The Dragon Ball franchise spans decades. There have been manga, anime, movies, and video games. The franchise has only increased in popularity, with the video game Dragon Ball FighterZ proving to be a huge success.
The massive popularity of Dragon Ball Super has spawned a spin-off movie and an entire production studio. Yet, Dragon Ball Super quite often fails to make a whole lot of sense.
Despite its obvious longevity, there are lots of flaws to this popular series, from awful anime art that only seems to have gotten worse over the years to the heroes’ occasional poor life choices.
Of course, because the internet is a thing, any time that one of these mistakes is noticed by a fan of the series, it immediately becomes immortalized in meme form. These memes just may change how you watch this popular series.
From Goku’s shirt strength to Vegeta’s left arm, here are the 20 Memes That Show Dragon Ball Super Makes No Sense.
Is MS Paint Even A Thing Anymore?
Dragon Ball is a very long-running series that is adored by its many fans.
However, with the newest show, Dragon Ball Super, it’s become obvious to fans that the show’s art can be… lacking, for lack of better word, from time to time.
Characters will occasionally not look at all like themselves. Maybe fingers or toes are drawn backward, and occasionally entire facial expressions have failed to be drawn in.
This may sound difficult to comprehend. After all, how could a major series allow scenes to be broadcast that look like they were drawn by children? Well, that may not be the animators’ fault at all.
It’s a fairly well-known fact that the working environment for anime artists is a rough one. They have long hours and short turn-around. It is said that many work both day and night without any sort of break whatsoever.
Unlike many American companies, a degree or even work experience isn’t often necessary to work in the anime industry in Japan. Many workers are hired very young and with no actual experience in the industry.
This is relatively evened out by the fact that these artists don’t actually make a lot of money when they first begin working. That only comes with time and once they’ve earned experience. According to some, an actual living wage isn’t likely for an anime artist who is just starting out.
The Difference Between Cartoons And Anime
Some think that anime, like many cartoons, is meant for children. However, there are some very, very dark storylines in many anime franchises. Of course, there are some cartoons that are not actually meant for children, but most, especially those in the US, are designed for kids or are available in order to provide a family-friendly experience.
Anime seems to focus more on good stories, regardless of the age market, but this tends to mean that these series are geared at a more mature audience.
This meme playfully points out the difference between the way that characters are presented across the two mediums. In the top photo, Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails, and Knuckles are depicted in a rounded art style, with large eyes and bright colors. Even in times of distress, the show is designed in a way that is welcoming to children.
The bottom photo features the Trio De Dangers– wolf siblings from Universe 9 who bear a passing resemblance to the three Sonic characters. The wolves are lean, mean, and full of muscles. They also have suspicious looking eyes.
This is definitely a departure from the calm and friendly aesthetic of the cartoon photo. Of course, the Trio De Dangers are also preparing to fight in a tournament designed to pick off all but one universe.
With that much on the line, you can’t blame them for looking stressed out and serious.
The Secret To Goku’s Strength
What is it about superheroes and taking off their shirts? Thor is constantly sans shirt. Captain America’s big reveal as a Super Soldier was without a shirt.
Even the manic Sega Genesis game Altered Beast features two men whose shirts begin to fall apart as their muscles start to bulge, eventually ripping right through the tattered remains of their clothing.
Well, as it turns out, Goku is no different.
In many of DragonBall’s series throughout the years, Goku is constantly shown becoming stronger when he, too, loses his own shirt. A Reddit thread posted last year pointed out this particular trope.
It seems that no matter how badly Goku may be losing, and no matter the formation he may be in at the time, he doesn’t actually begin to win the fight until his shirt has been completely and utterly destroyed.
The poster joked that perhaps Goku’s shirt was actually cursed and prevented him from tapping into his powers until it was ruined, finally freeing him to fight.
Other commenters furthered the theory, pointing out how this idea would apply to other characters across the series. Others joked that the shirt was merely Goku’s favorite and that he did not react peacefully to losing his favorite piece of attire.
How Did The Art Get Worse?
Art is supposed to improve over time. With experience comes success and growth. However, that’s not how Dragon Ball seems to be working out. This meme shows the difference between Super Saiyan Goku all the way back in 1995 and then again ten years later in 2015.
In the first photo, Goku has defined muscles, tattered clothing, and a very, very angry facial expression. The bottom photo, meanwhile, isn’t quite so well defined.
