Tag Archives: Dragon Ball

Dragon Ball Daima Review

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While we all continue to wait for the return of Dragon Ball Super, we at least got another DB title in the meantime. Daima was marketed as a very different title from the start, it would focus less on the action and be more of a down to Earth story. A return to the tone of classic Dragon Ball with the characters being involved in some crazy situations. It was a pretty interesting idea to be sure but I do miss the action. You can think of it as the third branching path after DBZ with the first being GT and the second being Super. This is another way that things played out after the Buu saga and lets just say that Goku and friends get put through the ringer.

It starts with Goku and Vegeta training as always when someone uses the Dragon Balls to turn all of the Z fighters back into children. They are weaker now and might not be prepared for future enemies. Additionally, Dende has been kidnapped. A helpful soul named Glorio shows up and informs the heroes that they will need to infiltrate the demon realm. This place is split up into 3 worlds and each one has a demon world dragon ball. Upon collecting all 3, the heroes can become adults again and save Dende. It sounds like a simple enough plan but the demon world is not for the faint of heart. Is Goku ready for this?

Well fortunately for him the demon realm isn’t one of the more powerful places. Generally it’s home to a ton of bullies and there are a few strong fighters but nobody that’s really at his level except for the guardians of the Dragon Balls who aren’t malicious. This allows Goku to finally take it easy and have fun a little more since the very universe doesn’t hang in the balance just yet. Although several demon world flunkies do have plans of their own.

The main villain of the series is Gomah and for better or worse he is definitely played for laughs for 90% of the series. He’s constantly crying and throwing tantrums because of how scared he is of Goku and friends. It shows just how far the demon world has fallen from the days of Demon King Dabura. Now there was a guy who really commanded respect. Gomah is just a sad character and your only hope is to find him funny. Because if you don’t then he will just be supremely annoying the whole time.

His partner is Degesu who completes the Team Rocket dynamic. This guy panics a whole lot but at least he has a bit more of an edge to him. He’s not above threatening babies in order to get what he wants. The guy just never backs down, he is always ready for action and that’s the best way to keep things. I just wish he could have gotten a little more to do because his conversations with Arinsu were interesting. Alas, he ends up squandering his potential by sticking with Gomah.

We do get two new Majins in Kuu and Duu but they aren’t particularly good. They’re both characters who don’t really take anything seriously and aren’t all that powerful. Duu actually does get some hype but at the end of the day he’s still not really on the level of the Z fighters. I guess for Demon World standards he is still pretty good though. The guy really likes his chocolate and is always demanding it. Kuu is a bit more responsible and mature at least even if it comes at the expense of his power.

At least Arinsu is fun. She has classic mastermind vibes and while it seems like the show won’t be going in that direction, at least it did add some tension in the show. I would have liked for her to have gotten at least one or two fight scenes but maybe next time. Her plan was a pretty solid one in terms of gathering the Dragon Balls although I would say her wish wasn’t the most inspired.

There were 3 main heroes added to the main cast. First up is Glorio who acts really shady the whole time. The kind of guy you don’t want to let out of your field of vision because you know he will end up back stabbing you at any moment. The guy would not hesitate for one moment. He will just go in there and finish you. As the show goes on he begins to learn the power of friendship though. He’s a decent fighter too, although the show has very messy power levels the whole time so I wouldn’t take that too seriously.

Most importantly, he’s a fun character who actually adds to the dynamic. Likewise Panzy is a fun character. She’s the resident genius of the series who knows how to keep the ships running. She has a good bond with Bulma and saves the group on more than one occasion. Of course it would be nice if she could fight but she still works well as an addition to the supporting cast. With most of the usual main characters stuck at home, you needed someone like that.

There is also a super old Namekian who trolls everyone the whole series but he’s more annoying than anything. I get the joke of this guy actually being super capable but he comes across as irresponsible. He helps out when he feels like it but otherwise doesn’t take a huge role in what’s going on. Then you have the comic relief character who is always dead pan. He can be pretty decent although it’s a bit much to see him constantly talking smack to Vegeta and then nothing happens with him. Vegeta should have clocked him a few times during the series.

From the main cast, I’d say that Piccolo probably gets the shaft here. He is constantly around but doesn’t get his own fights and chokes in his one big moment. It feels like he was added for the Namekian connection but it’s not like that is used a whole lot anyway. I think he could have been cut out and not much would change. I’m tempted to say the same for the Supreme Kai. He has personal lore connections here and knows one of the big villains so that’s all key but the Kai himself doesn’t do much. He mildly helps out in the occasional fight I guess. He just doesn’t feel very supreme.

Naturally it’s fun to see Bulma show up and help out. I do think she was a bit hard on Vegeta at some points though. Goku tends to steal fights to himself and everything so of course Vegeta tries to keep things fair. The show is actually not even that rough for the guy. Don’t count on him taking down the main villain or anything like that but he does still get in a lot of good shots and moments. Vegeta did good even if he is treated as the second fiddle next to Goku. At this point, I suppose that’s just how it has to be though.

As for Goku, he definitely acts a lot more like his kid self here. He really enjoys the situation and is mainly having a blast the whole time. He adapts to the wild life rather quickly and the whole thing is probably nostalgic to a degree since he’s been on many journeys like this before. It’s always fun to see him cut loose a bit but at times he holds back so long that it borderlines on him being a saboteur. The longer you drag a battle out, the more likely it is that someone else will get caught up in it after all.

So what I would say here is that the first 13-15 episodes are basically full on comedy and then we get to a big DBZ type climax. That’s why your enjoyment comes down to the comedy. I’d say Dragon Ball is fairly good on this. There can be some more juvenile moments but on the whole you already know most of the characters and that adds some of the journey to it. You don’t often get to see them all just having fun nowadays so that is a change of pace.

I would just say the show could have done something to make it a tad more energetic. It feels like most of the episodes would revolve around the heroes beating up some random thugs as they planet hop. It would probably have been better to have just gone straight to adventure mode and have them checking out some mountains or something instead. It’s not like the thugs post any kind of threat and it’s less cool to see Goku beating them up and almost boring instead. A lot of the fights really start to blend together.

The battles with the Dragon Ball guardians are a lot of fun but none of the minion fights can say that. The series was also a bit in a corner with how strong Goku and friends are. how can some randoms really take them on? Well, the series tries to convince you that the energy blasters are enough to get the job done and I have a hard time believing that. One episode in particular gets really dramatic as the characters try to survive a whole onslaught and you can’t help but think how easy this whole thing is. A single punch would take them out and yet this takes up a good chunk of an episode.

