Gohan Blanco 100 Por Ciento - My DBS: Super Hero Premature Review

BIG SPOILER WARNING! I'LL BE COVERING EVERYTHING! 

© Akira Toriyama, Shueisha, Toei

A premature review? What even is that lol? Well, long story short I watched the movie in Japanese, but without subs. I don't speak Japanese so I obviously didn't get the full context of what the characters were saying though watching anime for nearly 9 years and knowing the spoilers made sure I got the general gist of it. This is what I mean by premature review. My context is limited, but it's Dragon Ball after all, so I'm not expecting masterpiece level storytelling. It was a really dumb decision not to release it simultaneously worldwide, considering how (unreasonably) passionate Dragon Ball fans are lol. Day 1, everyone who was subscribed to a DB YouTuber had a bunch of clips and spoilers in their recommended feed lol. So, I said eh whatever, might as well watch the full thing. Needless to say I will also go see it in cinemas when it comes to the west in 2 to 3 months.

 

Right off the bat, let's address the elephant in the room... that animation. Let's start off on a positive note. The movie began with a phenomenal looking 2D sequence, which summarised Goku's encounter with the Red Ribbon army in the original Dragon Ball as well as the Android/Cell Saga in Z, showing a great modern look at Perfect Cell. We also FINALLY got a great looking shot of SSJ Grade 2 Vegeta pointing at himself, instead of the meme where his eyes are uneven. This is one of my favourite scenes form Z so to have a shot that matches its greatness feels real good.

© Akira Toriyama, Shueisha, Toei

Then it transitions into cgi. I was initially impressed by the camerawork, but was also immediately disappointed with the frame rate. Every time I see cgi in anime it looks like I'm playing csgo, my potato pc is overheating and the game is lagging. That frame drop is one of the factors that makes me actively dislike cgi as a whole. Lupin III The First is just about the only anime movie that figured out how to make it look smooth. Everyone else is still playing catch up.

 

Later on they show brief 2D flashbacks on Hercule preparing to fight Cell, Trunks killing Frieza, Cell's evolutions, Dr Gero and the androids, Jiren and the Gods of Destruction of the other universes, Krillin and Dende getting their potential unlocked, Bulma collecting the dragon balls, Frieza in his ship, big Piccolo in the original dragon ball. A lot of these 2D shots looked great. It honestly felt so ironic that I was looking forward to the flashbacks more than the original content for the first time in any piece of media I've consumed.

 

Overall, my concerns with the film being in cg were mostly justified. Ok guys you had your fun with the movie, you tried the whole 3D cg thing, big round of applause for using a cost cutting technique and covering it by saying you're experimenting with different animation methods... never do that again. For real I hope this was a one off thing and certainly not a trend. Would not wanna see this style continue. I suppose for cg standards, it's alright and it did have a few cools scenes which I'll address later, buuuuuut it still suffers from the more universal problems plaguing cg anime and I would not imagine ever preferring this method to standard 2D. Compare Super Broly and Super Hero. Night and day difference.

 

Next up, I wanna point out some things I thought were interesting before going into the final characters section.

 

The movie repeats a lot of scenes from earlier Dragon Ball with the line between homage and lazy repeat being somewhat blurred. They used the same gag with Magenta being short as the one with Commander Red in the original Dragon Ball, who is apparently his father. There was also the repeated the gag of Gohan being terrible at catching things like the potara earring and now dropping the senzu bean. Additionally, the scene where Pan learns to fly is also reminiscent of the one where Videl flew for the first time. Most notably, they also completely remade Gohan's transformation to Final Gohan (more on him later) to be a shot for shot replica of his SSJ 2 transformation against Cell. Remember how we had that same shot of Broly powering up to Legendary SSJ in both the og and Super films? It's kinda like that.

© Akira Toriyama, Shueisha, Toei

Now to get into the meat and potatoes of this review. The characters. Yes, I'm completely skipping any talks about the story and score as both of them were pretty bland and unremarkable.

 

Getting the ones that didn't do much outta the way first. The human villains were absolutely nothing special. Just some Red Ribbon army goons and scientists that aren't even worth mentioning. What is worth mentioning however, is somewhat of a retcon where Android 16 was revealed to be the son of Gero and shockingly, the human form of Android 21. The reason I call this a retcon instead of a reveal is because Android 21 is a FighterZ character who was never envisioned to be in DBZ. This is evident by the fact that FighterZ came out in 2018 and her android number is 21, which chronologically falls way after 16. You could make the argument that the movie technically showed us her human form instead of her android form, but that would imply she's still somewhere out there in the Super timeline as an android. Just a nice Easter egg to point out.

