Dragon Ball Super Chapter 74 Review

After learning more about the upcoming Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie that is coming out at 2022 I needed to get my fix on new Dragon Ball content. Thankfully we got he Dragon Ball Super manga still going on right now where Akira Toriyama and Toyotarou are in the middle of their second story arc post-Tournament of Power. The latest arc that is being led by a new character named Granolah as the main antagonist hasn’t lived up to the expectation set by the previous Galactic Patrol Prisoner Saga. Maybe that could change as Granolah moves on from fighting Goku to facing off against the Prince of Saiyans Vegeta. How will this fight of Vegeta vs Granolah turn out? Let’s find out with Dragon Ball Super Chapter 74.

Writer: Akira Toriyama

Artist: Toyotarou

Story Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10

Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Overall Rating: 7.5 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: The Sugarians flee from their city after feeling earthquakes from the battle between Goku and Granolah.

Elsewhere Vegeta reveals to Granolah than he nor Goku work for Frieza. Granolah laughs this off believing Vegeta is trying to trick him. Oatmeel contacts Granolah to mention that what Vegeta said was exactly what Goku tried to explain to him earlier. Granolah then states that he does not care as he will have his revenge against all Saiyans.

Hearing this Vegeta powers up to Super Saiyan Blue Evolved (the state Vegeta achieved during the latter stages of the Tournament of Power arc). Vegeta combines Super Saiyan Blue Evolved state along with the Destruction power he learned from Beerus to launch a barrage of Hakai-like attacks at Granolah.

Granolah easily dodges this attack and quickly counters by lifting a giant boulder and hitting Vegeta with it. Granolah follows up by nailing Vegeta with a powerful blow to his stomach. Vegeta tries to counter with an energy blast but Granolah dodges this attack as well.

Seeing no other option Vegeta decides to fight Granolah up close. Vegeta and Granolah end up fighting all over planet Cereal. Eventually Granolah once again gains the upper hand and forces Vegeta to be on the defensive against a barrage of energy attacks. This leads Vegeta for flying to a spot where Granolah launches a massive energy attack that Vegeta can only attempt to block. Vegeta uses his power of Destruction to destroy the attack but is knocked to the ground in the process.

Granolah comments how he is actually surprised how strong Vegeta and Goku are. Vegeta calls out the fact that while Granolah may be the strongest in the universe right now but he is still going to win this fight. Granolah thinks that Vegeta’s ego won’t allow him to see the truth. Vegeta tells Granolah to stop talking so they can continue fighting.

Elsewhere Goku wakes up still in pain from the blow Granolah landed on his chest. Goku then stops Vegeta and Granolah fighting in the sky.

Granolah continues to overpower Vegeta. Vegeta attempts a sneak attack but Granolah spots this and fires an energy attack. Vegeta dodges the energy blast and it ends up hitting a nearby abandoned city. Vegeta mentions that Granolah’s missed attack ended up destroying one of the Cerealian cities.

Vegeta goes on to call out the fact that Granolah only recently obtained his powers, something he can tell because of the lack of battle experience Granolah has shown throughout their fight. Hearing this pisses Granolah off as he believes he doesn’t need training. Granolah hits Vegeta with a knee attack. Vegeta counters by holding Granolah in a leg lock and then nailing Granolah’s leg with an elbow attack that hurts him. Granolah kicks Vegeta off before more can be done.

Vegeta states that the fun of battle is that the outcome is never set in stone. This only angers Granolah more. Granolah launches a barrage of strikes at Vegeta. As they fight in close combat Vegeta reveals that as their fight has progressed he has become stronger. Hearing this Granolah launches a strike similar to the one he hit Goku with earlier. Vegeta stops the strike but not soon enough as Granolah was able to pierce his Saiyan armor and hit his gut with the tips of his fingers.

As he coughs up blood Vegeta starts laughing as he suddenly gets a sensation he hasn’t felt in years. Vegeta goes on to say that this fight has got his Saiyan blood pumping. This stuns Granolah, who flies back several yards away from Vegeta.

Vegeta the starts powering up with energy flowing out of him that looks like a raging flame.

At different parts of planet Cereal both Goku and Oil can see the large amount of energy Vegeta is releasing.

