Film Name: 龙珠超：超级人造人 / Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero
As an eighteenth-tier Cloud fan who doesn’t usually watch Dragon Ball Super anymore – or else I wouldn’t have waited until it was released in domestic theaters – I should have seen it like I did Dragon Ball Super: Broly a couple of years ago, but I didn’t expect to feel good about it. Broly” a few years ago, I should have just watched it, but I didn’t expect this movie to give me an unexpectedly good feeling, so I decided to write a long article for it, as a way to commemorate my own ‘back from the dead’ feelings.
Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero (hereinafter referred to as Super Hero) is still fried rice, of course, but this time it’s fried in an extraordinarily smart and right way, a sincere and aromatic plate of golden egg fried rice.
Why? Because I personally feel that this time around, the movie’s writing and details are, on rare occasions, better than its signature fight scenes.
[Friendly reminder: there will be spoilers below.]
First of all, it should be noted that Super Hero is still very much a “fan-favorite”.
I read the Dragon Ball Super manga for a while a few years ago, and at least I recognize the characters of Bills, Whis, and Jillian, and I remember all the “old characters” that appear in the movie, so if you haven’t watched Dragon Ball in years, this movie will definitely be a bit confusing. If you haven’t watched Dragon Ball in years, you’ll be a little confused when you watch this movie.
However, more of the enjoyment of this movie stems from familiarity with the original anime; the more and more you remember Dragon Ball, the more fun it will be to watch Super Hero, and conversely, it will not be as enjoyable if you are a new viewer who doesn’t know much about Dragon Ball or if you want to see a logically tight story… …
With that premise out of the way, it’s time to talk about the movie.
In my opinion, the foundation of Super Hero’s greatest success is twofold: firstly, it ties together the main chapters of early and mid Dragon Ball with several characters and settings; and secondly, it “dethrones” Son Goku and Vegeta in favor of Piccolo and Son Gohan as the main characters.
The villain of the film is Mazanta, the son of the leader of the Red Ribbon Army (Red Silk Army), who seduces Dr. Hyde, the grandson of the former Red Ribbon Army Chief Scientist, Groo, into joining him and creating two androids named Gamma, as well as upgrading a replica of the Ultimate Sharu.
In terms of content, the movie pays homage and callbacks to the Red Silk Army chapter, the World’s First Budokai chapter, the Piccolo Daimao chapter, the Saiyan chapter, the Nemesis chapter, the Bioroids chapter, and the Saru chapter to varying degrees, which can be said to pull in the full value of the sentimentality.
What’s valuable is that Super Hero doesn’t simply rehash famous scenes/stories, but it really does have a flavor of early Dragon Ball, such as Mazenta getting burned twice in a row while drinking tea, and Bam-Bam (Fang), who hasn’t yet learned to dance in the air, stretching out his arms and making the “Ararai Run,” all appearing very naturally. All of them appeared so naturally that I couldn’t help but dream of my childhood.
And this feeling can be realized, also comes from the film to find the right narrative idea: from the beginning to the end did not try to create a sense of crisis.
In the past “Pan Dragon Ball Super” works, the main story always have to make a crisis out of the world, or even worse, have to push a powerful boss for Son Goku and Vegeta and other people to fight, but “Super Hero” is the opposite, the two big “Dad” has been training with Bills, the two big “Dad” has been training with Bills. have been practicing at Bills, leaving Piccolo and Son Gohan to take care of the trouble.
It’s a light, tension-free choice that takes the pressure off of the series to always be “deep”, and it’s easy and enjoyable, but it’s also more powerful on its own merits.
Like Piccolo’s haughty nanny attribute, it has been further released and reflected in the movie. As “the father who is more like Son Gohan’s father”, Piccolo on the one hand has to bring his “granddaughter” Bam Bam to train and pick up and drop off at the kindergarten, and on the other hand he hates and hopes that Gohan can train well and create a lot of laughs and tender scenes. On the one hand, Piccolo has to take his “granddaughter” Bambi to train and pick up and drop off at the kindergarten, and on the other hand, he hates Gohan and hopes that he can train well, which creates a lot of laughs and warm scenes.
In this context, the new Red Ribbon Army is more like Piccolo and Sun Gohan’s whetstone, the nature of Dr. Hyde and the two Bioroids have become the heroes who have lost their way, and the only real villains left are Mazenta, who died casually, and Sharu, who is the limit of the no-personality …… “Super Hero” has managed to get on with the road lightly.
At the same time, the movie also has a lot of fans will smile self-mockery, such as pointing out that “the Dragon Ball has become Bulma’s personal weapon”, through the plot of the Dragon to help her micro-plastic surgery, not only to explain the secret of Bulma’s agelessness over the years, but also laugh at the Dragon Ball, the initial setting of the embarrassing position nowadays.
Of course, what impresses me most about Super Hero is the way it capitalizes on Dragon Ball’s sentimentality and fans’ itch for more, and I can describe this “cooking power” in one word: integration.
Here are a few examples of scenes and sequences that stood out to me:
Biker remembered the ability of the Nomex Elder to tap the potential of the warrior, and hoped that Dandi could do the same to himself. Dandi, although not yet able to do so, but by upgrading the divine dragon, let Biker wish for the fulfillment of the goal, and then Biker also had the ability to transform in multiple stages, and appeared in the form of the “Orange Biker,” but also used the giantization of the time of Biker King! –Effective use of the classic Dragon Ball settings;
Trunks and Sun Wutian merged again and again failed, not surprisingly, once again appeared obese version of Wutianx, but this time the result of the failure is not simply just funny, but after being disliked by his comrades round accidentally effectively attacked the limit of the Sharu – the well-known terrier has a new upgrade to carry forward;
Not to mention the scene of Piccolo’s severed hand and limb rebirth, seeing Piccolo being beaten to death by Ultimate Saru, Sun Gohan burst into “Beast Form”, and at the moment of crisis, Piccolo once again got up and trapped Ultimate Saru with his body, allowing Gohan to use Kamehameha Ki Kung to solve the enemy, while Gohan stored up his strength and then used the magic! Slam! Light! Kill! Cannon!!!
–In just a few minutes, the scene incorporates the awakening of Gohan in Saru, Piccolo’s killing of Raditz and Son Goku at the same time, Sun’s father and son teaming up with Kamehameha Ki Kung to kill Saru, and Sun Gohan’s and Piccolo’s deep sense of love between master and disciple, father and son, etc. This is as wonderful and powerful as the martial arts scholar Beggar So’s last slap from the first seventeen slaps of the Dragon’s Eighteen Slaps.
This is just like the martial arts scholar Su Begir from the first seventeen palms of the dragon descending eighteen palms to realize the last palm of the wonderful and powerful, only truly familiar with and love the “Dragon Ball” creators, to be able to make such a great masterpiece (Akira Toriyama’s depth of participation is really not to be missed).
“In the end, the reason the Dragon Ball series is still around today is because there is a loyal audience that is always willing to support the series, no matter how repetitive the formula is, how rudimentary the logic is, or how broken the battle system is, there is no way to stop people from buying into this long-lasting love.
Super Hero has shown me that even old works that are “outdated” on many levels can still have a unique vitality.
So, finally, I would like to use this film to talk about the attitude we should have towards watching movies: different movies have different ways of watching, and there are many different standards and perspectives, so we can enjoy more wonderful things in the world after relaxing.
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