Although the Dragon Ball Super anime may still be off-air, the Dragon Ball Super manga has been plugging away as a monthly release since it began serialization half a decade ago. Following the end of the Tournament of Power, the manga skipped adapting Broly in favor of setting the foundation for a new saga: the Moro arc.
With Goku and Vegeta back on Earth to save the day, the Moro arc seems to be wrapping up– but the quality hasn’t been consistent. While the Moro arc has some of the manga’s best fights, Dragon Ball Super’s latest saga has been dropping the ball in recent chapters.
10 Best: Moro Versus Vegeta (Round 1)
The Moro arc has arguably had the strongest opening of any story arc in Dragon Ball Super thus far (Future Trunks’ reappearance notwithstanding.) There was genuinely intrigue building around Moro, an ancient warlock imprisoned for years. Vegeta gets to fight Moro before Goku, but instead of serving as a test-run for the main character, Vegeta’s first fight with Moro formed a connection between the two characters.
For all intents and purposes, Moro is Vegeta’s villain. It’s really no coincidence that Vegeta is the first character Moro fights. Unaware of the extent of Moro’s abilities, Vegeta goes through multiple phases of Super Saiyan during his fight– it’s a nice spectacle but one that comes back to bite Vegeta in no time.
9 Worst: Earth Versus Galactic Patrol Prisoners
Moro’s most recent touchdown on Earth finally saw most of the supporting cast join the fight, and while it’s been nice to see some familiar faces again since Tournament of Power, the fight between Earth and the Galactic Patrol Prisoners only got worse with time. It actually starts off with a bang, weaving characters like Krillin, Yamcha, Tenshinhan, & Chaozu back into the action.
By the time Goku starts trying to teleport to Earth, however, things start to turn sour. The fight choreography takes a dive, focus starts to get scattered, and the battle never reaches a proper resolution since Goku picks up the pieces before it’s even over.
8 Best: Merus Versus Moro
Merus might not be an active player in the Moro arc anymore, but he was being built up as quite an important figure. He’s introduced significantly faster than either Goku or Vegeta, and only goes on to become more intriguing. Merus is arguably at its best during the final fight with Moro on Namek, taking control from Goku, Vegeta, & Dai Kaioshin.
Albeit a brief scuffle, Merus’ puts his speed and blaster against Moro, resulting in some satisfyingly scattershot choreography. In hindsight, it seems Merus wasn’t using his Angel abilities in the battle, but a quick trigger was more than enough for him to go head to head with Moro.
7 Worst: Goku Versus Saganbo
Goku’s fight with Saganbo had a lot of potential, in large part due to the fact that it structurally mirrors some of Goku’s best battles: his arrival fight against Nappa on Earth, and arrival fight against Reacoom on Namek. Both instances warm audiences up to Goku re-entering the action before a major battle.
Saganbo’s fight tries to pull this off, and Moro fueling him with more power is a compelling premise, but watching Goku fight off a brute when we know he can trigger Ultra Instinct at any moment is not that fun. Keep in mind that Goku strategically used Kaioken against Nappa & Reacoom, he didn’t save. Against Saganbo, Goku does nothing special until Saganbo dies from a power overdose.
6 Best: Goku Versus Moro (Rematch)
Unlike Dragon Ball Super: Broly which more than content pretending Ultra Instinct didn’t even exist, the Moro arc has made it a central focus of Goku’s development this saga. Losing alongside Vegeta to Moro, Goku realizes he needs more training– and who better to train him than Merus? Training in a variant of The Room of Spirit and Time, Goku masters Ultra Instinct Sign’s trigger.
Goku’s warm-up against Saganbo is underwhelming, but his Moro rematch set unreasonable expectations for Vegeta’s. Goku ultimately loses (he has yet to trigger MUI,) but his back & forth with Moro is incredible. Toyotaro doesn’t always write Goku well, but he always saves DBS’ action for its lead.
5 Worst: Krillin & Roshi Versus Miza Iwaza Kikaza
This battle is technically a part of the larger fight between the Earthlings and the Galactic Patrol Prisoners, but Krillin & Roshi versus Miza Iwaza Kikaza deserves particular mention for just being downright horrible. A gag that feels out of touch even by Dragon Ball’s standards, Krillin and Roshi are busted by a three-way fusion that wears out its welcome fast.
The two are ultimately helpless, leaving Goku to show up and save the day with a single strike. It’s not often that Resurrection F stands out as a shining example of doing something right, but it knew how to pace the group battle against Frieza much better than the Moro arc has with the Prisoners.
4 Best: Gohan & Piccolo Versus Seven-Three (Round 1)
Before the Moro arc, Gohan’s best bit of action in the Dragon Ball Super manga was his fight against Kefla during the Tournament of Power– a battle that partially happened in the background of its own chapter. That all changed when Gohan showed up to rescue Piccolo from Seven-Three, working in tandem with his master to fight off Moro’s henchman.
Piccolo and Gohan lose, but not due to incompetence. They fight in-sync, showing how deep their martial arts connections go. The fight before Gohan shows up is also worth noting. Seeing Piccolo essentially fight himself makes for some great fight choreography and visual references that actually have their place.
3 Worst: 17 & 18 Versus Moro
Androids 17 and 18 stepping in to fight Moro once Goku loses Ultra Instinct makes for a nice moment, but it’s a poor fight and even worse use of 17 & 18– the former especially considering how much extra attention the Universe Survival arc gave him. As to be expected, 17 and 18 deal no lasting damage to Moro.
It can be argued that this puts into perspective how dire the situation has become, but that kind of already happened when Goku had the Ultra Instinct suddenly beat out of him. If 17 and 18 actually fought Moro for more than a few panels, it might have turned into a solid bout nonetheless, but Vegeta shows up to day right away.
2 Best: Moro Versus Goku, Vegeta, & Dai Kaioshin
It’s easy to forget considering how far gone the story is now, but the Moro arc opened up by focusing on Majin Buu– specifically the Dai Kaioshin who led to Fat Buu’s creation. Majin Buu has since exited the story, but Dai Kaioshin briefly appeared and established some very important context for Moro’s character.
More importantly, he fought alongside Goku & Vegeta in one of the manga’s absolute best fights. Paired together with Merus’ intervention and it’s a contender for Dragon Ball Super’s outright best. Great action paired with great tension in a great setting set Moro up as one of DBS’ best villains. Just a shame about the latest chapter.
1 Worst: Moro Versus Vegeta (Rematch)
Vegeta roughly spent six chapters training on Namek. That’s half a year of real life build up for Vegeta’s rematch with Moro. Considering Goku was fighting first this time around (a rarity,) the hype was higher than ever. Except Vegeta didn’t show off a new form or strategic technique befitting Yardrat. No, he learned spirit punches.
Through Spirit Fission, Vegeta can situationally beat the absorbed souls out of villains. He uses it against Moro in some of Toyotaro’s blandest choreography yet (shocking considering Goku fought Moro in UI just a chapter prior,) nearly winning only to ultimately fail. Worst of all is Piccolo’s speech about Vegeta’s “growth.”