Dragon Ball Super vs. the new movies...

So, in spite of myself, All Systems Goku has inspired me to get back into Dragon Ball. I started watching Super and made it through the first Beerus storyline...
It was really funny at first and I loved Beerus and Weis. But, in typical Dragon Ball fashion it had way to many filler episodes of guys screaming in the back half of the season.

I would later come to find out that the movie, Battle of the Gods, condenses that entire arc into a feature length film. On the one hand I feel like I wasted a bunch of hours I'll never get back and missed out on far superior animation quality. But, on the other hand I've heard the movie has far less of what I really enjoyed about the series, the goofy character moments.

So my question is this, going forward, should I watch the Resurrection of 'F' movie and skip the second anime arc? Or ignore the movie and stick with the series. What would you guys suggest?

I really liked the golden freiza arc and I think dragon ball works best in the form of a TV show.

I came at it from the other side where I saw the two movies first then watched Super but checked out halfway through the Beerus intro arc because it rethreaded everything I've seen from the movies. I'm a big fan of the goofy antics that crop up throughout Super but it personally wasn't enough for me to slog through the typical drawn out fashion of the episodic format.

It just comes down to personal preference, do you want a succinct, better animated version of the events through the movies, or the drawn out episodic format with goofs sprinkled throughout?

That said the movies did have some goofs at least from what I remember of Battle of Gods. Fun-time Bingo anyone?

The movies are fine and probably some of the better Dragonball stand alone stories, though that bar is very low so that really isn't a surprise. The series compared to the movies is really depends what you are looking for. The movies are more action oriented with not as much comedy thrown in and the plot is rather rushed for my preference to shonen shows like this but they are are more than serviceable and a lot of fun. Personally I prefer the series as I tend to enjoy the humor of Super more than anything. Though the movies do condense a lot of story that if you watch those and then the last arch of super you will probably be good.

The movie didn't have the return of Captain Ginyu so you would have missed out on that hilarious scene. I watched the movies first then the TV series and actually enjoyed the filler the movies left out. The only thing I don't like about Super is the return of Pilaf. He's role is pretty much useless other than to introduce Mai to Trunks. Also the fact that Buu is pretty much gone the entire series for stupid reasons upset me.

As someone who has watched all of One Piece including the movies and specials, filler is something I am used to in Super it is mild by Shonen Jump standards. Anything that gives me more of what I love I am all for.

With Resurrection F, there is a fan edit on YouTube that combines "the best parts" of the movie adaptation and the anime adaptation, so I would maybe recommend it, as it has received a lot of praise; however, you would obviously see the animation quality change depending on which part something is from.

I might argue you should just watch the Resurrection F movie and go from there, but honestly all of Dragon Ball Super is pretty sluggish by the blazing fast standards of modern seasonal anime. The first two arcs retelling the movies are especially bad in this regard (and also in terms of animation) but if you're not into everything being padded out slightly too long, then you're out of luck because that's kind of the entire series.

Honestly I'd recommend watching both. The anime arc changes a decent amount of stuff with more fleshing out of the characters, but the movie has a lot of great little moments and fight scenes that the anime is missing. The Beerus arc of Super is really boring though and you're really missing out compared to the movie.

I preferred the show arc of Freeza over the movie personally. The movie makes it seem like they just pull the reason they can beat Freeza out of their ass in the last minute, but the show has some background episodes at the beginning which explain their new form more and setup the reason why the heroes are better at it. It felt more satisfying in the show to me because if you pay attention to their training you can piece together what Freeza's downfall will be. I also dont remember the filler being bad in the Freeza arc. Once things get going it's just one of those cases of people fighting a few episodes while waiting for Goku to arrive. The Beerus one was much worst because it was just multiple episodes of seeing him come to earth and slowly get more and more angry until he fights Goku.

You also miss out on a fan favorite character from the original Freeza saga if you dont watch the TV arc, so that's a factor as well.

@mezza: That fan favorite character is 100% the main reason I'd say to watch Super's Res F arc, though I did both things and watched the movies first and then started going through all of Super. Enjoyed every single bit.

