I’m a Dragon Ball fan for over 20 years, and you can easily tell from my activity at this publication that I have plenty of knowledge about the franchise. The new ‘Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero’ movie that came out a few days ago in North America and other parts of the world after having its premiere much earlier in Japan has kept many of us curious and excited about what’s coming. There were some signs out there that we’ll get a great movie: a brand new and more modern-looking animation, Piccolo coming under the spotlight after a long wait, the return of a classic Dragon Ball villain, or the arrival of more powerful villains.
Unfortunately, the new movie is a significant disappointment, or at least that’s how I perceive it. You are free to have a completely different opinion and express it, of course. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is not necessarily a bad movie by itself, meaning that it’s totally reasonable for some who are not too deep into Dragon Ball to see it as a fairly good one. You may even find it great if you care too much about the animation, which I have to say from the start that it’s indeed beautiful. I’ll gladly pinpoint a few of Super Hero’s most important aspects below.
The story: not very original
In a nutshell, the movie’s story goes like this: Dr. Hedo gets recruited to revive the Red Ribbon Army that was destroyed by Goku many years ago, and he creates new powerful androids for the Z warriors to deal with. Dr. Hedo is very intelligent, as he’s the nephew of Dr. Gero, who created the androids from Dragon Ball Z, including Cell. Hedo receives new funds and gets deceived that Goku and the gang are seeking utter world domination. He’s being told that the Z warriors are evil and therefore need to be taken down.
On the other side, Gohan once again struggles with his addiction to scientific studying, which makes him skip his training again. Piccolo is there to tell him to get serious with fighting because a major threat can always occur. We’ve seen this situation several times before in Dragon Ball already – from time to time, Gohan forgets about his training and somewhat becomes weak. It happened in the Buu Saga of Dragon Ball Z and before the Tournament of Power from Dragon Ball Super. We’re pretty tired of it.
The comeback of the Red Ribbon Army under a new mastermind wasn’t necessarily a bad idea, but I believe it could have been exploited in a much more intelligent way. The new androids Gamma 1 and Gamma 2 might have their charm, but seriously, they look more like toys from a shelf rather than fighters. You just can’t take seriously a fighter who’s shooting lasers with a pistol when we’re talking about Dragon Ball.
I appreciate the remembrance of plenty of important times from the long Dragon Ball history, such as Goku’s struggle to defeat the Red Ribbon Army when he was a boy, the reign of King Piccolo, the defeat of the androids and Cell in Dragon Ball Z, the young Gohan turning Super Saiyan 2, and so on. The movie even begins likewise, with a short mention and footage from the much older Dragon Ball moments, starting with the downfall of the Red Ribbon Army caused by the young boy named Goku. That’s nice, but when it comes to Dragon Ball, you can’t live from memories. The fans want a lot more.
Still, that remembrance makes me go into another subject that upsets me a lot about Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
The return of Cell: useless
Bringing back a classic Dragon Ball Z villain was one of the main reasons the fans were eagerly waiting to see the new movie. Cell was the ultimate creation of Dr. Gero and a biological android who was capable of all the fighting techniques of the best fighters that Earth has ever seen. He was light-years stronger than Frieza, for instance, the intergalactic tyrant who was believed to be the strongest fighter in the Universe when he was first introduced in Dragon Ball Z.
How can you bring back Cell only as a giant non-speaking monster who’s blindly attacking everyone and everything? This character had his own personality in Z, and had that calm but also deadly demeanor. We can’t forget the chemistry between Cell and Goku or between Cell and Gohan, or even between Cell and Vegeta back in the old times of Dragon Ball Z. Cell had his own philosophy, his own charm, and the bargains between him and the beloved Saiyans had so many memorable lines!
But in Super Hero, we get absolutely nothing of those! NO-THING! ZE-RO! There wasn’t even any dialogue between Cell and Gohan, as Goku’s son was the one who defeated the monster in the past. There wasn’t even an “oh my, he’s a lot stronger than when I fought him before” line from Gohan.
To make matters worse, Gohan fought Cell in the new movie for just a few seconds. How in the Lord’s name can you possibly bring back a villain like Cell and make him so useless and dull? Just how? No, making both characters “stronger” and with fancy new colors, believing that it will be enough in that way, is utterly ridiculous. It’s useless even if we’re talking about characters that mean something in the Dragon Ball history, such as Gohan and Cell.
In fact, the introduction of Cell Max (as the villain was called in the film) reflects pretty much the entire philosophy of Dragon Ball Super: make characters a whole lot stronger and give them new transformations for apparently no reason and almost always without explaining how they got there, and the fans will be happy, as nothing else is important. It may work on some fans, and certainly, I’m not here to judge anyone. If you like the modern Dragon Ball content, that’s fine by me. But for someone who grew up with the classic Dragon Ball stuff such as Z or the first series when Goku was a child, I don’t like the new approach at all. In Dragon Ball Z, the writers explained how fighters achieved a certain level of power and presented the way they had been training to get there. I respected that a lot and probably no Dragon Ball fan would ever complain. The same thing happened in the first Dragon Ball anime when Goku was a boy. The writers explained a lot about how fighters became stronger, and the focus seemed to be even more on the martial arts aspect. You could almost feel Goku’s struggle and emotions as he was going through his intense training under Master Roshi or Mr. Popo, for instance. But when it comes to Dragon Ball Super, the recipe is almost nothing more than pumping up muscles, firing energy waves, and becoming stronger and stronger for no reason and with no explanation provided. That’s blunt and boring for me.
