Official On-Going Dragon Ball Super Movie #2 Thread: "Super Hero"

[Noah]

You know the only thing interesting about that Toriyama interview translated by Herms is the part where he says:

The anime series from 2013 onward has been a casual continuation of my original manga. For the first-time Dragon Ball viewer, it might be a little hard to figure out the various character relationships..."

Which means the author himself has no problem with fans who don't account Super as part of the main story and actually has the mindset Dragon Ball ended 26 years ago in its original serialization. That's kinda neat for me who can turn my brain off without actually thinking where this whole sh*t fest fits in the main timeline.

Just for those that haven't been looking at the box office thread. Early estimates have this movie opening on par or below Battle of Gods with a total that could fall quite a good chunk below. It's going to be a box office disappointment domestically from the looks of things.
I had said such a possibility could occur months ago, I'm not the only one. From a business perspective why they didn't replicate Broly I'll never know. The decision to go CGI (usually poorly received in Japan as is) and to shove the two most popular characters to the side was the wrong one to make.
Hopefully this does not put Toei off from continuing to make more movies. Probably won't help the chances of the anime series coming back either

Actually we can only hope this movie to fail terrible to the point Toei never touches the full CGI route ever again, BR is what Dragon Ball should look always forever, period. But that's only as an animation point of view as I also think they could deliver more plotwise than old lady, fat guy jokes and uninspired new transformations.

Super Saiyan God wasn't supposed to exist at all in its current state - Toriyama just didn't believe the Dragon Ball fans could comprehend an increase in power without a physical change to go with it. The state the series is in currently - pushing transformation after transformation - is a result of its own issues. It popularised the transformation trope - even if it wasn't the first to start it - and now Dragon Ball fans expect a new form every movie, every arc, every shitty Dragon Ball Heroes anime commercial. And they get it, because it works, and because it does indeed sell toys.

Which is sad as I would take common Super Saiyan with a slight different aura to be what was supposed to be God instead of what we got before and after (with Ultra Instinct Sign being the only exception). But is all about merchandising.

Dragon Ball has long since passed the franchise threshold of being a continous narrative driven story. It his a groove from the 22nd tournament to the Freeza arc where the series built upon itself and there was a natural narrative progression. Everything after that has been just trying to tell something that is entertaining to keep the story going. There's no sense in assuming this or anything going forward would be different. It's clear there is an apetite for more Dragon Ball and as long as it can be fun, that's a good thing. The doormant days of rehashing the same sagas in video games for years on end was not better.

This is quite true as it might be a consensus for the fandom that the Freeza arc is where were Dragon Ball should have ended (though it was proven it was not actually Toriyama intention), but anyway I still feel like this franchise has a potential similar to Star Wars regarding its world being unique and vast, full of interesting stuff that could be addressed, but instead they still choose the rote to rehash villains and tropes long used before.

I've been saying this for awhile: Anyone who is so worried about continuity is just going to give themselves a head-ache. As far as Toei is concerned, the anime, the manga, and the movies all are in a separate continuity. They borrow things from each other so they use a similar language, but there's no way that anything that happens in this movie will inform us what will happen in the manga.

And herein lies the problem. If you don't care about continuity, then none of it matters. If you break the rules of your own work, then there's no more investment to be had. And it has been mentioned before, but the DBS manga has been dropping lower on the charts despite still shipping relatively the same amount of books. Which means other books are gaining popularity and readers, while DBS is remaining stagnant. And if you no longer care for continuity and no longer care for the story structure, and all you want to do is just shove stuff out there for your remaining audience to feed on like pure sugarcane, then the only thing you're really saying is this.

My thoughts exactly. I could only watch this movie because I'm a Gohan fan, but yet feel no investment at all as I don't think he deserves a new transformation nor I think this story has any point or sense to be part of the main timeline.

Overall, it's a good movie, filled with nice interactions, the highlight goes indeed to Piccolo and Pan interactions, they're great together! It's far, far better than Movie 15. Better than the present part from Movie 1, but still worse than Movie 14.