The first half of the show mainly relied on fake threats like this to keep you busy. At that point you should just lean on the comedy instead. My biggest complaint with the series comes down to the fact that some episodes can almost be a bit boring. The characters carry the episodes as much as possible but you really feel like it should have been way better. This is Dragon Ball after all!

Fortunately the climax does show up with the huge fight scene that spirals through several episodes. It does still have some issues like most of the battle feeling a bit repetitive though. The villain has complete regeneration but is selectively weak from scene to scene. So one moment he can handle Goku at his peak and then he’s getting rocked by fighters in their base form. So the fight has the hero land a ton of punches and energy blasts. Then the villain regenerates. Hero repeats the combo over and over as the villain regenerates over and over. It just makes you not take the fight as seriously after a while.

It’s an interesting way to show off just how powerful a certain artifact in the series is but it doesn’t always make for the best fight. The animation is really good for the battles though. It looks very flashy and the characters are constantly moving at a very high speed. The show does look like a very modern production which is always good. You can easily picture a lot of Youtube videos showing off the fights since you can then sub in your own music and streamline it. The final episodes do feel a whole lot like DBZ even if the enemy isn’t really able to fight back for most of it. It’s a great way to end thing off and it does allow you to end on a high note. At least on my end I can say that the discussions and everything relating to the series jumped up almost 10 times for the final episodes. You could say all of the viewers locked in at that point and I’d include myself with that.

One thing against the series is that the soundtrack is pretty weak though. It’s got very little variety and the tracks that are there aren’t very good. They should have gotten the Bruce Falconer music instead to be honest. There aren’t any Daima tunes that I would end up searching on my own because they just didn’t fit the action or suspense scenes all that well. It feels like a soundtrack aimed for a comedy that forgot to transition to action later on.

We do get a ton of lore within this show so maybe future products will utilize that in some way. Even if the show doesn’t get referenced later on, there’s never anything wrong with having a stand alone title in there. If anything I would say that it should happen a lot more often. Not everything has to be a big canon continuation or something like that. Sometimes it’s fine to just make a side story and have fun with it. I do think Daima could have been a little more high budget and frantic though. The animation was certainly high budget when it came to the big fights but maybe adding more action scenes here and there that didn’t revolve around the heroes knocking everyone out with an easy punch.

Also, I tend to look at it a bit harsher because I’m one of those DBZ fans who really loves all the high octane action and everything like that. I don’t have any real nostalgia for the kid Dragon Ball days in part because I never read it. So that part of Daima would end up being lost on me as a result. My counter would be that it still could have been more interesting and then it would work for all audiences. Since the power levels are the main issue here, I would have just made the wish a little different. Have it time travel the Z fighters’ minds to back when they were kids so they don’t even know each other, much less how to use their powers. Then it would explain why they are having trouble with grunts until the ending. You’d probably have to switch some other things to make it work but that might be a better approach.

Overall, Dragon Ball Daima is a good show but it can feel underwhelming just because of the huge bar that’s been set by the other titles like Super, DBZ, and even GT. The climax does some pretty heavy lifting here to show us Daima’s potential though so I appreciate that. The characters and their banter have to be enough to tide you over for the rest of the show. At the end of the day it is a fairly small title with 20 episodes and in a sense if it doesn’t get a sequel you could basically just call it an AU filler. That said, you have to savor any appearances by Goku and friends because it’s not like they are on TV all that often. So Daima did what it set out to do in keeping Goku at the front of everyone’s minds.

Overall 7/10

Dragon Ball Super Divers Review

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I’m going to miss Dragon Ball Heroes but it’s time to look at the next generation of Dragon Ball content! Divers is definitely starting off on a classic note with the first arc of DBZ. It’s a fun read but I am hoping for something a little more intense in the arcade game’s story once it really gets going. I may just be hoping for a bit too much right out of the gate but I can really feel the potential here!

The story starts with the Z fighters faced off against Nappa and Vegeta along with their Saibamen. There is a new addition to the team though, a kid who looks like a Saiyan. For some reason he is commanding the heroes and tells them who to send into battle. Unfortunately he follows the same order as in the actual manga so Yamcha and Chiaotzu get destroyed once again. Goku and the kid team up to beat Vegeta and then we get the big reveal that this was all a super realistic VR game. The kid is proud of himself and gets ready to keep on playing. So it may be going the other Heroes route with the events initially being a game within a game but eventually the stakes got high anyway. So I could see this happening here as well.

I suppose my one issue here is how the changes didn’t really seem to matter. Why have the kid go inside the game and make his moves when he’s just going to preserve the status quo? It made no sense not to warn Yamcha about the explosion ahead of time and for some reason the kid looks super shocked. There are two possible explanations here and they both make him look really bad. The first is that he forgot what happened because he is a super casual DBZ fan and hasn’t read the books in a while. That one would just be pretty terrible since that’s such an iconic moment. The other explanation is that he wanted to keep the story as close to the original version as possible, in which case I would say that’s just a boring way to go about it. The point of VR adventures like this is that you can actively change things and create a better tomorrow. So why wouldn’t you just do that?

The fun appeal of what if storylines to me are that they can really go all out. There is so much you can do when you are outside the confines of the main story and it feels to me like this arcade game is playing it too safe for now. I’m hoping they change that sooner than later because reliving the old arcs sounds fun enough but this is their chance to really have the new character make a difference. Also there is only so much time in just a single chapter so that’s another valid reason for making this one a bit more small scale. I can accept that as the reasoning if that’s what it was.

The artist did a really good job of emulating the classic Dragon Ball Z look. The character models are on point and the action scenes really flow naturally. I definitely didn’t have any real complaints on that. A clean artstyle like this one definitely goes a really long way because not only is it pleasant to read but it actively enhances the story as well. The writing was good too and of course the whole arcade game backdrop has potential. We just gotta see where it goes from here.

It’ll take a while to really surpass Dragon Ball Heroes in terms of how much of a spectacle that was by the end but so long as this one is very good then we’ll be satisfied. It’s also nice for fans of the original characters like Yamcha to see their guys get in on the fighting even if it’s super brief and ultimately doomed for defeat like in the original. You just can’t escape your destiny here!

