Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero
Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is a solid entry point for lapsed fans and a satisfying showcase for the franchise's secondary cast, just don't expect the usual formula.
The Dragon Ball franchise has a structural problem baked into its own success. Goku and Vegeta have been powered past the point of conventional dramatic utility. The escalation that drove the original series, the sense that the next villain would push the Saiyans to a new limit they had not previously imagined, has been extended so many times that the ceiling is now so high that new threats require either cosmological stakes or the invention of transformations that the preceding arc made appear to be the final word. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is the most interesting solution to this problem the franchise has attempted in a theatrical release: it simply removes Goku and Vegeta from the narrative almost entirely and builds the film around characters who have been present since the franchise's origin but have never been given a theatrical feature of their own.
Gohan and Piccolo take the lead as the Red Ribbon Army, the organization that served as one Goku's original antagonists decades ago, resurfaces with new ambitions and new technology in the form of androids with superhero motifs and a rebuilt version of Cell. The choice is both nostalgic and structurally sensible: Gohan and Piccolo's relationship is one of the franchise's most emotionally developed bonds, their power levels are calibrated for a conflict that does not require the franchise's highest-tier characters, and the secondary cast that has accumulated around them over decades of storytelling is given room to function as something other than spectators.
The animation represents a significant departure from the franchise's established visual grammar, shifting from the traditional 2D style to a CGI approach that initially seems like a misfit but earns its presence through the action sequences. The character designs translate into the new format with enough fidelity that the transition does not distract, and the fights in the second half benefit from the format's ability to stage three-dimensional spatial relationships between characters with a fluidity that 2D animation achieves differently. The film is worth seeing in a premium format specifically for these sequences.
The franchise's structural formula, a slow first half of exposition followed by a second half of escalating combat, is present and is the film's most familiar limitation. The Red Ribbon Army's backstory and the introduction of the new Androids occupy more of the first half than the plot requires, and a viewer unfamiliar with the organization's original role will get a more superficial explanation than the history warrants considering the history originated in the original Dragon Ball before extending into Dragon Ball Z and the non-canon Dragon Ball GT. The film assumes familiarity with the franchise without the Dragon Ball Super: Broly level of explanation that introduced new mythological elements, which creates an uneven accessibility that will affect different viewers differently.
For anyone who has followed the franchise and wants to see Gohan and Piccolo receive the theatrical treatment they have deserved for years, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero delivers that with the warranted energy. As a gateway film for newcomers, it functions better than most entries in the franchise's theatrical run, though the enjoyment ceiling remains higher for those who already know who they are watching.
