Is there a new power-up of Piccolo or Gohan? Who is the villain of the movie? Did Broly or Cell appear? What was the post-credits scene?
I´ll answer those questions and more in this video.
Transcript:
This review doesn’t have any spoilers for the manga but it does have spoilers for Super Hero, the new movie. If you don’t mind movie spoilers then keep on watching. Otherwise, click here to watch our spoiler free review.
First, they don’t specify exactly how much time has passed since the events of Broly, but since the Dragon Balls were used at that time, it means that at least 365 days passed after the fight with Broly. I’ll tell you later why they were used. Also, Piccolo says in the movie that Pan is now three years old.
Did Broly appear in the movie?
Yes. Same for Cheelai and Lemo. Broly was training with Goku and Vegeta on Beeru’s planet. Broly had a small appearance at the beginning and at the end of the movie. It was touching seeing three Saiyans training together as friends. It was fantastic, with a lot of nostalgia.
As for Goku and Vegeta, they had almost the same amount of screen time as Broly. They were training together on Beeru’s planet and they didn’t go back to Earth while Gohan and the others were fighting against each other.
And, I don’t think that they will ever know about the events of this movie because towards the end, Bulma says to Goten that he shouldn’t say anything to Goku.
Who is Dr. Hedo?
He is the grandson of Dr. Gero and the creator of the twin Androids: Gamma 1 and 2. It may seem that he is the primary antagonist, but he isn’t.
He wanted to create superheroes, but not for evil reasons. He was misled by Magenta and Carmine, who told him that Capsule Corp were the bad guys and he needs to create superheroes for the Red Ribbon Army so they can fight the “real” villains, the Capsule Corp.
At the end of the movie, everyone learns that he was deceived and that he isn’t really a bad person. Dr. Hedo asked Bulma if he could work for Capsule Corp, and she agreed.
Also, do you know who this girl is? It’s Android 21, who appears in the video game Dragon Ball FighterZ. Android 21’s real name is Vomi and she only appeared briefly in the movie, so I don’t remember if she is the actual wife of Dr. Gero, or if she was modeled after his dead wife.
Why am I telling you this? If you didn’t know, Android 16 is modeled on Dr. Gero’s dead son, so Android 21 might be similar in that way. But, anyway, she is confirmed to be canon in the Dragon Ball franchise! Yeah.
Did Cell appear?
Yes, he did appear-–but not in the way that you’d expect.
The bad guys of the movie were not Dr. Hedo or the android Gamma 1 and 2. They were Magenta and Carmine, who use something called “Cell Max” (セルマックス), which is kind of like a reborn Cell, but in his second form and ten times bigger.
Cellmax was the main enemy who Gohan and his friends fought. Gamma 1 and 2 helped to defeat CellMax, but unfortunately, Gamma 2 died in battle.
Is there a new power-up of Piccolo and/or Gohan?
I think that this is the most important part of this review.
Yes, the first power-up was for Piccolo. The official name of the power-up is ‘Piccolo Orange’, which makes him a bit bigger and orangish, and his face changed a bit.
The way that he got his power-up made a lot of sense. He went with Dende to ask him whether he can draw on his dormant power as the Grand Elder Guru did with Gohan and Krillin on Namek during the events of Dragon Ball Z. Dende said that he is not able to do it.
But he can upgrade Shenlong and have him grant that wish, which Shenlong does. Also, Bulma asked for two random wishes: one of them was to increase the size of her butt and the other the length of her eyelashes. Pretty bizarre wishes from Bulma, right?
The second power-up, which honestly I didn’t see coming was Gohan having a new transformation. It has gray hair, similar to the Ultra Instinct final form except that his hair is a bit longer and he has red eyes. Of course, it’s not Ultra Instinct and the name of the transformation wasn’t mentioned in the movie. At the time of filming this video, it doesn’t seem to have an official name.
What was the best part of the movie?
Of course, Piccolo becoming “Piccolo Orange” and Gohan with his new transformation were the best parts. Also, watching Gohan doing the Special Beam Cannon (makankosappo) for the first time was dope!
Dragon Ball Super was already too focused on Goku and Vegeta, so letting other characters shine, like Piccolo and Gohan, was the right move.
I hope that in the future, Goten and Trunks also have more chances to be main characters.
Something else that I liked was that the movie has an interesting plot twist, where the villain wasn’t Gamma 1 or 2 as the visual might lead you to believe. The enemy was CellMax.
What did I not like about the movie?
Definitely the animation. Making a Dragon Ball movie with almost full CG loses the essence of Japanese animation and of Dragon Ball. I already talked about this in my spoiler-free review, but seriously, I don’t like this style of animation.
One of my favorite parts of the Dragon Ball franchise is when they transform into super Saiyan or into a new form. In this movie, when Gohan transformed into his new form with CG animation, it looked a bit weird. That’s not the Dragon Ball art I know and love.
The second thing: Toriyama, please be more creative with the transformations. Again, you’re just changing the hair color. For Gohan’s new transformation, it was basically the same as Ultra Instinct—gray hair, but with red eyes.
So far, the only transformation that has been slightly different was the incomplete transformation of Ultra Instinct. I hope that in the future, we can get a completely different transformation like Super Saiyan 4.
Something else, which I don’t know if it’s bad or good, but they keep using the same formula over and over again. Once again, there’s a “bad” guy, the heroes get a new power-up to defeat him, and then he becomes their friend.
We can see this through the whole Dragon Ball franchise: Vegeta, Android 17 and 18, Majin Buu, Beerus, and now Dr. Hedo became friends after someone gets a power-up and beats them. Don’t misunderstand me, that’s kind of the essence of Dragon Ball, but it’s good to have some variety once in a while.
For example, the Black Goku arc is one of the best arcs in the franchise. It’s a good combination of mystery, without too many power-ups, the focus was divided between several characters, the bad guys didn’t become friends, and so on. Please, Toriyama, give us more variety like that.
But regardless of those few things that I didn’t like, the movie is quite good and if you love Dragon Ball, you’ll definitely enjoy it.
What’s the post-credit scene?
It was a scene where in normal mode, Vegeta finally beat Goku. Then, Broly and Lemo were happy for Vegeta.
If you haven’t watched the movie yet, you can also watch my spoiler-free review.
Also, a quick heads-up: Boku No Hero Academia’s OVA is coming to theaters in Japan on June 16. I’m planning to see it on opening day and post a video review on the same day. So make sure to subscribe to our channel if you don’t want to miss the review!