While Dragon Ball DAIMA has been delighting Dragon Ball fans, many hope that the series’ popularity will pave the way for the return of Dragon Ball Super. Based on the manga of the same name, Dragon Ball Super chronicled Goku’s adventures in the ten-year time skip between the end of the Buu saga and the start of Dragon Ball Z’s epilogue. Alas, the anime ended in 2018, long before it had animated all the manga’s sagas, leaving fans hoping that the series will one day return to complete the story. But if the Dragon Ball Super anime does return, there is one arc it needs to start with: the Broly saga.
The Broly saga is one of Dragon Ball Super’s most fascinating arcs from both a storyline and production standpoint. One of the most memorable things about this saga is that it introduces Broly to the main Dragon Ball continuity. First introduced in Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan, the eleventh Dragon Ball Z movie, Broly quickly cemented himself as a fan-favorite character, to the point he would also be the focus of two other films, Dragon Ball Z: Broly – Second Coming and Dragon Ball Z: Bio-Broly. However, due to Broly not being a Toriyama creation (and thus not appearing in the manga), Broly was non-canon for most of his existence.
The Odd History Of The Broly Saga
This changed in 2018 when Dragon Ball Super: Broly arrived in theaters. This new film, written by Akira Toriyama, introduced a new version of Broly to the main Dragon Ball timeline. Like the other Dragon Ball Super films like Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F, and Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, this movie is considered to be a saga within Dragon Ball Super’s overall continuity, something proven by the fact that the events of the film are referenced in Super’s later sagas.
Alas, unlike most Dragon Ball Super movie sagas, the Broly saga didn’t get an expanded adaptation in the anime or manga. The original Dragon Ball Super anime concluded at the end of the Universe Survival Saga (named the Tournament of Power Saga in the manga), the saga before the Broly Saga. While the Dragon Ball Super manga continues past the Broly saga, it handles the saga weirdly. “Battle’s End and Aftermath,” the 42nd chapter of the Dragon Ball Super manga and the final chapter of the Tournament of Power Saga, jumps from the gang returning home after the tournament to a splash page that shows Goku and Vegeta fighting Broly. The text boxes on this page note that “The next spot of trouble caused by Frieza is a tale for another time,” before adding that “our two Saiyans emerged from those events stronger than ever before.” Then the manga dives directly into the Galactic Patrol Prisoner Saga, showing Vegeta and Goku training in the Gravity Training Room.
Oddly, while the manga never fully adapted the arc, later manga sagas would give readers glimpses of the movie’s events. When Goku and Vegeta begin sparring with Broly in “Operation: Kidnap Pan,” the manga’s 93rd chapter, readers are given a short biography of the character that quickly explains how Goku and Vegeta met him. At 2019’s Jump Victory Carnival, it was announced that the bonus chapter included with Dragon Ball Super’s 11th volume would be a recap of the Broly saga.
However, rather than being a direct adaption of the movie, this chapter focused on Goku and Vegeta explaining what happened to Merus and Jaco while hanging out at Galactic Patrol HQ. Alas, due to the chapter’s short length, this summary is rushed, cutting out large chunks of the story. Due to these repeated side-steppings, many fans have presumed that future Dragon Ball Super anime adaptations would copy the manga and skip the Broly saga.