For a more visual review; check out this DTube video:
Status: Episode 5
Super Dragon Ball Heroes - SO IF ANYONE WHO DOESN’T BELIEVE
DRAGON BALL HEROES ISN’T A THING, GUESS AGAIN, HERE WE ARE
AN ANIME INSTEAD OF 1 MINUTE PROMOTION.
For real though, I have nothing against the game nor the premise per say. What I am asking is this: Really? You think your fanbase is so addictive to your IP that they just can’t wait less than a year to get new content? You really want to milk Dragonball so bad that we need filler content just so that your audience doesn’t forget about it?
This anime is one of those original net animation from Toei, which is basically Toei way of releasing their content very cheaply.
What I am saying is that this anime is cheap as it comes with very underwhelming character interaction. You know how the people outside the fandom think Dragon Ball is? Just fight after fight with no thought outside of presenting the fight themselves? Well this anime is simply that. You get some fights and that's it. But of course we have a story to tell.
Dragon Ball Heroes or Super Dragon Ball Heroes takes place some time after Super Dragon Ball has ended with Goku and Vegeta training with Whis once more. But uh oh! A new evil looking glasses character shows up and tells that his ‘friend’ Future Trunks has been captured in prison planet! I personally would call it planet less a dank place and more a planet with giant ass chains, but I digress.
And from here on out we meet some characters which our heroes are thrown to and we get to see more fanservice. How come they are here? Well there are many reasons for each characters to be here, but to summarize it, it's because of Money and Fuck You. I believe that there are some people who want to see Golden Not-Freeza in all his might, but I doubt that it was Toei top priorities to make your wish come true.
So about what I said earlier regarding how this show is just fights after another. I wouldn’t call this a bad thing per say. Considering how this is Dragon ball, you could make this the best feature by having the characters adapt the situation of their unique enemy. This is what most of the Dragon ball movies and special tried to do. The keyword was tried. Here the fights are just boring to watch. There is no weight behind each battle, nor any flashy animations that would make this at least look nice.
To give you an example, watching these fights are like going to a fast food restaurant and only ordering fries from the menu after another. It's gives you a kick at first, it then start to tastes the same, and then you wish you had added something more.
You might say this is just to be a promotional anime for the game, but we already have the commercials for it, and ton of them, so… what?
I also most congratulate Toei animation. You somehow made it boring to watch Goku Goku action. I-I-I just can’t believe you actually rushed that fight. You even made fusion, freaking fusion something that lacks all of it excitement. Hmmm, maybe if you actually had some stakes or at least had some fun it might would had been enduring. Since serious Dragon ball nowadays is something that would not work due to how the series never gonna permanently remove any important characters, I was hoping that this would rather be comedic Dragon Ball. Alas, this wasn't a comedic entry.
Okay but what about the NEW characters? We have evil glasses guy, Fuu, he's… eh. We have not-Broly/Raditz, he’s a saiyan, he's… eh. I can’t remember his name. I'm not joking, I know he's named after a vegetable, has the power to control people and turn into a giant ape, but he's freaking name wasn't even important to remember. Hell I remember his voice actors name more than his. You know, the more of these saiyans appear on screen, the more I appreciate Freezas genocide. I mean Jesus Fucking Space Christ, how many non trained saiyans were there to be over a thousands times stronger than Goku in this multiverse?
There is one thing that makes this anime belong so far low on the list. Even if this anime is average at best, there's this attitude Toei has. Toei made this when we were going to have a arguably better Dragon Ball product very soon. Like guys, don't you think that you should spend these resources on the movie and not on an animated advertisement?
This isn't strange for Toei to go all out on their current main IPs. Yet I also haft to ask this; why the fuck couldn't you spent this amount of resources on doing mini series for your other older IPs? You know, those others who are or had anniversaries? How about Sally the Witch? Fist of The North Star? Cutie Honey? Hell Teacher Nūbē? Or even Kinnikuman? You could do every episode on Kinnikuman day. Or even better, MAKE A GODDAMN CARTOON ABOUT YOUR MASCOT! IT'S BEEN OVER 40 YEARS! But I will talk about that another time. Oooh do I have plans for it.
As for this, eh. I got not much else to say about this show. It's a online video series made by Toei, what kind of quality did you expect? You get some good voice acting from the series standards and the newcomers seems to be doing a good job, but else seems to bland.
If you want to watch Dragon Ball Heroes, just watch the commercials or play the game. You could skip this one okay. You ain't missing much from this. Honestly.
