Dragon Ball Super: Resurrection 'F' Arc (Episodes 15 - 27)

...otherwise known as the Golden Frieza Saga. And boy, this is probably far, far more divisive than the Battle of Gods arc, and it's easy to say why. While the Super version of Battle of Gods mostly just added extra flavour and character development scenes and left the main essence of the movie's script untouched (Beerus using 100% of his power aside), the Dragon Ball Super adaptation of the Resurrection F movie subtracted as much as it added. We'll do a bit of a different format, talking about individual chunks of episodes instead of dissecting different factors.

Again, the broad strokes of the story remains relatively unmolested, but the execution is pretty haphazard. Indeed, the strongest part of Super's adaptation of the Resurrection F arc actually isn't the Golden Frieza fights themselves, but rather episodes 15-18, which, for the most part, are brand-new scenes that extrapolates on the timeskip between the Battle of Gods and Resurrection F movies, as well as the early 'buildup' that involves Goku and Vegeta's training with Whis and the Frieza army going around resurrecting Frieza. A good chunk of it is all original stuff, and it's easily the best parts of this adaptation.

Episodes 15-18: In-Between Episodes
Episode 15 is mostly just fluff revolving around Mr. Satan dealing with alien ambassadors from space who are afraid of dogs, and it's... it's harmless enough that I enjoyed myself when watching it, but I won't shed any tears if they nixed the entire episode entirely. Honestly it really seems to be more of a setup to give some time between the Battle of Gods ending and Videl giving birth to Pan. Episode 16 is perhaps my favourite, which mainly involves Whis and Bulma going around eating food (Bulma's trying to sucker up to Whis and guarantee a safety net should Beerus go crazy again), which leads to Vegeta's absolutely hilarious attempts to get Whis to train him. It's a pretty fun episode that also highlights how Whis is slowly befriending members of our cast, and Vegeta's tomfoolery works very well because it's in the name of him getting a trainer to get stronger. Oh, and the fact that Vegeta gets Whis to eat cup ramen and think it's the best food in the world is just HILARIOUS.

We also get a great Goku character arc that runs throughout these episodes, which builds up on the tractor scenes we saw in the first two episodes of Dragon Ball Super, which is his difficulty in balancing the civilian life that Chichi wants (partly it's because Chichi's a bit of a strawman character, but at least this time her wanting Goku to mature and set a great example for their first grandchild is believable enough). Goku sneaks out and trains every now and then, or participates in Satan's tournaments, but he's honestly content to actually obey Chichi. We also get a very, very powerful scene where Krillin, having retired from fighting, tries to get Goku to punch him once to see just how much they had grown -- and the brief flashback to their kid versions all the way back from Dragon Ball (sans Z) where they were actual equals at one point... yeah. Krillin's melancholic acceptance that he simply can't catch up with Goku, who has the powers of a literal god two episodes ago, is pretty sad, but the little guy's gotten a pretty amazing happy ending of his own, and his acceptance of being a loving husband to Android 18 and a daddy to little Maron is pretty endearing. Oh, and he's also a cop now.

The best addition in Super has to be Piccolo checking if anyone is looking before playing peekaboo with little pseudo-granddaughter Pan. That is precious.


We then get episode 17, which is... another filler-y one, but one that I didn't mind all that much either. It builds up on Goku's character, while Chichi barricades herself in a room with Videl and baby Pan after realizing that Gohan and Mr. Satan are essentially as bad as Goku in building up an environment where Pan would end up being a martial artist. It's very nice to see Gohan muck around with his daughter and father-in-law with that hilarious Saibaman costume, which, in combination to Bulma's talks with Goku, ends up causing Goku to end up buggering off with Whis to train when he realizes that Vegeta is doing so.

