The Future Trunks Saga, also known as the Goku Black or Zamasu Saga, is the fourth arc of Dragon Ball Super and the darkest in the whole series: thirty episodes broadcast on Fuji TV from June 12, 2016 to January 29, 2017. It brings back Future Trunks, on the run from an enemy who wears Goku's face, and pits the heroes against a god who wants to wipe out every mortal.
What the saga is about
In Trunks' future, the one he saved from the androids years earlier, a new enemy has appeared: Goku Black, identical to Goku but ruthless. He has razed the cities, and when he also kills Bulma, who was preparing fuel for the time machine, Trunks heads for the past together with Mai, Pilaf's former accomplice who in his world fights in the resistance. Black follows him into the present for a few minutes thanks to a time ring, just long enough to trade blows with Goku and wreck Trunks' machine.
Zamasu and the "Zero Mortals Plan"
Time rings belong to the Supreme Kais, and the trail leads to Universe 10. There Goku, Beerus and Whis meet Zamasu, an apprentice Supreme Kai convinced that mortals are a plague, and his master Gowasu. Meanwhile Goku is summoned by Zeno, who wants a friend to play with and gives him a button to call him.
Using the old time machine Cell came in, repaired by Bulma, Goku, Vegeta and Trunks reach the future. Black unveils Super Saiyan Rosé, and an immortal Zamasu appears at his side. In the present, Beerus erases this timeline's Zamasu before he can kill Gowasu, but nothing changes in the future, and the truth comes out: Black is a Zamasu from yet another timeline who used the Super Dragon Balls to steal Goku's body, killed him and his family, and teamed up with his own double, whom the Dragon Balls made immortal. Together they have murdered the gods and want to erase humanity.
Fusions and erasures
The first clash goes badly. Trunks holds both enemies off with an explosion of rage while Vegeta takes Goku and Bulma back to the past, where Goku learns the Evil Containment Wave (Mafuba) from Master Roshi, the technique for sealing an enemy in a container. Back in the future, Trunks manages to trap Zamasu, but Goku has forgotten the charm needed to keep the seal shut. Black and Zamasu fuse with the Potara earrings, and Goku and Vegeta answer in kind: Vegito Blue is born, but splits apart before finishing the job. It falls to Trunks, who gathers the survivors' energy into his sword and slices the enemy in two.
Zamasu survives, however, as an entity spreading everywhere. Goku presses the button, and the Zeno of that future, who has never met him, solves the problem by erasing that timeline's entire multiverse. Goku brings Future Zeno back to the present, where the two Zenos become friends, while Trunks and Mai leave for another timeline, where that era's Beerus can stop Zamasu before it is too late.
Main characters in this saga
Episodes
The titles are those of Funimation's English dub.
About episodes 68-76
English and Spanish Wikipedia, which follow Toei's counts, close the saga at episode 76. The Fandom wiki stops the arc at 67 and treats the following episodes as short standalone stories. They cover wishes granted by Shenron, a crossover with Arale from Dr. Slump, a baseball game against Universe 6, a rematch with Hit, who turns out to have been hired by Goku himself, the Great Saiyaman movie shoot and Krillin's return to training. None of them involves Black, but we list them here for completeness and because they lay the groundwork for the Tournament of Power.
Characters and transformations
- Future Trunks, the undisputed lead, and Future Mai, who fights in the resistance in his world;
- Goku Black, voiced in Japanese by Goku's own Masako Nozawa, and Zamasu, the Supreme Kai who hates mortals;
- Gowasu, Universe 10's Supreme Kai, a betrayed teacher;
- Zeno and the Grand Minister, who appears here for the first time.
The new forms are Black's Super Saiyan Rosé (episode 56), Trunks' rage-fuelled power-up, which fans call Super Saiyan Rage, the fused Zamasu and Vegito Blue (episode 66). The full picture is on our Super Saiyan transformations page.
Differences from the manga
Once again there is no film to compare. Toyotarō's chapters 14-26 tell the same story with plenty of variations. Black never travels to the present; Super Saiyan Rosé is simply the equivalent of Blue; Goku is the one who uses the Evil Containment Wave and, instead of the charm, accidentally brings along a coupon for a nightclub. Vegito overpowers the fused Zamasu with the Spirit Sword, the enemy fusion wears off after an hour and Zamasu's immortality is absolute. Trunks has also been trained as an apprentice Supreme Kai and has healing powers, and in the end Future Zeno erases the entire timeline.
Our take
This is the most ambitious saga in Super, and for many fans the best. Zamasu is not the usual villain: he does not want power, he wants to "cleanse" the universe, and he is unsettling precisely because he is a god convinced he is right. Goku Black, with Masako Nozawa's voice and Goku's mannerisms bent towards cruelty, is one of the best designs of the modern era. And Trunks, after years of cameos, becomes a real character again.
The flaws lie in the rules: between rings, timelines and wishes, the logic of time travel gets muddled, and the ending, with Zeno wiping everything out, is a clean slate that still divides fans. The closing episodes lower the tension but have tender moments, like Krillin shaving his head and returning to the fight. Before this saga comes Universe 6; next is the Universe Survival Saga.
Did you know? In the Japanese version Goku Black shares Goku's voice, Masako Nozawa, who had to find a cold, contemptuous tone for a character she has played since 1986.
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