Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero – Full Review With Analysis, Friendship, Betrayal And More

New transformations, old enemies and two very unconventional superheroes. After years of coming and going from the bench, Son Gohan and Piccolo take advantage of their unconditional ownership in the movie Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero to remember how and why in the great work of Akira Toriyama, simple humour, colourful characters and highly celebrated explosive combats. Euphoric battles that take the viewer towards those climaxes with a very marked author’s name and moments that fascinated us 30 years ago, continue to function today and we will continue celebrating in the future.

And even though the super warrior Son Goku and his rival Vegeta appear only a little in the 100 minutes that Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero lasts, their contribution is more due to the anecdote and the so-called fanservice than to the rhythm of a movie created for fans. from Dragon Ball. To the usual ones, to the new ones, and to those who never ceased to be. Especially to those who, more than justifiably, expected a return through the front door of the most powerful half-breed Saiyan, to the greater pride of his diabolical master and delight of his daughter.

A very small Pan who, as we will see, extends her family’s passion for martial arts to another generation and makes it contagious until she takes it to the viewer. Is it possible to condense all of the above into one hour and forty minutes? Right, there is where the new threat that the protagonists must face comes into play. Colourful villains, with a wacky edge, and great threats that only appear when all the pawns and the rest of the game’s key figures are no longer on the board. Elements that reveal the authorship and style of a Toriyama who signs the script and character designs.

Determined to give more room to characters very dear to himself and rescue that duality of Son Gohan’s nature that we have already seen since his debut in the manga: that of the peaceful earthling dedicated body and soul to books, and that of the invincible Saiyan with latent power even more overwhelming than his father’s.

Of course, even though everything takes place in 100 minutes of footage, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is not a filler story and its context, like so many OVAS, but a succession of events leading to a great battle and that they are fully integrated within the canon of the work. Crossing the screens, as Dragon Ball Z: The Battle of Gods or The Resurrection of Frieza did in their day, and taking shape on paper through the joint work of Toyotaro and Akira Toriyama himself.

Dragon Ball Super Review

Showing, in both mediums, new facets of the well-known characters and reminding us of many of the most explosive stages of the original Dragon Ball manga and the classic Dragon Ball Z anime; as well as very specific elements only seen in the movies or Dragon Ball Super. Of course, you will not need to catch up with the new series or manga to get fully into the movie. Both Akira Toriyama and Toei Animation, the producer, introduce the events and news so that in just five minutes you get carried away by what is happening. A double success, look how you look at it.

From here on, a question of rigour: what has happened for the peaceful Gohan to dress again in the clothes of the demon clan and unleash his anger? Well, as we will see, Piccolo himself had been wanting to give him a push to wake up for a long time. But it will be the unexpected return of a threat from the past that will lead to explosive battles, unexpected reunions, and a resounding sense of déjà vu. All very intentional and well-planned. Among other reasons, to return us to what was, is and continues to be one of the best moments in all of Dragon Ball.

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Many, many years ago, a very young and extraordinary fighter with a monkey tail destroyed with his strength and sense of justice the most powerful and feared military organization on the planet: the Red Ribbon Army. Driven by his passion for martial arts, with the help of his friends, a lot of training and magical spheres capable of granting any wish, that boy named Son Goku managed to save the Earth and the entire universe. And, in the process, he’s built a family that will accompany him on his adventures and inherit his enormous strength. However, unlike Goku, his eldest son Son Gohan prefers peace and takes refuge in books.

Gohan also has a small family, and the truth is that his life is much less hectic than that of Son Goku and his teenage brother Goten. He is a scientist who, in addition to looking at books, lives for and for his wife Videl and his daughter Pan. Unfortunately, his work keeps him so busy that he no longer has much time to train or pick up the little girl from kindergarten. Who better than the son of the Demon King to take care of her?

Piccolo was destined to be the reincarnation of evil and face death with Son Goku. Or so we thought before finding out that his true origins are not strictly demonic, but extraterrestrial: his greenish appearance and curious antennae are due to his Namekian race, and the same can be said of his overwhelming strength. Over time, Piccolo not only ended up fighting alongside Goku, but training Gohan since he was just five years old. Now that her student is a scientist, he not only babysits little Pan but has begun training her seeing her enormous potential and her grandfather’s enthusiasm for martial arts.

Piccolo is happy training Pan and seeing her improve. Which doesn’t mean that he reproaches Gohan for her lack of discipline. Even in the face of his conformism: if something truly serious happens, the powerful Goku will emerge triumphant once again. As usual. Or, at least, as of now.

After years in the shadows, the red army of the Red Ribbon has resurfaced using the largest pharmaceutical company as a cover to finance and expand throughout the world. At the head of both initiatives is Magenta, the son of General Red and heir to his resources, his will to conquer the planet and that unresolved revenge for years towards Son Goku and his friends. Now, Magenta has a new ally capable of satisfying all those intentions.

