Welcome to This Week in Shonen Jump, our weekly check in on Viz’s various Shonen Jump series. Viz has recently changed their release format, but our format will mostly remain the same. We will still review the newest chapters of one title a week, now with even more options at our disposal. The big change for our readers is that, even without a Shonen Jump subscription, you can read these most recent chapters for free at Viz.com or using their app.
This week, Rowan checks in with “Dragon Ball Super.” If you have thoughts on this or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!
Dragon Ball Super Chapter 76
Written by Akira Toriyama
Illustrated by Toyotarou
Reviewed by Rowan Grover
Over here with the latest “Dragon Ball Super”, the show must go on and on and on as it always does. What we have for most of this issue is the showdown between the somehow endearing Granolah and Vegeta, although it really goes through the same paces that most Vegeta v Bad Guy fights have gone before. Vegeta spouts off about their pride and fighting ability, much like his fight with Frieza. Vegeta tells Goku to stay out of it, much like his fight with Majin Buu. Only this time, there’s no emotional weight driven by well-earned character moments. Toriyama gives Granolah an interesting ability as someone who always aims for vitals, but the fight still largely plays out predictably, with intervention from Goku at the last minute.
Thankfully, not everything here is so cut and dry. Toriyama reveals a little bit about Granolah’s past and what drives them as a villain for this arc, or at the very least, as an antagonistic force. There’s a pretty neat scene in which Granolah witnesses an endangered family and is reminded of his own childhood, and is distracted by a moment of doubt. The character has always felt driven by honor and power, but this singular jerk moment makes them feel surprisingly human and makes the matchup with Vegeta and Goku more meaningful afterward. The final twist revealing the origin of Granolah’s mentor Monaito is interesting enough too, tying things into Goku’s backstory interestingly and making the match up a bit more complicated than it was. It’s solid soapy drama on top of the action, and I’ll certainly come back next month to find out more.
Make no mistake, this book is still great at evoking the powerful, hyper-fast battle scenes of the original manga. Toyotarou has a lot of fun with the initial scenes of Vegeta and Granolah fighting. The latter is completely lording over Vegeta for most of the battle, receiving lots of bottom-angle shots to make them look snide and domineering. Granola’s preferred method of energy blasting, shooting from two extended hand pistols whilst casually walking forward, also lends a lot to this arrogant veneer. Before Goku joins in for relief, there are lots of big, punctuating panels really bringing home Granolah’s superiority: zoom-ins on kicks and fierce elbow slams. It’s Toyotarou having fun with giving this villain a solid beat-down moment, and while it’s happened to our heroes plenty of times before, it’s technically very solid.
There’s a lot of serviceable character acting in this chapter that matches the dynamic battle scenes. Vegeta holding onto their pride and demanding that Goku stay out of the battle may be an overdone scene, but again, it’s well-executed. This is hammered home by having Vegeta’s most shocked and confronted look come from Goku butting into the fight, not from any of the blasts he receives from Granolah. Building from that, he’s most driven and aggressive in grabbing and kicking Goku out of the fight than he ever was at the start of the chapter, which is entertaining. Later on, when we see Granolah having the flashback to his childhood, Toyotarou gives him plenty of close-up shots to show how visibly disturbed he is by past events repeating themselves. It makes the following desperate finishing move feel all the more high-charged and packed with emotional energy.
Final Score: 7.0 – The story here is nothing we haven’t seen before but Toyotarou is doing some solid work on the art front.