Which culminates in episode 18... which is just one huge, huge training montage. We get to see a brief training montage in the Resurrection F movie, but here, showing Goku and Vegeta reaching Beerus's planet and earning Whis's favour and respect, is far more organic in the power-up they received between movies. No, Super Saiyan Blue still comes literally out of nowhere, but here at least we get to see their fantastic training out-of-hell, and putting so much focus on Goku and Vegeta's fantastic training also makes it far more believable for their late arrival in the battle with Frieza. We also get a more organic and subtle foreshadowing of Whis's time-rewinding powers, too.

We also get to briefly see two beings -- a female version of Whis and a fat version of Beerus, going around blowing up planets, who... won't actually be important until after the Golden Frieza arc. Nice to see some foreshadowing, though.

Episodes 19-21: Frieza Returns
And here is where the anime finally starts adapting huge scenes from the movies and... they're serviceable, I suppose. There's really not that much to talk about, considering most of the scenes are near-identical, and I still feel the same way that I do -- Frieza still feels as flat as he does in the movies, a generic angry evil boss overlord, and the only reason he's even impressive is the amount of goodwill and badassery that the fandom associates with him... and at least in Super he gets to pontificate and interact more with his troops. I still don't care about the Pilaf Gang, and I still like the hilarious happy saccharine fairy hell Frieza is stuck in.

Sorbet and Tagoma get a fair amount of adaptational expansion, although they essentially fill the same roles that they do in the movie, they get far more scenes and their dire situation without Frieza is elaborated upon. Having Tagoma make references to the Ginyu Force, Zarbon and Dodoria is a nice touch, and brief scenes between Frieza's forces prior to the big dude's resurrection about just what they expect from bringing Frieza back is also some neat bits of worldbuilding.

Jaco the Space Patrolman's arrival is... still pretty random, out-of-nowhere and his established relationship by being Bulma's friend is still shoehorned in, in my opinion, but the anime actually handles Jaco pretty well. I've always found it really odd that Jaco gets so much screentime in the movie and gets essentially equal billing as Roshi, Krillin, Gohan, Piccolo and Tien. Here the majority of his role is relegated to comic relief as he and Bulma engage in a bit of a boke-tsukkomi routine. He still gets a brief scene of whacking out a couple of Frieza's fodder troopers, but he doesn't actually get an extended scene.

We also get a bit more nods as to just what the rest of the extended cast is doing. Majin Buu's absence was sorely felt in Resurrection F, being the most powerful being outside Goku and Vegeta on Earth. He's just asleep and we acknowledge that. Goten and Trunks, absent in the movie, ends up showing up here as they follow the adults (who understandably leave them behind), and gets a brief action scene as Gotenks before being forced to retreat thanks to their time running out.

And where the anime finally drops the ball is... the huge, huge drop in animation quality. While Battle of Gods felt more of a 'well, it can't be helped, the budget was a bit less, so it's a shoddier-animated fight than the movie', with Resurrection F it felt like a huge 'why can't we have these be delayed for a couple more weeks to make the animations pretty?' The animation drop is particularly bad when we actually get to Goku-vs-Frieza later on, but even here when we get the Z-Warriors facing off against Frieza's legion of faceless alien mooks it ends up being absolutely disappointing compared to the amazing one we got in Resurrection F. Instead of having Roshi, Krillin, Piccolo, Gohan and Tienshinhan all get dedicated scenes as they draw large swarms to different locations -- and some really iconic moments like Roshi's bulk-up and Kamehameha, Piccolo tossing his turban and cape to the bad guys or Tien's gigantic Shin Kikohou... it's just kind of an obligatory 'well. This happened' bit and a montage of everyone firing their beam weapons. Hell, neither Roshi or Tien really even do that much. Very disappointing.

At least, though, we do get a lot of great Krillin character development here, which only work this well because of the earlier 'can't catch up' scene he had with Goku. Frieza's relentless mocking of Krillin and putting a bounty on his head, and Krillin subsequently realizing that he can effortlessly dodge and beat up the Frieza troops because he's only weak relative to the monsters like Goku, Vegeta, Beerus or Buu is definitely a pretty cool moment for the little guy.

