It was announced at Shueisha’s Jump Festa ’22 event that the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, the secong Dragon Ball Super anime film, will be released in Japanese theaters on April 22, 2022. It is the 21st film overall in the Dragon Ball franchise.

The CG film’s release schedule may differ depending on each country and region. As the name suggests, the film will have a focus on the “superhero” aspect.

Original creator Akira Toriyama is in charge of the screenplay and character design. Planning for the new film project began in 2018, before the release of Dragon Ball Super: Broly. The film has a goal of telling “a large-scale story.” Aside from story composition and character design, Toriyama is also writing lines of dialogue for the film.

Source: ANN

Dragon Ball Super: Broly was released as the first film with the Dragon Ball Super branding, and it is the 20th Dragon Ball feature film overall.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly
English Publisher: FUNimation Entertainment
Format: Blu-ray/DVD Combo
Release Date: April 16, 2019

Dragon Ball Super: Broly is a re-telling of Broly’s origin story, and it starts out with some history of the Saiyans. The ultimate focus of this history, though, is on Vegeta, Broly, and Goku and what happened to them leading up to their respective introductions. The most time is spent on Broly, though, which makes sense. The audience gets to see King Vegeta get angry that another Saiyan child would have a higher power level than his son. Broly is sent away in a pod, and his father, Paragus, steals a ship to rescue him. The pod lands on a rather inhospitable planet, and Paragus’ ship crash lands on the planet. While Paragus is able to rescue Broly, they are unable to leave because the ship is damaged. Paragus vows to raise his son in order to exact revenge on King Vegeta, When Frieza summons all the Saiyans back to Planet Vegeta, Bardock (Goku’s father) returns, but suspects something isn’t right. In this film, we get to meet Goku’s mother, Gine, and after some discussion, she and Bardock steal a pod in order to send Goku away to Earth, just in case Bardock is correct about Frieza’s intentions.

The film then moves ahead in time 41 years after the destruction of Planet Vegeta, and is set after the end of the Dragon Ball Super anime series. Two of Freiza’s henchman have broken into Capsule Corp and stolen the Dragon Radar and the six Dragon Balls that Bulma has collected. Bulma knows where they’re headed, so she, Goku, and Vegeta head toward that location.

Meanwhile, two new recruits for Frieza’s army are out trying to find new recruits for Frieza, and they end up on the planet where Paragus and Broly are. The two recruits find them and are blown away by their power levels. When they learn that the two of them have been stuck on this planet for years, they make a strong case for Paragus and Broly to come with them. The two recruits become friends with Broly, and the female recruit is unhappy about how Paragus tries to control Broly. She steals the remote and destroys it, which becomes important later in the story.

Frieza decides to take Paragus and Broly with him when they go to retrieve the Dragon Balls on Earth. Goku, Vegeta, and Broly encounter each other, and this is when the battle that dominates the film gets started. At first, it seems like Vegeta has the upper hand on Broly, but as Broly figures out what Vegeta is doing, it becomes a much more even match. But Broly’s strength keeps going up, and Paragus has no way to control it since the remote was destroyed. The story reaches its climax with an epic battle between Broly, Vegeta, and Goku. I liked how the battle was brought to an end, because it’s not something that the audience would have necessarily anticipated.

After watching Dragon Ball Super: Broly, I have to say that this was a much better film than I had anticipated. This telling of Broly’s story allowed Broly to truly be developed as a character, and as a viewer, I came to really like him. I also thought the addition of the old man and the female recruits for Frieza’s army helped to make a huge difference. By having these two characters to befriend and confide in, the viewer gets to see that Broly is actually a decent and gentle Saiyan, who was being pushed by his father to become a warrior because of his desire to get his revenge on King Vegeta. I also liked how parent-child relationships played an important role in this film as well, and we get to see three different relationships (Gine and Bardock’s love for Goku, King Vegeta wanting to mold his son into what he wanted him to be, and Paragus micromanaging Broly’s life).

