For some it is a vestige of their childhood, but ‘Dragon ball’ is more alive than ever: ‘Super’ got off to a shaky start with ‘The Battle of Gods’ but the series culminated in an epic battle with the most powerful beings from all known universes. Now, after Goku and Vegeta have reached absolutely impossible levels of power, ‘Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero’ arrives and relegates them to the bench… Fortunately.
let’s go eagerly
The two protagonists of the new film in the saga are old acquaintances: Piccolo and Gohan, a kind of father and son that in their day gave us the best scenes of the series before Goku and Vegeta returned to take the absolute lead with their craziest transformations. The problem is that their power has risen so much that they are basically gods with special transformations like the Ultra Instinct and the Ultra Ego, and any fight on Earth against more or less normal enemies would not have any kind of emotion with them in command.
Therefore, Akira Toriyama has been smart in planning the story of ‘Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero’ and has relegated its role in the friends of the two saiyanresulting in a fight in which everyone has their star moment (even Krillin, more of a meme than anything else) and a change of generation is sensed for which the public may already begin to be prepared. If you grew up with the series and you want to see characters from the past like Yajirobai or Dende again, even briefly, this is your movie.
Without a doubt, ‘Dragon Ball Super: Broly’ was a better movie than this one. More exciting and epic, uncontrollable, a reboot of Broly’s story that, this time, falls within the canon. But there is something in the new installment that makes it irresistible. The trademark humor of the house returns, the struggles in which the fate of the universe is not decided, surprise transformations and even the remake of some two-dimensional images of Goku’s fight against the Red Ribbon army that will make your ki warm.
all at once
The biggest controversy with ‘Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero’ has been its animation style: if in the previous film CGI was already used in the fighting, in this one it has been used to animate the entire film. I myself was very scared before I saw her, but she takes it off with a stroke of the pen: except for a few moments where she sings, it is very well integrated and, despite what the most conservative fans say, there is not a big difference with the rest of the franchise except for the fluidity of the fights.
Greater should be the controversy over a plot that we have seen before. Literally. And it is that This new sequel continues to be an undercover remake of the Android saga, the one that culminated with Cell (or Cell, to suit the consumer) putting the team on the ropes and showing Gohan’s true strength. Here we have the Red Ribbon army back, Dr. Gero’s grandson and even redone footage of past fights to fuel our nostalgia. And it works, it works. About.
The plot excuse from which the film takes its name (superheroes) is more an anecdote or an addition to attract attention in the title than a plot that really marks the footage. If you were expecting to see Yamcha and Ten Shin Han dressed in tights and parodying Marvel or DC, forget it. For better or worse, this is still ‘Dragon ball’ and beyond a wink (to Batman, for example), the film is more about kaiju combat than superheroes.
To search hard for the dragon ball
If Goku and Vegeta had been available on Earth instead of fighting for the umpteenth time (the result of the fight, in the post-credits), this installment would have lasted five minutes and would not have pushed any character to their limit of strength. With a couple of energy balls, solved. Fortunately, the secondary take the reins and show that ‘Dragon ball’ are not just two very strong characters looking for their respective limits, but a crowd of fighters, each with their own style, whom It has been forgotten for too long.
‘Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero’ is spectacular in his fights, although the enemies never end up having any charisma and are even ridiculous, and his two new transformations (which we are not going to spoil) are as unnecessary as they are visually incredible. It does not reinvent the wheel or surprise, but, Is that really what we ask of the 21st film based on the anime? In the end, it is one of the best we have seen so far, perhaps only below ‘Dragon Ball Super: Broly’ or, stretching, ‘The dragon attack’ or ‘Fusion’. It depends on your level of nostalgia.
If you don’t like ‘Dragon Ball Super’ and you absolutely refuse to watch anime with CGI because of bad experiences in the past, you won’t enjoy ‘Super Hero’ at all, because beyond changing the protagonism, it will not give you what you are looking for. If, on the other hand, you are open to new experiences, it is very likely that you will have a good time like a child with a more familiar adventure than usual (within the usual blows of the franchise) that presents the possible future of the saga and leaves that, for once, Goku and Vegeta dedicate themselves to fighting each other while the others do all the work. A little fresh air to a saga for which, with the increases in power, it is getting harder and harder to create a credible threat. In short, it is a great adventure full of emotion for nostalgics with an open mind. It’s not that easy to find someone like that.