The latter half of this decade has been a great time to be a Dragon Ball fan. Not only is there a new video game coming out next year, but there’s been films airing continuing their story, and they even received a new television series after two decades off the air. But while that series is over (at least temporarily) the manga is still running. It comes out monthly by artist Toyotaro and recieves direct oversight by Akira Toriyama himself, who’s even claimed he does a better job art-wise than the people working on the anime.
Since the anime and manga work on completely different timing schedules, people who’ve experienced both are well aware that the two are actually quite different from one another. So for this list, we’re going to look at ten key differences between the Super anime and it’s manga.
10 SUPER SAIYAN BLUE DRAINS STAMINA
During the original Universal battle between Universe 6 and 7, Vegeta faced off against Hit and basically just got trashed. Outside of of Hit’s ability to stop time, it’s not explained why, we’re simply meant to believe Vegeta’s such a scrub he just can’t hold pace. Goku gets in, figures out what Hit can do, and narrowly snags a win. In the manga, it turns out Vegeta going into Super Saiyan Blue so many times wound up significantly draining his stamina, leaving him with only a fraction of the strength by the time he fought Hit.
9 NO SUPER SAIYAN KAIOKEN
Something that might surprise anime fans is that there had never really never been an instance where Goku used the Kaioken, the signature move he learned from King Kai which multiplied his power level, in conjunction with Kaioken. Some theories have suggested doing both would make him implode, but the manga once outright brought up that Kaioken simply wouldn’t work while that transformation was active. Going a step further, when he's in battle with Jiren he uses something similar to the Kaioken...but it outright fails him, and Jiren points out that destroying his body won't help him overcome Jiren's strength.
8 NO SUPER SAIYAN ANGER
This might be a bit of a hard hit for fans of Future Trunks. During the Goku Black arc, Trunks never goes into his Super Saiyan Rage or Super Saiyan Anger form. This was of course the form Trunks used in the anime which somehow managed to have both the golden aura of Super Saiyan and the Blue aura of Super Saiyan Blue, which helped him keep pace with Goku Black and even score one of the final blows on him before he goes nuclear and tries to absorb the entire universe.
There’s no explanation of how he gets this form, and the manga simply doesn’t have it—he just goes Perfected Super Saiyan 2. The manga version of Trunks isn't nearly as strong as a result, and winds up losing his encounter with Zamasu/Goku Black.
7 DOESN'T ADAPT RESURRECTION OF F
Technically, the Dragon Ball Super manga doesn’t actually adapt the Resurrection of Frieza storyline. There’s a separate manga that adapts part of it, but largely for those who want to see Vegeta give Frieza the much-needed beatdown he’s earned, they’ll have to watch the movie. It’s still canon in both the manga and the anime though, Toriyama played a major role in the oversight of both series. Additionally, Frieza makes an appearance in the Tournament of Power during both series, and seems to play an equal role in terms of importance in both.
6 GOD OF DESTRUCTION BATTLE
In the anime, just before the Tournament of Power there’s a preliminary battle between the Trio of Dangers from Universe 9 and Goku, Gohan, and Buu. It’s meant to be an exhibition battle to display to Future Zeno. In the manga, we get an entirely different, and arguably more interesting battle. To entertain the two Zenos, the Gods of Destruction agree to get into a fight against one another. It’s a brief, brutal conflict...but even the God of Everything can’t keep up with what they’re doing, and so in their place they come up with the idea to do a tournament using the “mere” mortals of the other universes.
5 THE 10th MEMBER OF UNIVERSE 7
During the anime, one of the major plot points of the Tournament of Power prelude is Goku’s search for the tenth member to be on the squad. They try to get Buu, but he’s sleeping, and eventually they wind up deciding to get Frieza to come back just long enough to help them. At no point do they even consider Yamcha, and this is a bit of a running gag as he’s sure they’ll eventually ask. But in the manga, as usual they immediately start to consider some of their old friends, including Yamcha, Chiaotzu, and even think about somehow getting Future Trunks to work with them. They settle on Frieza as well, but at least they respect the others enough to think of them.
4 GOHAN VS. KEFLA
After an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Frieza, Gohan learns that he can’t let other people do his fighting for him. Working alongside Piccolo, he regains much of his battle senses. And just like the Buu Saga gave Gohan a power-up that allowed him to no longer need Super Saiyan, the manga keeps that up.
He keeps growing “as a human” and manages to beat a much more dangerous version of Kefla, as this version of Kale managed to single-handedly wipe out most of the universes’ combatants all on her own. Though he’s only able to eliminate them both, in terms of hand to hand he had her beat before either of them fell off the platform.
3 MASTER ROSHI TEACHES GOKU ULTRA INSTINCT
This one was a subject of much contention for fans of the anime over the manga. During the tournament, when Goku begins to see Jiren as invincible, Roshi steps up and decides to show Goku what he’s been missing while constantly searching for the next power-up. He reminds Goku that none of the people who have trained him in the past—from Kami to King Kai to Roshi himself—have ever focused on teaching him about power alone. And for a brief moment he manages to dodge a few of Jiren’s blows, before getting knocked out of the arena once Jiren gets serious.
2 ULTRA INSTINCT IS DIFFERENT
In the anime, Goku briefly achieves an imperfect form of Ultra Instinct multiple times during the tournament. First it comes when he’s struck with his own Spirit Bomb, his energy zeroes out and he gets in touch with his inner mind. Later it’s how he battles against and defeats the Kefla. In the manga however, he only activates it's imperfect form once before achieving the perfect form the second time. It’s believed to be the ultimate end of Goku’s training from some of the best trainers on Earth and in the universe. His body slims down like Super Saiyan God form, and he can only use it briefly, but it’s long enough to put Jiren down.
1 SPIRIT CONTROL
The latest arc of Dragon Ball Super manga is introducing a new way of battle to the series. For one thing, the latest villain is able to drain energy so quickly that Goku and Vegeta both aren’t able to maintain their Super Saiyan Blue forms, and has even drained Goku so dry once he wasn’t able to use Instant Transmission. As of the most recent chapter, Vegeta has traveled to the planet Yardrat to learn some of their moves to become more effective against this new villain, the mystic monster Moro. These moves don’t seem to be based on power, but manipulating one’s ki in other ways.