Overall, Dragon Ball Super Divers was a pretty good oneshot. It really goes by very quickly so there’s not a whole lot to talk about here. It does its job of being a preview for the upcoming game though which is the important part. The art is on point and the action scenes are good. For all of my complaints on the lack of ambition, it is a fundamentally sound story. There is a good amount of action here and it’s always fun to see Goku and friends getting some fights. Hopefully at some point they come up with an ongoing manga for this one because you can never have too much Dragon Ball content. In the meantime this is a story you should check out.

Overall 7/10

Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Meteor Mission! Review

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Saddle up boys because it’s time to take a look at the final Super Dragon Ball Heroes title that ran with the show. I’ll definitely miss this part of the series because it was so much fun. It’s a pretty quick adventure with 12 chapters at the ready but it was a really fun way to wrap things up. We pretty much got to see all of the Heroes characters as they teamed up against a common enemy. The legendary Ozotto, destroyer of all creation. If the heroes can’t defeat him then it’ll be all over.

The manga starts off on an ominous note as everyone is gone. Goku and friends split up to look, only to find out that Ozotto has been absorbing them all. Slowly but surely he has begun to absorb everybody and won’t stop until all universes are dealt with. Even Goku and Vegeta are no match for him. They will have to work with the time patrol to end this threat but even then victory is not assured. One thing’s for sure, if they lose this round and there will be nobody else to save them. Can one single villain really challenge all of the strongest fighters like this though?

First up, how is Ozotto as the main villain? Well, he’s a tad on the generic side but I still liked him well enough. I think it’s all the trash talk. Yeah he may be a little cheesy but he still has all the good dialogue about how he’s going to destroy everyone and all of that. He gloats a whole lot and acts really smug a lot. I’m a sucker for that kind of villain. So he’s not going anywhere near my top villains of all time for DBZ but at the same time he works well as the final boss. The fact that he can absorb fighters and then transform into them also gives an excuse for a lot of classic battles to have once again. The manga gets to do a whole lot more with this premise than the anime could after all.

His power level is also rather crazy. The guy can spam almost infinite clones that have powers comparable to their real forms and as soon as they lose he just summons another one. He pretty much can’t be stopped until the heroes sabotage him from the inside and start pulling people out. Otherwise this guy was just not going to go down so you could really say that he is one of the most dangerous fighters to be up against. Even someone as powerful as Mystic Gohan is absolute fodder next to this guy. That may sound a bit harsh but that’s just how it goes. He looks pretty bad in this one.

As always the manga gets props for extending a lot of the fights and subplots here. It was nice seeing things that were only hinted at in the anime and characters like Hearts get a considerable increase in screen time. It also makes sense why the villains would oppose Ozotto because if he wins then there won’t be anything to rule. He will simply continue to absorb everything until it is all gone. At that point, there is really no merit in teaming up with him right?

Ozotto doesn’t strike me as a team player either way though. Now as far as the story goes, there isn’t much more to this than the objective of beating Ozotto. So if you are looking for a really deep plot then I suppose you may end up being a little disappointed. I would question your decision to be going into a Heroes manga expecting that though. The whole point of Dragon Ball Heroes is to place familiar characters into fresh matchups and show you a lot of super forms that are rather out there. This is stuff you would never see in the main series and that’s where the fun comes from.

So you’re here for the nonstop action scenes and the manga definitely delivers on that. Vegeta gets a really big selfless moment where he makes a sacrifice to save everyone. GT Goku shows his maturity as he distracts Ozotto and doesn’t just lose himself in the fight. Super Goku uses a brand new attack based on the movies, etc. Every characters get their big tribute moment and it’s just really awesome. We also see their tenacity as this arc takes place right after the last one so a lot of characters are still super weakened as well. Remember, heroes never get a day off.

Meanwhile the art is also still really good. The characters are all on model and the fights really hold up. The pacing allows for some longer fights as well which is always good. Of course the catch is that the series becomes even faster to read through as a result since it’s so clear. That’s less of a catch and more of a bonus though. It just speaks to the really high quality of the series. This really could be a mainline title if they ever wanted to do that. Just from the art at least you would never know the difference.

I do hope that some of these characters like Hearts do return at some point though. There is just a lot you can do with these characters and to have them closed off for all time because Heroes has ended would be super disappointing. You have to bring these guys back and it’s why I hope the next Arcade game is still ambitious so it can bring these guys in at some point. Hey, a guy can hope right?


Overall, Meteor Mission is definitely a great title. It’s a really epic story and a fitting end to the series. You don’t need a substantial amount of plot when the main premise is this good after all. Also, who else could the final fight contain but a team up of SSJ4 and Ultra Instinct Gokus? Definitely fun stuff all around and everyone gets a little something to do here. Even if you’ve never checked out the Heroes part of the franchise before, you should check this one out. It works pretty well as a follow up to DB Super if you squint and it can tide you over until the series comes back someday.

Overall 8/10

Super Dragon Ball Heroes Review

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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

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero Update

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I now own the movie on Blu Ray! It looks like it’s still going to be a long while before we get to the Granolah saga so for now you’ll need to keep this film close as the final Dragon Ball experience. The power levels definitely get real intense here!

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 Review

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It’s time for Xenoverse 2, one of the most well known games in all of Dragon Ball. That alone is a very impressive feat because there have been so many huge games over the years. Basically what happened is that the game has a ton of DLC updates and they have been going on and on for years with no end in sight. So at this point some people have basically grown up alongside the game which is super impressive. With the game being ported over to the PS5, I knew it was time to dive right in!

The basic plot here is that villains have returned to cause a bunch of trouble with the timestream. I’m not talking basic troubles either but end of the world type stuff. Mira and Towa are going to make it so that evil wins the day. Trunks and Terry from the first game are possibly in over their heads so that’s where Terry Jr comes in. He is ready to help save the day and show off the true powers of a Saiyan elite! You have the option to pick from a bunch of different races but of course I was going to go with the Saiyans. They’re always the best after all! There’s a lot of special dialogue you get from the characters too for being a Saiyan although I imagine that’s probably true for the rest of the types as well.

My only issue with the story is that it goes a bit too linearly. This was my slight problem with the first game too. Naturally the villains decide to mess with the Saiyan Saga first, then Namek, then Androids, then Buu, etc. We follow DBZ through the 2 DBZ-Super movies in a row without going out of order once. Considering that the game is about messing with the timeline and everything, it feels like the game jus plays it way too safe. I’m always glad to see Mira show up with the other villains to break things up but it’s really like reliving DBZ with some new elements as opposed to it being a completely new story.