As Vegeta continues to power up Granolah fires several energy blasts to stop the transformation. Granolah’s energy blasts ended up being destroyed by Vegeta’s energy.

Vegeta finally finishes powers up and we see his new state (which has facial features similar to Goku’s Super Saiyan 3 form with dark hair) that is his Power of Destruction form. Vegeta goes on to say “A God of Destruction taught me that power derived solely from instinct is unbounded.” End of chapter.

The Good: Now this is more of what I’m talking about when it comes to the quality expected from Dragon Ball Super. And all it took was swapping out Goku with Vegeta to get the more of the potential out of Granolah’s character. It may sound like a simple swap but Akira Toriyama and Toyotarou maximize how different the interactions with the antagonist for this current Dragon Ball Super are because of it.

It was a big sigh of relief that Vegeta did not just go all in with returning to being the evil Prince of Saiyan gimmick he had just to try to anger and throw Granolah off his game. Dragon Ball Super Chapter 74 quickly having Vegeta reveal he no longer works for Frieza went a long way to push the idea of how far gone Granolah is. Granolah is so deep in on his entire character motivation being to wipe out the Saiyans and everyone related to Frieza. That is something that Toriyama and Toyotarou are able to more effectively do by having Granolah work against Vegeta.

The key is that Vegeta is a character who has worked out through a similar character arc to Granolah. When first introduced Vegeta was holding onto the pain and anger of being one of the last Saiyans to the point of being obsessed with gaining power. That obsession with power is something that was a big part of the Dragon Ball Z era of the franchise. And to Toriyama and Toyotarou credit they do not hide the fact that Granolah is following a similar path of obsession with power.

Through Granolah’s obsession with power Toriyama and Toyotarou are able to work in how far Vegeta has come as a character. As we’ve seen throughout Dragon Ball Super what made Vegeta’s fight with Granolah different from when Goku was in this spot is that Vegeta actually learns from his opponent. We saw this with how he took on Jiren and once again does so with Granolah. Toyotarou’s artwork in particular does a good job showing how Vegeta learns with every blow Granolah throws to keep up with his opponent.

This all played in well with the mental games that Vegeta worked into the fight. Vegeta revealing that he knew Granolah just obtained his current power recently worked to make the fight even better. This put over how Vegeta’s greatest strength is how he uses his battle experience to his advantage. The fact that Granolah actually got pissed off for being called a rookie added to how differently this fight was.

With how the fight played out Toriyama and Toyotarou did a great job showing us how Vegeta has grown in using the Power of Destruction as he was able to use his own version of Hakai. Each time Vegeta used the Power of Destruction we were given the idea that Toriyama and Toyotarou were building to something. That was fully paid off when Vegeta unveiled his own Power of Destruction form. Adding little changes to Power of Destruction Vegeta like flame like energy, instead of the typical lightning seeing in Super Saiyan forms, worked to get over this as a whole new level of power. It all built more hype for the future of the Granolah the Survivor Saga more than any other chapter in this story arc.

The Bad: Goku’s appearance in Dragon Ball Super Chapter 74 was honestly not necessary. The few instances the character appeared was just a reminder of how bad he fought. It would’ve been more dramatic if Goku was actually knocked out for the entire chapter. Goku quickly getting back up just lessens the impact on what was supposed to be a deadly strike by Granolah. It actually makes Granolah look weak that he couldn’t even land a blow that completely knocked Goku out from the rest of the events on planet Cereal.

The Heeters also continue to be poorly developed. The brief appearance by Oil towards the end of this chapter was just a reminder that the Heeters continue to be terrible villains. There has been no attempt to make the Heeters a credible threat. As things stand I would prefer it if the Granolah the Survivor Saga ended with whatever the results of Granolah’s fights with Vegeta and Goku turn out to be.

Overall: Dragon Ball Super Chapter 74 is by far the best chapter we have gotten out of this Granolah the Survivor Saga. The fight between Vegeta and Granolah was incredibly entertaining. The evolution of Vegeta’s character made the fight something you were engaged with the entire time. The final page with Vegeta revealing his new Power of Destruction form builds great hype for what comes next in Dragon Ball Super.

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