Dr Hedo is a brilliant scientist and an even bigger fan of superheroes. But it is also that he is the grandson of Dr Gero, who created the Androids and the powerful Cell that fought Goku, Piccolo and little Gohan many years in the past. In fact, and this is momentous, Cell’s defeat was neither at the hands of Piccolo nor an outmatched Goku, but was made possible by Gohan being able to unleash a significant amount of his colossal latent power by parking the peaceful character. of the. Magenta’s current grand plan is to trick Hedo and appeal to his sense of justice into building even more powerful androids for the refounded Red Ribbon.

Heavily inspired by classic superheroes, the androids Gamma 1 and Gamma 2, created by Dr Hedo for the Red Ribbon, attack Piccolo as a show of force. However, the namekian sees this threat as an opportunity to reawaken Son Gohan’s passion for fighting. And funniest of all: somehow, the powerful and no-nonsense demon convinces a not-so-defenceless Pan to help him with a funny plan, now that Goku is training galaxies away from Earth.

The fate of the Earth is no longer in the hands of those born on remote planets but in the earthlings. Regardless of whether his ancestry is Namekian or half-Saiyan. But will Gohan’s strength, Piccolo’s cunning, and the Dragon Balls be enough to contain this danger?

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, digital animation scripted by Akira Toriyama

Akira Toriyama’s drawing style has not stopped evolving since his time before Dr. Slump and, despite this, he is recognizable throughout the world. As a film, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero takes a step forward from the previous 20 feature films, being an extension of his current technique and his new ideas and influences. But also in his way of reflecting the calm tension, the absurd humour situations and the frantic battles.

A double milestone in the artistic field that has a weaker skills: for the first time in the franchise, Toei Animation has opted for digital animation instead of the traditional one. 

Of course, distancing itself from other CGI productions of the house by clinging to a finish with borders, more or less flat colours and effects that evoke Toriyama’s most recent illustrations at all times. It is not that there were no other Dragon Ball movies created with computers, there we have the case of the Japanese attraction Dragon Ball Z: The Real 4-D launched in 2016. However, it is also true that previous movies like Dragon Ball Super: Broly had entrusted the most explosive scenes and the most delicate action plans to digital animation with good results. And, to be honest, what was seen in games like Dragon Ball FighterZ and DBZ: Kakarot brought out the colours of the vast majority of Dragon Ball Super episodes created by hand.

As a result, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero feels like a legitimate extension of both Akira Toriyama’s work and current style on the big screen and knows how to take advantage of the new doors that open for him by offering fight scenes in the rain, much longer shots and a pacing that benefits both action moments and comedy and everything in between. And, in the process, he shows us an episode that takes place between the battle on the kai shin planet of Dragon Ball Z, what happened in Dragon Ball Super (without going into it too much) and the final episodes of the Dragon Ball manga published in 1994. Showing what happened just a little bit before Goku said goodbye to the fans, leaving room to tell new stories never told after the conclusion of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.

Of course, all of the above would fall on deaf ears if the script, established by Akira Toriyama although outlined by Tetsuro Kodama (the film’s director) and five other writers, did not live up to what Dragon Ball fans expect and those who simply want to see super strong characters watching cosmic whirlwinds and energy cannons explode on the screen. Reserving those moments for the end of the footage while the viewer has given a privileged look at the Dragon World when Goku and Vegeta, the protagonists of this new stage, are simply doing other things.

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Ultimately clinging to the clichés that we all know, would be missing, and also recovering enemies of the past with surprises that evoke those sensations that an entire generation lived three decades ago. But also knowing how to introduce loose bits of that more traditional tone with which Toriyama conquered us in Dr Slump, Sand Land or Cowa. Little Pan is the third axis of the film, the legitimate heir to the passion of little Son Goku and, at the same time, the great revelation of this unique chapter created to measure for Gohan and Piccolo to shine and big.

Because among so many adventures and battles through the cosmos of Son Goku and Vegeta, it is inevitable to conclude that for too many years the events of Dragon Ball have ended up orbiting around two characters with a lot of charisma and a single obsession: to be the strongest. However, that is just one of the many themes that addresses in the work of Akira Toriyama. Precisely for this reason, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is a small breath of fresh air without going off on a tangent and, at the same time, a reflection of the most tremendous stage of Dragon Ball Z.

Making it clear, for those who wanted a more traditional movie, that neither Goku nor Vegeta intend to change. And we are not going to deny it: as a work, Dragon Ball must evolve, but these two Saiyans are incorrigible. And that’s how we want them to be. It’s impossible to get everyone right, but it does give those who aren’t Dragon Ball Super fans a good dose of manga/ Anime excitement. And to those who see manga and anime as something as special as their own, a story that condenses in 100 minutes the genius of Akira Toriyama who is passionate about martial arts movies, science fiction and the most simple humor. 

If you add to all of the above the passion for superheroes that Gohan himself already showed self-confidence as the Great Saiyaman, and that Toriyama already shamelessly showed in his previous work or when creating the Ginew forces, the result is Dragon Ball Super: Superhero. A film brimming with clichés, everyday scenes and surprises strategically placed throughout the footage so that, in the end, it always ends up delivering exactly what we think of. But even more and better than it promises. As in the best Dragon Ball Z sagas and movies.