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.
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.
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.
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.
39.5 out of 53 users liked this review