Gohan almost gets a moment, showing his restraint and how despite his insistence that he has been super-rusty thanks to fatherhood and not actually fighting for a while he held off against Sashimi (who's just a brute with a name) without even any effort... then he gets shot through the gut by Tagoma (who's a brute with a name and some more screentime). Tagoma's... well, somewhat more memorable this time around, as is Sorbet, but they still end up not really getting that many distinct moments... beyond the general irritation of Tagoma seemingly one-shotting Gohan only to be one-shotted by Ginyu in the next episode.

Episode 22-23: GINYU TOKU SENTAI
Episode 22 starts off with Tagoma walking up to poor, poor Piccolo and beating the fuck out of him. Tagoma gets a bit of a bluster talking about how he was used as Frieza's sparring partner, being regenerated endlessly by the regeneration device, which makes him far, far stronger than he has any right to be... and then gets his body hijacked by Captain motherfucking Ginyu, which ends up sort of serving as a filler... but I absolutely loved the Ginyu Toku-sentai Force and having Ginyu show up is pretty hilarious. Of course, they don't actually do anything with the concept of Ginyu being inside Tagoma, and other than a brief montage of ridiculous poses, it ends up feeling like a huge wasted opportunity. Sure, Ginyu beats up the Z-fighters in a very, very bland scene of 'ha ha I won', but in episode 23 when Goku and Vegeta arrives, Ginyu just gets blown up by Vegeta instantly. Honestly a bit of a waste of what could otherwise be a really fun concept and a return.

Not sure if we really needed that long sequence of Goku and Vegeta getting trapped in Whis' pocket dimension (their version of the Room of Time-Space, I think?) although it does sort of justify their lateness.

Gohan is another one that gets really served well by this anime adaptation, although the poor dude gets his ass whupped really bad, doesn't he? After having the hole in his chest restored with a Senzu Bean, Gohan at least gets a badass moment of overpowering Ginyu, but then he just gets fucked up by a very, very angry Frieza (who gets reminded of his defeat in Namek) and... I think I'm actually okay that the anime is recognizing that Gohan has grown really, really rusty despite once having the potential to be as powerful as Goku. Gohan's character development has been leading to this ever since the Buu saga back in DBZ, and having his final power-up be a way to signal his father to instant transmission to Earth is pretty neat, if contrived. It is a very contentious direction to take, though, because the Super adaptation really hammers home how shit Gohan has became between the Cell Saga and the current timeframe, being taken out by Tagoma and tortured to the point that he was absolutely in the peak of despair by Frieza. And I... I really liked Gohan, and I always felt that it was a disservice to Gohan's character that the whole buildup to Gohan-succeeding-Goku that played out in the Frieza and Cell sagas ended up being something that they went back on in order to make Goku the one and only main character in the Buu saga and Super. It's a decently-written scene, but the ramifications it has for Gohan's character doesn't particularly feel needed.

Oh, and Piccolo also dies taking a blow for Gohan. Which ends up not mattering at fucking all because, y'know, Dragon Balls. He literally gets revived off-screen. If done right, this could've definitely raised the stakes, but it's not. Piccolo's dramatic sacrifice felt hollow, and I honestly don't think it's necessary at all.

Oh, and we got a brief moment of Beerus meeting his mysterious doppelganger Champa, who reveals himself to be Beerus's brother. The two don't fight but they part off with some spooooky foreshadowing for the Universe 6 Arc, which we won't really get too much into. Neat to have foreshadowings, though.

Episode 24-27: Goku vs Frieza
And we finally reach the climax of the arc... Goku versus Frieza in his brand-new golden form. And it's... it's honestly so, so disappointing. Even without the comparison with the far-superior movie version, the fight between Goku and Frieza ends up being just so bland and uninteresting, featuring naught but basic punches and kicks and the most generic exchange of beams ever. Add that to the palette for Golden Frieza being not as gloriously golden as it should, and Frieza ends up looking like he should be called piss-coloured Frieza. Stretching the fight over four episodes doesn't work quite as well, and forcing in the Goku-vs-Vegeta argument as a fight that lasts for quite some time is a bit irritating. Again, Super Saiyan Blue and Whis's deus ex machina time-rewinding powers ends up fucking up Frieza's day, although at least this time around those are foreshadowed in earlier episodes. And Super's more jerkass and volatile version of Beerus is far less liable to help out, which admittedly fixes some of the 'there's no real threat' complaints I had with the original movie.

