It’s extremely challenging to create a successful anime or manga series, let alone one that’s able to run for as long as Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball. Toriyama has put Goku and the rest of Dragon Ball’s characters through incredible situations over the course of hundreds of episodes. A story of this scope is prone to face inconsistencies or introduce certain retcon measures in the sake of streamlining storytelling.
Akira Toriyama is quite careful and deliberate with his characters and their accompanying story arcs, but it’s only natural for certain ideas or individuals to get dropped or take a different direction. There are several promising character arcs in Dragon Ball that never properly see conclusions.
10 Ultimate Gohan
One of the most rewarding aspects of Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball is that time actually passes and audiences get to witness Goku’s growth from a precocious child into a proud grandfather. Toriyama’s original plan was for Gohan to officially replace Goku as the franchise’s main character.
Dragon Ball Z temporarily attempts this following Goku’s death against Cell after Gohan ascends to Super Saiyan 2 strength. Gohan’s Z Sword training and his accompanying Ultimate upgrade all indicate that he’ll be the one to defeat Super Buu. Toriyama gets cold feet and it’s ultimately Goku who defeats Buu, but Gohan continues to regress after Buu’s reign of terror.
9 Fit Buu
Dragon Ball Super gets several opportunities to work Buu into its regular roster of characters. Dragon Ball Super undercuts Buu’s attempts to help once his passion for slumber gets the better of him as well as other contrived excuses. The worst of this is when Buu trains for the Tournament of Power and he actually shed his rotund physique and gains some muscle mass.
It’s a fun new design for the character that more or less becomes a visual gag instead of a genuine upgrade for the character. He’s robbed of the opportunity to showcase his growth and defend the universe that he’s grown to love.
8 Videl
Some of the most tender moments in Dragon Ball Z are when a humble teen Gohan tries to help Videl develop her ki abilities. Gohan helps Videl master flight, which becomes an endearing bonding exercise for the two martial artists.It’s extremely satisfying to see Gohan find a partner that’s on his level.
Unfortunately, Videl doesn’t engage in much fighting following her vicious defeat by Spopovich during the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament. Videl is a natural when it comes to ki skills, but she decides to focus on a domestic life after she marries Gohan and gives birth to Pan.
7 Jiren
Dragon Ball Super’s Tournament of Power is a multiversal battle royale the likes of which Goku and company have never experienced. The cost of failure is the erasure of one’s universe and Goku’s Universe 7 Team quickly meet their match with Universe 11’s Jiren.
Jiren is strong enough to trigger Goku’s first transformation into Ultra Instinct power, but Dragon Ball Super is surprisingly cryptic when it comes to this important character. Flashbacks tease Jiren’s painful past and his desire to defend his world as a Pride Trooper. That being said, Dragon Ball Super’s manga doesn’t return to this character following the competition’s completion.
6 Cabba & Universe 6’s Saiyans
Dragon Ball Super introduces the concept of a multiverse into the franchise and one of the most rewarding consequences of this is the appearance of new Saiyans from Universe 6. Cabba, Caulifla, and Kale are an enthusiastic lot, but they lack the killer instinct and fighting experience of Universe 7’s Saiyans.
Vegeta is astonished to learn that the Saiyan homeworld, Planet Sadala, is still alive and well in Universe 6. Vegeta pledges to train Cabba to better hone his Super Saiyan abilities as well as better explore Universe 6’s Saiyan culture on Sadala. This development has yet to come to pass even though fans continue to ask for it.
5 Launch
Launch is one of the original Dragon Ball’s most unusual characters due to her extreme personality changes that are triggered whenever she sneezes. Akira Toriyama has admitted that he forgot about Launch during Dragon Ball Z, which explains her mysterious disappearance. Dragon Ball Super squanders a viable opportunity to finally fulfill her character’s arc.
Goku recruits the strongest fighters from Universe 7 to help him participate in the Tournament of Power. Launch is absent from Tien’s dojo, while another female fighter fills her absence. Tien joins Team Universe 7, but it would have been even better if this also marked Launch's return to the battlefield.
4 Yamcha
Yamcha is one of the very first friends that Goku makes back in the original Dragon Ball, which makes it bittersweet that he exits the anime under such humiliating circumstances. The entirety of Dragon Ball gets a lot of mileage out of the awkward romantic tension between Yamcha and Bulma. One of Dragon Ball Z’s smartest decisions is to pair together Vegeta and Bulma, which is infinitely more interesting than her chemistry with Yamcha.
Yamcha and Bulma’s breakup coincides with his growing irrelevance, which isn’t exactly fair. Yamcha channels his energy into baseball and Goku and company actively avoid him when it comes to Tournament of Power recruitment.
3 Tien
Dragon Ball becomes progressively fascinated by Saiyans, which makes it quite difficult for humans to stay relevant. It’s easy to forget that there was a time when Tien was Goku’s superior. Dragon Ball never retcons Tien’s incredible power, but it does just move away from the character instead of figuring out how to incorporate him into later battles.
Dragon Ball Super gives Tien a few opportunities to prove that he’s still got it, but he’s never going to lead a battle like he used to do. The Tournament of Power could have boosted his abilities in significant ways and yet he’s treated like collateral damage alongside Krillin and Master Roshi.
2 Goten & Trunks
Goten and Trunks have so much potential when they first appear and they tap into Super Saiyan power far earlier than the rest of their families. Furthermore, Goten and Trunks’ fused form, Gotenks, is the only other character outside Goku who canonically becomes Super Saiyan 3.
Rather than build upon these growing skills, Goten and Trunks become comic relief and don’t even participate in the Tournament of Power. Admittedly, Dragon Ball Super’s manga pivots its focus to Goten and Trunks-centric stories, but it’s unlikely that they’ll unlock a new tier of Super Saiyan strength before Goku, Vegeta, or Gohan.They’re still treated like gag characters more than they’re deadly warriors.
1 Uub
Uub is a fascinating figure who Akira Toriyama sets up to be the future of the Dragon Ball franchise and yet he’s become an absentee character in Dragon Ball Super. Dragon Ball Z cryptically ends with Goku recognizing the inherent potential in Uub, a young boy who’s actually Kid Buu’s pure-hearted reincarnation.
Goku is so convinced of Uub’s strength that the series ends with Goku leaving to dedicate an indeterminate amount of time to train Uub to be Earth’s strongest fighter. Admittedly, Uub gets some fighting in during the earlier arcs of Dragon Ball GT, but he gradually disappears. He’s even less important in Dragon Ball Super.