyotaro is showing an earlier day of Piccolo and Pan's training, something that happens early in the film. Pan's teacher with the big afro from the movie is there too, and Pan is not sure where her mom and dad are since Gohan and Videl said they had things to do.

Piccolo's response is blunt: "it's so shameful such irresponsible parents to their priorities their own lives over picking up their own children." That is not necessarily a hundred percent fair, but I understand why he would say it. What genuinely makes me laugh is Piccolo dishing out parenting advice when this is the same Piccolo who once sent Gohan off into the wilderness alone, though I recognize that was a younger, different version of the character. Piccolo then asks Pan if she wants to visit his place again, she is excited, and he tells her it will be a while before they come back, which starts building their relationship early in the story.

Training at Piccolo's House Brings in Great Saiyaman and Chichi's Anger

At Piccolo's house, just like in the film, Pan is training with him. She mentions that Goten and Trunks are transforming into superheroes, and brings up that Gohan did the same thing once as "Great Saiyaman." I actually misread this section at first because I was reading it left to right instead of right to left, which still happens to me from time to time even after years of reading manga. Pan is basically bridging the prequel arc with material from the movie here, and it is not anything too important on its own.

Piccolo says, "I can never understand how these fans think," noting that neither Goten nor Trunks studied at all, so they stopped being heroes. Pan adds, "especially my grandma got so mad," referring to Chichi. Piccolo replies, "Chichi huh, so she's still the same educator mother." We never actually saw Chichi get mad at Goten and Trunks on screen for being heroes, and it makes me wonder how she would have even known since I thought that was kept a secret from her. Pan then says she wants to be a superhero too, and Piccolo warns her there is a cliff ahead.

A Mysterious Frog Sparks Ginyu Speculation I Am Not Convinced By

A frog shows up in this scene, and a lot of people seem to think this is the Ginyu frog. I am not really sure about that for a couple of reasons. For one, it is just a frog, and it does not look exactly like the Ginyu frog. I believe the Ginyu frog had something like an antenna and was a Namekian frog, so there are some differences alongside the similarities.

The other reason is that the body swap between Tagoma and Ginyu only happened in the Dragon Ball Super anime, not in the movie Resurrection F or in the manga. That tells me that in the manga continuity, Captain Ginyu is probably still a frog, so I would not overthink this new frog as some deeper connection. I think some fans are looking for links that are not really meant to be there. If it does turn out to be the Ginyu frog, it is not a bad thing, I just do not think that connection is actually intended.

Pan Falls, Shows Her Bravery, and Piccolo Agrees to Train Her

Pan falls off the cliff while Piccolo panics, but she grabs onto a ledge and then onto the frog itself. Piccolo tells her, "You scared the hell out of me, you sure got some guts, Pan," establishing her bravery at a young age. When she says she really wants to become a superhero, Piccolo agrees to train her, noting it was around the same time he taught her father to fight, even though Gohan was four and Pan is three, so the one year difference does not really matter.

Piccolo adds that he will turn her into "an outstanding member of the demon clan," which made me laugh since Piccolo has not represented the Mazoku demon clan since the Garlic Jr. Saga, and that was anime only. It comes across as him being sarcastic and smirking rather than serious. Pan then starts pulling on his antenna, and he tells her to cut it out, a small comedic beat that continues the Piccolo the babysitter dynamic that began with Resurrection F and now carries into this arc.

West City Police Department Adds Krillin, the Red Ribbon Army, and Red's New Surname

The story then shifts to the West City Police Department, an extra scene that was not in the film. At the police department, officers discuss the Red Ribbon Army as an evil army that once plotted world domination and was believed to be completely destroyed thirty years ago under Commander Red.

One notable reveal here is that Commander Red is given a surname for the first time, though I want to flag that this could be a mistranslation. His son, Magenta, is reportedly planning to revive the army, with Red Pharmaceuticals serving as a public front while they rebuild in secret. The army is aiming to recruit the newly imprisoned Dr. Hedo to speed up their revival, and an officer says Krillin will fill in the rest of the details.

This makes me wonder if Toyotaro is setting up a subplot where Krillin is secretly investigating the Red Ribbon Army, similar to what Piccolo did in the movie, but gathering information from outside the base rather than infiltrating it directly while the events of the film play out elsewhere. I also find myself wondering whether we will actually get to see the construction of Gamma 1 and Gamma 2 at some point in this storyline.

Dr. Hedo's Backstory Moves From the Movie's Carmine Scene Into Krillin's Briefing

Krillin explains that Hedo is the grandson of the genius researcher Dr. Gero, who in the dub was part of the Red Ribbon Army and contributed Android research to them. Hedo's father was the son of Gero's late wife. When Hedo was in elementary school he lost both his parents in an accident, and while still a child he used his inheritance to live on his own. He was brilliant enough to earn a doctorate at fourteen, but his personality prevented him from fitting in at any laboratory, so he used what remained of his inheritance to continue his research alone.

This whole rundown appears to be the scene from the movie where Carmine explains who Dr. Hedo is to Magenta, just relocated into this police briefing with Krillin instead. It is another example of Toyotaro taking creative liberties to rearrange the story, which is part of why I have always said the manga, the anime, and the movies function as three different continuities telling the same events in different ways. As for why the Red Ribbon Army wants him, it comes down to Hedo having Gero's important research data stored in his mind, with one officer noting that if the army gets that data, "we're doomed." Krillin responds that they must stop them at all costs and find their base before Hedo is released in three months.

Magenta and Carmine's Opening Scene Closes Out the Draft Pages

The chapter then fast forwards to Red Pharmaceuticals, where Carmine and Magenta are talking, which is effectively the opening scene of the Super Hero movie now presented in manga form. The difference is that the recap material about the heroes appears to have been shifted over to Krillin's scenes instead, and I am not entirely sure why that choice was made other than to make the manga version feel different from the film. Carmine confirms Hedo is currently in prison, which will delay their plans, but reassures Magenta that Hedo will be out in three months.

Magenta responds by declaring, "I will fulfill the dream of world domination that my father could not achieve," which closes out the draft pages for this chapter. So this is the manga starting the Super Hero movie adaptation a bit differently than expected, with a lot of cutting back and forth between new scenes and Toyotaro working to connect things to material he had already written before. I do not have a problem with it at this point, but it will be worth watching where it goes.