Star Cast (English Dubbed voice): Kyle Hebert, Sean Schemmel, Robert McCollum, Christopher R. Sabat, Monica Ria, Christopher R. Sabat, Sonny Strait, Eric Vale, Kara Edwards, Jeannie Tirado, Zach Aguilar, Aleks Le, Zeno Robinson, Charles Martinet, Jason Marnocha
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Director: Tetsuro Kodama
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What’s Bad: You’ll watch it and forget about it immediately, just like a pretty okay episode of the series
Loo Break: It’s just 100 minutes, you won’t be tempted!
Watch or Not?: If you’re a Dragon Ball fan, I’m sure you already have booked the tickets but if you’re not a fan, there’s no great reason to recommend you this
Available On: Theatrical Release
Runtime: 100 Minutes
User Rating:
After 20 feature films & a ton of animatic episodes, from the wild imagination of Akira Toriyama’s world, we’re back for the 21st film (2nd in the ‘Super’ series after Broly) with Super Hero. Why the superhero name? Well, the story takes off from where the last film Dragon Ball Super: Broly left us with Goku & Vegeta training on Beerus’ planet but Picollo faces an Android superhero in Gamma 2.
Gamma’s Android army has been created by Dragon Ball Z’s ‘Team Rocket’ i.e. Red Ribbon Army with the help of Dr Hedo, the grandson of villain Dr Gero. RR’s Commander Magenta along with Staff Officer Carmine want Hedo to unleash the beast in Cell Max (successor to Cell) to eradicate Goku & family through a sinister plan. Picollo plans to stop this with the help of Goku’s son Gohan & his 3-year-old cutie Pan. How the plan & battle shapes up is where the vital moments of the story lie.
The OG Akira Toriyama just cannot stop imagining the crazy situations his beloved characters can be in & this is exactly one of them. The idea of shifting the film’s focus from Goku to Gohan was surely a risky one but it’s executed smartly retaining the fan-favourite elements.
Yes, the emotional connection is missing but the crazy humour makes up for the same. Intentionally watched this in Hindi as my childhood has passed watching the show in the same language, so this took me on a refreshing nostalgic trip. With the ‘work-focused’ Gohan delivering dialogues like, “Jaan Jaaye Par Deadline Na Jaaye” &
Makers team up with Toei Animation company to finally give the characters a 3D look & it looks marvellous.
This is Tetsuro Kodama’s first step in the world of Dragon Ball & it seems he didn’t fully understand the assignment. Barring the psychedelic climax & few portions of Gohan powering up, the high moments in the film are too less to even mention. The climax, too, I felt was completely going the Avengers: Endgame route but thankfully was saved by how it ended. He touched the emotional connection between Gohan & Picollo very subtly, which I felt remained underwhelming.
Naoki Satō’s background score goes into Super Saiyan mode in the climax. But, the way it starts & is carried forward even in important signature scenes is 2/5 at best. Expected an adrenaline-pumping score.
All said and done, is this a treat for Dragon Ball fans? Of course yes. But, is it any better than the previous 20 treats? Yes, and no. Yes, because of the visual shift, and humour and no because it stays short in retaining an important element of the show – emotion.
Three stars!
Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero releases on 26 August, 2022.
Share with us your experience of watching Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
Not into Japanese anime? Read our Liger Movie Review to understand why you should be.
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