Gohan and his new ‘Beast’ form: just another bad joke
Yes, I have been calling Gohan’s new form “Final Gohan” in previous articles, and I apologize for that. Regardless of the name, I hate to say it, but the great new transformation of Goku’s son is still nothing more than a way to sell more toys. In a nutshell, Gohan achieved this transformation in the movie just because he got mad at seeing Cell tearing Piccolo apart. That’s all. No special training, no explanations, nothing. Gohan gets mad and surpasses everyone. Sure, the design looks good if you like that Ultra Instinct-style silver hair or those beautiful red eyes of Gohan. But it’s not enough. And yes, Akira Toriyama explained something about the new form of Goku’s son. That’s nice from him, but we’re talking about the movie. The end product is what matters: Gohan achieves a new form just by getting mad, which is disturbing.
Throughout the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie, it’s stated that Gohan has some sort of hidden power that would make him even stronger than Goku. We’ve heard that nonsense numerous times in Dragon Ball already – pretty much since Gohan was first introduced into the series as a 4-year-old boy.
The Elder Kai, an old Namekian, and Gohan’s own rage and need to save the day made him unlock his ‘hidden power’ in Dragon Ball already several times. Now they’ve done it once again with the so-called ‘Gohan Beast.’ Unlocking a ‘hidden power’ more than once seems fairly absurd, even when we’re just talking about an anime. The fans can’t buy that recipe forever.
Furthermore, the ‘Ultimate’ transformation that Gohan first used in the fight against Majin Buu in Dragon Ball Z was said to unlock all his potential. I mean, why were they calling it “ultimate” in the first place, right? That’s another strong reason that Gohan Beast is absurd and just a desperate way to make more money out of the franchise.
Orange Piccolo: a major contribution
It was nice to see that once again, after a while, Piccolo had a major contribution in taking down the biggest threat. He gets a massive power boost in the new movie, and I’m not even going to talk about its ridiculous name. I may even find it amusing if I’m in a good mood. Furthermore, Dragon Ball has never been too good when it comes to names for characters and transformations. I want to talk about the way Piccolo got his new transformation.
Shenron gave Piccolo a new power boost after the famous Namekian used the 7 dragon balls that he took from Bulma. Piccolo is the creator himself of the Dragon Balls, and despite this aspect, he was shocked to find out that the dragon can make him stronger. That’s indeed a little sloppy writing, but overall, Piccolo’s contribution and new form were a plus for the movie.
Speaking of sloppy writing, I’m going to talk about the final aspect of the movie.
Goku and Vegeta left aside: a good idea, but poorly applied
I’m perfectly ok as a Dragon Ball fan with Goku and Vegeta not taking all or most of the glory once in a while. There are certainly a lot of warriors there who can save the day and deserve to be under the spotlight, including Gohan and Piccolo.
But how on Earth can you say that Goku and Vegeta can’t be contacted by their friends just because they’re training on Beerus’ planet? This was ridiculous. It would have been a lot more reasonable if the two beloved Saiyans were just sleeping on the planet or anywhere else. But instead, they were fully awake, which means that they should have easily been able to sense the huge ki’s coming from the battles on Earth, even if the androids Gamma 1 and Gamma 2 couldn’t generate any. Back in the Majin Buu Saga from Dragon Ball Z, the warriors were able to feel the ki’s of one another even from the Other World. And they were just Super Saiyan level at that point, meaning a lot weaker than Ultra Instinct, Gohan Beast, Orange Piccolo, or even Super Saiyan Blue. Goku and Vegeta being left aside and not taking part in the fight was a good idea, but the writing regarding why they didn’t participate was another piece of sloppy work.
Last but not least, why the heck is Goku acting like a complete buffoon who doesn’t know what meditation is? Was he just trolling? It’s completely intolerable to do that to the franchise’s most beloved and iconic character! Goku practiced meditation even since he was a kid while training under Mr. Popo. He was light-years weaker at that point, just in case the writers really care a bit about power scaling!
Broly is in the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie too if you didn’t notice! I say that because the chances are high that you didn’t notice him at all. He’s only present to make Beerus mad, pump up his muscles a bit, and cry for some completely unknown reason when Vegeta defeats Goku in a simple sparring match.
No, I’m not going to go easy on the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie just because I’m talking about Dragon Ball, a franchise that I love a lot. It’s exactly that love that makes me upset when the product is bad or sloppy. I have the right to say what I believe, and you are free to disagree if that’s what you consider.
The battles in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero were pretty interesting if you don’t care about the blunders that I’ve mentioned, the animation was awesome, and it was nice seeing Piccolo jumping into some real action once again. But those are pretty much the only positive aspects of the entire movie. Way too little in my book! ‘Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero’ has too many flaws, which is why I can’t possibly recommend it to any Dragon Ball fan! Maybe I would recommend it to someone who’s not a fan of the franchise but just wants to see an animated movie with superheroes.