Goku’s clothes look no different, his muscles are barely noticeable, and his face doesn’t resemble his 1995 face at all. Also, of course, there doesn’t even really seem to be a background featured in the bottom photo.
It seems like part of the explanation for the varied look of these iconic characters is that there are many different animators who work on any given character from episode to episode. They don’t always recreate these characters in the same way, which helps to create the wide variety that ends up being depicted onscreen.
There’s also the issue of shortened turn-around time in more recent years and younger animators being handed the reins. All of this adds up to wildly different versions of a single character from one episode to the next– and sometimes a little bit of a drop in art quality.
Street Smarts
Goku uses fighting to solve most of his problems it would seem. It’s even his go-to parenting style. At one point, he attempting to use a fight to provide Frieza with some common sense (which is ironic, considering that Goku doesn’t even know what marriage is).
Of course, this isn’t how that sort of thing works, but would Goku actually take the time to realize that?
Well, Goku was certainly given the ability to realize that his teaching methods are seriously lacking when he ended up at the receiving end of some tough love. Okay, you can’t really say that Frieza loves Goku, but Goku surely did not appreciate being on the other end of an angry punch.
Goku won in his face-off with Frieza in the end, however, thanks to some help from Vegeta.
Making things even more interesting is the fact that Frieza was sort of reformed throughout Dragon Ball Super. Originally a villain, by the end of the series, Frieza promises to reform his evil ways.
It’s probably safe to assume that this had nothing to do with Goku’s flurries of punches. Fans will be able to learn more about Frieza in the Dragon Ball Super movie.
Crossovers Between Two Anime
People like to poke fun at some anime characters, claiming that all anime protagonists look the same. The same has been said of Disney princesses, with their faces being interchanged with each other’s hair to prove the point.
Well, this meme wants fans of Dragon Ball Super to know that even anime dragons can be interchangeable– at least to a certain degree.
The above photo playfully points out that Dragon Ball Super and Yu-Gi-Oh have a few dragons that look awfully similar, and one of them is Yu-Gi-Oh’s most iconic dragon card.
The Super Shenron, which is summoned by Whis and again by the Grand Master during the course of Dragon Ball Super, is being compared to Blue Eyes White Dragon and Curse Of Dragon.
According to this meme, if you combine those two Yu-Gi-Oh dragons, you end up with a result a lot like Super Shenron. Interestingly enough, Yu-Gi-Oh actually did gather a little bit of inspiration from the Dragon Ball franchise for one of its cards.
The design for the card was based on Future Trunks and was commissioned for a child through the Make-a-Wish Foundation, so it’s not exactly as though they were attempting to just rip off Dragon Ball. The card is titled Tyler The Great Warrior and features a formidable attack level.
Vegeta’s Possible Longterm Injury
This meme takes notice of the constant pain that Vegeta seems to be in due to his left arm. Does he have a chronic injury that is constantly being made worse through his fights? Does he have really bad luck and just keeps landing on that one side of his body? Does he have a bad habit of skipping arm day?
Vegeta’s arm becomes injured seemingly at random and without him ever actually being attacked in the arm itself. It seems as though he can even be punched in the face, but still stand up and hold his arm as if it were in pain. What exactly is going on here?
Well, some fans have a theory– or several– about why Vegeta’s left arm seems to be in a constant state of distress.
According to more than a few fan theories, Vegeta’s arm never fully healed after a savage fight against Android 18. Some have suggested that perhaps the arm became dislocated during the fight.
However, some fans have pointed out that Vegeta is not the only character who seems to suffer from injuries to his left arm. Gohan, Future Gohan, and Piccolo were all used as examples of characters who had their arms badly injured.
Destroy All Humans
This meme does point out a major flaw, to be sure, but it’s also a well-known trope in science fiction.
The alien type creature, or robot, discovers humanity. At some point, something goes wrong and the non-human realizes that human beings are violent creatures who cause a lot of harm to one another.
From there, the inhuman visitor decides that all of humanity must be erased due to their violent nature. This, in a nutshell, is what Zamasu attempted to do in the Dragon Ball series.
There are many, many examples of a non-human entity turning on humanity in pop culture. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ultron attempted to take out the world when he realized that people were the ones who were inflicting pain on each other.
