Dragon Ball anime called out police brutality on people of color a long time ago

Goku Black as seen in Dragon Ball Super
Goku Black as seen in Dragon Ball Super (Image via Toei Animation)

While it has been nearly five years since the Dragon Ball Super anime came to an end, it is often under the limelight, probably due to its manga series, which is still under monthly serialization. However, there was this one moment in the anime that was shared quite a bit over social media, and rightfully so.

Dragon Ball Super is the sequel series to Dragon Ball Z, as the timeline is set five years after the fight against Majin Buu. The anime introduces the concepts of Gods of Destruction and angels, following which Goku and Vegeta started training to get into the realm of their strength level.


Dragon Ball Super English dubbed version called out police brutality

The English dubbed version of Dragon Ball Super episode 56, titled Rematch with Goku Black! Enter Super Saiyan Rosé, featured a rather outrageous scene as Goku and Vegeta, along with Future Trunks, used the Time Machine to arrive at Trunks' timeline where Goku Black had caused mayhem.

Upon the trio's arrival in the distant future, Goku and Vegeta were shocked by the level of destruction in the city. This is when the soldiers of that timeline spotted Goku and mistook him for Goku Black - the person responsible for the mayhem in their world - and prepared to fire at him.

Future Trunks as seen in Dragon Ball Super (Image via Toei Animation)
Future Trunks as seen in Dragon Ball Super (Image via Toei Animation)

The English dubbed version then happened to call out police brutality against people of color. While the soldiers were preparing to fire bullets at Goku, Trunks stopped them as he realized that people from his timeline, similar to himself, mistook Goku as Goku Black.

However, while stopping them, Trunks' dialog just stated "Black" instead of "Goku Black," which left fans interpreting it rather differently, possibly hinting towards police brutality and how there is a tendency for law enforcement to target people of color with their arms.


Fans react to the outrageous scene from Dragon Ball Super

Several fans took the scene rather comically as they knew what Future Trunks meant while saying that dialog, but it was only when one took the dialog out of context that it seemed to hint at police brutality.

Nevertheless, fans were amused by the decision made by Funimation as it is quite surprising that the studio decided to use that dialog. The only possible reasons for the same could be that it was either done on purpose or was not noticed by the staff.

It was quite clear that the villain's name could be misinterpreted in the dubbed version, but the studio decided to go with it, even after it should have possibly sounded wrong to the staff while recording.

Fans started joking around as to how the soldiers of the future must have been hanging around Frieza, as he too is considered to be quite xenophobic towards the Saiyans.

While Saiyans do transform into apes, there is no reason for Frieza to call them "monkeys," other than his hate for their race. Considering that, the soldiers' behavior towards Goku looked similar.

Other than that, fans were quite amused by the final dialog in the scene as the soldier says "what!" in a rather peculiar way, which sounded comical to the fans. According to them, the soldier was too shocked by Trunks' revelation.

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