Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

Story

Immediately after being released from prison, Dr Hedo (voice of Miyu Irino in the Japanese version and Zach Aguilar in the English version) is recruited by Magenta (voice of Volcano Ota/Charles Martinet), the new leader of his grandfather’s Red Ribbon Army. Magenta wants Dr Hedo to create Cell Max, an invincible warrior based on the original villain, Cell. While Dr Hedo works on Cell Max, he also creates 2 super-fighter androids, Gamma 1 and Gamma 2 (voice of Mamoru Miyano/Zeno Robinson), both of which can learn battle skills and adapt as they go.

Believing Magenta’s lies and thinking that he has created 2 superheroes, Dr Hedo sends Gamma 2 off to attack and kill Piccolo (voice of Toshio Furukawa/Christopher Sabet). Piccolo survives the attack and follows Gamma 2 back to the Red Ribbon Army’s secret base. Here Piccolo discovers the plan to release Cell Max and get rid of Gohan (voice of Mosako Nozawa/Kyle Hebert), along with anyone else who opposes Magenta and his army.

Meanwhile, Goku (voice of Mosako Nozawa/Sean Schemmell) and Vegeta (voice of Ryo Horikawa/Christopher Sabat) are training on another planet. Gohan, believing the others to be more than capable of handling any trouble that might come their way, has been studying instead of honing his fighting skills.

When the plot expands to include Gohan’s 3-year-old daughter, Pan (voice of Yuko Minaguchi/Jeannie Tirado), Piccolo comes up with a plan of his own to ensure Pan’s safety. He must also enable her father to harness his inner rage and become the only fighter capable of finishing off Cell Max, whose very existence threatens the safety of the entire world.

Themes

Perceived alien threat; war; corruption; power hungry criminals; genetic mutations and android creations

Violence

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero has some violence. For example:

There are numerous fight and battle scenes.
Dr Hedo steals fresh bodies from a morgue and turns them into zombies.
Dr Hedo throws an explosive device back into a prison as he leaves it.
A character says, ‘People who mess with me wind up dead’.
A security guard aims a gun at Dr Hedo. Dr Hedo responds with his deadly bee. This causes the car they’re in to go into a tailspin.
A character is chopped in half during a fight scene.
While Pan trains with Piccolo, she’s blasted backwards into huge boulders, which crumble around her.
Two characters punch each other.
Gamma 2 detonates an explosive near Piccolo.
Gamma 2 tries to kill Piccolo. They fight each other, with hitting, slamming, punching in the stomach and kicking in the head. They use light blasts that come from their hands. Gamma 2 shoots a weapon at Piccolo and believes that he has vaporised him.
Piccolo grabs a guard and punches him hard in the face. He steals the guard’s clothes, leaving him lying unconscious in his underwear.
Goku and Vegeta train by fighting against each other. There’s hitting, throwing, punching, twisting, smashing, kicking and slamming. Trees break as Goku and Vegeta smash each other back and forth with their energy forces.
A character is smashed into a rock and pummelled into a crater.
Pan punches the guard who tries to kidnap her and blasts him through a sign.
Gohan flicks a gun out of his face, blasts a crater into the earth and explodes a spacecraft.
Gamma 2 blasts Gohan into the ground, kicking him in the head, neck and chest. He then blasts him into a cliff and shoots him with an explosive.
When it looks as though Pan is being tortured, Gohan becomes enraged. He punches a character in the stomach and blasts him through a wall.
An android throws Piccolo off a moving train. He plummets down and is nearly killed, until extra power from his dragon wish kicks in.
A guard shoots at Pan. She kicks him in the head and punches him in the stomach.
Magenta shoots Dr Hedo in the chest several times.
Dr Hedo stings Magenta with his deadly bee. Magenta dies a painful death as the poison moves through his body.
Cell Max blasts balls of fury, destroying everything in its path.
Characters discuss the best ways to kill Cell Max, like shooting it in its head until it explodes.
Piccolo and Cell Max shoot lasers at each other.
Cell Max comes after Pan. She’s nearly killed, but she manages to fly just in time to save herself.
All the characters work together to blast Cell Max in the head at the same time.
Gamma 2 and Cell Max fight each other. They both scream as they battle it out. When the dust clears, Cell Max’s hand is severed and Gamma 2 is nearly dead. Cell Max tries to crush Gamma 2, but Piccolo intervenes.
Piccolo transforms into a larger version of himself. He and Cell Max fight by blasting fireballs at each other.
Cell Max rises from the earth after falling down a fiery gorge. He is screaming and ready to fight, even though his legs are on fire.
Piccolo is bleeding and seems to have a broken arm as he and Cell Max continue to fight. When Piccolo appears to fall, lifeless, Gohan is able to release his own power. He shoots electricity at Cell Max’s head. It goes through Cell Max’s head, blasting part of his skull away before his whole body explodes in a nuclear-like explosion.

Sexual references

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero has some sexual references. For example:

One character says that he likes ‘this one’, referring to a girl. He says she’s welcome to stay with him. He leers at her from time to time.
A character uses a magical wish to perk up her buttocks to a ‘college age plumpness’, smooth out her wrinkles and add longer eye lashes.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero shows some use of substances. For example, Magenta is frequently seen smoking cigars.

Nudity and sexual activity

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero has some nudity and sexual activity. For example:

A character has his bottom repeatedly exposed after his pants are ripped open from behind. He later moons another character to antagonise him.
There is a close-up shot of a woman’s behind as she bends over looking for something.

Product placement

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero has some product placement. For example, Dr Hedo repeatedly what appears to be large quantities of Oreo cookies.

Coarse language

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero has some coarse language, name-calling and insults, including in this movie, including ‘moron’, ‘geez’, ‘damn’, ‘crap’, ‘holy crap’, ‘screw it’, ‘fool’, ‘brat’, ‘dumb’, ‘dumbass’, ‘idiot’, ‘satan’, ‘nerd’, ‘turd’ and ‘roly-poly little twerp’.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is an anime movie based on Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball manga series. Dubbed into English, the movie features a fast-paced plot and frequent fight scenes. It isn’t a family movie. Rather, it’s likely to appeal to teenagers, anime enthusiasts and fans of the long-running Dragon Ball series.

These are the main messages from Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero:

Work hard and train well.
In a battle of good versus evil, ultimately good will prevail.

Values in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero that you could reinforce with your children include courage, patience, determination, teamwork and integrity.

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero could also give you the chance to talk with your children about the real-life consequences of things like:

using violence to solve conflict
kidnapping a child
manipulating others by spreading lies and false information
using science for destructive purposes.