Mate, people stopped to referencing Movies by number after Battle of Gods as the whole reason it were referenced like that it was because neither people wanted to referenced them by their original long title ("Super Battle in the World") or their dub title ("The Tree of Might").

It doesn't make sense to reference newer movies by number when their titles are short and the same for the Western.

It just hits like you're trying to be unnecessarily different by doing so instead of using BoG, RoF or BR for that matter.

[FortuneSSJ]

Just watched it too.

Pros:

- Despite all the crazy stuff, it's a better movie than BOG and ROF. Not only is more entertaining but the character designs, color scheme and action are better too. DBS Broly is still on a level of its own. Music is ok. Overall nothing special as those other two movies.

- The visuals are better than I expected in beginning. They were smart in making it look like 2D, instead of using a CGI aesthetic like Lupin and Doraemon movies used.I had my jaw on the floor during the 2D intro. That's was beautiful and better animated than anything in BOG and ROF movies.

- The new generation finally grew up. There was a misunderstanding about Goten/Trunks not being able to go SSJ in the spoilers. They can't use SSJ after failing to fuse and become Fat Gotenks. That's expected.

- Goku/Vegeta stay on the sidelines.

-The character interactions are great, in particular Piccolo/Pan. Hard to believe these two never interacted in GT... Bulma's wishes are stupid but the execution is better than I thought. The characterization is also great. Even in the beginning Gohan is not portrayed as a weakling like in ROF and he's confident on himself. Gotenks is actually funny.

- Liked all the new characters, except Cell Max. Hedo was my favourite.

- Bonus points for Android 21 cameo and Vegeta winning the sparring match. Also for the blood. Since I already knew about the forms, that was actually the most shocking thing to me.

Cons:

- No theme song. All modern DB movies got one and now they do a movie about Super Hero theme without one? Big no!

- Piccolo getting two forms in the same story. It's too much. He should just get one. If they planned things better, he could have got the first one during ToP and now the second one. But planning things ahead is not something this franchise is known for...

- Cell Max. I like the idea of the final boss being a giant because we don't have much villains like that, but there's no reason to not use a new character. Nobody wins with a recycled Cell. Neither the fans of the original, neither the ones like me who want new characters. And his color scheme is horrible too...

About Shenlong:

Spoiler:

I will assume the reason why Shenlong gave Piccolo a second form as present is because Piccolo was Kami before. Shenlong even calls him "Piccolo-sama", which is unusual he addresses someone like that. Only Beerus before got that respect.

About the new forms:

Spoiler:

I suppose Orange Piccolo and Gray Gohan, both with red eyes, are transformations exclusive to them who went beyond their unlocked potential forms, Yellow Piccolo and Ultimate Gohan. Something like Ultimate 2.0. Seems to make more sense than whatever DBS FT Trunks rage form was, but clarification from Toriyama would be welcomed.

About a certain character:

Spoiler:

I'm surprised Gamma 2 died. Toriyama doesn't seem to have problems to kill some good guys and that's good. FT Bulma got killed, FT Trunks timeline erased and now this guy. Toyotaro could have let Merus dead but chose not to, even though he's not a popular character and doesn't have nothing to offer without his angel powers...

All in all, the movie is cool. The spoilers and trailers don't make it justice. As someone who rathers more serious DB, I'm surprised. If it underperforms instead of blaming it all on the side characters, Toei should realize how bad the marketing was.

I expect a 2D retell of this when the anime returns. No way they will skip it, considering not everyone will be aware of the new forms.

[omaro34]

Wouldn’t Goku and Vegeta sense the massive powers coming from earth during the final battle against Cell Max and just teleport there? I mean they could sense Kid Trunks in SSJ form and Gohan and Piccolo are way way stronger than that.

[HeroR]

Wouldn’t Goku and Vegeta sense the massive powers coming from earth during the final battle against Cell Max and just teleport there? I mean they could sense Kid Trunks in SSJ form and Gohan and Piccolo are way way stronger than that.

Remember, when Goku sensed Trunks he was purposely looking for him since he was trying to teleport to Earth. In the movie, Goku is not only suppressed in base form, he is in an intense sparring match against Vegeta. Whis was probably aware of what was happening, but chose to say nothing.

