DESCRIPTION

CAST

MOVIE ActionDragon Ball Super: Broly
NOVEL ActionGekijouban Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero
ANIME ActionDragon Ball DAIMA

REVIEWS

• 

  tbhdrinkwater

  80/100
  Spoiler Free Review: Addressing Dragon Ball Super's Biggest Issue Perfectly, Just a bit Worrying for the Future

  This movie addresses my biggest issue with Dragon Ball Super, in that Goku and Vegeta are the only characters in Dragon Ball Super. They simply got way too much screen time and we rarely got moments with other characters where they could shine, the Tournament of Power also addressed this and we got some great memorable moments outside of Goku and Vegeta but they still got the most spotlight. So this movie feels like a breath of fresh air knowing how little we see these two, but don't get me wrong though I love Goku and Vegeta but we needed a break from them. Despite not watching this with the greatest of quality I was a fairly surprised at how good the CGI animation was, admittedly when I first saw it in the teaser back when it was shown I wasn't too big on the idea but looking back on Broly's CGI scenes I thought that they could pull it off and they did very well.

  Some frames look a bit funny when paused but in motion I have no problems with how the movie looks, the animations come to life during comedy along with it's great art style. With the fight scenes being CGI too you get some great camerawork during fights. I did see studio JC Staff and Orange in the credits, though I'm not sure on what exactly they did to assist here but I wouldn't be surprised if they helped out with the CGI part. If you're a Dragon Ball casual or like me whose seen almost everything the series has to offer the story here is nothing you haven't seen before, it's fairly standard and the twists are very predictable though even with it's at worst somewhat underwhelming story the overall experience is still an absolute joy to watch. The fight scenes too have some great sound effect design to go alongside it, specifically the fights against the Gamma units. You can easily hear the more metallic sound effects for when Piccolo and Gohan hit them, it gives the fighting much more weight to it all and I love it.

  

  The music wasn't very noticeable sadly even near the end, probably my biggest issue with this movie is that it almost feels like we're creating the same problem here. I'm going to assume here that you've seen a good chunk of the trailers here, but just like the Dragon Ball Super problem Gohan and Piccolo got a lot of very deserved attention here. Maybe I'm just greedy but I was kind of hoping for a bit more with Goten and Trunks since they finally aged them up alongside Pan. They all got great moments, but I feel Goten and Trunks should've gotten a bit more then what we got. And even then this isn't even that big of an issue, if anything I'm grateful they finally gave them enough attention to aged them up. They even gave a reason as to why they didn't which was totally made to get fans to shut up about them not caring about doing that sooner. I'm simply worried that in the future when Goku and Vegeta have gotten too much spotlight we're going to switch back to Piccolo and Gohan so that fans don't get burnt out on the main two, and really never give the side characters a major role.

  My favorite arc is the Majin Buu Saga for how well it treated the characters in it, everyone felt important one way or another even the ones we'd never expect to be. I long for the day when we can get an Arc written like how the Buu Saga was again. I hope I worded that properly. To clarify again just incase, I'm very happy with the treatment Gohan and Piccolo received this movie my issue just comes from a doubt for the future of this series where they just become another Goku and Vegeta situation in where they get more spotlight and ignore other characters who could very well use it. This movie was a very fun watch, I had gotten spoiled on something major and not wanting to get spoiled on anything else rushed to quickly watch the movie even if it wasn't in the best quality. It was definitely worth it, great character comedy moments brought to life by the well executed CGI one scene in particular shocking the absolute hell out of me. Intense battles left and right filled with a hint of fanservice if you notice it that also had me screaming very loudly at 3 AM, also Oreos, a lot of Oreos. A must watch for any fan of Dragon Ball, just go into the movie expecting Dragon Ball.

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• 

  EXistential

  60/100
  Super Heroes of a Bygone Age

  THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR DRAGON BALL Z (CELL SAGA) & DRAGON BALL SUPER: SUPER HERO

  Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is the "glorious" return for the fan favorite Son Gohan. At least I would say that if most of this movie wasn't a damn Piccolo film.

  STORY

  Whilst our main two Saiyans are on leave on Beerus's planet, the dasteredly Red Ribbon Army is rising from the ashes under the command of Dr. Hedo and Magenta. The emergence of the new Androids Gamma 1 & 2, so called "Super Heroes", forces Piccolo and Gohan into a situation where the Earth is under threat of domination without its two ace fighters.

  I hope you already see something wrong here. The return of the Red Ribbon Army is kind of uninspired and lazy, nor are the specific antagonists of Hedo and Magenta any sort of interesting. Hedo is gullible and that's about it.

  My personal favorite part of the movie was Piccolo. Specifically his interactions with Pan. The first thing I noticed is just how easy-going Piccolo was with Pan's training as opposed to her father, and it does a good job illustrating Piccolo's growth throughout the franchise. I also enjoyed the escapades of Piccolo sneaking into the RR base. It's an interesting change of pace from the Dragon Ball norm of throwing hands first, asking questions second.

  After Piccolo schemes about with ideas to defeat the Gammas, however, he ultimately comes to Gohan. Oh, gosh, Gohan.