The Day The Earth Stood Still sees an alien land on Earth to inform the human race that they will be wiped out if they do not choose to live peacefully. Even Buffy the Vampire Slayer explored this trope when Willow decided to take out the entire planet while grieving the loss of Tara.
In most cases, the would-be destroyer of worlds comes to realize that people are also pretty emotional and supportive, which often puts an end to their dangerous crusade.
A Game Of Cat And Mouse
Beerus and Quitela have a fair bit in common. They are both Gods of Destruction, they both love to eat, and they are both pretty lazy at times. However, this little mouse god has a lot in common with another cartoon mouse, who is also very, very manipulative– Jerry.
Quitela will stop at nothing to ensure his own victory, and he doesn’t care how many rules he has to break in order to do it. Beerus and Quitela were rivals, which makes sense, considering their animal forms. The mouse was constantly trying to undermine the cat god.
Though, to be fair, some of Quitela’s hatred toward Beerus stemmed from the time that Beerus angered basically the entire God community by falling asleep and causing a tournament to be canceled. So Quitela wasn’t the only one to become angry at Beerus for this.
Tom and Jerry had a similar dynamic to Beerus and Quitela. The little brown mouse was constantly coming up with all sorts of elaborate ways to fend off that big, grey cat.
Despite the fact Tom was likely going to eat Jerry, it was hard not to emphasize with the frustrated kitty. Eating mice is just what cartoon cats do. Tom put up with all sorts of harassment in his quest to just be a normal cat.
The Way To A God’s Heart Is Through His Stomach
Beerus is a vengeful god who loses his temper frequently and seemingly at random. Fortunately, there is one very simple way to put Beerus at ease: give him some food to eat.
Extra points are rewarded if the food is something that Beerus has never tried before. This God of Destruction is a foodie himself and holds his cuisine to very high standards.
However, this only helps him to become more enthused when he is presented with a dish that garners his favor. His penchant for good food has caused him to look down on his brother, Champa, for preferring sweet foods.
Krillin was originally portrayed as sort of selfish and refusing to conform to rules. He has also been said to be weaker than other Saiyans. Though, over time, he has grown quite powerful.
Still, Krillin isn’t usually one of the strongest in battle, as he is frequently shown up by his teammates. He is occasionally considered to be an underdog, though fans appreciate him for his personality.
Howeer, at one point he offered an angry Beerus a plate of spaghetti, which we can say, without a shadow of a doubt, saved the world.
Comparisons To Supervillain Icons
Belmod may look like a clown, but that’s about as far as his similarities to the Joker actually extend. The Joker loves chaos, and enjoys causing fear and panic. He’s a bad guy and he revels in it. Belmod, on the other hand, is actually a peaceful god who is faithful to his strong morals.
Belmod is the God of Destruction of Universe 11, but he doesn’t enjoy the job as much as other Gods of Destruction seem to.
He isn’t without his flaws, however. Belmod has been known to get the women of whichever planet he’s planning to destroy to wait on him hand and foot. This is quite creepy, and dare we say, not unlike something that the Joker might do.
Marcarita is an angel who serves the gods Khai and Belmod. Much like Harley Quinn, she isn’t afraid to tell her bosses off when she thinks that they are making bad decisions.
The big difference between the two, though, is that Marcarita is very polite, while Harley probably doesn’t care whose feelings she hurts, as she’s just around to have fun and wreak mayhem.
Despite a few differences in personality, it’s easy to see where this meme comes from. Belmod and Marcarita look a lot like the Joker and Harley. Marcarita black clothes and pigtails look very similar to Harley’s attire, while Belmod’s clown makeup looks a lot like the Joker’s.
Like Father Like Sons
For some strange reasons, many of the Dragon Ball series have all begun the same way: with someone falling from a high cliff.
Goku may be a hero in the show, with a love of training and eating cake, but he wasn’t always that way. In Dragon Ball, the aggressive and headstrong baby Goku is thrown from a cliff, causing him to become a friendly hero through… brain damage?
That seems fairly brutal, but it’s pretty much what happened. It has been stated that Goku suffered from amnesia following his fall. Many fans have since wondered how the series would have changed had Goku never fallen. These theories imagine a drastically different universe– one without the popular hero.
Goku’s son, Gohan, fell from a waterfall in Dragon Ball Z. He was saved by his father in that particular instance.
