Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

Note: This review contains spoilers for Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Super, Dragon Ball Super: Broly and Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.

While Dragon Ball remains a popular franchise, due in part to the franchise’s second wind in the wake of the success of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, the newer films had more of a focus on the characters Goku and Vegeta at the expense of just about everyone else. This would change with Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero (Super Hero), which released in 2022 to critical acclaim and became the second-highest grossing film in the franchise, as well as the first one independently distributed by Toei following the Disney/Fox merger. Apart from a switch to CG animation in place of traditional, the film would also focus on the relationship between Gohan and Piccolo and revisit the Red Ribbon Army as antagonists. Although we admittedly still haven’t seen the original Dragon Ball (DB), we still found ourselves enjoying the film and its welcome change in focus.

Over thirty years after Goku defeated the Red Ribbon Army and its leader Commander Red, his son, Commander Magenta (Charles Martinet), seeks to revive it under the guise of Red Pharmaceuticals. To enable his plan, Magenta recruits Dr. Gero’s grandson Dr. Hedo (Zach Aguilar), a mad scientist obsessed with superheroes, following his release from prison by convincing him that Bulma’s (Monica Rial) Capsule Corporation is an evil organization bent on world domination. Later, while Goku (Sean Schemmel), Vegeta (Christopher Sabat) and Broly (Johnny Yong Bosch) train off-planet, Piccolo (Christopher Sabat) is attacked by a Red Ribbon android named Gamma 2 (Zeno Robinson). Following the battle, Piccolo tails Gamma 2 to the Red Ribbon Army’s base, where he learns of Commander Magenta’s plans. When he’s unable to contact Goku and Vegeta, Piccolo resolves to stop the Red Ribbon Army while re-awakening Gohan’s (Kyle Hebert) fighting spirit.

Piccolo (Christopher Sabat) goes undercover at the Red Ribbon Army base.

While the Dragon Ball Super (DBS) storyline continues moving forward, Super Hero calls back to the past. The Red Ribbon Army, an antagonistic force in the original DB, makes their grand return through Commander Magenta, who plays the long game in continuing where his father left off. Dr. Hedo’s presence, as well as the new androids Gamma 1 (Aleks Le) and Gamma 2, also calls back to the Cell Saga from Dragon Ball Z (DBZ), though he’s much different from his grandfather through his obsession with superheroes. These callbacks continue through not just the presence of Cell Max (Dameon Clarke), an attempt at creating an android more powerful than Cell, but also specific moments from DB, even showing the original footage in flashback as a reminder for the audience. While these flashback scenes can help those who haven’t seen DB follow along, they also double as a great fanservice for longtime fans and show that Toriyama hasn’t truly forgotten his own series.

A shared theme of legacy between Magenta and Hedo also extends to the protagonists. In a refreshing change of pace, Goku and Vegeta aren’t the ones in the spotlight. Instead, we get more of a focus on Gohan, Goku’s son, and his relationship with Piccolo, who mentored him and arguably acted as a sort of father figure during DBZ. Piccolo makes it clear that he’s disappointed in Gohan’s lack of training and, in a moment of catharsis for some viewers, calls him out for ignoring his daughter Pan (Jeannie Tirado) in favor of focusing on his research. Although Piccolo doesn’t have any descendants of his own, he himself is the “son” of King Piccolo from DB and tells the villains that he’s no longer the person he once was. As an added bonus, other characters get a chance to shine, including Krillin (Sonny Strait) and Android 18 (Meredith McCoy), as well as Goku and Vegeta’s descendants Goten (Robert McCollum) and Trunks (Eric Vale).

Compared to the previous films following Battle of Gods, Super Hero stands out for more than just its different character focus. Where Broly’s main fight took up half the film’s runtime, Super Hero has more fights and more variety in them, even at the end, while somehow reducing collateral damage. The story itself also leans a bit more into the humor of DB in a good way and presents some interesting concepts, such as a misguided villain acting like a superhero because they believe they are one. Although a twist regarding Hedo and Magenta’s working relationship may feel inevitable, it’s still presented well and I ended up getting more attached to Gamma 1 and 2 than I thought I would.

Super Hero benefits from greater fight variety.
Also depicted: Gamma 2 (Zeno Robinson, right).

What isn’t unique to this film, however, is that DBS started diversifying the series’ iconic transformations at some point, shifting to a focus on giving every character a unique transformation. In this case, Piccolo gains the Orange Piccolo form thanks to a neat callback to DBZ, while Gohan gains the Gohan Beast form, albeit with next to no foreshadowing. Both forms are interesting in their own right, though the audience is given more time with Orange Piccolo and thus may find it better executed.

While we didn’t really have many complaints about Super Hero, two things in particular stood out. The first is that while Cell Max inevitably wakes up, it’s nowhere near as interesting as the original Cell, as its immense power, though unstable, comes at the cost of any real personality. The second is that despite the focus on superheroes, even villainous ones, there isn’t even a single reference to The Great Saiyaman, Gohan’s superhero persona, even in passing. One can only wonder what the story could have done with that angle.

One major highlight, however, is the quality of Super Hero’s CG animation, a first for the series. Although the franchise is certainly no stranger to rendering Akira Toriyama’s art style in 3D (just look at all of the video games throughout the years), the models here are not only very faithful, but move far more fluidly than you would think at first glance. Not only does this help the film stand out visually, it also doesn’t detract at all from the incredible fight scenes and more easily allows for some subtle touches of humor throughout. On top of that, the moments of traditional animation, including a quick cameo from Buu, blend in surprisingly well.

As expected, the voice acting is on-point, especially from series veterans. Charles Martinet, best known for voicing Mario and Luigi in the Super Mario series, is a surprise bit of casting as Commander Magenta, but he really shows his range and that he’s very capable of playing a villain. For reasons I won’t go into here, the DBS version of Broly was recast with Johnny Yong Bosch, who actually does a pretty good job with the few lines he’s given.

Charles Martinet is good as Commander Magenta.

For the most part, Super Hero continues the upward trend in quality for Dragon Ball films after Broly. While some viewers may not like the more relaxed and light-hearted atmosphere, it’s also a nice change of pace from the more serious tone of the previous films. If you’re already a Dragon Ball fan, Super Hero is an easy recommendation. If you’re not, it’ll certainly make for a different kind of superhero film from Marvel and DC’s output.