Dragon Ball is at an interesting crossroads at the moment. While the Dragon Ball Super manga by Akira Toriyama and Toyotarou is ongoing, its anime adaptation concluded a few years ago and despite an ongoing web series titled Super Dragon Ball Heroes, the anime franchise seems to be in limbo. It’s been four years after the last feature film, Dragon Ball Super: Broly, which felt like a return-to-form for Toriyama’s creation. For their next movie, they have gone down the 3D animation treatment.
The 21st Dragon Ball movie, subtitled Super Hero, marks the return of the Red Ribbon Army, an evil organization that Goku defeated when he was a kid. However, instead of focusing on Goku, the story is about his son Gohan and his former mentor Piccolo as the two go on a mission to save the world from the newly reformed Red Ribbon Army. Red Ribbon have created new androids, believing they are superheroes to fight the evil that is Goku and his friends.
Despite being one of the most successful manga and anime series of all time, looking at recent media, there is the worry that Dragon Ball is struggling to stay relevant. From a storytelling standpoint, Toriyama’s Super Hero is all about evoking the past, with a Red Ribbon Army that rarely opposes as a threat. There are new androids, but even then, there is a sense of déjà vu going on. No doubt that longtime fans will feel nostalgic towards its history, but Toriyama isn’t saying anything new, and definitely not capturing that same lightning in a bottle that was his original manga and its anime adaptation, both of which were game-changers for their respective formats.
Since neither Goku or Vegeta serve as main protagonists – though there is a whole fan service sequence of them sparring – it was good that the focus was towards Gohan and Piccolo, who have been neglected in recent years. While one can respect the arcs the two characters are going through – notably Gohan, who has been so devoted to work that he has had no time for training or even spending time with his daughter Pan, who gets kidnapped in the process – the stakes don’t seem that high. There is a great deal of talking in this movie, with Toriyama trying to put emphasis on comedy. Whenever Dragon Ball becomes dialogue-heavy, you just wish for someone to blast a Kamehameha at someone else.
After the stellar hand-drawn animation of the Broly movie, which is the best that Dragon Ball has looked in years, Super Hero’s decision to go 3D was always going to be worrisome. Directed by Tetsuro Kodama, who has previous experience with CGI visuals, there are some stunning shots and it certainly looks better than the majority of 3D anime, but there is still a stiffness that comes across the character designs that don’t feel as expressive. No matter how much the 3D camera sings around the super-powered figures, the action lacks the impact that you would expect from this much-loved property.
With a weak story and a visual style that’s too different from what we expect from the series, Super Hero is a disappointing addition that shows Dragon Ball may be losing its relevancy.
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