In Dragon Ball Super, this scene was once again used when Goku’s other son, Goten, was accidentally thrown from a cliff while in a tractor.
Goku saved Goten and the tractor, though Goten should have been able to get out of the tractor on his own, having already mastered his flying skills. This meme makes it very clear that the apple doesn’t fall far from the… cliff.
Gohan Needs A Hug
Goku isn’t the greatest of dads. He constantly has his life ended just for fun, so that he is able to get a break from his family from time to time. He insists on training his children to fight, whether that happens to be their own goal or not.
He also leaves his family alone for long periods of time in order to further his own training.
Essentially, Piccolo raised Gohan and was more of an actual father to him than Goku ever was. To be fair, Goku was basically tricked into getting married and having kids, so perhaps this isn’t entirely his fault.
Despite all of these setbacks, though, Gohan has proven to be a fine father in his own right. He taught his daughter, Pan, to learn how to control her ability to fly as an infant. Her ability to fly is one of the strongest in the entire series.
Gohan is constantly depicted as a fun and devoted father, playing around with his baby far more than Goku ever did.
Before Pan came along, Gohan spent a lot of time helping to raise his little brother, Goten. Gohan taught Goten how to fly, and trained his brother while he also trained his wife, Videl.
This meme points out how much Goku’s children, Gohan especially, must have suffered due to the lack of interaction with their father.
Too Many Transformations
There are a lot of transformations in the Dragon Ball franchise, and each one of these transformations seems to have another level associated with it.
Cyborgs can be augmented, Cell can achieve his perfect form, Majin Buu can become different versions of himself– from big and blob-like to childlike and evil– and even the Gods of Destruction can change their forms to access certain types of energy.
Still, the biggest offender for the overuse of new transformations in this universe has to be the Saiyans.
This meme jokes that there will be a Super Saiyan God 2 and 3 transformations, on account of how many other Super Saiyan transformations there already are.
The Super Saiyans can become Great Apes. After achieving Super Saiyan God status, they can also become Super Saiyan God Super Saiyans. They can even combine different combinations, like the Great Ape and the Super Saiyan form.
There is seemingly no end to the forms that these warriors can unlock. The most powerful of Goku’s transformations seems to be Ultra Instinct.
In this form, he becomes stronger than even the strongest God of Destruction. Unfortunately, Goku isn’t able to retain this transformation for very long, but he is able to achieve it again even in the middle of a fight.
A Better Way To Win
This style of battle is basically a mainstay in just about any superhero story. Even the members of the Justice League and the Avengers take their turns hitting the villain, or they simply break off and fight face to face with a single foe.
It’s rare to see more than one hero actually taking a swing at the big bad at the exact same time, despite the fact that that would likely raise their chances of success by a large margin.
This meme points out how much simpler it would be if fighters would just fight together to take out the bad guy.
Instead, when the going got particularly rough in Dragon Ball Super during a battle against Jiren, Goku uses the power of family and friendship to push his power levels to new heights.
Jiren himself began as a bit of a weakling when he was younger, but became a formidable foe by seeking out power and strength. He has even surprised the God of Destruction Beerus with his level of strength.
Though he is one of the strongest fighters in the Dragon Ball universe, Jiren prefers to defend rather than attack straight out.
Goku has stated that Jiren was the strongest fighter that he had ever encountered. However, it is possible that fans have only gotten a glimpse of what Jiren can truly achieve.
Frieza’s Master Plan
Frieza is a bad dude. He is basically responsible for the eradication of the Saiyan race and the destruction of the Planet Vegeta.
Frieza ruled as emperor of the Planet Trade Organization, an empire that assumes control of various worlds in order to sell them to the highest bidder. It only makes sense that Goku, being the hero of the series, wouldn’t want to have anything to do with a guy like this.
Regardless of their personal relationships, Frieza has a habit of offering jobs to those he deems strong enough. Naturally, Goku refused to become a part of the PTO.
During the tournament in Dragon Ball Super, Goku doesn’t exactly team up with Frieza, but he does sort of do all of the hard work for him.
For a long time, Frieza completely stayed out of the battle, allowing the other fighters to do most of the heavy lifting. Because of this, Goku was inadvertently doing Frieza’s dirty work for him, eliminating his biggest enemies.
Frieza eventually pitches in and helps the rest of the fighters, but he was able to take a back seat for much of the tournament.
