Though powerful, it has a time limit, which prevented the original Super Saiyan God from stopping the evil Saiyans (resulting in him and the other good Saiyans getting “erased from history”), and in the film Goku’s transformation runs out midway through his fight...but he keeps on trucking all the same.
In a lot of ways, Super Saiyan God is a much bigger departure from prior Dragon Ball gods than even Beerus. Throughout the series, being a god has mainly been shown to be a job. Somebody is born an Earthling/Namekian/fruit person/etc., and only becomes a god when they inherit a position in the divine hierarchy, either by being personally selected by the current position holder or (as Toriyama explains in guidebooks) a divine lottery. There seems to be a certain amount of training involved, since they don’t want anyone who isn’t good or strong enough for the role, but overall that’s it. A bit banal, but again, Toriyama likes gods who aren’t too different from regular folks. This setup even seems to be the case with the God of Destruction: near the end of Battle of Gods, it turns out Beerus’ attendant Whis is also his martial arts master, and Whis offers Goku the role of God of Destruction once Beerus dies. The implication is that Whis likewise originally selected Beerus for the role, and trained him for it.
But Super Saiyan God isn’t a job, it’s a transformation. Getting the energy of five other righteous Saiyans causes Goku to become a god, and when the time limit runs out, he stops being a god and goes back to being a regular Saiyan. Contrast this with (for instance) Dende, who takes over as God of Earth when the old one recombines with Piccolo, and simply is the God of Earth from then on, and will be until he passes the role to someone else. Going along with this notion of transforming into a god is the new idea that gods have a special kind of ki energy, one that’s of a higher quality and “clear,” making it impossible for non-gods to sense. It’s this special ki that allows Beerus to suddenly show up unexpectedly (as opposed to when someone like Freeza swings by Earth and everyone senses him coming an hour in advance), and Goku apparently gets it as a Super Saiyan God. But it’s a bit hard to square this idea of “god ki” with the main series, where Goku spends a lot of time around gods but never seems to notice their special ki. Maybe only Beerus and Super Saiyan God have it, but if so, why? Obviously it’s not the first time Toriyama’s on-the-fly writing style has created discrepancies, but it does underline how the concept of Super Saiyan God seems to define godhood as a state of being, in contrast to almost everything else in the series.
“Almost everything else in the series”…so far. We still know virtually nothing about the upcoming 2015 DBZ movie, but Toriyama has said it will be a continuation of Battle of Gods, and early teasers mention a battle of “godly dimensions.”
So more gods may be on the horizon. Certainly, Battle of Gods itself ends with the revelation that everything we’ve seen of the Dragon Ball world so far is just one universe out of twelve, with the implication that these other universes contain their own gods. The door’s wide open for new pages in the Dragon Ball bible. Maybe future gods will be more like Super Saiyan God, transformations rather than people simply holding a divine job title. Maybe we’ll get a truly evil god for the Z-Warriors to face. Maybe it’ll be something far stranger than anything we could possibly predict ahead of time.
God only knows.
Jake (“Herms”) provides research and translations for Kanzenshuu.
The Unexpected Dragon Ball Prequel
By Mike LaBrie
There were already hints that Akira Toriyama’s new short series, Jaco the Galactic Patrolman, would have some sort of connection with Dragon Ball before it even launched. Comments from the author told us to scale back our expectations, but there was no denying the excitement.
Simply having a consistent new series from Akira Toriyama should have been exciting enough, but did the story’s conclusion bring enough to the Dragon World?
Jaco the Galactic Patrolman tells the story of Jaco, a “Super Elite” member of the 38-member patrol force overseen by a galactic king. After being distracted, Jaco crash lands on Earth on an island inhabited by Omori, an old man with a somewhat-mysterious past.
It seems that Omori lost his wife in an accident that involved some sort of time machine, and the government is now looking to take the island back from him. When they run into a young girl named Tights, everyone’s fates become intertwined with more mystery, intrigue, and explosions, along with a good mix of posing and deadpan humor.
Jaco the Galatic Patrolman looks and feels like an Akira Toriyama work through-and-through, which means it has all the incomprehensible magic along with the expected pitfalls.