[Xeogran]

-The character interactions are great, in particular Piccolo/Pan. Hard to believe these two never interacted in GT

To be honest it only was thought of at the point of this movie.
They didn't have any interaction during the brief EoZ period either.

For all we know next movie might make Yamcha into the teacher of Bra, but we have no idea about that either now.

[DSB]

btw someone on youtube uploaded the whole movie in hd.

wont say who

[Xeno Goku Black]

Opening weekend gross is ¥670 million.

Lowest than Battle of Gods. Drastically lower than Resurrection F and Broly.

[Michsi]

Opening weekend gross is ¥670 million.

Lowest than Battle of Gods. Drastically lower than Resurrection F and Broly.

Oh well, at least the reviews from those who seen it seem overwhelmingly positive as opposed to how the majority have talked about it before.
I'll take a riskier concept with less tickets sold but received well over a half-baked cash grab any day.

I'm just sad that this will tell Toei to stick with the Broly formula from now on.

[DSB]

Opening weekend gross is ¥670 million.

Lowest than Battle of Gods. Drastically lower than Resurrection F and Broly.

Oh well, at least the reviews from those who seen it seem overwhelmingly positive as opposed to how the majority have talked about it before.
I'll take a riskier concept with less tickets sold but received well over a half-baked cash grab any day.

I'm just sad that this will tell Toei to stick with the Broly formula from now on.

Broly is a far superior movie than this in every way. Just the visuals make SH look like a video game which sucks. Not to mention illogical powerups for both piccolo and Gohan. Also a stupid story. Why is red ribbon army relevant in 2022?

And yes, I saw the movie. It was uploaded in Youtube in hd.

[Michsi]

Opening weekend gross is ¥670 million.

Lowest than Battle of Gods. Drastically lower than Resurrection F and Broly.

Oh well, at least the reviews from those who seen it seem overwhelmingly positive as opposed to how the majority have talked about it before.
I'll take a riskier concept with less tickets sold but received well over a half-baked cash grab any day.

I'm just sad that this will tell Toei to stick with the Broly formula from now on.

Broly is a far superior movie than this in every way. Just the visuals make SH look like a video game which sucks. Not to mention illogical powerups for both piccolo and Gohan. Also a stupid story. Why is red ribbon army relevant in 2022?

And yes, I saw the movie. It was uploaded in Youtube in hd.

I wasn't referring to Broly, that movie was done with a lot of love and care from both the animation team and the marketing team. Everyone and their mom expected it to be a hit.

I wasn't a big fan of the return of the Red Ribbon army myself and what's funnier is that Toriyama himself admitted it didn't leave a big impression with his audience even back when he drew the manga so that they willingly went with concepts that they knew weren't going to put butts in seats shows they were more interested with experimenting this time around.

I don't care about power-ups, I'm glad Piccolo got one and maybe they'll elaborate on where it came from and what that symbol means, but I'm here for the Piccolo/Pan interaction, the humor and the cool fight scenes and I reckon that's what most people who went to see it wanted too.

[HeroR]

Oh well, at least the reviews from those who seen it seem overwhelmingly positive as opposed to how the majority have talked about it before.
I'll take a riskier concept with less tickets sold but received well over a half-baked cash grab any day.

I'm just sad that this will tell Toei to stick with the Broly formula from now on.

Broly is a far superior movie than this in every way. Just the visuals make SH look like a video game which sucks. Not to mention illogical powerups for both piccolo and Gohan. Also a stupid story. Why is red ribbon army relevant in 2022?

And yes, I saw the movie. It was uploaded in Youtube in hd.

I wasn't referring to Broly, that movie was done with a lot of love and care from both the animation team and the marketing team. Everyone and their mom expected it to be a hit.

I wasn't a big fan of the return of the Red Ribbon army myself and what's funnier is that Toriyama himself admitted it didn't leave a big impression with his audience even back when he drew the manga so that they willingly went with concepts that they knew weren't going to put butts in seats shows they were more interested with experimenting this time around.

I don't care about power-ups, I'm glad Piccolo got one and maybe they'll elaborate on where it came from and what that symbol means, but I'm here for the Piccolo/Pan interaction, the humor and the cool fight scenes and I reckon that's what most people who went to see it wanted too.

