5 Things Dragon Ball Super Does Better Than DBZ (& Vice Versa)

Both Dragon Ball Super and DBZ have their ups and downs, but there are certain ways that each series excels over the other.

Any sequel to a story that finished decades prior is going to run into trouble sooner rather than later. While Dragon Ball Super is far from a perfect follow-up series, it does genuinely improve upon Dragon Ball in ways that needed improving. For every misstep (or three,) there’s a surprising amount of self-awareness and willingness to lean around the corner.

That said, there’s really no denying the sheer quality of Dragon Ball Z. This was the second anime dedicated to adapting one of the greatest battle manga of all time— and while messy, it did do a pretty good job all around. Dragon Ball Z is the better series overall, but Super does outdo it every now and then.

10 SUPER: Female Representation

Akira Toriyama always had a rough time writing women in the original Dragon Ball. Unless their name was Bulma, they weren’t going to be getting any meaningful development. Hell, even poor Bulma ends up shoved to the sidelines sooner rather than later. Even with characters like 18 and Videl in the Boo arc, DBZ ended with a male heavy cast.

Dragon Ball Super thankfully fixes this. For all its problems, the Tournament of Power featured the best gender variety the franchise has seen. Still not perfect, but really, really good for Dragon Ball. Characters like Caulifla do a lot for the franchise, and putting someone like 18 into the active action is a step forward.

9 DBZ: Music

When it comes to music, there’s just no competition between Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super’s score. The latter doesn’t get remotely interesting until the Goku Black arc and the first three arcs feature horrible music. The former is composed by a Shunsuke Kikuchi who had already found the series sound with the original adaptation.

Kikuchi’s compositions are more appropriate, convey better emotion, and are much better placed than Sumitomo’s. This isn’t to say Norihito Sumitomo is doing a bad job— the Tournament of Power and Broly featured amazing scores— but Kikuchi’s compositions are on a completely different level.

8 SUPER: Supporting Cast Is More Present

As Dragon Ball Z progresses, characters slowly weave in and out of the plot. The Saiyan arc really only features Goku, Gohan, and Piccolo as main characters with everyone in the background until the Saiyans show up and kill everyone. Namek is only a key few characters and no one who was revived plays a big role in the Cell arc.

Dragon Ball Super makes an active effort to show characters in each arc, either through slice of life episodes or just by having everyone get together at the beginning or end of the story arc. With this approach, the cast ends up feeling like a more unified group.

7 DBZ: Supporting Cast Is More Relevant

But a unified group isn’t exactly Dragon Ball-esque. Time and time again, the original series shows that these characters lose touch when they’re not actively together. And that’s fine, they all have their own lives and are clearly comfortable with it. This often means that characters aren’t present in DBZ, but why should they be?

This approach keeps the active supporting cast relevant. Why bother writing in a character who can’t or won’t contribute to the main plot? Write them out, acknowledge they exist, and then bring them back whenever. It’s nice that Oolong’s around to party, but no one needs an episode of him playing rock, paper, scissors.

6 SUPER: Pacing

Dragon Ball Z’s fatal flaw has always been, and will always be, its embarrassingly bad pacing. It isn’t as memetically awful as some fans claim, but it’s a series that can be genuinely exhausting to watch at times. Those who have read the manga will likely struggle even more considering how slow paced DBZ is in comparison.

Dragon Ball Super, regardless of medium, is paced with far more mercy than Dragon Ball Z. The Tournament of Power is nonetheless something of a pacing disaster, but that should speak quite a bit about just how bad Dragon Ball Z’s pacing could get at times.

5 DBZ: Fight Choreography

As Dragon Ball Z was an adaptation of a manga penned by none other than Akira Toriyama, the anime would often end up with some of the best fight scenes the medium had ever seen. Toriyama is a master of choreography and almost every battle in Dragon Ball Z showcases his skills as an artist.

Dragon Ball Super just can’t compete even at its best. Even Toriyama’s smallest fights have more impact and weight than Dragon Ball Super’s biggest. There’s more to Vegeta’s fight against Recoom than there is to Goku’s fight against Jiren. It really can’t be stressed just how incredible Dragon Ball Z’s fight choreography is.

4 SUPER: Slice Of Life

There’s really no denying just how good Dragon Ball Super’s slice of life moments are. The character writing is almost always on point and the humor is genuinely hilarious. It could at times get exhausting wading through slice of life episodes until the next story arc hit, but they’re a fantastic inclusion in hindsight.

So rarely does Dragon Ball allow audiences a chance to take a peek at the daily lives of the main cast. These smaller, more intimate moments help in adding depth to the world of Dragon Ball. For many fans, that’s something valuable, allowing them to connect to the franchise on a deeper level.

3 DBZ: Drama

Where Dragon Ball Super excels in slice of life and comedy, Dragon Ball Z excels in pure drama. It tells a much better story with much better weight than its sequel series. All four major story arcs— Saiyan, Freeza, Artificial Humans, Majin Boo— are filled to the brim with cohesive theming, character development, and plenty of plot twists.

Dragon Ball Super stumbles with the Goku Black arc and never makes good dramatic use of the Tournament of Power. Character arcs don’t really feel earned by the end of Super. Dragon Ball Z makes its cast work for their growth, though. Vegeta, Piccolo, and Gohan all have particularly impressive character arcs throughout the course of DBZ.

2 SUPER: Tournament Arcs

Although the Tournament of Power isn’t perfect, that’s more a fault of the Universe Survival arc’s storytelling. The actual tournament features some good action and is fun to read or watch through when jumping around. The Universe 6 Tournament is equally as engaging even if it’s not very high stakes.

Both of these tournaments are far better than Dragon Ball Z’s poor attempts at tournament arcs. The Cell Games is a total sham where only Goku and Gohan fight; the 25th Tenkaichi Budokai is interrupted before it can even get interesting; and the series literally ends during the 28th Tenkaichi Budokai. At least Super completes its tournaments.

1 DBZ: Character Development

To echo an earlier sentiment, Dragon Ball Z simply features better character development than Dragon Ball Super. Gohan, Vegeta, and Piccolo are the clear stand-outs, growing the most overtly from arc to arc, but pretty much every other major character also develops quite a bit over the course of the Z-era.

Goku in particular has a great, understated character arc where he slowly warms up to his Saiyan heritage. Even when the focus leaves Goku, it’s clear that everyone around him is growing with him. Dragon Ball Z is a series driven by its characters. Dragon Ball Super is driven by merchandise potential.