 

Then we got the returning cast from Broly. We didn't really get much of Broly beyond screwing around on Beerus' planet, which was unfortunate. Goku and Vegeta spend some time sparring and Vegeta fans are finally getting a W for seeing him win in the post credit sequence. It's strongly implied that none of them transformed to either their Super or Ultra forms, but at least we got confirmation that Vegeta's base defeated Goku's base. Lastly, there was a funny scene of Beerus calling Cheelai cute followed by a great shot of Bulma's ass.

 

OK.

BIG BOY TIME.

Gamma 1 and Gamma 2 were essentially the Android 17 and 18 of the movie. Gamma 1 is a somewhat stoic character, which is a pretty dangerous characteristic as it can come off as boring. For some great stoic characters, look no further than Jotaro Kujo and Yusei Fudo. Unfortunately, Gamma 1 does not join that club. However, this is fully over compensated for by Gamma 2. I kid you not, Gamma 2 is completely unironically my favourite thing about this movie. I love his personality! Dude is so animated, which completely fits the wannabe hero trope he's got going on. He does the goofy heroic poses like the Ginyu Force and Great Saiyaman, but takes it one step further by having the holographic explosion and sound effects behind him. Remember when I said the movie had some good looking cgi scenes? Gamma 2's gun rotation was one of those scenes. It was soooo satisfying to look at. I was really disappointed considering he was the only character I cared about who died, but at least he went out like a SUPER HERO! As far as I'm concerned, Gamma 2 is the mvp of this film. Please use Shenron to bring him back!

Source: heilQwerty Via DeviantArt

Next up we got Piccolo. First off, I gotta say I love how he holds the phone in this awkward way with two fingers. Nice way to visually represent how unnatural this is for him and show us how much of a boomer he is lol. Moreover, it's interesting to see other characters putting some respect on his name. Korin still refers to him as Kami, which is technically not wrong. Gamma 2 referred to him as Piccolo Daimao (King Piccolo) during their first encounter, but that was due to being misinformed about his evil identity, which is a stark contrast to Korin's choice of highlighting the good identity. On a side note, why does Korin only have 2 senzu beans left? He's supposed to be growing them right? So why does he only have a very finite amount after such a long time? What are he and Yajirobe doing there all these years apart from just eating lol. Anyway, Shenron calls him Piccolo sama, which is interesting considering the last time Piccolo made a wish directly, he straight up killed Shenron lol.

© Akira Toriyama, Shueisha, Toei

Speaking of wishes... Orange Piccolo! WOW! A different form for Piccolo of the Namekian race who are not known to transform that was obtained in a Granolah-esque fashion? You can tell I'm pretty mixed about this. In all honesty, I think I just don't like the look too much. He's too bulky so he looks more like a meathead than a trained fighter. I'm also not a fan of the colour, but I assume that's because I've seen too many fan art pieces of a blue Namekian god Piccolo so the orange throws me off. I will say I'm really digging the yellow version though, which is the kind of in-between stage from base to orange. If he was more neon yellow and leaner, that would have looked cooler in my eyes. Overall thought, not bad. I'm glad Piccolo is getting some relevance. I doubt this form makes him stronger than SSGSS, but at least it's somewhat more comparable.

Source: Gachristian1GD Via Twitter

 

Speaking of new transformations... Final Gohan everybody! These names keep getting more and more ridiculous lol. Writers brainstorming names be like: "What's after Ultimate Gohan? Uuuum Idk... Final Gohan? Ok but what's after that for when he gets another form in 20 years? Uuuuum... Gohan Beyond?" So yeah Gohan's got a new form aaaand it's kinda weird. He has white/grey hair whose colour is very similar to Ultra Instinct, but also has red eyes. This symbolises how unlike Ultra Instinct, which is a serene form achieved through a zen state of calmness and balance, this Final form is a state clearly achieved from pure rage. People have pointed out how the red eyes are similar to the original concept of the regular SSJ, which makes sense considering this is yet another form achieved through intense anger (no, none of that back tingling feeling bs over here). Now whether or not the elongated white hair implies its raw power is on a comparable level to Ultra Instinct is debatable, though I seriously doubt it.