This movie was also done with a lot of love and care since everyone who saw it said the CGI was not only better than expected but it surpassed expectations. This wasn't done on the cheap. As for the marketing, a lot went into keeping all the big stuff secret while Broly outright put Gogeta Blue on the poster.

That and it's hard to take the complaining about illogical power-ups while praising Broly who went from being bullied by Super Saiyan God Vegeta to giving Gogeta Blue a decent fight in a span of an hour as if that was perfectly logical.

[Michsi]

Broly is a far superior movie than this in every way. Just the visuals make SH look like a video game which sucks. Not to mention illogical powerups for both piccolo and Gohan. Also a stupid story. Why is red ribbon army relevant in 2022?

And yes, I saw the movie. It was uploaded in Youtube in hd.

I wasn't referring to Broly, that movie was done with a lot of love and care from both the animation team and the marketing team. Everyone and their mom expected it to be a hit.

I wasn't a big fan of the return of the Red Ribbon army myself and what's funnier is that Toriyama himself admitted it didn't leave a big impression with his audience even back when he drew the manga so that they willingly went with concepts that they knew weren't going to put butts in seats shows they were more interested with experimenting this time around.

I don't care about power-ups, I'm glad Piccolo got one and maybe they'll elaborate on where it came from and what that symbol means, but I'm here for the Piccolo/Pan interaction, the humor and the cool fight scenes and I reckon that's what most people who went to see it wanted too.

This movie was also done with a lot of love and care since everyone who saw it said the CGI was not only better than expected but it surpassed expectations. This wasn't done on the cheap. As for the marketing, a lot went into keeping all the big stuff secret while Broly outright put Gogeta Blue on the poster.

That and it's hard to take the complaining about illogical power-ups while praising Broly who went from being bullied by Super Saiyan God Vegeta to giving Gogeta Blue a decent fight in a span of an hour as if that was perfectly logical.

I know it was done with a lot of love and care, it looks IMO far better than BoG and RoF, I was mostly pointing towards marketing. Think of how Broly was announced, with that tiny clip of bouncy Goku and the mysterious Saiyan and how hype was through the roof versus "here, Piccolo's house." The fact that it's showing in almost 100 less theaters, never bothered to give it a theme song hints towards less fate in this movie being a hit. Don't get me wrong I love everything about this movie and I haven't even seen it yet, but I'm trying to be a little more realistic about it. I WANT this movie to do well, since I really want to see more of this kind, but it doesn't look like it's going to be performing too well compared to others.

[Jiren The Alpha]

Opening weekend gross is ¥670 million.

Lowest than Battle of Gods. Drastically lower than Resurrection F and Broly.

Oh well, at least the reviews from those who seen it seem overwhelmingly positive as opposed to how the majority have talked about it before.
I'll take a riskier concept with less tickets sold but received well over a half-baked cash grab any day.

I'm just sad that this will tell Toei to stick with the Broly formula from now on.

We don't know that, Toriyama is not desperat for money anymore like he was when he was a writer for Jump so he can still write whatever he wants, and we don't know how much money Toei used on the film so it could still be a success for the company.

[HeroR]

I know it was done with a lot of love and care, it looks IMO far better than BoG and RoF, I was mostly pointing towards marketing. Think of how Broly was announced, with that tiny clip of bouncy Goku and the mysterious Saiyan and how hype was through the roof versus "here, Piccolo's house." The fact that it's showing in almost 100 less theaters, never bothered to give it a theme song hints towards less fate in this movie being a hit. Don't get me wrong I love everything about this movie and I haven't even seen it yet, but I trying to be a little more realistic about it. I WANT this movie to do well, since I really want to see more of this kind, but it doesn't look like it's going to be performing too well compared to others.

The marketing wasn't so much love and care so much as lot of hype. People seems to forget the environment of when Broly came out.

Namely, it came out right when the anime ended and left people super hype to see a movie if it was anything like the last two episodes, especially at the time it was believe UI was going to be in the movie. With it came a fresh new look for Dragon Ball and focused on the fan-favorite Saiyans. The internet did exploded when they found out they were rebooted Broly and their brains melted when they learned it was Broly vs Gogeta.