The overall style fits in with Toriyama’s “modern” art: lots of short/thin characters, some shading now that he has fully moved to digital, and the occasional great-looking action shot.
The various side characters all have the standard Toriyama charm, but none of them particularly stand out in terms of memorable design. Even recurring characters such as Katayude are so basic as to be pretty indistinguishable from any other random character. Being standard “human” characters adds to this, but as recent as 2010’s Kintoki, some of the henchman at least stood out a little bit.
Jaco is easily the most interesting character to look at, which seems odd considering his flat features. This is likely why Toriyama has him striking poses so often, and while he only barely ever smiles, we do occasionally get some great facial expressions.
Considering her family, it is no surprise to see Tights go through several great wardrobe changes throughout the short series. She seems to accessorize quite well between her head-wear, necklaces, and coats!
With Jaco never changing his (naked?!) appearance, it is great to see Toriyama give Tights and even Omori (with his scarf, proper city clothes, etc.) a little extra attention-to-detail. Omori in particular is drawn very intricately with expressive wrinkles and heavy eyes.
Jaco has a few stand-out panels, but it does feel like a severely-and-perhaps-over-polished final product. The characters carry it far more than its art, and thankfully they are a pretty fun group to be around.
Toriyama set the stage a little bit with his comment for the first chapter, noting that, “...the content has a bit of a dated feel, but if you read to the end, you’ll understand why.”
So what does “dated” mean? Does it refer to his older Dr. Slump writing style with a looser story and jokes driving the dialog? Does it refer to the timeframe of the story, and therefore fuel the flames of Dragon Ball tie-in anticipation? Well, it turns out it is a little of both.
Many fans have noted that while Jaco does indeed sprinkle the jokes, it is not quite as dense as Dr. Slump was. That is a fair assessment, but to me, it felt appropriate for what Jaco was trying to do. It was not a straight-up comedy, but it was certainly not a straight-up action series. Then again, does that mean Jaco has a bit of an identity crisis? Toriyama is—self-admittedly—not particularly one for deep stories. In an English-language exclusive comment printed alongside the first chapter, Toriyama flat-out stated, “Unfortunately, this series won’t have much flashy action like Dragon Ball did. But that doesn’t mean it will have a beautifully deep plot either. Light, goofy and happy! That’s what my manga is all about.”
So yes, Jaco walks the line between Toriyama’s two most famous series, but in the process does manage to carve out a bit of its own identity. You can feel the fun that Toriyama is having with the series, something we are treated to not nearly often enough.
The world of Jaco feels real and fully imagined. As with Dragon Ball, it is definitely “Earth” but it is hard to pin a point in the “real world” that it might take place; of course, the way the story wraps up explains that pretty well enough.
Jaco himself is very reminiscent of the titular Neko Majin characters: mostly self-centered, occasionally oblivious to his surroundings, insanely strong, and a blunt, funny straight-man to a (generally) non-existent sidekick. He is a wonderful new addition to the world, and it is hard to imagine a pantheon of T
oriyama characters without him!
Jaco has a little bit of everything: action, comedy, and drama. Despite the underlying story being about the fate of the world, it ends up being a pretty endearing personal tale with a fun trio of characters.
It cannot be overstated that Akira Toriyama wrote a Dragon Ball prequel. Taken on its own, Jaco is one thing, but understanding how it fits into the larger Dragon World has its own implications. Fans may take issue with aspects that appear to contradict “common knowledge” about how, for example, certain characters should look or appear for their age, but it is equally important to note that pretty much nothing shown in Jaco—including “Dragon Ball Minus”—directly contradicts anything that Toriyama himself personally wrote or drew in the Dragon Ball comic. If you want Jaco to fit in, it sure can, and does a pretty gosh darn great job at it.
Those looking for a Toriyama story—and know what to expect from one—are in for a treat. As our own Julian noted back on our podcast review of the series, Jaco’s greatest accomplishment is also his greatest failure: by missing his opportunity to complete his mission, he inadvertently saves the world. This almost-anticlimactic bit of resolution and humor is Toriyama to a tee.
Jaco is not
DB30YEARS: Special Dragon Ball 30th Anniversary Magazine Page 16