Dragon Ball Heroes is one of those titles that was really around for a long while. I admired how long it lasted because initially it seemed like this would just be a quick mini series and then it kept on going for years. Heroes became a big part of the Dragon Ball franchise as well. It was all super impressive. The animation may not have always been top tier but I can say that the concepts were always as good as it got. This is a title that will definitely be missed.

The series has several arcs so lets jump into them. One thing you should know is that each episode was generally shorter than half of a standard episode. This means that even though there are 56 episode, the actual length is considerably less than that. It does mean that you can easily watch the whole series in a short amount of time though. It’s very easily bingeable which is always nice to hear. Definitely a title that knew when to go hard even if it had to switch the animation style in the end.

The first arc starts off with a bang as tons of powerful fighters are trapped on Prison Planet. They must all duke it out for the dragon balls and Fu is the mastermind behind all of this. He has to be defeated but his skills are considerable so this will take some real work. The big selling point of this arc was really about Goku from Super finally fighting his GT counterpart. Technically speaking this is Xeno Goku and not GT but fans tend to use the terms interchangeably since in most ways Xeno Goku is unchanged from GT. He just tends to be a bit more powerful. We also get to meet the legendary Cumber in this arc. A Super Saiyan of legend whose power even surpasses that of Broly’s. Can the heroes defeat him?

Oh yeah these early episodes were super intense. While the animation budget wasn’t always the strongest, it was just great to be getting some more Dragon Ball action at long last. I’ve long considered Super Saiyan 4 to be stronger than Super Saiyan god mode but it should be a good fight with Blue. Now that Super Goku has Ultra Instinct, I do think that would go above Saiyan 4 though. The fight is very fast but considering we’ll probably never get this fight in one of the main shows I have to really take what I can get here.

Cumber actually gets a solid amount of screentime for the first arc as he fights it out with everyone. I should say right now that the power scaling in the series is absolutely crazy. You should not expect any kind of consistency or anything like that. So just enjoy the battles and the story. That’s really the main point of this series either way since the plot itself is rarely going for anything all that deep. It’s just fun to see all of the characters mixing it up. Cumber is definitely one of the best new characters to show up in this series and he has immediately become a new staple in the Dragon Ball universe. Hopefully he will get his time to appear in something else soon.

So Prison Planet made for a great first arc without a doubt. This was good stuff. After that we have the longest arc in the series with Hearts taking center stage. He wants to destroy Zeno and all of the gods and to that end he is powering something up and attacking the strongest warriors of every universe. He has allied himself with powerful allies like Cumber and Zamasu. Goku is forced to step back into the ring when even Jiren and Hit are having some trouble but is he ready to take on such formidable fighters?

Hearts is another all star villain right here. The guy has really cool abilities with his cubes and the fact that he can fight so well against Goku and friends is impressive. Most other fighters would have been obliterated just by being in Goku’s presence but that’s not the case for Hearts. No, Hearts is ready for all the action and he has a very cool demeanor. When you mix a great personality and move set into one then that is always going to be an absolutely awesome character.

I also really liked his teammate Lagss. She was able to take down Ultra Instinct Goku in one hit which is crazy. Yes, power levels don’t really matter here but that was still pretty fun. I also liked the grand scale of this arc. You get used to seeing the Xeno characters everywhere but fighters like Jiren and Hit still feel like guest stars. The animation also got a massive boost during the Hearts vs Goku fight. I remember being shocked at just how good it looked. Yeah that was super impressive without a doubt.

By the end of the arc it’s still a bit unclear on exactly how Hearts figured he would beat Zeno with all of this but personally I think Hearts could win already. I don’t stack Zeno all that high, neither do I rank the gods as being out of his league either. While the show itself would likely disagree with me, Goku and friends have long since surpassed the gods. The days of their being the strongest at the top of the food chain are long over.

After that we have a random one episode special where the heroes fight off the demon army. It’s pretty good stuff and I was glad the show got to at least cover this big battle. It may not be the same as covering the whole arc but hey it’s a start. In general the show has to cut out a ton of details and even fights due to the short length time but that makes sense. It’s already tough as it is to adapt the biggest moments after all so just consider this to fully be promotional material. If you want all the details then you will have to read the manga which goes into a lot more depth.

In the next arc Fu finally makes his big move. He has a group of fighters including the mysterious Dr W who are here to destroy Goku and friends. They’re gonna need to pull out all of the stops in order to defeat these guys. It’s a pretty solid arc right from the jump. Dr W is someone you will probably be able to guess right away because there aren’t too many characters with that letter but either way he is a lot of fun. This villain is an absolute menace and his new design is awesome. His fight with the Xeno fighters is pretty good. Meanwhile Fu getting to fight is also a lot of fun and Cumber also returns.