In comparison, Super Hero is coming out after we had a literal plague for two years, Dragon Ball hasn't been on the air for over four years with only the manga carrying on Super's name, and the side-characters took over. While many here loves to mocked Resurrection 'F', it was a massive success because it brought back Frieza for the first time since GT if we don't count Heroes, he wasn't played as a joke like all his appearances after Namek, and they gave him a new form. As popular as Broly is, Frieza is #1 in terms of villains. Also helps that Resurrection 'F' was made with all the feedback from Battle of Gods being too slow and not enough fighting.

So comparing Super Hero to other movies is pretty pointless since Broly and Resurrection 'F' went out of it way to fill seats by returning fan-favorite villains. I guess you could say Cell Max is that except they kept Cell Max's existence a secret and he isn't even the same Cell. And it isn't like Broly who isn't OG Broly, Cell Max is a mindless monster who uses Cell's least popular form because Toriyama loves it. Even now, despite the movie being out, they're still hiding Orange Piccolo, Gohan's new form, and Cell Max. Compared to Resurrection 'F' where they had the toys for Golden Frieza and Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan ready to go in Heroes and Dokkan having Gogeta and Broly's cards ready the weekend the movie dropped.

[Michsi]

Opening weekend gross is ¥670 million.

Lowest than Battle of Gods. Drastically lower than Resurrection F and Broly.

Oh well, at least the reviews from those who seen it seem overwhelmingly positive as opposed to how the majority have talked about it before.
I'll take a riskier concept with less tickets sold but received well over a half-baked cash grab any day.

I'm just sad that this will tell Toei to stick with the Broly formula from now on.

We don't know that, Toriyama is not desperat for money anymore like he was when he was a writer for Jump so he can still write whatever he wants, and we don't know how much money Toei used on the film so it could still be a success for the company.

I hope you are right.

Based on his latest comment translated by herms, he really seemed to have found working on this movie a little more exciting than the previous ones at least.

The marketing wasn't so much love and care so much as lot of hype. People seems to forget the environment of when Broly came out.

Creating and maintaining that hype IS the love and care I'm talking about. I want the movie that focuses so much on Piccolo to do well, I really, really do and part of me that remembers all the mocking at even the mention of him ever being relevant again is jumping for joy because of this movie's sheer existence alone. I'd love for this movie to blow records but I'll be happy with it just performing better than expected and I don't know if it will do that.


Edit:

According to AAN it sold almost 500 K tickets. That's a lot better than what I read earlier from unofficial sources, though the Net is about the same.

[Lord Beerus]

Opening weekend gross is ¥670 million.

Lowest than Battle of Gods. Drastically lower than Resurrection F and Broly.

Oof. Gotta hope word of mouth is good enough to carry the film to a respectable total in Japan.

But I fear how well the movie will do internationally considering the entire film has already been leaked online (and in some cases, leaked in decent quality), and how the biggest market outside of Japan (North America) has to wait two months before seeing this movie.

[SupremeKai25]

I hope Toei doesn't look at this and think that there is no more interest in Super (the animated series) because, frankly, that's not true. DBS the animated series was literally one of the most popular and watched anime of the last decade, it regularly broke streaming sites because of how many people were tuning in to watch it each week and it was even live-streamed in huge public squares.

Who would have thought that 4 years of no new content except for an obscure monthly manga and a videogame promotional anime (that comes out once in a blue moon) would somewhat hurt the hype around the franchise?

[Xeno Goku Black]

The leak has spread fast hasn't it? Movie can't a break at all it seems

[HeroR]

There is way too much assumptions around here about how Toei will view the movie. That and to blunt, people leaking a movie doesn't hurt sells as much as people think. Especially when most won't understand a word of it since there is no sub.

[Kataphrut]

All of you that watched the camrip. You will go see it in cinemas too, right? ;_;

I've only peaked at a couple clips but even so, a camrip is miles apart from seeing it in the cinema. I will absolutely be watching it when it comes out here.