I love all the classic DBZ content as much as the next guy so I still have a blast the whole time but it just feels like a wasted opportunity considering how many expanded villains and scenarios you could pull off with the timeline going crazy. Without a doubt this could have been as crazy as Dragon Ball Heroes. Ah well, I did really appreciate that you get to see the avatar from the first game return. That was a cool attention to detail and a reminder on the strong continuity between the two games.

Naturally the gameplay is a real blast here. It’s a full 3D fighter with a ton of characters and you get to really test out all of their moves. For your avatar you can naturally change the moveset up a ton. So feel free to try out all of the special abilities until you find one that you like. It takes a while to unlock the transformation into a Super Saiyan but in the meantime you still have plenty to work with. There is also a level system so make sure you get those level ups promptly.

The hub world is so huge that you might even find it to be rather intimidating the whole time. There are so many side missions and bonus content to tackle there that you barely know where to start. There’s over 100 Parallel Quests, different instructors, etc. They just keep on coming over and over and over. The trickiest part is when the game randomly makes this part of the story like getting 15 badges. That took a while because I never bothered with that at all. So I would recommend doing some side content early on to start building up your stash and getting that ready. Likewise with the instructor trainings to get Super Saiyan 2 or you will have to do a whole lot at once.

You can tell that the devs really wanted you to go ahead and play through a bunch of the content that they set up. I definitely get it, they worked hard on that. At the same time, it does feel rather forced which I do have to admit here. Just let me continue the battles! The gameplay has dramatically improved from the first title though. The hits link up way better and now there’s an actual reason to use special techniques as opposed to just punching everyone into oblivion. I really appreciated that since in the first game I did find it weird how weak the energy blasts were.

A sequel should always improve upon the original and that’s exactly what Xenoverse 2 did. Naturally the same is true for the graphics which are a bit sharper and look great as you would expect. Then you have the soundtrack which was a big jump up. The ost is incredible with a whole lot of big rock themes around every corner. A good soundtrack can also help to make the story events themselves more impressive as well so that’s a nice ripple effect. I had to Youtube a bunch of the themes right away after hearing them. They were too good to pass up.

Overall, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is really the complete package. There’s just so much content to play around with here. It’s extremely impressive and the gameplay is top tier. While the story could have been bolder, I definitely still enjoyed it a lot. Whenever the game would switch from a cutscene to a fully hand drawn scene I also felt the extra hype there. You can bet that I would be lining up to buy Xenoverse 3 immediately on day 1 as soon as it comes out. You just can’t miss out on content like this.

Overall 9/10

Dragon Ball Xenoverse Review

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Xenoverse quickly became a sensation around the globe for all of the cool time travel antics and I can absolutely see why. It’s a really fun game even if I have some questions about the gameplay itself. It’s cool to see all of the characters around and in general it’s a fighting game with a lot of effort put into it. Definitely a game that you won’t soon forget and I’m eager to see how the second game goes.

The basic plot is that Terry ends up getting recruited into the time patrol. Trunks desperately needs his help in order to correct the timestream and stop a bunch of nefarious villains from doing whatever they want with the world. It won’t be easy but he is ready to do what needs to be done. The villains have plans of their own though and all it takes is for us to slip up once and then it’s all over. Time as we know it will be finished! While there are some gameplay mechanics at work, it is funny how Trunks has the main character doing all the work though. He almost never steps in to help even though that’s his entire job. Like what is he even doing? I don’t really get it, it just seems like an oversight. I would have put him in to do something at least.

The actual story is really fun though. I do wish they would go a bit more out there with the story though. Think of it as less of a what if and more like the villains just power up the iconic DBZ villains in critical moments. So you beat them up and then things go as planned. The only exceptions to this are when you battle Mira and Towa which are always a lot of fun. You should ignore the power levels for these things like the main character holding his own here when they’re at least SSJ3 level but you are still having trouble with Saibamen. One head canon I’ve always had is that your strength scales to the era that you’re in. I actually think this would make perfect sense and be rather brilliant.

Then we have the gameplay which on its surface looks like the Budokai Tenkaichi series but it’s actually quite different. It’s hard to describe but there’s not much hit stun on the attacks and your special moves have less build up. So it’s all in real time without the quick animations to halt progress. That works well enough but it does mean that they feel a bit less special. I also feel like I was not playing the game properly because I would pretty much never use special attacks. I mainly focused on hand to hand the whole time all the way through the whole game. I had to stop several times to grind out level ups but that’s how I played the entire campaign. I know there is no way the game intends for your standard punches to be the most effective attack so something went wrong there.

It definitely made for a lot of tense battles though since all it takes is for the enemy to land a surprise hit once and you lose half your health bar. So definitely keep that in mind the whole time because things can get very ugly very quickly. Make sure you buy the latest equipment to increase your stats and always have some potions equipped. When you level up you get 3 attribute points as well so I recommend putting it all into one stat. If you split it up then it doesn’t make enough of a difference to be worth it. You really just have to commit and go all in on something. Trust me, it’s really the only way to make any of this work for you. You can certainly still win of course but it’ll be tougher and you will need more skill.

In team fights, make good use of your teammate as a distraction and then hit the opponent from behind. This helped me a whole lot in some of the fights. Another thing to note is that you shouldn’t go too fast. At times I would take the enemy’s health all the way down but I couldn’t win until the heroes finished their speech and so the villain had time to land lots of extra blows. Be careful about that and in general the super armor is hard to deal with. The toughest levels are when you are outnumbered since it is really hard to hit an enemy without someone else hitting you. So for these moments I recommend a lot of run and gun tactics.

The graphics are definitely really good here. The game actually looks significantly better than Jump Force and yes that is a bit of a direct shot on my end. What really impressed me though was the soundtrack. There are so many incredible themes here, I have to Youtube more of them later on. It holds its own against Budokai Tenkaichi 3 in that area and I never thought I would be saying that. There are a lot of good rock themes and danger type tracks that fit in perfectly with the series. Trust me, you’re in good hands with this one.

It goes without saying that there are tons of modes for replay value here. The multiplayer mode is obviously a huge one with limitless content but then you’ve also got dozens and dozens of parallel quests to work through with other story scenarios. You don’t want to miss out on those and there’s also a lot of DLC type quests if you’re interested in that. Basically, this game has dozens and dozens of hour of fun and is the kind of game you will keep on picking up from time to time.

