Monday 2 July 2018

Super Dragon Ball Heroes E01 Review: Holy Shit A New Dragon Ball Anime

Super Dragon Ball Heroes, Episode 1: Goku-vs-Goku! A Transcendent Battle Begins on the Prison Planet!


Huh, that was... unexpected. Apparently they made a promotional anime that ties into the Super Dragon Ball Heroes video game, which is its own weird Japanese-exclusive video game continuity that has been running for a while exclusive to Japan. I think the storyline that's been going on in the Heroes video game is kinda-sorta-maybe similar to the Xenoverse games? Which I played? I recognize new villain Fu as a DLC character from Xenoverse 2... yeah, it's kinda confusing, and reading Wiki explanation pages doesn't help much. I guess this was how most people felt when they watched Pokemon Generations?

Anyway, this anime is meant to bring the Dragon Ball Super watching crowd by having a crossover between the anime canon with the video game canon. Mid-training with Whis, Super's Goku and Vegeta are whisked away to a place called the Prison Planet. Future!Mai shows up, saying that someone has abducted Trunks (presumably Z/Super's Future Trunks unless proven otherwise), and then this mysterious purple-skinned elf dude Fu (pronounced Fyu) shows up and then claims to know where Trunks is. 

And then we have our Goku meeting up with another Goku, dressed in a red-and-black getup, and with the ability to transform into Super Saiyan 4. Is this Red Goku the Goku from GT? He's at least a Time Patroller, as Fu points out, and we get the fanservicey clash of fists between SS4 Goku and SSB Goku... which honestly isn't as exciting as the anime thinks it is when it literally is just the two of them clashing and then shooting Kamehamehas at each other. After that clash, they realize that the other is a good guy, then Fu gives this long talk about this being a prison planet that they can only escape by finding seven special Dragon Balls. Of course. (For some reason, Red Goku already has one) Oh, and he's doing this whole thing as an experiment, whereas Trunks is being held captive for the crimes of time travel. 

Okay...? And then we cut away to Trunks, who wakes up in a random cityscape, who runs out, and then fights movie-villain Cooler? Don't get me wrong, I do love Cooler, but this just jumps from one plot point to the next at genuine random intervals. Fu just sits in his room, watching and preening (we get cameos from Bojack and King Cold on monitors, too) while saying that everything is going as planned, while some dude he identifies as "the Evil Saiyan" grunts from being bound. This is probably a canon character, yeah? Bardock or Broly or someone?

In either case, though, this is... a weird episode. It runs for around 7 minutes if you cut out the opening, and while I do hope we get some measure of explanation about the Red alternate-universe Goku and Fu somewhere down the line, it at least manages to set up the whole concept of this weird crossover series pretty decently, as best as possible. We'll see if by subsequent episodes this gets better or if it becomes incomprehensible to someone without the context of the video games. 

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