The story of Dragon Ball is continuing in Dragon Ball Super, but there was a time when this series seemed to have come to an end. But did you know that the story has two different endings?
Dragon Ball creator, Akira Toriyama had concluded his eleven-year run writing the series in the mid-1990s. In the early 2000s, he returned to his series for the manga’s “Kanzenban,” or “Perfect Edition” release.
The Kanzenban of Dragon Ball featured art by Toriyama, the original color pages from Shonen Jump and compressed the story from 42 volumes to 34. Toriyama made some tweaks and a few changes to the ending.
The original ending had shown Goku passing the torch to his apprentice, Uub. This remains the same, but as in the video from Geekdom 101, the passing of the torch was made more explicit by Goku giving possession of Nimbus Cloud over to Uub and made it clear that Uub was the new adventurer who was destined to protect Earth just like Goku.
This is reinforced by a change in the scene’s narration. Toriyama wrote that the Dragon Balls would protect the Earth. In the new ending, Toriyama changes the statement and says that it is the strong people on Earth like Goku and his friends, and Uub who will keep the planet safe.
Many fans were actually okay with the tweaks since the original version’s ending was criticized for being vague and rushed.
The original ending came with a message from Toriyama stating that this was the end of the road. The Kanzenban removed the message and replaced it with a scene of Vegeta stating that he would one day surpass Goku in power.
Many fans felt that the scene did damage to Vegeta’s character arc and Vegeta would have accepted the fact that Goku was much stronger than him.
Toriyama may have had the future stories in mind. The events of Dragon Ball: Battle of Gods, Dragon Ball: Resurrection F and Dragon Ball Super take place before Dragon Ball and shows a version of Vegeta who is competitive with Goku.
Their rivalry is now friendly. This falls in line with the statement by Dragon Ball Super artist Toyotarou. The Super will catch up to the moment when Goku passes the torch to Uub.
