DRAGON BALL SUPER VOLUME 4

Story by: Akira Toriyama | Art by: Toyotarou

Volume 3 of DRAGON BALL SUPER ended with a defeated Goku and Vegeta returning to the present day, with Trunks left behind in his future to hold off Goku Black. As volume 4 opens, Goku and Vegeta arrive and Bulma quickly explains the facts of interdimensional time travel in the DRAGON BALL world: since Trunks' time machine is "tied" to a parallel future, it is unable to return to the exact moment it left. However long passes in the present while the machine is refueled will also pass for Trunks in his time -- and it'll take a full day for Bulma to charge the machine up again.

Vegeta spends the day training in the Room of Spirit and Time (a.k.a. the "Hyperbolic Time Chamber" in FUNimatin's TV dubs -- a name I've never liked since it makes the place sound more scientific than magical), while Goku goes to Master Roshi to learn the Mafuba technique, an ability Roshi used many years ago against the Demon King Piccolo. Basically Mafuba will seal any evil being away, so long as the proper kanji is somehow applied to whatever vessel the villain is forced into. Since future Zamas is immortal, Goku realizes Mafuba may be the only chance to beat him.

(By the way, I love the callback to the Mafuba technique (known as the "Evil Containment Wave" via FUNimation) -- as I've mentioned before, original DRAGON BALL is my favorite part of the entire DB/Z story, so anything that references it this directly is A-okay by me.)

At this point the manga takes an unexpected turn from the anime, and the story suddenly becomes way more interesting. I mentioned last week that I like this storyline, but I find that the TV version does a better job of presenting it. Perhaps Toriyama and/or Toyotarou realized this or something, because they've now chosen to spice up the manga version with some twists. In this case, it means Kaioshin -- who really doesn't factor heavily into the anime's version of these events -- decides he can't sit by while two Zamases destroy the future. He recruits Zamas's master, Gowas (the Kaioshin of the 10th Universe) and together they travel to the future, rescue Trunks and Mai, and hide out on Kaioshin's planet. But when Zamas and Goku Black decide to wipe out all remaining life on Earth, they realize they have no choice but to return and fight back. They're all nearly killed, but just then Goku and Vegeta arrive once more (with another departure from the anime -- there, Bulma came back with them, as did Trunks, who had never stayed behind in the first place).

While Goku tries out Mafuba on Zamas, Vegeta battles Goku Black. In another departure from the anime, here Vegeta uses the Super Saiyan God form, rather than Super Saiyan Blue, for the fight. (Vegeta was never once shown in Super Saiyan God in the show; he went straight to Blue and only ever used that form). Meanwhile, Goku succeeds at trapping Zamas in an urn, but realizes he didn't bring Roshi's kanji scroll with him to the future, and the villain breaks free. This is another departure from the TV version on two levels -- there, Trunks performs Mafuba and Goku simply forgets the scroll. Here, it's Goku who does the technique as planned, but he brings another piece of paper by mistake.

Realizing they're on the ropes, Goku Black and Zamas execute their last-ditch maneuver and fuse into one being. This prompts Goku and Vegeta to fuse as well, and allows Toriyama to ret-con some facts he had previously established in the Boo Saga: namely that when two individuals fuse by way of the Potara earrings, if they're mortals, the fusion will only last for an hour. Previously, the fusion has been considered permanent and loopholes had to be found to de-fuse two characters who had undergone the union.

But in any case, the power of Super Saiyan Blue accelerates the fusion countdown even more, and Goku and Vegeta soon return to normal. Kaioshin laments the fact that his apprentice, Kibito, isn't present, as the person in that role possesses special healing powers. Trunks reveals that he was apprenticed to Kaioshin in his timeline, and learns that he has healing powers he never knew of -- but he possesses only enough energy to restore one of the other Saiyans to full power. Vegeta tells him to use the power on Goku, and Trunks does. The volume ends with Goku mastering the Super Saiyan Blue form and becoming an even match for Zamas.

Pretty much everything you just read plays out differently in the anime. As noted up top, for one thing Bulma comes to the future with Goku and Vegeta. For another -- and also mentioned above -- Trunks uses mafuba on Zamas (which I actually prefer, as it gives him more of an active role in the fight than the manga presents). And there's no fusion of Goku and Vegeta to be seen on the TV screen. My recollection of the anime is that it's Trunks who finally defeats the fused Zamas in the end, by discovering yet another offshoot of the Super Saiyan form. But at this point, since the manga has diverged so wildly from the anime, it's anybody's guess as to what will happen next!

(Well, anybody who hasn't already read these books, I mean.)

Next week, the battle for Trunks' future finally comes to an end in DRAGON BALL SUPER volume 5.