Overall, Dragon Ball Xenoverse is definitely an elite game. The gameplay is top tier and there are tons of villains and opponents to take out. I didn’t even touch on most of the bonus content during my playthrough so it’ll be fun to go back to all of that at some point. The game really pays solid homage to all DBZ fans and you will not be disappointed here. It’s a high quality game through and through. I am definitely looking forward to seeing how the second game fares. From what I’ve heard it is one of the definitive titles in all of Dragon Ball so I’ve got to see this!

Overall 9/10

Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultra God Mission!!!! Review

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There are some manga that should give you chills when you open the volume and Dragon Ball has to be one of them. With Dragon Ball Heroes you always know that some brand new super forms will be on the way and this is another really fun adventure. It may only be 20 chapters long but it covers a lot of content and we finally get the Goku vs Goku fight that we had been waiting for. It really lives up to the hype and is something that every true Dragon Ball fan should read.

The story starts with the old Supreme Kai of Time deciding that there are simply too many timelines at this point. Each action creates a new divergence point and eventually it will destroy the cosmos. So she has decided to end it all. She hosts a massive tournament across time and space with the winner being the only timeline allowed to live. The true timeline if you will. Goku and friends have to win this tournament now with the stakes being so high but can they also find a way to save all timelines? Defeating Aeos will have to happen but can even Goku and friends defeat a godlike creature?

This tournament is a great excuse to see a bunch of alternate universe characters like a dark Bardock, one armed Gohan, etc. There are a bunch of great Saiyans running around but of course you also have some previous villains who showed up from a while back like Hearts making his big return and good ole Cumber. You can bet that Broly is around too and of course the demons like Demigra are always waiting in the wings. There are a ton of ultra powerful fighters here but there can only be one winner!

Pretty much the whole series is a bunch of nonstop back to back fights which is a huge win if you ask me. That’s basically what I like to see from this. Dragon Ball Z became famous for the fights although of course the story and characters are amazing too. This is just the iconic part though and so focusing on that is a really smart move. The art is pretty solid here. Now it’s naturally not as good as Dragon Ball Z or Dragon Ball Super but there’s still a whole lot to enjoy so the fights really pop out at you.

These are also some fights you feel won’t happen in the main series for a long time. For example seeing Goku go up against Aeos was such a great fight. It’s a reminder of why time control on its own is not enough to take own someone like Goku. Goku is in a completely different league after all. The fight is cool though because sure we know that Goku has surpassed all of the Kais and the gods of destruction, but it’s still cool to actually see him fighting there.

Additionally Aeos is a really fun addition to the character ranks. She’s a kai but can actually fight really well and has ambitions of her own. She is a villain to be sure but at least she is one with a clear goal, motives for why she is doing this, and the logic makes sense. You wouldn’t be opposed to sympathizing with her cause as a result. In comparison Chronoa isn’t nearly as likable or charismatic. She spent too long having Trunks and friends fight her battles for her and as a result in a power levels sense she just can’t keep up with Aeos. Their battle was still fun though even if it basically ended immediately.

The demons make for a fun third party in the climax as they show up and everyone has to team up. This is the kind of series that would make for a perfect movie since it really has a true beginning, middle, and end structure. Perhaps you could make the case that the stakes feel a bit lower here but technically all of reality is in the balance. You’re just not worried since we have two Goku and two Vegeta fighters running around and all the other big heroes.

When the tournament is interrupted it is a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand it’s naturally a lot of fun to see the demons force the heroes to team up with the other enemies but on the other hand there were a bunch of other matchups that I wanted to see finish. A good example of a fight that actually finished was Turles vs Raditz which was actually an excellent fight. In general Turles looks amazing in this series with a bunch of extra development the whole time that I was not expecting. I’m guessing that the author really liked him as a character because he gets a ton of shine.

The fight’s also one that you wouldn’t expect but makes a lot of sense thematically. So throwing in a bunch of other fights like that would be perfect wouldn’t you say? There are a lot of fights that start to be sure but a bunch don’t end. Now for fights that do end, naturally the big 3 generations fight was a blast with Goku, one armed Gohan, and Bardock. Seeing them team up for a big energy wave was awesome and the kind of moment that would be immediately iconic if it was in the main series. I’m really hoping these Dragon Ball Heroes titles will get bigger in America at some point. It’s basically like official fanfiction with all of the super forms. I mean just look at the cover at the top right? You probably would not have guessed that this was something official even from the screenshots. In a way that sounds like a shot but it’s more just about how crazy everything has gotten.

If I had any request for the next Dragon Ball Heroes story it would be for it to be more of a long ongoing instead of a mini series. Right now it’s basically a fight compilation which as I said in the beginning is awesome but imagine grabbing all of these characters out of time and having a big ongoing story with them? I think the possibilities would really be endless even if it means having two Heroes series on at once. One for the plot and one for the fights. With how popular the franchise is I think they should really be expanding it more and really churning out products. There is enough lore to absolutely sustain this for a very long time after all.


Overall, Dragon Ball Heroes continues to be a really fun part of the Dragon Ball franchise and I can’t wait to see what shows up next. It ends up being a bit of a quick review due to there not being a ton of story outside of the fights but I still guarantee the 20 chapters feel like a good amount of content once you’re reading it. Heroes has slowly generated quite a few different series and the next one should be coming up fast. It’s basically impossible to guess what the plot will be before it starts of course but you can bet it will involve a ton of action. I’m not sure if they can top the Goku vs Goku fight to end things off here though. Fans have always wanted a GT vs Super Battle and the first two times weren’t super satisfying. This time it was a full fight and it worked out really well. I guess the next logical step would be for Goku to fuse with himself and become GoGoku or something.

Overall 9/10

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero Review

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Dragon Ball has finally returned with a new movie! You’d think a franchise this big would always have something ongoing but Toei likes to leave money on the table I suppose. It’s always good to see the movie getting a big theatrical release like this and ultimately it ends up being a great DBS movie as you’d expect. You get a lot of good action and power ups which is what you always want to see here and there’s a good amount of replay value to be had.

