Recently announced details about Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero make it clear that the upcoming film is fixing the problems with its predecessor. Dragon Ball Super: Broly was a big box office success with record-breaking numbers for the anime genre, but it wasn’t without its issues. It was missing some key elements that fans have come to expect from most installments in the franchise.
Toei Animation confirmed at SDCC 2021 that the second movie under the “Dragon Ball Super” branding will be titled Super Hero. A teaser trailer of a CG-animated Goku gave viewers a brief look at what to expect from the movie's style but gave nothing away about the story itself. There was no mention of who the villain will be. For now, this will remain one of the movie’s biggest questions; however, Toei Animation did at least provide a few teases. Concept art revealed the inclusion of three existing Dragon Ball characters: Krillin, Piccolo, and Pan. Based on the older appearance of Pan, Super Hero will take the franchise three or four years into the future.
As noted above, not much has been said about Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero as of yet, but it has become apparent that it won’t be repeating at least two of Broly’s problems, the first of which being its use of the Z-Warriors. Goku and Vegeta are of course the franchise’s main characters, but they’re far from the only ones that matter. The anime offers an ensemble cast of colorful characters that have decades of history with Goku; yet, none of their fellow heroes joined Goku and Vegeta in Broly to help foil Frieza’s evil plot and defeat his naïve Saiyan pawn. Dragon Ball Super, on the other hand, won’t move in the same direction. There’s no word yet on if Yamcha or Tien will be around, but Goku will be able to count on the presence of two of his oldest allies in Piccolo and Krillin. Plus, Piccolo’s fighting attire in the concept art images indicates that the Namekian will indeed be going into action, which is something he didn’t do much of in Dragon Ball Super.
Also, it’s worth noting that the struggle between Goku, Vegeta, Frieza, and Broly was so long and intense that no room was allowed for anything else. With their physical conflict being the sole focus, there was no opportunity to see the characters as people and not just fighters. At SDCC 2021, Toei Animation acknowledged this aspect of Broly, and revealed that things will be different in Super Hero. Super Hero producer Norihiro Hayashida said that in contrast to Broly, the sequel will have “more slice-of-life scenes that really put the spotlight on the rich world that Toriyama has created”. Goku’s granddaughter having a role and Krillin wearing his police officer uniform are indicative of that approach.
All things considered, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is shaping up to be an adventure with a totally different feel when compared to what came before. By encompassing more of the Z-Warriors and diving deeper into the characters, the new movie stands a great chance at being another fun and satisfying installment.