The animation was definitely in the same vein as the Dragon Ball Super anime series, although it was at a little higher quality for this feature film. My only real gripe with the animation has to do with when attempts were made to include computer graphics among the traditionally animated elements. The CG used in this film stood out way too much, and it was blatantly obvious how much CG was being used in some of the scenes. Outside of that, though, the animation was pretty decent.

When it comes to the Blu-ray included in this release, it has 1080p High Definition 16:9 (HD Native) video. For audio, it includes Dolby True HD: English 5.1 and Dolby TrueHD: Japanese 5.1. For the DVD, it has English 5.1 Surround and Japanese 5.1 Surround for the audio. I watched the Blu-ray included in this set, and I had no complaints with either the video or the audio quality.

There are a handful of bonus features included on the release, but only on the Blu-ray Disc. First is “Interview with the Cast of Dragon Ball: Super.” This feature runs for about 18 minutes and includes interviews with Christopher R. Sabat (the voice director for the film, as well as the voice actor for Vegeta and Piccolo), Ian Sinclair (the voice actor for Whis), Jason Douglas (the voice actor for Beerus), Monica Rial (the voice actor for Bulma), and Sean Schemmel (the voice actor for Goku). All of the actors talk about the film, their impressions of it, as well as their characters.

This is followed by “Dragon Ball Super: The Legacy,” which runs for about four-and-a-half minutes. Over the course of this, all five of the voice actors from the previous feature give their thoughts on Dragon Ball Super and its legacy. “Are You Smarter Than a Voice Actor?” runs for about five minutes, and the five voice actors are asked trivia questions about the Dragon Ball franchise. It’s obvious that these first three bonus features were shown before the theatrical screenings for Dragon Ball Super: Broly, and this was made especially clear with the “Are You Smarter Than a Voice Actor?” feature, because they reference the fact that there is an audience.

The next five features are the five voice actors answering questions submitted by fans on Twitter. These features run anywhere from two-and-a-half minutes to four-and-a-half minutes. Unfortunately, some of the questions were reused between the voice actors (and it was obviously the same question, because it was the same user who submitted it), so this made this feature feel a little repetitive. Christopher R. Sabat and Sean Schemmel seemed to receive some more unique questions in comparison to the others, though. These features may have been shown prior to the theatrical screenings of Dragon Ball Super: Broly, but it’s not as obvious as the other ones.

The final bonus feature is “Trailers,” which includes trailers for other releases that FUNimation Entertainment was promoting at the time this Blu-ray/DVD Combo was released.

This Blu-ray/DVD Combo is a “must get” for Dragon Ball fans who want to include the Dragon Ball Super: Broly Film in their anime home video library.

Additional posts about Dragon Ball:

• Anime Film Review: Dragon Ball Super: Broly
• Anime Blu-ray/DVD Combo Review: Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods
• Anime Blu-ray/DVD Combo Review: Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’

Dragon Ball Super is an anime adaptation of the manga of the same name by Akira Toriyama (the creator of the Dragon Ball franchise) and Toyotarou. The 131 episodes of the series aired on Japanese television from July 5, 2015-March 25, 2018. As of this writing, FUNimation Entertainment holds the North American distribution rights for Dragon Ball Super.

The first arc of Dragon Ball Super is essentially a retelling of the Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods anime film. With the retelling, some of the details have been changed. For example, Bulma’s birthday party takes place on a ship instead of at Capsule Corp. There are some other detail changes as well with this telling. And obviously, the story of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods isn’t long enough to last 13+ episodes, so additional minor plots are thrown into the mix. The most amusing of these is when Vegeta takes Bulma and Trunks to an amusement park because of a promise he made to Trunks. Let’s be honest, Vegeta at an amusement park is a hilarious idea. However, I am a little frustrated that Vegeta’s song and dance at Bulma’s party that we see in the film was cut from Dragon Ball Super. Yes, we get Vegeta rushing to cook food for Beerus and Whis, and it’s amusing, but I still would have liked to see the song and dance remain. Beerus and Whis are interesting additions to the Dragon Ball universe. They have an interest in food like Goku, but it’s not about how much they can eat quickly. Instead, they’re more interested in trying various dishes from other planets. I think we could say that they’re the Dragon Ball universe’s equivalent of foodies.

