SDBH Promo Anime: Re-watch Review

[jamiljamtheman]

Hi all! As you may know, SDBH has been on my mind a lot lately. I’ve been watching it since the anime started in 2018 month-to-month and personally always enjoyed it. Seeing many mixed opinions online, and how a lot of people don’t like it, I figured it was time for a re-watch to answer some questions for myself:

1) How does it hold up/work as a “sequel” to Dragon Ball Super’s anime?

2) Is the experience worse when the monthly hype is removed?

3) Would I actually recommend it to a new viewer?

Starting by answering the last question, I think I would recommend someone who’s seen DBS at least give the first couple of episodes a shot. I wish I could just recommend Episodes 7-19, but the Prison Planet arc leads into the Universal Conflict. In general, I found that the highlight of this show was the Universal Conflict arc, so far. Its plot is paper-thin, yes, but it’s a straightforward and clear premise that fits right in with Dragon Ball Super post-ToP. Strong guy wants to fight all the universes to get enough power to take out the Omni kings—it’s simple and it works. It also leads to some very audio-visually lovely battles.

I find that this arc in particular holds up rather well as a mini-sequel to the DBS anime—but it’s slightly hindered in that regard by being dependent on the Prison Planet Saga and including Cooler. The show as a whole struggles to hold up as an alternate sequel, though. This is because its “continuity” is bizarre at best and probably should be considered irrelevant to the show. It seems to exist in a world where the Z anime, several Z movies, and the DBS anime all seem to have happened. I say this because Goku and Vegeta recognize movie villains such as Cooler, Bojack, and Turles. Also, DBS Broly doesn’t exist here, but Z Broly just shows up out of nowhere and Goku and Vegeta instantly recognize him.

I was surprised to find that in some ways, the experience is actually better without the monthly hype. However, most noticeably the Prison Planet saga is not—I think it doesn’t hold up as well without that original hype surrounding it.

It introduces the parallel timelines, Fu, extra time travel, dark Ki, random movie villains, and more within a matter of minutes and feels cluttered and convoluted as a result. I will say, however, that I still love Cumber’s design, and when it shifts to that conflict being the primary focus, the experience was better.

In contrast, the Universal Conflict arc still holds up considerably well. Hearts is a great over-the-top villain, it sees the return of some favorite DBS characters, and the designs/powers of the other new villains are pretty good too. And the visuals are consistently good in this arc, sometimes great. A big step up from its predecessor. If anything, this is the part of this show worth revisiting and watching.

The Universe Creation arc is still extremely rough at its beginning—the visuals are worse, it feels unfocused, and the villain designs/choices are much less interesting. But, removing the monthly wait made the finale a slightly better experience. I originally hated that we went for months with primarily the Vegitos as our protagonists, instead of Goku, Vegeta, and friends. Still easily the weakest arc to me, but I do really appreciate Xeno Goku and Vegeta’s new transformation that surpasses SS4. It looks good and is a new power up for the GT-style Saiyans instead of only the DBS divine-power stuff.

The Space-Time War arc, which just finished, is definitely a step up from its predecessor but still doesn’t reach the heights of Universal Conflict to me. It’s “plot” is a confusing mix of straightforward and meandering. It’s obvious that Goku, Vegeta, and friends would want to escape the fake universe without dying in the process. But it’s like the show forgets about this and shifts focus to the Crimson Masked Saiyan trying to kill all mortals, making this the second time in this series that Zamasu tried to kill all mortals again, but it’s a different Zamasu than the one who was with Hearts—something of a bizarre choice. Along the way, there are nice battles, Vegeta gets an awesome new form, Goku Black receives even more divine-Saiyan transformations, and Ultra Instinct Goku makes a welcome return. Once the heroes escape, the final battle with Fu feels well deserved and is really cool. Overall, this arc holds up ok, but isn’t particularly great beyond the action and designs. It’s not as exciting as it was month-to-month.

To conclude, one thing I actually liked a lot were the little details that carry over between arcs. Cooler’s rivalry with Cumber is kinda funny, Fu’s overarching plan to gather enough energy to create a new universe and rule over it threads all the arcs together, and watching Hearts and Cumber grow and learning more about their personalities, goals, and their dynamic with each other is an exceptional experience. I also like how as soon as Goku and Vegeta escape the fake Universe and face Fu once again, their first instinct is to fuse because that’s what they did against him last time. And Fu has a grudge against being beaten up by fused warriors so he gets rid of the Vegetas in response. Little details like these are fun to pick up on, and I enjoyed rewatching it overall.

[dva_raza]

As someone who actually saw it exactly as you mention, with no “monthly hype”, just watching for the first time ever from episode 1 to the one they were on at the moment which was 38, I can say it was a very cool watch for me, just like that, I can’t imagine what it was like for someone to recieve just 7-10 minutes per month lol, I would for sure have no clue wtf happened previously.

The majority were probably dissapointed cause they were expecting it to be somewhat of an alternate reality kind of sequel to Super but of course the format is something else. I just had no time to expect anything cause I found out about it immediately after discovering and finishing Super just recently. So yeah, I thought it was very good.

I understand what it is so I wasn’t expecting anything from the story but it was actually refreshing, it was weird and I liked that. It moving so fast and being all about fights (which were awsome), the ominous reality atmosphere, crazy character versions and fusions, also seeing more of Ultra Instinct was great, and the villains were nice (I liked Fu A LOT) and Black’s mask (and by the way the outfits, how cool are these)






Also it's kinda weird but I liked Vegeta’s portrayal in this. Like he actually seems nice or mellowed down.

So I'm basically glad this exists.
And I do think it works as a weird kinda of sequel if one is open to that