History
Dragonball Super: Episode 1 Review
The New Intro
Starting off with the intro, fast tempoed fun, split into two halves. Setting up each character in their domestic setting in the peace times that followed the defeat of Majin Buu with some great shots of Goku failing at farming and Vegeta in a shirt, (that looks better than his infamous pink Badman one), training Trunks in the family home. Then comes a breakdown when the trailer, along with a shot of Goku and Vegeta moodily walking away from the camera, literally make the transition in to the main element of Dragonball, the fighting! Whis and Beerus, along with their mysterious counterparts are teased to us and then comes the Super Saiyan bonanza and some great action! Worth noting that this is the best that Super Saiyan 3 has ever looked and the nice little nod to Super Saiyan God also looks excellent. The inclusion of the front on, iconic 'cast photo' makes this feel more like a successor to Dragonball Z than GT ever did. As for the music itself, while not as epic as punk rock/metal 'Rock the Dragon' for Z, but not as cheese as 'Don't Stop' for GT, the intro for Super is somewhere in the middle and totally feel good.
The Characters
 |
| Goku takes Stannis Barathean's crown for 'Father of the Year' |
The main thing that the first episode of Super does right is character (re)introductions. In just 20 minutes we see more about each character's personality than the entire 64 episodes of GT. Goku, still father of the year, is reintroduced to us by letting his five year old son drive a tractor off a cliff and having made a deal with his wife to do chores for permission to escape his family and train on an alien planet. Welcome (back) to Dragonball, folks! Then we have the emasculated bookworm Gohan, who has altogether giving up fighting it seems and is feeling the pressure of having wealthy fiancee, Videl as the breadwinner. He is stalked by Piccolo and with just one one music stinger, one facial expression and 4 seconds of screen time we feel the full force of his disgust at his former prodigies new life direction and also (hopefully) foreshadowing a return to action. Goten and Trunks are back to their mischievous behaviour which is welcome after their dour spell as teens in GT. Finally, Hercule is doing his best to keep an angry Majin Buu quiet and at bay so he can continue fooling the world that he's the saviour of the universe. Hilarious cameos from Master Roshi, Bulma and Chi Chi too, but no love for Krillin, Tien, Yamaha or that Vegeta guy, but that likely would have been overkill.
The Plot
The plot of the first episode takes a very different route than episode 1 of GT, being more self contained, less setup and in part that's a good thing. In the six months since Majin Buu's defeat, the Z Fighters find themselves in peace times and the episode begins by to showing the main characters' financial woes, each being a product of their own personality. The episode title, 'Who Will the 100 Million Zenny Peace Reward Go To…?!', further suggests that the plot of this episode will revolve around characters competing for a cash reward, (which would have been a perfect setup for a tournament) and the first half certainly conforms to this. Goku needs the cash so he can pay off Chi chi and escape to train on King Kai's planet, Gohan needs it so he can feel on equal terms with his rich fiancee and Goten wants it so he can buy Videl an engagement gift. The setup is great and yet there is no reward to any of these quests. Goten and Trunks give up on the cash and literally give Videl water instead about two thirds of the way into the episode, Gohan's money troubles are just abandoned and Hercule shows up at the end and simply gives Goku a briefcase full of cash which feels lazy and unrewarding. Whereas GT spends the whole episode setting up for the rest of the series, Super rushes to resolve all of its arcs before the bell.
 |
| Appears to set up Beerus as primary antagonist. |
The only unresolved issue in Super's first episode is the matter of its 'mysterious' antagonists. If you were to watch this episode having not seen Battle of Gods you would assume that Beerus and Whis, the God of Destruction and his trainer, are the primary antagonists and that they are making their way to Earth. Now we know that the latter is true but this whole episode just feels like a prequel to Battle of Gods, a movie in which we discover that Beerus is likely not going to be the antagonist for the rest of Super. It would have been much more effective to introduce the rumoured giant dragonballs or tease that there are multiple universes, a confirmed key plot of the series. Spending episode time foreshadowing an upcoming confrontation with 'villains' that we've already seen in a movie two years ago seems like a waste of time and a missed opportunity.
The Visuals
 |
| At times you can see where the shortcuts have been made |
Animation and their creation process have changed as time went on and many were interested to see if Super's visuals would look as good as the original hand drawn series or give us more horrible over the top 3D CGI moments as seen in Battle of Gods and for the most part, fortunately, it looks like the former. The show looks great and I was watching a low quality stream, so I imagine it looks phenomenal in full 1080p HD. We don't have out of place 3D gimmicky turnaround shots that BoG had and a lot of the art direction looks amazing and atmospheric, with backgrounds and skies in particular standing out. The one fighting moment involving Trunks and Goten shows some punch animations being looped, just like the original show, a technique used in TV to cut down on animation time and whereas this wasn't present in the bigger budgeted BoG, it works well here and is reminiscent of the old show. The hand painted backgrounds look great too, characters move well and look crisp and clean, although if you look too closely, you can see where some corners have been cut, for example the texture of the snake monster in particular doesn't look great in movement. However, overall it's a seriously impressive quality of visuals.
Final Thoughts
Overall, an incredibly charming re-entry into the Dragonball universe that plays on nostalgia and focusses on the personalities of the characters that we know and love, but is let down by an unrewarding payoff at the end. Feels very self contained and a little and a bit like a standalone Battle of Gods prequel rather than a first episode, but that can be forgiven as it's still got so many traditional traits that we know and love. Looks great, brilliant intro and end credits too and overall I have great hope for the future of Super. Hopefully we don't have to wait too long for our first Kamehameha.
Score: 4 Star Ball
(out of 7)
(out of 7)
Comments
Post a Comment