After this arc, there’s an episode of Mister Satan admitting the existence of Beerus and claiming to be the one who defeated him. Surprising visitors from outer space nearly expose his hoax, though. While the episode is a little on the ridiculous side, it fits right in with Mr. Satan’s character. This is followed by three episodes that serve as a bridge between the retelling of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods and the Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection “F” anime films. This bridge shows the audience how Vegeta and Goku ended up going to Beerus’ world to train with Whis, which is one of the first things that it seen in the Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection “F” anime film. I’m glad that Dragon Ball Super took the opportunity to fill in that gap. One of the memorable things in this section is seeing Vegeta trying to cook in order to impress Whis, because it was amusing. Another amusing thing here is seeing Gohan being the overprotective expectant father. He means well by trying to cook dinner one night, but he obviously hasn’t done it very much because he gets flustered easily by it. Wow, two humorous scenes of men trying to cook… who ever would have expected that from the Dragon Ball franchise?

While the second arc is a retelling of the Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection “F” anime film, there wasn’t nearly as much tweaking with the events and the story. There was some minor tweaking, but it was nowhere near as noticeable as it was in the first arc of Dragon Ball Super.

This is followed by a new story arc, which introduces Beerus’ twin brother, Champa, and Whis’ older sister, Vados. They are the God of Destruction and attendant for the 6th Universe. They make an unannounced visit to Beerus’ planet while Goku and Vegeta are training there. We learn that there are a total of 12 universes in this world, and that Goku and the others are in the 7th Universe. Champa is the God of Destruction in the 6th Universe. After fighting over which universe has better food and discovering that the Earth in the 6th Universe has been destroyed, Champa proposes a tournament where the winner will be allowed to swap Earths. Oh, and there’s also the introduction of the Super Dragon Balls, which are literally planet-sized Dragon Balls. This leads into the Universe 6 saga, in which a Tenkaichi Tournament style contest is held on a vacated, nameless planet located between the 6th Universe and the 7th Universe. Beerus insists on choosing one of the contestants but tells Goku and Vegeta they are free to choose two others. They choose Piccolo and Majin Boo, but Universe 7 loses Majin Boo when he falls asleep during the written portion of the contest and is disqualified. The tournament itself introduces some interesting new characters from the 6th Universe, including a Saiyan named Caba, Frost (the 6th Universe’s version of Freiza), and an assassin known as Hit. My favorite part of the Universe 6 saga is at the beginning of the tournament, with the performance of “The Anthem of the Universe.” It was hysterical, and I was cracking up when I saw it. But the characters from the 6th Universe that I mentioned here are important for the final arc of the series.

At the end of this arc, a new character called Grand Zeno makes an appearance. He looks and acts like a young child but is actually the “King of Universes.” Zeno makes an appearance because he witnessed what happened and wants to organize a tournament for all 12 universes. Even though the two Gods of Destruction make it clear not to displease Zeno because he has the power to destroy anything, Goku still casually approaches the Omni-King. Fortunately, Zeno was not displeased by this action. But why am I not surprised that Goku didn’t heed any warnings?

After roughly five episodes of “filler,” the next arc sees the return of Future Trunks. A new menace has appeared in his timeline that looks like Goku but is dressed in black and it should be noted also wears a special ring and a potara earring in one of his ears. Goku Black also makes it to the present time, and a battle with Goku ensues. This arc sees Goku and Future Trunks going between timelines because of Goku Black, and it was interesting to see some of the characters we’ve known, such as Yajirobe and Mai, appear in Future Trunks’ timeline. They learn the truth about Goku Black, and a major battle takes place in Future Trunks’ timeline. As part of this, Goku brings back the Grand Zeno from this timeline to become a friend for the Grand Zeno of his timeline.

