Dragon Ball Super Manga Chapter 97 Sent Trunks and Goten Super Saiyan Against Cell Max

Dragon Ball Super's manga retelling of the Superhero movie was almost finished by chapter 97, titled "Cell Max Runs Wild." Draft pages for the chapter surfaced through V Jump ahead of the full release, giving an early look at how Toyotaro was adapting the film's climactic battle, and a full translation from Herms filled in the rest of the story once it became available.

V Jump's Supersized November Issue Replaced the Rumored Double Chapter

There had been a rumor going around that Dragon Ball Super's manga was going to run as a double chapter that month. That turned out not to be the case. Instead, V Jump's November edition was described as supersized, meaning a thicker magazine overall rather than two chapters crammed into one issue. The thinking was that the chapter itself might simply run longer than usual, which raised the possibility that the Superhero arc could actually wrap up within that same issue.

The previous chapter had ended with the fierce fight between Piccolo and Gammas 1 and 2 settling into a truce, with the battle against the Red Ribbon Army seemingly over. That was when Cell Max activated and the gargantuan android went out of control, putting the entire planet in danger, setting up chapter 97's opening.

Trunks and Goten Debuted as Saiyaman X1 and X2 Against Cell Max

The draft pages showed Trunks and Goten transforming into their Saiyaman alter egos, now branded Saiyaman X1 and X2, to face off against Cell Max. Some fans, including some collaborators, had hoped the manga would bring back regular Gotenks rather than the fat version. My take on that was that I did not think it was going to happen. "I don't think you're going to get that, they're not going to be changing that much stuff from the movie," though I was careful to add that I could be wrong and was not guaranteeing anything. My working theory was that Trunks and Goten had forgotten how to fuse properly and would need to relearn it as the story moved forward.

Several draft panels showed Goten and Trunks as Saiyaman X1 and X2 lunging at Cell Max, with shots resembling the movie's staging of that middle section of the fight, though the manga version was clearly going to play out differently beat for beat. Piccolo, Gohan, Krillin and the rest of the cast were shown witnessing the battle as everyone converged on Cell Max at once. I noted that the movie handled this as a battle royale with roughly six fighters surrounding a giant Cell Max, something that is much harder to convey on the page than it was on a movie screen, where the sheer scale of Cell Max towering over Piccolo was, in my view, a genuine treat to watch.

One of the more striking details in the draft pages was that Trunks and Goten appeared to be powering up into Super Saiyan, something they never did in the movie. I floated the idea that this could mean a skinny Gotenks or a correctly fused Gotenks down the line, though I said I didn't think that was likely, "but you never know." Overall I said I was excited for the chapter for the first time in months, wanting to see what changes Toyotaro made, whether Orange Piccolo would get something new to do, and looking ahead to Gohan Beast and Gamma 2's sacrifice, both of which I expected to land in a later chapter rather than this one.

Herms's Translation Revealed Bulma's Explanation for the Boys Being Out of Practice

Once Herms's full translation came through, it confirmed that Goten and Trunks attacked Cell Max in their Saiyaman outfits but were swatted aside. Bulma explained that the boys had been grounded for over half a year and so had not been training. I was not a fan of that explanation, calling it "a little bit silly" as a reason for why they were out of practice, and I said I wasn't sure I liked it as the story's justification.

The translation also showed Piccolo concluding that he and Gohan would have to fight, reaching for their one remaining senzu bean, while Trunks insisted that he and Goten would be fine. As I pointed out, that wasn't really true given they hadn't gone Super Saiyan yet at that point. The boys ended up stalling for time while Piccolo and Gohan recovered their stamina, a wrinkle I said felt new compared to the movie and one I was happy to see, without treating it as a bad change.

Piccolo and Krillin Argued Over Whether the Boys Could Be Relied On

Piccolo still wondered whether Goten and Trunks could be relied on in the fight, but Krillin assured him the boys could get things done once they set their minds to it. Bulma, for her part, thought Krillin simply didn't want to do any of the fighting himself, which I said seemed pretty obvious given how frightening an opponent like Cell Max was.

Meanwhile Gamma 1 and 2 kept firing at Cell Max as part of the group effort to wear him down. The chapter did not yet reveal that his weak spot was in his forehead, something I expected Dr. Hedo to point out eventually, but it hadn't happened in this chapter.

Trunks and Goten Finally Went Super Saiyan to Match the Manga's Earlier Chapters

Trunks noted that Cell Max seemed clumsy, and Gamma 1 reasoned that he was still getting used to his own power, suggesting this might be the only chance to defeat him. Hearing that, Trunks and Goten went Super Saiyan and attacked Cell Max again, with the chapter ending there.

I said I still didn't expect to see Gotenks return in its correctly fused form, though again I wasn't treating that as a guarantee. What did please me was seeing them go Super Saiyan at all, since it lines up with an earlier three chapter prelude focused on Trunks and Goten in which Trunks went Super Saiyan, something that never happened in the movie version. As I put it, canon within Dragon Ball is not something worth arguing over, since the franchise runs on multiple versions, the anime, the movies and the manga, all adapting Akira Toriyama's original storylines and scripts with their own individual changes.

What did you make of Bulma's explanation that Trunks and Goten simply hadn't trained because they were grounded?