Fu is the big villain you think of when talking about Dragon Ball Heroes because of how much time he spends in the background of every arc talking tough. You know that he will be a top tier fighter and yet you don’t know just how strong. It’s all a mystery until he actually takes center stage and the wait is absolutely worth it. He gets a whole lot of props here and it takes the strongest in the verse to really go after him.

There’s a lot of nonstop action throughout so you really can’t go wrong here. The fights just keep on going as they get grander and grander. The arc is actually interrupted by another special midway about a kid playing the actual arcade game. That was a pretty fun special but you were definitely ready to go back to the arc after that. This is absolutely the kind of Dragon Ball adventures you are always looking forward to. They put in the best of what makes Dragon Ball so exciting.

After that, the next arc kicks things off on a mysterious set of circumstances. Goku wakes up in a strange area where everyone is fighting and Hearts decides to team up with him. Goku has to try and figure out what’s happening and in the meantime he is still injured from the previous arc so he has to fight in a very careful way. There is good strategy here and the backgrounds are great. I liked the locations and everything. Also, Fu ends up making his grand return here so we get a lot of big battles at the end as well. This is what I always love about Dragon Ball Heroes. just wait an episode or two and you are guaranteed to be witnessing big things.

Next up we have the next big tournament arc with the evil time goddess Aeos. Her time abilities are definitely more offensive oriented to the point where she is even able to go up against Ultra Instinct Goku. That made for a super awesome fight and we got one animated scene where Goku was pulling off some Sonic the Hedgehog moves. That was definitely not something I had been expecting. Aeos also generally looks super hype the whole time. She’s another standout villain to be sure.

Most of the kais tend to look rather awful and get defeated by everybody so it was about time that we had a real powerhouse here even if the catch was that she was super evil. That’s just how it goes sometimes after all and it was a valid reason for why she had been training so hard. Villains always have to stay at the top of their game in order to beat the heroes when the chips are down. It was also fun seeing dark Bardock in action during the arc. The guy definitely got a real significant power boost here considering who he was going up against. Those Dragon Ball Heroes zenkai boosts really hit hard. The arc had fun involving a lot of fighters and more of the supporting cast than usual so that was definitely cool. Of course at the end of the day I’m here for the big fighters so it’s not like I need the supporting cast or anything like that.

Finally we reach the last arc of the series. Ozotto has shown up and he intends on absorbing everyone in the universe. His powers are absolutely incredible and even Goku/Vegeta may not be able to win. They’re forced to call in the whole gang. The arc is shorter than most of the others but still hits hard. The tragic thing here is that the animation changed to CG just when the soundtrack went to the highest that it’s ever been. The graphics are basically like the arcade game cutscenes as opposed to the traditional style that was always a lot of fun. If you have to go CG then this is a pretty good style to go with since it looks just like the video games but I really prefer traditional animation.

The setup and everything was so good otherwise too. Ah well, even with the limitations this is till a lot of fun. You feel the hype as Ozotto slowly begins to take everyone down. Not only can he absorb people but he can make clones that retain their own abilities. It’s a real broken kind of power the more that you think of it. One wrong move and it’s all over. He’s probably not the final boss I would have chosen but the fact that he is so out there can also work well enough on its own. He’s fairly unassuming in that way. I’m not a big fan of the guy but he’s okay. It would just be nice if he had cooler moments to really show off.

And that really wraps up the Dragon Ball Heroes experience. Let me tell you, it was really a sweet ride all the way through. As long as you really enjoy the DBZ characters and setting then you’ll really get a kick out of this. Dragon Ball is such a massive franchise that you would expect more stories like this constantly but it often feels like you have to wait a long time for the next adventure. Hopefully this inspires them to keep on churning out more top tier products in the future. If they can pull that off then we will really be in business here. It probably won’t be as crazy as Heroes was in terms of being such a big crossover of characters but those are rare anyway. Heroes is like a celebration of the franchise as a whole so now it’ll take a break for smaller adventures and then one day hopefully we should be able to get another big one like this.

Overall, Super Dragon Ball Heroes is a great show. This is what DBZ sounds like to anyone who doesn’t watch the show. It’s basically all action with minimal plot and everyone is always getting beat up. The power levels are impossible to decipher and instead you are operating on pure hype. Let me tell you, there is never anything wrong with pure hype. It’s the foundational basis for what makes anime cool after all. Now that the series is done, you can binge it as a quick movie trilogy or something like that. It’s definitely worth the watch and it’s a shame that this has not been dubbed yet. It would absolutely sell a whole lot so it feels like the company is allergic to money. Dragon Ball Daima is almost here so hopefully that title is able to keep up with this one’s legacy.

Overall 8/10