After some “filler” episodes, the Tournament of Power arc (the final arc of the series) gets underway. Bulma and Vegeta’s daughter Bra is born during this arc, and fighters from the various universes gather together for the tournament. But before they do, Goku has to come up with enough participants… which ends up including Frieza being allowed to leave Hell for it. There’s a set time limit for the tournament, and when all of the members of a team are out of the tournament, that team’s universe will be erased. So the stakes are high going into this tournament, and of course, everyone is trying to do what they can in order to avoid having their universe erased. The Tournament of Power was the longest arc in the series, but for the most part, it didn’t feel like it dragged on. The last few episodes of the series get really intense, and the viewer is left on the edge of their seat during the final battle between Jiren and Goku.

I have to admit that I was a little unsure about Dragon Ball Super initially. At first, this was due to the character designs and the animation quality, but after watching the first arc, this didn’t bother me as much because I adjusted to the changes. I was also a little slow to get going on this series because the first two story arcs were simply retellings of the Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods and Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection “F” anime films, which I had already seen. However, after making it through those first two arcs, I found that I overall ended up enjoying Dragon Ball Super as I was able to see more and more new stories that I’d never seen before. By the end of the series, I found that I really came to enjoy it. I also appreciated that with the way it ended, it leaves open the possibility of more stories in the future. I thought this was a great idea, since the Dragon Ball Super manga is still ongoing and that there are more stories to tell if it’s ever decided to continue this anime. And even if there ends up never being another Dragon Ball television anime series, the ending also works as the ending for the anime.

I would highly recommend that fans of the Dragon Ball franchise watch Dragon Ball Super, even if you’ve already seen the last two Dragon Ball Z films. Once you make it past two first two story arcs, you’re in for some good stories and new characters for this franchise that you’ve never seen before.

Additional posts about Dragon Ball:

• Anime Spotlight: Dragon Ball (Updated)
• Anime Blu-ray Review: Dragon Ball Super Part 1

Dragon Ball Super Part 10 includes Episodes 118-131 of the Dragon Ball Super anime series. Audio options for this release include the original Japanese audio with English subtitles and the English dub.

Dragon Ball Super Part 10
English Publisher: FUNimation Entertainment
Format: Blu-ray
Release Date: January 14, 2020

The 14 episodes included on this set not only conclude the Tournament of Power arc, they also conclude the Dragon Ball Super anime series.

The set starts off with Gohan and Piccolo up against Saonel and Pilina from the 6th Universe, Goku, Android 17 and Android 18 up against three fighters from the 2nd Universe, and Vegeta is against Catopesra from the 3rd Universe. By the end of this episode, Gohan and Piccolo defeat their opponents, and Goku and the androids defeat theirs. With these defeats, both the 2nd and the 6th Universes are erased. Even though the erasure of the 6th Universe means Beerus’ brother, Champa, also disappears, Beerus shows no visible emotion over the loss of his brother. In a lot of ways, that’s not surprising, though, since the two of them have been depicted throughout this series as never really getting along with each other.

From here, Catopesra is weakened by Vegeta, but is ultimately knocked out of the ring by something that can’t be easily seen. At this point, the second episode on the disc focuses on our protagonists going up against fighters from the 4th Universe. Piccolo is knocked out of the tournament during this episode, but by the end, the remaining fighters from the 4th universe are defeated, and that universe is erased.

Now that the Tournament of Power is down to three universes remaining, the rate of progression for the tournament and for the story slows down. At this point, the action becomes fighting between the 3rd Universe and the 7th Universe. Instead of lasting for one episode, the two universes battle it out for two episodes. It turns out some of the 3rd Universe’s fighters can transform into one robot, and at first, it looks the robot could have the upper hand in the fight with Gohan, but with help for Goku and Vegeta, the robot seems to be defeated. But Dr. Paproni, one of the fighters in the 3rd Universe, merges with the robot and becomes Agnilasa, their universe’s most powerful warrior. During this fight, Android 18 sacrifices herself to keep Android 17 from being eliminated. Thanks to the teamwork from most of the remaining members from the 7th Universe (I say most, because I think Freiza didn’t participate in this battle), Agnilasa is defeated, and the 3rd Universe is erased.