Super definitely has more world building and slice-of-life bits though, which are absolutely my favorite parts. That said, some really specific moments in the movies (Goku's fight v Beerus underground with the song "Hero" by Flow at the end and Vegeta's "That's my Bulma!" in the first movie, Freiza and "F" by Maximum the Hormone in the second) are fantastic, and either simply not in Super or not done as well. Also the Super Saiyan God transformation is way more intense in Super.

Animation is way better in the movies and the fights are better. But the filler in the show is really really good and is probably my favorite parts of Super.

Idk if it helps but I made this a few month ago: What's the best way to watch Dragon Ball Super?

EVERYONE IS SUGGESTING DIFFERENT THINGS!!!!

Ok I finally watched Battle of the Gods. It's totally worth skipping the first anime arc and watching the movie.

@the_ruiner: haha, I know. It didn't really help me except I knew not to "watch Rusurrection 'F' and skip 13 episodes," which literally no one voted on.

I'm just gonna watch everything... I wish I had skipped the first 14 eps though. Battle of the Gods was the superior format.

Yeah I don't know if you were trying to avoid spoilers or something but if you had asked you would've been told that the beginning is bad. It gets into its own groove once you get past the two arcs that were originally films.

If you prefer character development watch the show, if you prefer better animation watch the movie.

Personally, this is my guide to watch Super:

• Watch episodes 1,2,3, and 4.
• Watch the Battle Of Gods movie.
• Watch episode 15, 16, 17, and 18.
• Watch the Resurrection F movie or just keep watching the show, both have pros and cons.
• If you watched the movie, then continue watching from episode 28.
• Realize halfway through that Super is kinda bad but keep watching out of curiosity anyway, even though it won't get better.

Also, Super doesn't have filler episodes. They have slice of life episodes that some people like to call filler, but they aren't filler.

My favorite filler episode in Super is the baseball game.

I haven't seen any of the movies so I can't really recommend. I'll say I did think the series started out really slow but it gradually gets better and better and ultimately I loved super. The final arc is fantastic.

I'm only caught up with the Dub but so far I absolutely love Super and I think I like it more than Z. It has a lot more of the silly stuff that I like about the original Dragonball but a lot less pervy. Only complaint is Videl and 18 seem less developed in Super and I really like those characters.

@johnymyko: Super is mondo cool, you're so wrong.

The TV show art style is off-putting to me. The colors are so flat and the characters are so undetailed, even by the standards of the old show. There's a bunch of stuff in the series that I think I'd enjoy, but right now it feels annoying to look at.

I'm also enjoying it a little more than Z. It seems to have better pacing... even though it's still painfully slow in parts. Videl and 18 are full on GF status and it sucks... Female characters are only really allowed to be wives and moms in this show...

This sounds good. But Having watched the first 15 eps. There are definitely filler episodes. Mostly in the second half during the battle. Any episode where the plot isn't advanced and the characters are exactly the same in the beginning as the end I consider filler, and that happens in most of the drawn out battles.

My guide for DB Super is if you're having fun with a more drawn out pace, watch the series. If you're not having fun with a drawn out pace, just skip the series and watch the movies. Because at the end of the day, we're just watching this for fun.

Personally, I haven't seen the beginning of the series and just watched the movies. However, at this point, I don't think the characters have changed that much to endure a number of filler episodes. Goku is almost the same character he at the end of episode 131 as he was at episode 1 of super.

tbh the slice of life is stuff is the only stuff I really enjoyed on super.

I thought the goku black arc was kinda fun even if it was flawed but thats about it.

That isn't filler, that's just the awful pacing of Super. Filler is when they need to do some tangential content unrelated to the main plot while they wait for more story from the source material to be written so they can follow it. Since Super doesn't follow anything from an outside source, like a manga, they don't have the need to do filler. All the fights that take forever and the plot that doesn't move forward is just bad pacing or lazy animation, which are common issues during the whole run of Super. If you think it's bad now, wait until you get to the final arc, it gets much worse...

I felt the exact same way, the slice of life episodes were definitely my favorites. I think my two favorite episodes from the entire run of Super might be the one with Vegeta doing a family trip and the baseball episode.

The Goku Black arc could've been amazing, it had potential to be one of the best stories from the whole Dragon Ball series, but after the second half of the arc it only got worse as it moved forward, ending terribly.