Odds are high that Goku had no idea he was giving Frieza exactly what he wanted.
Tributes On Tributes On Tributes
When a fan searches for Dragon Ball Super images, one of the first photos that might pop up is the meme above. The problem with that is that the image is not from Dragon Ball Super at all.
Not only that, but it isn’t even an image from any official Dragon Ball canon. The above image is fan art… with a surprising twist.
The picture was created as a tribute to Dragonball Absalon, which is a fan series tribute to the Dragon Ball franchise. So, the short version is that the picture is a fan art tribute to a fan art tribute to Dragon Ball.
Most would assume that fan art is not canon, but with this franchise, it’s not quite so simple. A search looking into which Dragon Ball series are canon and which are not results in many fans questioning the actual show itself.
From parts of Dragon Ball Super to the entirety of Dragon Ball GT, it seems like many fans are confused about which series count as canon and which do not.
So maybe the internet can be forgiven for accidentally labeling a tribute to a tribute as the real thing. It seems like unless the viewer is a super dedicated fan, this series can be quite confusing to the casual viewer.
Sometimes Goku Isn’t Quite Himself
This meme pokes fun at Goku’s face constantly being changed between episodes. In Dragon Ball Super, a lot of popular characters often don’t even look like themselves.
This can often be blamed on tight turnarounds and new anime artists who don’t have very much experience with the franchise, let alone the series itself.
In this case, the meme points fingers directly at the animation studio behind the series, Toei Animation.
Well, if fans are unhappy with Toei, they are in for a rough ride, because the studio is about to have even more pull over the Dragon Ball franchise.
Earlier this year, following the huge success of the Dragon Ball Super series, Toei announced a restructuring of its anime departments. The studio created a section that was designed specifically to help create and push Dragon Ball content.
The series was consistently rated as one of the most watched in Japan. Naturally, a spin-off movie was planned to further the popular story.
The movie is said to explore the history between Frieza and the Saiyans. After being resurrected toward the end of Dragon Ball Super, Frieza seemingly promised Goku that he would refrain from turning evil again.
Only time will tell whether or not Frieza is able to keep his word.
Older But Wiser
Goku, the Super Saiyan God, trains with the “Old Guy.” Well, truthfully, Goku trains with anyone who is willing to teach him a thing or two, but he spent a long time working under Roshi’s tutelage and being trained by him in Dragon Ball, as does Krillin.
It turns out that there’s a good reason for that– Roshi really knows his stuff. By extension, the people he tutors have only become stronger because of his unorthodox training methods.
This training consisted of all sorts of bizarre activities, such as escaping from sharks and dinosaurs as well as farming and delivering goods. Roshi’s focus wasn’t only on the brawn, however. He also focused on wits from time to time in his teachings.
During the battle to save the universes in the Tournament of Power, Roshi received a little recognition from the powerful god Beerus.
Despite being eliminated in his battle, Beerus showed a surprising amount of respect for the fighter. Beerus had previously shown anger toward eliminated fighters, and he had typically insisted on referring to Roshi as an “Old Guy.”
Following Roshi’s defeat, Beerus finally called him by his actual name and informed him that he was actually impressed with his performance in the Tournament of Power.
Brothers Against Brothers (Kind Of)
The Shenron brothers didn’t exactly get along in Dragon Ball GT, but neither did Goku and Vegeta. Considering that Goku had made it his mission to take out each of the Shenrons in order to restore the Dragon Balls back to their normal state, it just makes sense that viewers were expecting to see these two teams facing off against each other before the series was up.
Unfortunately, this epic match-up never actually happened.
Beerus and Champa are also twin brothers, and gods to boot. So naturally, when Champa convinced Beerus to hold a tournament for the ownership of Earth, jilted fans were hopeful that this time the tag-team battle of their dreams would actually come to pass.
Beerus and Champa and Goku and Vegeta could face off for possession of the planet.
In this arc, members of all of the universes were forced to fight against each other in an attempt to save their own homes as each losing universe was erased from existence.
Despite two different tournaments taking place during Dragon Ball Super, a fight between this particular team didn’t happen, either. It appears that viewers will just have to continue to wait even longer for the epic battle that they’ve been waiting for.
Can you think of any other Dragon Ball Super memes that prove the show doesn’t make sense? Sound off in the comments!
