Dragonball Super Superhero had a ton of great throwback moments, though I prefer the typical animation style to this movie. The film is centered mainly on Piccolo’s perspective, with Gohan as the other main character was a welcome change from the Goku and Vegeta show we have come to expect in super. If you are a hardcore Dragonball Fan, I’d recommend seeing it in theaters.
Spoilers Ahead
The movie’s main villain was the Red Ribbon Army, a nice throwback. They had Dr. Gero’s and Commander’s reds heirs as the movie’s main villains, though Dr. Hedo was not a bad guy. I enjoyed how the commander pitched the Z fighters as fronts for capsule corp and aliens trying to take over the world. Dr. Gero’s Cell was the only person that could stop them.
The misleading helped create some interesting characters, the Gamma androids. They viewed themselves as superheroes “ridding” the world of King Piccolo, Majin Buu, and the other aliens. their fighting Gohan and Piccolo was a treat until the strongest villain of the film, Max cell, appeared. The weak spot on Cell felt a little cheap, and he was a little underwhelming, more of a large Kaiju version of Cell. Though he was large, it did have an excellent throwback to Piccolo getting big as he did in Dragonball.
Another great throwback was Krillen using his solar flare and Goku training Broly on Berrus’s world. Goku and Vegeta training there and helping Broly hone his power was enjoyable for its limited run. The limited time also lets us see a teen Goten and Trunks. I wish Goten and Trunks didn’t mess up their fusion transformation, but I look forward to seeing a real teen Gotenks in the future, as teased at the end.
One aspect that needs to be accepted is that the power scaling in super is now out of control. As an anime has gone on as long as this, it will always be crazy. The new forms for Piccolo and Gohan were incredible, especially at the end, seeing Gohan use the special beam cannon. I liked how emotional it got with Gohan seeing his friends and family all hurt, and Max cell beating up Piccolo then transforming. The similarities to the cell sage were excellent, and making Piccolo and Gohan relevant again is welcome.
The main issues I had were Cell being slightly underwhelmed and the dragon balls feeling cheap. Other than that, the film had some amazing transformations, focused on characters that haven’t had the spotlight in super, introduced new characters, and brought in Pan finally. With the film focusing on Piccolo’s and Pan’s relationship and Gohans, it is a welcome addition to the Dragonball universe.