The movie starts off with Magenta deciding that it’s time to revive the Red Ribbon army and in order to do this he is going to recruit Gero’s grandson, Dr. Hedo. This guy is supposed to be even smarter than Gero so if Gero could build Androids that are stronger than Legendary Super Saiyans, perhaps this guy could build some that surpass the gods. Goku and Vegeta are busy training off planet so when Piccolo finds out about this, he realizes that Gohan may be their last shot. He wouldn’t be Piccolo’s first choice, but there’s nobody else left.

There’s definitely a lot to talk about here as with any Dragon Ball film so lets dive right in. First off would be the animation as it was super controversial that they decided to go with CGI instead of hand drawn. Directly, hand drawn will always beat CGI so the downside of the switch is that the classic Dragon Ball films from around 20+ years ago look better visually than this one. It just can’t keep up and the movie shows us some hand drawn scenes in the opening credits which I thought was a mistake. It looked amazing of course but that was the problem. When the film shifts into CG, it was such a downgrade I thought it was going to show someone playing a video game for a moment there.

As the film goes on, you get used to the CGI so it doesn’t stand out so much and it’s good in its own right, just on a different league. I always compare CGI to the 2nd best dish at a restaurant. It’s still very good, perhaps you could even say great, but you’ll never intentionally choose it. So while this is strictly speaking a downgrade from the traditional animation and I hope they go back to hand drawn for the next one, I wouldn’t say that the CGI is bad. It’s still cool seeing all of the fights and it has a very colorful artstyle.

The fights are really good as always and it is like playing through a video game. While the movie ultimately ends up devolving into the giant villain climax as most anime films seem to, the early fight scenes have a lot of great hand to hand. The best fight was probably Gohan vs Gamma 1. Hard to top that one in terms of movement and overall hype. Some other characters get to jump in for the final battle though which was nice to see. Those were effective cameos.

The soundtrack is weaker than the last films but I would say it was still good for the most part. My only issue is it felt like the themes never had a climax to them. Like it was a good beat and then it would just end before getting to the next level. In general the battle themes were fast and helped make the battles epic though. I liked the theme for when Goku fought Vegeta. So until it ends and you realize the song didn’t climax, it definitely still fits the bill. I also really liked the themes during the first chunk of the film. Mainly the themes for the Red Ribbon army meetups and discussions. It had a very quirky vibe to it that worked.

Now I’d say the film realized that without Goku and Vegeta playing a big role it wasn’t going to come close to matching the last films in hype or scale so instead it focuses more on having a lot of humor and I’d say that was a wise approach. Try winning with charm and style over action since you’re using CG anyway. I’d say it works well. Pan and Piccolo have a fun dynamic going on here and she’s already getting the hang of using her abilities. Saying she has more potential than Gohan sounds super hyperbolic but in sports they try saying that about everyone so it’s probably just a good coaching technique. Convince yourself of it and then you’ll really have fun training your student.

I liked the oreo gimmick for Dr. Hedo and how he was always eating that. The way the film handles the Pan kidnapping was also nice, I thought that was the absolute best way to handle all of this. I’d have a harder time buying her actually being taken in by the random humans and if it turned into a fight then that would really make it impossible to fool anyone into thinking the Red Ribbon army were good guys. So this way it all worked out nicely.

The film’s pacing is really good. It all feels very quick as you’re watching which is why it would be easy to rewatch at any point. There’s never a long gap without something happening whether it be an action scene or a fun easter egg/throwback moment. The film’s just got fun vibes that make it a nice nostalgic adventure. It’s like a lost episode/meanwhile kind of plot. I know I’ve seen quite a few people like the idea of 2 different timelines at this point, one for the manga and one from the show but personally I hope they’re all mixed so I would just put this one right after the Moro arc. I’d say that would still work out quite nicely and in a way I wouldn’t mind if the Super sequel show re-adapts the movie similar to how the first two were.

Having Piccolo be the main character was a bold choice. I’m sure even his fans wouldn’t have predicted that so that was good for him. We get to see why he’s the strategic leader of the team. Yes, Gohan has lost that spot. Piccolo does all the hard work in finding out the enemy plans and making moves on his own. He fights hard and never gives up, definitely the kind of main character you want to have here.

Unfortunately for Gohan fans I’d say he looks really bad here. He stopped training yet again? Really….that’s just an awful look. Particularly since the Tournament of Power was supposed to have reignited his fire to train. I don’t see why he slacked off so hard here and even complained about the old costume being heavy. I’d say it gets even worse when he is struggling hard with opponents that I wouldn’t say are extremely tough when he thinks Pan is in danger. The rage boost should have gotten him through that and since it didn’t, that means he got extremely weakened through the years. That’s not a good look at all. Even by the end during his big moment I would say he didn’t look great because he comes close to losing control again. He’s going to need to work on balancing things out.

Pan looks great of course. She’s learning quickly and is eager to get strong. She’ll be a fine addition to the Saiyan fighters in a few years and I look forward to seeing her go Super Saiyan. Trunks gets a small role but he’s always fun to have around. I’m not really much of a Goten fan in comparison but we’ll see what he can do. Android 18 and Krillin get to show up as well and have their moments as well as a few other characters. Dragon Ball’s always had a fun cast which works out well here and Bulma always has all of the gadgets ready. If not for her having the Dragon Balls things could have been tricky.

Now to the villains, Magenta is a fun enough character. He’s one of those rich CEO types who has a few tricks up his sleeve but mainly likes to call the shots. I thought he was good in this role and I liked how smug he was all the time. Then you have his assistant Carmine who likes to show off in his videos. The guy is more bark than bite but his tactics and planning are actually the best from the 3 villains. Finally you have Dr. Hedo whose genius is good. He definitely likes doing his own thing and while he could have handled some situations better, he has the situation under control for most of the movie which is good.

Gamma 1 and Gamma 2 got fairly big but I wouldn’t say I liked them much yet. Basically they’re the kind of guys who listen to orders no matter what even if they don’t make sense. You need to have more free will than that especially if you consider yourself to be a hero. So I was kind of shaking my head at them the whole time. It’s great that they meant well and by the end they look better, but it’ll take another appearance to really go higher.

Before we get into spoiler territory, I will say as a last thought that one of the big issues here is that a lot of the decisions in the film were rather confusing. They weren’t necessarily bad ones, but they were head scratchers that didn’t make a whole lot of sense. For example, why show Goku and Vegeta early on and imply as a result that they were going to show up with Broly later on. The way the film is set up, you expect them to appear in the climax similar to Resurrection of F when they teleport in. Particularly since their plot gets quite a few scenes but ultimately it feels like that plot didn’t matter. You could remove it entirely and nothing would change similar to the random 5 second cutaway to Bulma finding the radar. The scenes are fluff.