  So much of the imagery surrounding Gohan's involvement in this film is just repeating his development in Z. Hell, the true final big bad of the movie is a GIANT STAGE 2 CELL WITH A PALETTE SWAP! I WISH I WAS LYING! The issues involving their lazy treatment of Gohan requires me to talk about forms, sooooooooooooo

  Piccolo and Gohan get a new transformation each in this film. Piccolo becomes "Orange Piccolo", a form granted to him by getting Shenron to be able to harness the potential unlocking ability of Namekian Elders. Yes, it's deadass called "Orange Piccolo". He bulks up to about double his normal size and, well, has an orange tint to him. It's a decent power boost, but not the most relevant in the movie. GOHAN HOWEVER--

  Y'all remember Gohan's entire character arc in Z that culminated in his SSJ2 transformation at the Cell Games? Guess what got recycled! OH JOY!

  So we got this big ol' bug man, icing everyone in sight. Here comes Gohan, who doesn't really stand a chance with how he walks into the fight. However, after a sacrifice in vain and the villain seemingly murdering a character both the audience and Gohan have become attached to does Gohan snap and his true power become manifest...to the point that snap is visualized with the exact same effect from the GODDAMN 90s!

  Gohan's new form, which is never officially named in the movie unlike Orange Piccolo, is the quintessential lazy Super Saiyan reskin. White hair and red eyes this time. Don't worry, though! This time, they enlarged Gohan's hair modeling by like 3x! That means it's totally different. Yeah...yeah.

  From the basic premise of the Red Ribbon Army's remains created Androids to murder our protagonists to every involving Gohan, Super Hero is genuinely uninspired, lazy, and disappointing. At least story-wise, we're apparently still living in the Cell Saga. Just swap #16 for Piccolo.

  Gohan's first Mankankosappo was fucking sick, though. That was nice.

  VISUALS/SOUND

  Positive, EX. Positive. Okay, so, what about the CG? Honestly, I'd personally say they made it work surprisingly well. Obviously, it's still CG, but the Dragon Ball artstyle has been adapted very well. Some shots of Piccolo seemed a little off at certain angles, but aside from that, everything looked great. Less Berserk, More Lupin the First tier 3D anime. Repeated fighting frames are rare to nonexistent here as well.

  All your favorite DB sound design is still here, and lemme say, the sound of metal getting bashed on every hit that connected onto the Gammas is satisfyingly as all hell.

  OVERALL VERDICT

  Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is stuck in the past. Its story feels like a lazy retread of the Cell Games carried by Piccolo, contrasting the quality of the presentation of said story. If this was supposed to be Gohan's grand return, it fell flat on its damn face. Decent Piccolo movie, though.

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• 

  Wafflesx

  73/100
  Dragon Ball SUPER HERO is leading in the right direction of the franchise.

  Spoiler Warning: Don't look if you don't want to see.

  Dragon Ball Super: SUPER HERO is definitely taking steps into the direction that I want to see more of in Dragon Ball. I love Goku and Vegeta, but having a movie almost completely remote of them is so satisfying. I love seeing Piccolo and Gohan doing more, and Trunks and Goten growing. That being said this movie was far from perfect. I wish we could have seen more from Goten and Trunks, instead of just having them be extremely sidelined. Beyond that seeing more of Broly and Cheelai and Lemo would have been super nice too. But this was all in the right direction for me. Finally, I really didn't like the new forms. They looked super silly, I get Gohan had crazy hair in SSJ2, and the hair was a call back to that, but it looked extremely silly, and Piccolo's new form is also kinda whack. It's nice to see the fan-service, pandering and call backs, but it'd also be nice if they ironed out some of these designs more.

  The movie shows extreme potential for the future of Dragon Ball Super, however it has the age old Toriyama type quirks. No single Dragon Ball property, in the history of ever, has ever had a well written female character, which is a tad disheartening. I think the best example so far is Cheelai in Dragon Ball Super Broly, but thats the best I can think of. I hope this is an aspect of the franchise they can improve upon, but Dragon Ball is taking baby steps to realize the potential of the series. I'd love to see a well written teen Pan or something along those lines, but who knows where the franchise will go from here.

  Now in terms of overall movie ranking, I'm still steadfast in believing Dragon Ball Super: Broly is far and wide the best example this franchise has. Its peak Dragon Ball in all it's glory, and it takes one of the worst fandom characters and makes him one of my personal favorites. In a similar sense, this film takes some of the most betrayed characters in the franchise, Piccolo and Gohan and brings them back to characters of respect, or at least thats the goal. What Dragon Ball Super: Broly attempts to do for Broly and Gogeta, this movie attempts to do for Gohan and Piccolo and I'm hopeful that will ripple into the rest of the franchise. This movie isn't as proficient with it as Broly but that would be a serious feat to accomplish.

  Lastly what I hope for the franchises, future? I hope to see more exploration of other characters. I want to see the next movie do something like this with Goten and Trunks. I really hope for whatever reason Goku, Vegeta, Gohan and Piccolo aren't around resulting in Goten Trunks and maybe even Pan having to save the day. Honestly this movie was such a long shot for them, going against the established norm of Dragon Ball and I can do nothing but praise them for it. I really hope to see more characters fleshed out and a serious image improvement for Goten and Trunks who were nothing but comic relief this movie.

  All in all I enjoyed my time with this film. I won't be recommending it as rabidly as Broly, but I will tell my Gohan fan friends about it.

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