The Dragon Ball franchise came back in a really big way recently. That isn’t to say that the series ever waned in popularity… as what is undoubtedly the most recognizable anime franchise in the entire world, Dragon Ball had permanently supplanted itself into the collective conscience of fans everywhere, leading to countless cosplays of fitness-focused fans trying to replicate Goku’s physique (and, less successfully, his various hairstyles) while online forum members would argue the internet’s oldest debate of whether he could beat Superman in a fight (although lately it’s been One Punch Man’s Saitama that tends to be pi🐻tted against the Super Saiyan).

But it was the recent revival series, Dragon Ball Super, that managed to take the limits of the franchise’s popularity to new and greater heights, much like the lead hero and his quest to go beyond his limits in strength. Combined with a couple of new movies, a new (and visually incredible) fighting game, and a tournament finale that managed to draw hundreds of thousands of South Americans to fill entire streets and stadiums to watch the final showdown live, have led to Dragon Ball retaining its titleꦡ as the king of anime for another couple of decades.

But it wasn’t a flawless comeback: the new series touched a few nerves of longtime fans for some of the liberties it took with the original so🐬urce material, as well as 🐟some other questionable story decisions and occasionally lackluster animation. Some of the show’s biggest offenses have been cataloged below, as well as a few supplementary materials released alongside it.

23 𓄧The Animation 🐭

One would think that Toei Animation would put all the necessary resources into ensuring that their number one property would have the best production values. Instead, much of Super’s run resulted in sever🎐al cut corners and janky frames of animation, a big blunder for a series that thrives on beautifully fluid and blazingly fast fight sce🀅nes.

It wasn’t until the final arc where the show switched to a more stylized look as well as several standout battles. Working on a weekly anime series is understandably tough work, but hopefully Toei can better manage their producꩲtion when the inevitable next series hits.

22 The Worst Movie Adaptati🌃ons

Despite being a direct sequel to Dragon Ball Z, a good chunk of Super’s content was already experienced in a bigger budget form. Prior to the new series, theaters around the world were graced with two new films: Battle of the Gods and Resurrection of F.

Rather than assume that everyone already saw these movies, Super chose to just re-adapt the films into two TV arcs, which are considered massive ꦑdowngrades in comparison due to worse animation, dra𓃲gged-out content and several baffling changes (including Piccolo having to sacrifice his life to save a pathetically weak Gohan from Frieza’s attack).

21 Gohꩵan Is A Joke (Until The End)

Speaking of whom, the young prodigy who was once billed as Goku’s successor (and at one point, even stronger than his father), Gohan became progressively weaker with every 🐓new appearance. While it is understandable that he chose the life of a famil🌱y man over endless brawling, his humiliating defeat by Frieza left many longtime fans angry over the treatment of the character.

Thankfully, Gohan finally achieved much of the power he lost by training for the Tournament of Power.

Hopefully, he won’t fall back to retirement now that the latest threat has pass🐓ed.

20 Tien Is A Joke (All The Time) ও

Dragon Ball has long been criticized for undeꦿr-utilizing (if no෴t outright ignoring) many of its older characters in favor of adding more Super Saiyans with each new arc. Tien, who devotes himself to training every single day, is one such character who is routinely tossed aside whenever the newest threat emerges.

With many other characters getting a chance at the spotlight with the Tournament of Power, there was hope that Tien would finally get brought back to relevant status. Instead, he is once again dispatched uncerem💧oniously, his only accomplishment resulting in aꩵ draw come tournament time.

19 Goten And Trunks Are Usele⛎ss

Much like Gohan, Goku’s second child and Vegeta’s only son were billed as the next generation of Super Saiyans, able to reach the same heights of pow൩er their fathers did at a fraction of the time.🌳 And again like Gohan, they have both been tossed to the wayside and are rarely even given a chance to participate in any of the major conflicts.

The few times they did participate didn’t amount to much either. The most embarrassing moment🦹 was when the two fused into Gotenks against an alien copy of Vegeta, unable to land๊ a single damaging hit.

18 🍸 Android 17 Got Stronger Fi✨ghting Poachers

With the Tournament of Power bringing back a lot of old characters, it meant that tꦅhe writers had to come up with contrived explanations for each character’s power-up, since the tournament would bring together the strongest opponents from each universe.

No explanation was more ridiculous than Android 17’s, who demonstrated that he had gotten so strong as to be able to fight Goku to a draw. His training regimen? Fighting poachers who would try to hunt the animals he swore to protectꦍ. It seems beating up regular human poachers is enough to grant someone the power of a god. Who knew?

17 Roshi Was Holding Back 🐻

On second thought, this one might be even more ridiculous due to its implications. During an episode where Master Roshi was mind-controlled, Goku remarked that he was able to face his former te😼acher at full strength, implying that the turtle hermit was holding back his tr💞ue power this whole time.

If Roshi was truly th✤is strong, then where was he during previous threats to the world, including Raditz, Vegeta, Frieza, and Cell?

Many casualties could have been avoided if he was able to lend a hand.

Per🍒haps he was simply t𝔉oo lazy and would rather sit home watching his exercise tapes…

16 ♍ Jiren Is Stronger Than Time 🐼

Even by Dragon Ball standards, Jiren was ridiculous; the soft-spoken ultra-muscular alien was the big♈gest threat in the Tournament of Power, displaying all sorts of incredible feats just through his sheer strength alone.

But even power-level fans had to throw their hands up in protest when Jiren was able to break free of Hit’s attack, which trapped him in a time💞 net. Even students who slept in physics class could tell you that time is a concept and not something that could be physically punched, but that didn’t stop the hulking alien anyway.

15 The Goku Black ꦬArc Makes No Sense 🔜

🍸The Goku Black arc was where a lot of lapsed fans turned around, praising the unique new villain as well as bringing back Future Trunks to the series.

But nearly everyone can agree that the actual plotಌ itself is an incoherent mess. Not simply content with saying that Goku Black was merely a time-traveler, the show went to ridiculous lengths to try and explain the numerous timelines the villain interfered with. Diligent fans even tried creating a multi-timeline chart that ultimately proved that there were too many inconsistencies and plot holes for it to work.

14 The Go🌠ꦬku Black Ending Destroyed Trunks’ World

On a further note, the climax of the Goku Black arc was surprisingly more tragic than normal for the series. In a last-ditch show of defiance, Goku Black became an unending entity that eliminated all remaining life o𝓰n Trunks’ world, resulting in Zen-Oh erasing the entire universe altogether.

As the only survivors, Trunks and Mai were forced to move to another timeline, one where a Trunks and Mai already existed, leaving them to live there asꦰ nomads separate from society. Couldn’t they just, you know…use the Dragon Balls instead?