Then the excuse for keeping Android 17 and Android 18 out of the fight for most of the movie was weak. Dr. Hedo may know their weaknesses? Who cares tho. They’re strong enough to take care of themselves and 17 was able to train with the animals until he was able to take on Jiren with the others. They could have used him. Likewise, call in Gotenks and friends right from the start. There was no reason to lay back and wait for everything to go on, just take the fight to the Red Ribbon army. Nobody should be scared of the 2 Gamma. I’d also argue that fighters around the world should have felt when Piccolo’s energy went low and came in to help him. Maybe Gohan can’t sense energy well anymore but the others sure can. Okay now it’s time for spoiler territory so skip the next _ paragraphs if you haven’t seen the film yet.

First off we’re going to talk about the final boss, Cell Max. This was the biggest missed opportunity in the movie by far. Why use the second design which is almost universally known as the worst? Then he’s a mindless monster here and he’s huge. That’s a really bad combo of 3 elements if you ask me. It’s almost like they were trying to recreate elements of Bio Broly by making him like this which is not what you want to do. I mean there are a lot of similarities with character designs and such that people pointed out months prior to the film but that should just be an Easter Egg.

Now it does make sense that Cell would return. A lot of us suspected that immediately when we saw that Gohan would be a focus here and it would keep the films going in bringing all of the old villains back. So that makes the hit extra hard since everyone wanted Perfect Cell in here. This Cell is barely even a character so much as an obstacle so that was sad. What the film could have used was a second climax where he transforms into Perfect Cell and that’s when Goku and Vegeta arrive. That’s definitely how I would have done it without a doubt. Fights against giant creatures like this just aren’t as interesting.

Then we come to the power levels. That’s always going to be an issue with Dragon Ball at this point but it’s always so big that you just have to mention it. In DBZ the biggest moment for this was always the Androids because there’s no way an old man could have built something to beat Super Saiyan. It’s not happening but by and large that was always the biggest moment in DBZ for power level issues. Super is when things started to really go off the rails which made sense as the levels got bigger.

So first off, a big issue is Gohan vs Gamma 1. They’re fighting rather equal in Super Saiyan, then Gohan takes a slight edge in SSJ2. Then…Gohan goes mystic and it’s back to being an equal battle. That makes no sense no matter what multiplier you use for mystic. Generally it should be around a X4-X5 as it’s considered to be better than SSJ3 for the most part. Instead it’s as if he didn’t get stronger at all. It makes his SSJ Blanco form harder to scale too. (I do like how they’re finally taking inspiration from Dragon Ball AF with this form. It’s a really good design and feels like we finally got Super Saiyan 5) It’s still great that we got new forms though. If we do really get a TOP 2 or a war against the gods, Gohan and Piccolo should now be able to contribute a little to the fight. Gohan might even be able to contribute a lot depending on how high his new form scales. Right now I feel like it should be about as good as Evolved Blue or Blue Kaio-Ken but I’m not ready to put it on the Ultra levels yet.

At the end Gohan mentions how Goku and Vegeta would have had a hard time here and that’s how you realize how delusional he is at this point. They would have mopped the floor with Cell Max so that means Gohan thinks that he’s actually on their level right now. Also, why didn’t Cell Max’s explosion destroy the planet? Normal Cell’s would have which is why Goku warped him away and this Cell should literally be millions of times stronger? That was a bit odd. In general the power levels don’t really work here at all but that’s not the kind of thing that hurts a film’s score or anything. It’s expected at this point. I did like how Vegeta beat Goku again though. He maintains his undefeated streak as he beat him during the Buu arc, when they first fought, and then again now. End spoilers

Overall, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is a great movie. I would also call it the movie of missed opportunities and odd decisions though. Not having Goku and Vegeta play some kind of prime role here was a mistake I would say. You have to either throw them a fight or just write them out. For the other characters I think you could write better excuses for not having them get involved as well. At the end of the day though we get a lot of good fights and the CG works well enough. It’s a fun film with a lot of light hearted moments as well. I wouldn’t say the stakes ever get all that high and you don’t feel like the heroes are going to go down but that ties in with this being more like a side adventure. It’s about setting the characters up for the future and giving you some more time with them as opposed to being the next Broly battle. I’m ready to see what’s in store for Gohan next so hopefully they hurry with the next sequel.

Overall 8/10

Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Universe Mission Review

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Dragon Ball Heroes has always been an interesting part of the DB franchise. It’s relatively obscure (Less so now that we have an ongoing anime) and yet it’s turned into such a big part of the franchise. It’s got several games, manga, and the ongoing show. I’d like to see the manga titles be licensed someday, I’m even surprised that it hasn’t happened already. This is definitely a great title filled with a lot of nonstop action. It really doesn’t waste any time.

The series starts with a new villain known as Fu deciding to run a little experiment. The time patrol fighters are on his tail so he evades and gets the Super versions of Goku and Vegeta mixed in. This leads to the famous fight between Super Saiyan 4 Goku and Super Saiyan Blue Goku. It’s a really epic moment to be sure and then Fu summons in Cumber, a powerful Saiyan of legend who is sort of like Broly. Final Form Cooler also appears and Fu announces that he has kidnapped Trunks. To find him, the heroes have go and gather the 7 Dragon Balls from across the multiverse. They will have to deal with guys like Bojack on their journeys as well so they better be prepared for a big adventure.

As I mentioned, the plot moves at incredible speeds which is why even that blurb at the top sounds a bit convoluted. There are only around 12 chapters but a whole lot happens in that time and the plot changes multiple times. The first 5 chapters are effectively Arc 1. While I would say Arc 2 probably wins, it’s very close because both have a lot of strengths. In the first arc naturally the highlight was the battle of Gokus as it has long been debated which form is more powerful.

The fact that 4 is even still considered at this level is pretty cool though since Blue is way stronger than god mode. At the very least that would mean 4 was more than one transformation above 3 which does match up since it was such a huge deal at the time. The time patrol versions of Goku and Vegeta are also really cool. They feel like much older versions of the Super characters. They still retain their old personalities but have a mature feel about them. They have been through a lot and seen things over the years after all.

