Dragon Ball has introduced Gohan Black to its universe with a huge shake up, and it turns out that the newest villain has fixed one of the worst issues about Goku Black in the process. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero opened up all sorts of possibilities for the Dragon Ball franchise as it offers a special new story for Gohan that imagines how things could have gone differently if he had kept up his training during Dragon Ball Super and eventually became the strongest fighter in Universe 7. This would lead to him eventually fighting his strongest foe yet, which was an evil version of himself from the distant future.
Dragon Ball’s canon got shaken up with Gohan not only being capable of handling his own against Frieza during the Resurrection F arc, but defeating Golden Frieza at full power as well. Eventually getting recognized as the strongest fighter of Universe 7, Gohan faces an evil version of himself from the future in place of Goku Black in the main timeline. For all intents and purposes, Gohan Black and Goku Black play the same kind of role in the overall Future Trunks arc. But there’s one key difference between the two that fixes one of the big issues that fans had about Goku Black…his voice.
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Gohan Black Improves on Goku Black’s Biggest Issue
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero shakes up the Future Trunks arc in a huge way with Gohan Black being the main villain instead of Goku Black. It’s the same character at its core as Zamasu used the Dragon Balls to take over Gohan’s body, and in that timeline wiped out Videl and Pan instead of taking over Goku to kill Chichi and Goten. There aren’t any significant changes to the character’s role in the story, but swapping Goku’s place with Gohan already makes a massive shift with the fact that Gohan is allowed to play more of a role in Future Trunks’ story as a result of his new involvement.
The other key difference because of the swapping out Gohan for Goku comes through their performances as well. In the English dubbed release, Gohan voice actor Kyle Hebert provides the Gohan Black voice much like how Goku voice star Sean Schemmel voiced his own evil counterpart. Schemmel’s take on the character caused a bit of a debate among Dragon Ball fans, however, as Schemmel’s take on a Zamasu possessed Goku spoke with an English accent. But Hebert’s Gohan Black didn’t go this route and instead speaks like a darker, haughtier take on Gohan as fans would have expected from the character.
Gohan Black Changes Things for the Better
This change in performance helps to make Gohan Black stand out even more from his canonical counterpart. It’s a change in vibe for the arc as Gohan’s inclusion seems like one of those big missed opportunities from Dragon Ball Super. Dragon Ball teased that Gohan could become stronger than his father one day, but he instead chose to study and became the weaker version of the fighter that fans saw in the canon. So it meant when Future Trunks showed up and needed help, Gohan was nowhere near the area.
It would have been a much more fulfilling arc for Future Trunks is if the alternate timeline version of his late mentor was able to fight by his side rather than just living his life in peace. While that was a good sight to see for Trunks, but Gohan being able to contribute to the fight would have hit so much harder. It’s especially notable when Goku and Trunks help out as well as they would have stood aside while their respective sons delivered the final blow to the fused god. Now maybe this villain will pop up in the anime or manga’s future in some way.