At this point, it’s down to just two universes left: the 7th Universe and the 11th Universe. The fighters left on the field include Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Android 17, Freiza, Jiren, Top, and Dyspo. The remaining episodes in the series focus on the battles between these two universes, which reach an exciting climax. And during this final melee, there’s also important backstory revealed for Jiren, which helps the audience to better understand Jiren’s motivations and actions throughout the series. This backstory didn’t bog the pacing of the series down at all, and it provided a short break from all the fighting. Also, the final battle really boils down to being a battle between Jiren’s philosophy and Goku’s philosophy for fighting.

In the end, the audience knows which universe has to win, but the last person standing isn’t necessarily who the audience expects it will be. I had already guessed what the wish on the Super Dragon Balls had to be as well, but I still enjoyed seeing the finale to find out how what I had predicted would come to pass.

After being a little unsure about Dragon Ball Super initially, I found that I came to really enjoy this series. I also appreciated that with the way it ended, it leaves open the possibility of more stories in the future. I thought this was a great idea, since the Dragon Ball Super manga is still ongoing and that there are more stories to tell if it’s ever decided to continue this anime. And even if there ends up never being another Dragon Ball television anime series, the ending also works as the ending for the overall television anime franchise.

When it comes to this release, the Blu-ray video is 1080p High Definition 16:9 (HD Native), and the audio is Dolby TrueHD: English 5.1 and Dolby TrueHD: Japanese 2.0. I have no complaints with the video or audio quality of this release.

The major bonus feature on this set “Dragon Ball Super: Interview with Patrick Seitz and Kyle Hebert” (they are the English voice actors for Jiren and Gohan, respectively). Over the course of this feature, the two of them talk about their involvement with the Dragon Ball franchise, their characters, Dragon Ball fans, and the Dragon Ball Super anime series. These two voice actors seem to get along well during this feature, which helped to make this a great viewing experience. This feature also ran for the right amount of time. It didn’t feel too short and it didn’t feel too long. Other bonus features include a textless opening song and a textless closing song.

If you’re a fan of the Dragon Ball franchise and want to own all the episodes and films, then you’ll need to add Dragon Ball Super Part 10 to your anime home video library.

Additional Posts about Dragon Ball Super:

• Anime Blu-ray Review: Dragon Ball Super Part 8
• Anime Blu-ray Review: Dragon Ball Super Part 9

Toei announced at its Special Dragon Ball panel at the San Diego Comic-Con virtual event that the second anime film in the Dragon Ball Super franchise will be titled Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. As the name suggests, the film will have a focus on the “superhero” aspect.

The staff teased that the film will utilize different technology to display visual expression. New characters will also appear in the film. Original creator Akira Toriyama is in charge of the screenplay and character design.

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is scheduled to open in Japanese theaters in 2022. The release schedule may differ depending on each country and region.

Source: ANN

Dragon Ball Super Part 9 includes Episodes 105-117 of the Dragon Ball Super anime series. Audio options for this release include the original Japanese audio with English subtitles and the English dub.

Dragon Ball Super Part 9
English Publisher: FUNimation Entertainment
Format: Blu-ray
Release Date: October 8, 2019

The set opens with an episode that focuses on Master Roshi. It was awesome to see him act like the awesome martial artist that won the Tenkaichi Tournament all the way back in the first Dragon Ball anime series. I was always a little disappointed that Master Roshi was basically demoted to comic relief in Dragon Ball Z, and never truly used his martial arts. Luckily, the more recent films and the Dragon Ball Super anime has allowed Roshi to remind the audience that there was a reason why he was once Goku and Kuririn’s teacher.

