Is Dragon Ball Super mocking the viewers?

Dragon Ball came back two years ago. Akira Toriyama understood that he could still make profit from his pop version of Journey to the West and said "I need more rooms for my scale models". And it was done.

Now, the return of the once legendary monkey, now alien having too many parallelisms with Superman, has been shaken by too many polemics around the quality of animation. I won't insist much here about this matter, it's enough with a search on the web. Furthermore, I'm more interested in analyzing certain plot details.

In the first place, both Goku and Vegeta's behaviour must be admitted as reprehensible, as they only judge people according to their power. If somebody isn't strong, they act like that person din't exist. The funniest is that it's Whis, that character that coaches one of the Gods of Destruction, the first to openly criticize that attitude.

Son Gohan is also in a crappy situation. He was never very popular. Too similar to his father and with a cheap characterization. Akira Toriyama even said that he didn't know what to do with Gohan, wich is a bit laughable coming from his CREATOR. Since the first ending of Dragon Ball, he has always been assumed to become an erudite who, apparently, would write a book about ki and its potential for dummies, to say. The success of the book would lead many people to learn the secret that allows to shoot kamehamehas, to fly and other skills.

However, some people complain about Gohan being now such a weakling against the current evil guys. Honestly, I can't say I understand the reason. The moment Gohan defeated Cell was even original, but wasn't too surprising (seriously, Gohan's special power had been nagged for more than two arcs). Anyway, he'd forget about bashing--- which makes sense, because Gohan has always been unstable (and I'm being nice).

Also, Future Trunks has been reused, the same guy who carried a quite awesome sword (by the way, the first sword got broken, where this new one has come from?). He's again back to the past because he has found other evil enemy (This poor child has really no luck!). When Goku and Vegeta hear that Trunks flew from the new evil enemy, first thing they do is reprimanding hin... Just for Bulma reminding them that not everybody is obsessed with finding difficult rivals to fight them.

Finally, it's worth to mention that the lad with the cool sword has felt merry to see Gohan happily married instead of bashing with space punks to death. It's what happens when you've seen your cherished ones dying before your eyes: you prefer their safety before all else. Some fans proposed that Trunks scolded Gohan for stop fighiting. Heh! Some of them even proposed that Gohan lost his wife and dughter, so he were motivated to bash. Indeed, the scene is clearly there TO MOCK THOSE FANS.

But, personally, the most obvious declaration of war against such an audience has come with the second opening. To be precise, from 0:29 to 0:33.

Let's now examine the matter. This character that appears duplicated is Zen-Oh, the king of the twelve universes (1). His appearance is similar to a kid-sized robot. His nature is amoral, like that time when he destroyed six universes just because he was in an horrible mood. And it doesn't stop there, his intention behind organizing a tournament is destroying the losing universes. Social Darwinism at cosmic level, it's actually that! Furthermore, the song says "I can't get no satisfaction" when this character appears.

I have the feeling that he is the perfect reflection of the audience: he looks like a kid both in his appearance and his acts, but is actually quite old (as it's belonging to the king of the universe... and to the audience, that exists before the work of fiction), has an immesuarable power (the globally negative reaction against Dragon Ball GT has led to erase it from canon) and only wants fights and more fights (What else is Dragon Ball Z?), while also being cruel to the weakest characters. Nevertheless, they'are never happy, like the song insinuates, even if they get the same material as in Dragon Ball Z, because they have idealized memories, because they relate them to a time without duties.

Any reader may say that it's a bit strange that Toriyama mocks viewers... but it isn't the first time he does it. In Dr. Slump, it wasn't strange for him to throw digs at his readers (and the anime adaptation wasn't very different). The relation this man has with his most famous creation is contradictory: many years ago, he fought to abandon it and succeeded, and dedicated himself to short works... But it soon became clear that noting new he were to create would reach Dragon Ball in terms of sales. So he came back with parodies and has now continued the story where he left it, encouraged by the success of the movie Battle of Gods (Dragon Ball GT was an original creation by Toei Animation).

However, now that he finds lots of criticism and protests, maybe Toriyama thought "Damned be those jerks! You're gonna see!". And no, I can't blame him. I must that admit my relation with Dragon Ball is complex. On the one hand, it cheered my childhood and was one of the series that opened the doors of anime for me, on the other hand, I remember other series such as Ranma 1/2, Dash!! Kappei or Hai Step Jun (2) that deserve the same recognition, and even they're directly superior to Dragon Ball finishing in Z. The fact that this last part is the most celebrated by the nostalgic adorers of "our" childhood irritates me even more.

Well, those crazy nerds!

1 In old Spanish translations, Kaioh was also called "king of the universe". How many kings may be in Dragon Ball?
2 The two former were named Chicho Terremoto and Los inventos de Eva for Spanish audiences.