Before I begin, I want to clarify that this isn’t me hating on Dragon Ball Super. It’s hit-and-miss, but the Goku Black Saga is my favorite part of Super.
It was interesting because of Future Trunks and seeing him in a relationship with Mai and an evil Goku. I still haven’t found a good reason why they changed his hair color to blue, but that’s the least of my complaints.
I am concerned about how we went from a force to be reckoned with in Dragon Ball Z and got the boy who looks worse than why he was fighting the androids. Nostalgia, for nostalgia’s sake, isn’t enough for me to forgive the misuse of a character.
Why is Future Trunk’s story important to the series?
I haven’t read the manga version of The History of Trunks, but I have read the version of the Goku Black Saga and watched the anime. And for my sanity and time, I’m focusing on anime and manga.
Future Trunk’s story came when time travel and the butterfly effect were fresh. And it cemented Vegeta’s presence as a reluctant anti-hero.
It’s a tale of redemption, self-discovery, and taking control of one’s destiny. Future Trunks was always meant to be the Savior of the Future.
Unlike most of the Z Fighters, and his current-time counterpart, Future Trunks barely received any training and grew up in a nightmare. His father and most of the Z Fighters died when he was a baby, and the Earth was on borrowed time.
Although he would get some training from Future Gohan and achieve Super Saiyan. Future Trunks spent most of his life hiding and scavenging to survive.
His personality differs from other Saiyans, as he’s usually polite and thinks things through before attacking most occasions. He’s also fought all of the major villains‘ ins Dragon Ball Z in one form or another!
What took Goku several episodes to beat Frieza, Future Trunks did it in one episode! And then he killed King Cold without breaking a sweat.
Future Trunks’ journey is relatable and refreshing. He knows when to admit defeat and isn’t afraid to ask for help.
But the Dragon Ball Z version of Future Trunks is the undisputed hero of his timeline. He defeats the androids, Cell, and helps prevent Majin Boo from resurrecting.
It also should have been where Gohan takes his father’s place and make the story about him. I like Goku, but he’s a different kind of loose canon that the series can live without.
We wouldn’t have had to deal with the Tournament Survival Arc or use Zeno as a cop-out if Goku had stayed dead!
Anime vs. Manga
Anything that has Future Trunks will get me excited. Seeing an evil Goku got me excited. But my first question was, “why is his hair blue?”
Neither version of Dragon Ball Super give us an exact date when Black shows up or how he learned Trunk’s name. But I loved the cat-and-mouse tactics between them as Future Trunks is once again forced to return to the past to get help.
Not having access to good food and a different animation style can attest to the lack of hard-earned muscles Future Trunks is supposed to have. Being a half-Saiyan can explain why he looks like a teenager instead of his twenties.
But nothing excuses that the Goku Black Saga is meant to pull in older fans. And it worked because I enjoyed it.
That anime gave us a lot of cool things to enjoy, like the subtle him with Future Trunk’s Super Saiyan Rage form. Future Trunk’s Super Saiyan Third Grade Form may have inspired Broly’s Super Saiyan transformation!
Future Trunks’ eyes went white, and there was God Ki in his aura. So is Future Trunks the Legendary Super Saiyan of his timeline?
I don’t know, but I prefer the manga’s ending of the Goku Black Saga. Something is terrifying about a continuously multiplying immortal enemy.
Metal Cooler did this first, and maybe a bit better. Because at least the Z Fighters took him down!
Dragon Ball Super gave us an anti-climactic ending with Zeno and a button. I’d love to see Future Trunks return to Super as the hero he’s supposed to be.
But until then, I’ll wait to see what the current timeline Trunks does in the manga.