Dragon Ball Super manga Ch.55-58
What a bunch of grap.
Okay, so last time, Whis went to talk to the Grand Minister about Merus. Turns out Merus is an angel, just like they are, and that’s why he’s been so secretive about his abilities. The problem is that angels are forbidden from taking sides in mortal affairs. They have to be impartial in all things. Beyond this, however, there’s no restrictions on what they can and can’t do. So the Grand Minister allowed Merus to join the Galactic Patrol, since it was a way for him to learn about mortals, but he’s clearly developed a bias from his time with the organization. He hasn’t violated the rule yet, but he’s come extremely close. Whis asks permission to deal with Merus himself, and the Grand Minister allows him to proceed.
So Whis shows up at the end of Merus and Goku’s training, when they’re preparing to fight each other at full power. That’s a bridge too far. Whis has trained Goku himself, obviously, but an actual battle goes against what the angels are supposed to be about. Also, Whis knows that Merus was planning to join the battle against Moro on Earth. With the cat out of the bag, Merus agrees to go with Whis, leaving Goku on his own.
Which would be okay, except Goku has to take Merus’ ship back to Earth, and he doesn’t know how to navigate.
Meanwhile, Vegeta has completed the first stage of his training on Yardrat, and Pybara is ready to show Vegeta how to apply what he’s learned.
But before they can start, Yardrat is attacked by Moro’s scouts, led by a Zarbon knockoff. Vegeta defeats him with ease, and he’s astonished by how much his power has increased, simply from learning how to balance his body and ki in the Yardratti way.
By now, Moro’s henchmen have reached Earth, but Vegeta still refuses to go back there, since he hasn’t learned a technique that will even the odds against Moro. Pybara agrees to skip Instant Transmission and show him something more useful for this situation, but he still doesn’t have much time to work with.
Meanwhile, the Z-Fighters have prepared for Moro’s invasion... just like they did in Resurrection F. This arc is just one callback after another. I can see why fans were so hard on Toyotaro while this thing was being published. Merus seems to be the only original idea in this whole story, and we’ve just learned that he’s been forbidden from interfering, so what good is he?
Oh, and Majin Buu’s still fucking asleep. Keep in mind he fell asleep right before the Tournament of Power started, and didn’t wake up until well into this arc, and then he fell asleep again right after he fought Moro. And now it looks like he’s on track to sleep through the rest of this arc.
So Seven Three goes after Gohan and Piccolo and he uses his copy ability on both of them, so he can match their powers completely. This would seem to negate all the training they did leading up to this battle, except Seven-Three can only use one guy’s power set at a time. So he can be as powerful as Piccolo or Gohan, but he has to fight Piccolo and Gohan at the same time, and they know a bunch of combo attacks that he can’t handle.
So Seven Three uses his trump card, which is to use the powers he copied from Moro, except this time 17 and 18 join the battle, and Seven Three can’t drain their ki because they don’t have any. Well, why doesn’t Seven Three just use Moro’s other abilities? Like how he made his allies stronger, or the way he could beat the shit out of Goku and Vegeta? Moro couldn’t drain Buu’s energy either, but he beat him just fine, so why can’t Seven Three defeat 17 and 18?
Here’s a bonus comic about Frieza’s whole deal during this Moro business. He decides he’s just gonna stay out of this one. I’m so glad we wasted two pages to explain that Frieza’s not going to do anything. Maybe we could have a two page comic about how Yajirobe’s decided to sit this one out. Or a comic about Bulma’s mom staying home to water the plants.
Seriously, fuck this Moro Saga. We started with this whole bit about how Buu was the key to victory, and that went nowhere, then Merus’ dad made him quit the story early, and now Frieza’s just popping in to tell us he doesn’t give a shit. Oh, and Moro keeps holding back because he doesn’t see any of the good guys as a threat, so most of the fighting in this arc has been pointless.
So Moro’s group splits up to loot the Earth of its treasures before Moro consumes its life energy. This means the Z-Fighters have to split up and tackle the henchmen. Yamcha fights some guys, Master Roshi takes on some girl henchmen, and Tien and Chiaotzu get stuck with an Auta Magetta knockoff. His species are vulnerable to insults, but Tien doesn’t know how to dis people, so Chiaotzu does it for him. Excuse me, but Tien was insulting people all the time during the 22nd Budokai. He was a colossal dick back then. Sure, he became all polite and proper, but it’s not like he forgot how to be a raging asshole.
Finally, Moro steps in to handle things himself, and Goku shows up soon after, when he gets close enough to Earth to sense Krillin charging his ki. He prepares to fight Moro, but Moro empowers one of his goons more and more, in order to force Goku to show more of his true power.
So Goku finally obliges by using Ultra Instinct. Specifically, he uses the incomplete version he had when he first discovered the ability. Goku calls this “Ultra Instinct Sign”, like it’s some distinct thing separate from the complete version of UI. That’s like saying half a cup of coffee is the “initial stage” of a full cup of coffee.
The manga has been doing this crap all along, and I think I’m finally getting tired of it. Toyotaro really, really likes showing off all of Goku’s forms, and now there’s so many of them that it’s becoming very cumbersome to go through them all. Super Saiyan 3 and Super Saiyan God pretty much became obsolete once Super Saiyan Blue was available, but Toyotaro seems to feel obligated to cycle through all of them whether it’s justified or not. Likewise, why would Goku ever bother using “Ultra Instinct Sign” when he knows how to use full-on Ultra Instinct? This wasn’t an intermediate power-up, it was Goku discovering a power and not knowing how to use it.
Anyway, we’re about halfway through this arc, and I guess we’re officially in the final battle, so maybe things will get better from here, but I’m not optimistic. Everything that led up to this moment has been a giant waste of time.