Then you have Cumber who is a great addition to the cast. Effectively you may as well call him Broly 2.0 because the guy is an absolute beast in battle. He fights with brute strength just like Broly and is obsessed with being the best. One difference though is that just being near him can cause your mind to go crazy so you turn evil. This makes it very difficult for Goku and Vegeta to really do anything against him.

Cumber also scales very highly in the power levels department as he easily handles Goku and Vegeta initially and even defeats Vegito. It takes Ultra Instinct to even stand a chance against him. Now there’s a lot of debate on which is stronger. Personally I say Vegito is way stronger than Ultra Instinct but I know many say the opposite is true. Regardless, almost nobody has ever successfully defeated Vegito so for Cumber to do that is insane.

Lets not forget that he also was defeating Gogeta in the very next fight. This was back to back so Cumber is weakened while the other two only just fused and are presumably at full strength. If that’s not impressive then I don’t know what is. Cooler also gets to appear and has an impressive opening scene with how he dispatches Bojack. His whole partnership with Trunks is pretty unique and not something you would have expected going into the series. It works quite well I must say. Trunks appears a lot and his personality is great as always but he definitely gets wasted pretty often. He just really cannot stand up to the rest of the fighters and usually only has a chance when someone else is distracting the fighter.

As for Fu, he’s the big villain mastermind here and a pretty fun villain. I wouldn’t put him as high as some of the others but Dragon Ball has never really had a successful intellectual villain so that’s cool. Sure, Gero is well known but you never see anyone ranking him up too highly. You can make the case that Cell is very intelligent but I’m thinking more along the lines of inventors and strategists who put that first even above brawn. Fu fits the bill there and with his various powered up modes, he really keeps the heroes at bay. You’ll be seeing him a lot so hopefully you enjoy him. He brings a new dynamic to the series that’s for sure and since he can actually fight as well that definitely earned him some points in my book.

Goku and Vegeta themselves are in a lot of the battles so you’ll see them a lot. I would argue Vegeta may actually get more big moments than Goku does. Vegeta was able to break through the shadows and is also the one with the emotional decision to say they should fuse when he thought about his family. Of course Goku gets the actual wins like when he stepped in against Cumber as well as his battle against himself. So Goku gets more big moments in terms of actual victories while Vegeta is the emotional core of the story. He even gets visibly worried when Fu mentions that Trunk was captured.

Ozotto is an interesting figure. He appears a bit in both arcs and seems to have some plans but hasn’t really done anything yet. I’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on this guy. I think he’s got a ton of potential but I just wonder when he will actually make his move. So far it doesn’t seem like he’ll be doing anything even in the sequel to this manga.

Then we have the second arc in the series with Hearts trying to take down Zeno. This one has a lot more guest stars which is fun. Effectively Hearts is taking down powerful fighters in each universe although the heroes aren’t sure why yet. His targets are Hit from Universe 6 and Jiren of Universe 11. Both of these guys can probably hold their own but the Supreme Kai needs the Universe 7 fighters’ help just in case. Goku is still missing after his fight with Cumber so it’s up to Vegeta.

It’s another great arc to follow the first one up. First off, Hearts is an excellent main villain. I thought he was pretty cool right away and he only got better the more he appeared. I don’t blame him for wanting to take Zeno down since those galactic guys aren’t exactly trust worthy. We don’t yet know why he can’t stand the gods but there are plenty of reasons to dislike them in this verse.

His abilities are also hard to get around. Not only can he physically move fast enough to dodge hits from fighters like Jiren and Dyspo but his mind reading abilities are useful for any situation. Throw in his gravity powers and you’ve got someone who is nearly unbeatable. In his released form he was able to defeat Goku, Vegeta, Jiren, and Hit at the same time. Heroes really loves to make everyone as powerful as possible that’s for sure.

From his minions, Zamasu is the most interesting one. After all, if you know anything about Zamasu you know that he isn’t exactly a team player. Why is he putting up with working for Hearts? Particularly as Hearts is trying to destroy the gods. Well, Zamasu has his reasons and it’s cool seeing him get back into the fray.

Then you have Lagss who has glass abilities. On paper she doesn’t seem quite as impressive as the others but her powers are quite useful. It’s difficult to break her shields and she was even able to handle Zamasu and Trunks. We really don’t know almost anything about her except that she is super loyal to Hearts. I’d like to see her appear more in the future at some point.

Finally we have the twins Oren and Kamin who are effectively the Heroes version of Baby. They can possess you and then amp your powers up to greater heights. They leave less of an impact than the others but are still powerful fighters to be feared. I’d say they’re the weakest fighters in the group though.

Then you have the guest stars. Kefla was fun to see and she even held her own against the twins once the mind control wore off. Toppo spends most of his screen time eating dirt but at least he always gets back up. Jiren and Hit certainly look the best from all of the guest stars. They both may be on the losing side against Hearts but actually land some hits and have a good amount of confidence. Seeing them side by side was also quite the spectacle. It’s not something you’d expect to see for a while yet.

Heroes really takes the time to show off a bunch of cool concepts and team ups. There are a bunch of power ups throughout the arcs and each character really gets to show off their skills. As I mentioned it’s only 2 volumes but it just feels like a lot happens there. We even get to see Goku seemingly trained by the Grand Minister himself. Although he doesn’t seem much stronger so you can argue the guy just got him a cool costume.

The art is very solid. It really captures the Dragon Ball look to be sure. It’s got a lot of simple designs on the page to really maximize how much the fights stand out. You’ll never lose track of what’s going on in a given page. As a result it also means that you can read the chapters a lot quicker than most too. The 12 chapters really feel like they go by in an instant.

Naturally there is a cliffhanger ending for the next arc here so you won’t want to miss that. Lets just say a certain villain misses out on the second arc so you know that means he has been hard at work in the shadows. The heroes barely managed to stop his first plan so they will definitely have to bring in their A game to stop him this time.


Overall, Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Universe Mission is a mouth full as a title but it does get straight to the point. The Universes were at stake here but fortunately Goku and friends were ready for the job. The series is so fast that there is definitely no time for any negatives. You get right to the action scenes and never look back. It’s a blast just to see all of the old characters as they push past their limits. By the end of the series they even squeeze in little contributions from some of the side characters like Android 17 and Piccolo. It’s definitely surprising to see them but at least this way they get to do something. Personally I think they should have gotten clobbered but it’s nice to see their fans get something once in a while. I’d definitely recommend checking this one out and I look forward to seeing how the next one fares.

Overall 8/10