 

Finally, we reach the biggest certified BRUH character of the movie. There's no sugar coating needed here, Cell Max straight up sucks and is the worst thing about the film. Anybody defending this... I acknowledge your opinion, but also... you're wrong lol. For those who haven't seen the movie and are reading this, lemme stop you right here. I know what you're thinking. Cell came back, and judging by that Max name he's way stronger than his Super Perfect form in Z. Nope. This is a whole new creation who has nothing to do with Cell from Z. Cell Max is at most a parody of Cell and a total embarrassment of a villain. He's a huge, mindless kaiju 2nd form Cell who is coloured red. Why 2nd form? Because apparently it's Toriyama's favourite form of Cell😑😑😑 Well Semi-Perfect is my least favourite Cell and that's why his battle with SSJ Grade 2 Vegeta is genuinely my favourite fight in Z. How is this massive Cell in his second form, which could only have been genetically achieved by absorbing Android 17? Who knows... no explanation given. Of course the biggest sin of it all... Cell Max had shoes on.

Source: Rivera_Artt Via Twitter

BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH. This is actually cringe. Not to mention how on top of that, he's somehow much stronger than the new Orange Piccolo, the Gammas and Ultimate Gohan. Yet another nonsensical power up. Taking humans and technologically modifying them to turn them into androids who happen to be much stronger than both Frieza the galactic overlord and the legendary super saiyan transformations of the strongest warrior race in the universe back in Z's Android saga was stupid enough. However, having Cell Max be stronger than Ultimate Gohan who pummelled Super Buu, who mind you was a powered up version of fat buu, the creature capable of destroying the universe is completely outrageous. I call BS on that. No Earthling technology can make such a ridiculously powerful being lol. Though as I said, Dragon Ball's story has never been anything to brag about so it is what it is.

 

The final fight was alright. It kinda looked like Naotoshi Shida was briefly in there when Giant Orange Piccolo and Cell max punch each other in the face simultaneously and when Gohan Blanco 100 Por Ciento stops Cell Max's first punch with that smoke effect. I will say Gohan doing a Special Beam Cannon is a really nice touch and it clashing with Cell Max's blast was a great visual. Still doesn't change the fact that in many ways, this is Super's Bio Broly. A big, mindless parody of an existing character who is much cooler and also dead.

 

This felt like a side story. If it wasn’t for the 2 brand new transformations (3 if you count yellow Piccolo and 4 if you count Cell Max) this movie would have felt just like one of those mid DBZ films. I did get the feeling it was kind of a cash grab with the goal of making toys on everyone's new designs and transformations, which is a shame. Just like the beginning of the Buu saga, this serves as yet another reminder that Gohan is unfit to carry the story as its protagonist. It has to be Goku or it feels like nothing that's happening is of any importance. As a side story that brings Piccolo and Gohan back into relevance, it's a good film. However, as the first film in more than 3 years, following the phenomenal canon Broly reboot, it's a disappointment.

 

As my last point, I just wanna outline some missed opportunities:

 

Actual Cell reviving would have been much better considering he's the only major DBZ villain to still be dead. If Frieza can come back and assist the main crew from time to time, Cell who's less diabolical due to having Goku's DNA in him would have no problem joining the main crew to take his perfection even further. Speaking of those Frieza genes, imagine Golden or better yet, Platinum Cell achieved by training in hell for years. That or he comes back and asborbs Gamma 1 and 2 to become Ultra Perfect Cell. Sure would have loved to see that...

Source: BlackScape, Merik_MERIMO & 6PocketStudios Via Twitter

Gamma 1 and 2 fusion. This was a pretty popular theory back when the androids were first shown. I mean, you name these guys 1 and 2 and not have them fuse? Could have been called Gamma 3 or something like Omega. Again, please bring Gamma 2 back.

 

Finally, Piccolo could have obtained his power up in a better way. Wishing for unlocked potential through Shenron is kinda cheap, but I suppose it's not horrendous considering the Namekians created the dragon, thus have a more established link to him than any other species. He could have gotten some secret forbidden scrolls or something that grant him god ki as a Namekian, which could have put him on par with SSGSS.

 

Overall, I'd give the movie a low, low, low 6/10, just out of respect for Gamma 2. It had a lot of lows, it had... some... highs and mostly it had a lot of missed opportunities, wasted potential and a terrible release schedule. You can take this review with a pinch of salt as like I said the method of me watching it was... unconventional to say the least. I'll certainly be making another post in a few months when I see it in the cinema to confirm my thoughts, but yeah. Honestly, nothing special.

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