This would normally be the post where I write my thoughts on the newest online short for Super Dragon Ball Heroes. But as I sat watching the short episode in a hotel in Brighton, I started to think what the hell is the point.
I can’t, in all good conscious, criticise these shorts anymore. In the early episode reviews, I would constantly stress that this was a promotional anime and not meant to be taken too seriously. It’s come to the point now that I wonder if there is any personal merit in spending my time keeping up with what is essentially marketing material.
I’m in the same head space now that I was during the first handful of episodes, where it feels like Dragon Ball in only the broadest of story beats. There was a period in the middle where it felt like this show had a great idea in mind, building up Hearts as the villain, introducing his collection of genuinely challenging minions and his plan to eliminate the omni-kings.
It was cool seeing Goku in the Grant Priest gear and seemingly mastering ultra instinct, it was cool seeing Jiren fighting Zamasu. But these recent couple of episodes, leading up to this previous have lost their way.
I am really not one to get hung up on power scaling in Dragon Ball, but the show’s complete and utter refusal to even pretend to keep their characters consistent is even too much for me to take quietly.
The Tuffel twins were a match for Vegeta in his strongest form before, now Android 17 and Piccolo seem to be able to match them. Zamasu was a complete monster in the show proper, now Vegeta and Trunks in normal super saiyan are able to match him. Cumber was powerful enough to match Vegito for God’s sake, and now both him and Glass girl (Lagss) are getting beaten down by Golden Mecha Cooler.
I’m not sure the show itself even knows what it’s going for anymore. The promise of the series in the first place, what the game the show is advertising does really well, is throw crazy concepts and what-if scenarios at the fans and see what happens. This promotional anime, for it’s insane well of ideas to take from, seems to keep itself strangely grounded, unnecessarily so.
While the idea of some universe hopping baddies threatening the multiverse seemed cool to begin with, it’s an idea that feels like its ultimately being wasted in its potential, especially considering many fans thought this was going to be an eventual scale of story told in the series proper.
Heroes would have been better off being an anthology series, with single or two part episodes that throw a wild concept at the audience and adding some small amount of plot before moving onto something else. Simply fleshing out the animated game trailers that was the genesis of this show in the first place.
The series can’t even hang its hat on its animation, having the look of some of the more mediocre episodes of Super during its run. The fact that it’s so short is really the only saving the grace the show has. 7 minutes a month is hardly a dire time investment. But I’ll probably stop writing about it for a while now.
Because spending every part of this lamenting wasted potential is just tiring.
A Richard Wood Text Adventure 