If there's one thing I can praise for the abysmal fight choreography and animation, it's the fact that this time around, Sorbet's sneak attack happens when Goku's all confident and waltzing around not in his Super Saiyan Blue form, but as a regular Saiyan. I never felt that the pistol shot blasting through the god-like Super Saiyan Blue form felt right.

Oh, and Frieza actually lampshades how monumentally dumb and unwieldy the original name of "Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan" was. The rest of Super continues to just refer to the form as "Super Saiyan Blue" and after this handwave, the SSGSS (god, even the acronym is irritating to type) never gets referred to as that again.

Perhaps the only real thing that ends up being well-served in this sequence of episodes is Vegeta, who ends up getting a more defined character arc throughout the training and Golden Frieza arcs, and he gets a properly satisfying resolution to his old backstory with Frieza with his sarcastically long clap, and how the whole payoff 'Vegeta is too serious, Goku is not serious enough' analysis from Whis ends up being far more pronounced. Still, it doesn't really fix the problems that the absolutely atrocious fight (apparently Akira Toriyama actively panned this arc's fight scenes as being disappointing?),  making these last few episodes of Goku fighting Frieza actually far more boring than Vegeta and Bulma taking Whis out for food.

Goku also gets some nice nods to just how brutal and straight-up evil Frieza was, in that he absolutely refuses to acknowledge or even have fun in this fight, something that's an anomaly but definitely understandable considering that Beerus, Buu and even arguably Cell have some sort of honour going on even if they're all gigantic mass murderers. Buu's just dumb, Beerus is literally a god over death and destruction and Cell's a bio-engineered weapon. Frieza's just evil and cruel for evil's sake, and it's nice. Goku ends up, y'know, enjoying it in the second half of the fight which undercuts this point a whole bit, though.

One of my biggest complaints about Resurrection F was about how bland Frieza ends up being, and how he tosses out a couple of obligatory 'rawr I'm evil and a bad boss' hammy villain lines that makes him... just borderline serviceable as an antagonist. Here, whereas the Super version of Beerus and Whis feel expanded (whether you agree with the less fun and more volatile Super version of Beerus), Frieza feels flatter than ever, where the expanded screentime given by the format really should've tried to at least explore his character a bit more. We do get to make Frieza more evil with his killing of Piccolo and torture of Gohan and his threats to Gotenks... but I dunno. It all falls absolutely flat. I guess I do like that his breakdown happens a bit later in the fight instead of almost immediately when Goku matches Golden Form toe-to-toe... but still, it's overall pretty blah.

One praise I have is the destruction of the Earth. It still gets rewinded and it's still pretty much an ass-pull as it was in the movie, foreshadowing notwithstanding, but the way it was executed, with scenes of the fiery explosions of death moving towards the side cast that we have grown to know and love -- Mr Satan and Buu sleeping on the couch, the Briefs hanging out on a patio, and most heartbreakingly Videl and baby Pan -- creates an artificial bit of tension and drama that arbitrarily killing Piccolo off didn't do.

There are some parts of the Golden Frieza Saga that the Super anime improves on (Jaco, Krillin and Gohan are vastly better-represented here; the new training scenes and Ginyu are great) but for the majority of it my feeling about the entire 11 episode saga is exactly the same that I have with the movie -- m'eh ranging to borderline bad. That is what you get for adapting what's already a questionable storyline that didn't work in movie format in the first place (and I didn't really criticize the plot that much in this review because I've done it before) and combine that with the abysmally sub-par animation, audience catharsis and the Resurrection F arc ends up being easily the weakest point in Dragon Ball Super so far.