Gohan and Piccolo are targeted by a sniper and his partner (Prum and Harmira). Luckily, Goku, Vegeta, and Tien are able to lend a hand, because it really is a team effort to fight these two. Unfortunately for Tien, he is knocked out of the ring at the end of the fight, but at least he could take one of the two enemies out with him.

We get a couple of battles with Ribrianne, one of the “magical girl” fighters from the 2nd Universe. Can I say just how annoying Ribrianne is? She’s constantly saying she’s fighting for love, but she’s always angry and yelling when doing so. Where’s the love there? But, both of the battles we see with Ribrianne are important, because the first one requires Goku to use a Genki Dama, and what happens here unleashes “Autonomous Ultra Instinct,” which gives Goku a new power-up that is a legendary deity technique. The second battle Ribrianne has is with No. 18 (with help from No. 17). At least this second battle allows us to finally be rid of Ribrianne. I’m sorry, but the fighters from the 2nd universe, as well as their God of Destruction, are just so annoying. Heles, their God, looks like she’s copying Cleopatra’s look and “beautiful” shows up in just about every sentence she says.

Goku also has an important fight with both Caulifla and Kale. The two female Saiyans level up, with Kale once again getting ridiculously strong. At first, she can’t control her power again, but this time, Caulifla is able to get through to her. While it was kind of interesting at first to watch Goku fighting the two female Saiyans from the 6th universe, I felt that their battle ended up being a little too drawn out. It ended up taking place over the course of four episodes, and the fight was stretched out with some ridiculous powering up. Not surprisingly, Goku ends up activating the Autonomous Ultra Instinct again, and utilizing it to help knock both Caulifla and Kale (who have merged to become Kefla through wearing Potara earrings). I couldn’t help but notice that these two are just about as cocky as Gotenks is. It seems like when Saiyans fuse together, the fusion makes them more cocky in addition to becoming stronger.

Over the course of these episodes, Roshi, Tien, Caulifla, Kale, Cabba, Hit, Frost, Ribrianne, as well as a few other fighters I don’t remember, are all knocked out of the competition. The amount of fighters has dwindled more going into the remaining episodes of the series, so I can only imagine just how much more intense the fights are going to get. I should also mention that at the end of each episode, there’s a countdown as to how many more minutes are remaining in the tournament. For the most part, it seems like each episode in this set covers about two minutes of fighting time in the show. With 14 episodes remaining, I expect that the amount of elapsed fighting time will likely slow down in order to stretch out the story a little more.

Overall, I did enjoy the episodes included in this set. However, my main gripe is that the Goku vs. Caulifla and Kale fight ran a little too long. I understand the intent was to show Caulifla and Kale’s growth as fighters, but I think this fight could have been scaled back a little bit in order to help it feel a little less stretched out.

When it comes to this release, the Blu-ray video is 1080p High Definition 16:9 (HD Native), and the audio is Dolby TrueHD: English 5.1 and Dolby TrueHD: Japanese 2.0. I have no complaints with the video or audio quality of this release.

The major bonus feature on this set is a “Dragon Ball Super: Twitter Q&A with Sarah Widenheft and Dawn Bennett” (the English voice actors for Kale and Zeno). This feature ran for about nine minutes, and the two women answer questions that were asked on Twitter. It’s an OK bonus feature, although there were a couple of times when Tweets that weren’t questions were included. But the interactions between the two voice actors were good, and they did have amusing things to say sometimes. Overall, though, it’s not bad for what it is. Other bonus features include a textless opening song and a textless closing song.

If you’re a fan of the Dragon Ball franchise and want to own all the episodes and films, then you’ll need to add Dragon Ball Super Part 9 to your anime home video library.

Additional posts about Dragon Ball:

• Anime Blu-ray Review: Dragon Ball Super Part 8
• Anime Blu-ray Review: Dragon Ball Super Part 10