#magenta dragon ball super

[silverwoodwork]

18, 17 and Violet have a surprise reunion with Red Ribbon member Magenta, and then a surprise couple shows up with some surprising revelations...! (10/15)

Longer manga than usual, this time with a chapter-long standard of 15 pages

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super Manga ch.91-93

Last time, we covered the "prequel" story of Goten and Trunks adopting superhero identities and capturing Dr. Hedo. Now we get into the events of the DBS: Super Hero movie itself. I already liveblogged the movie extensively in September (here, here, here, here, and here), so for the manga adaptation I'll be focusing mainly on whatever changes Toyotaro made to the story.

First off, Chapter 91 opens with Piccolo picking up Pan from school, and when she talks about wanting to be a superhero like Goten and Trunks have been doing recently, Piccolo offers to train her just like he trained Gohan in Dragon Ball Z.

Unfortunately, this is the sort of thing we can expect from this adaptation. It's mostly a straight retelling of the movie, and the little extras that get added in don't really add much to the story. I mean, the movie established that Piccolo has picked up Pan from school in the past, but there was no need to show it. Also, the movie didn't really explain why Piccolo started training Pan, probably because it didn't need to. I think the manga pretty much proves my point, because it attempts to tackle the question, but only comes up with a fairly pat answer. She wanted to fly and shoot hand energy like Goten and Trunks, and so Piccolo offered to teach her and she said yes.

Then we get to this scene, where Krillin's boss in the West City P.D. holds a briefing on the Red Ribbon Army and their plans to recruit Dr. Hedo. This takes the place of the flashback montage that opened the movie, and it sucks.

That montage was awesome, and Toyotaro could have drawn his own version of it here, but instead he did this. We could be looking a Goku punching Tao Pai Pai, or 17 killing Dr. Gero, or Cell smirking like a boss, but instead we're in a boring conference room reading walls of text.

Look at this fucking page! It's awful! A lot of this one serves as a stand-in for Carmine's report to Magenta about Dr. Hedo. I get it, this is a lot of information to go through, and Toyotaro probably wanted to move on as quickly as possible, but part of what I loved about the movie was the way they showcased the characters and visuals during the infodumping. Carmine's report is pretty dry in the movie, but Magenta's office is interesting to look at, and Carmine and Magenta themselves are visually compelling characters. While they talk about Hedo, Carmine shows off his video editing skills and Magenta keeps screwing up his snacks

This police briefing, however, sucks all the fun out of it. This place looks like a hotel conference room with hardwood floors. All of the cops look exactly the same, and why the hell are they wearing helmets and sunglasses indoors, anyway? Krillin's boss, Sergeant Nutz, has some potential, but she has nothing to do with this story, so featuring her so prominently here is just a waste of time.

What really irks me is that the next scene shows Carmine and Magenta talking about Dr. Hedo, just like in the movie, except there's not much for them to say because Krillin and Nutz already covered it all! That's really dumb! We have two scenes designed to set up the plot of the movie, and one of them was in the movie, and actually features the main antagonists. But Toyotaro chose to emphasize the other scene instead.

So the idea here is that the police are already aware of Magenta's scheme to revive the Red Ribbon Army, and they know he plans to recruit Dr. Hedo once he gets out of prison. They also know that Hedo had that disc containing data on Dr. Gero's bioweapon, although I don't see how they could know that, since Trunks couldn't access the data on the disc and it was destroyed before anyone else could try. Hedo told Krillin in Chapter 90 that he memorized the contents of the disc, but he never said what it was that he memorized. This also goes against the storyline in the movie. In the film, Magenta had Gero's data on Cell, and the reason he wanted Hedo was because his own scientists couldn't do anything with it.

Anyway, the police seem to know everything about the Red Ribbon Army already. The only thing they don't know is where the Red Ribbon base is, so they send Krillin to follow Magenta's limo and spy on him. So we get the limo scene from the movie, except Krillin's clinging to the side of the car the whole trip, and then Hedo spots him and sends his cyborg bee, Hatchimaru, to attack him.

The gag here is that Magenta and Carmine don't even know Krillin is out there, and Hedo doesn't particularly care. The scene plays out almost exactly like it does in the movie, but with Krillin spliced in like Jabba the Hut in the Star Wars Special Edition.

Of course, Krillin gets shaken off so the base's location remains a secret, so this whole bit is completely pointless. It's just so dumb. I assume Toyotaro needed to pad out the story for one reason or another, or maybe he just wanted to add some new details so he wouldn't get bored retelling a movie like this. But if this is the best he can come up with, why bother? So far, this manga keeps "expanding" on the movie by answering questions nobody asked, like "Why did Piccolo start training Pan?" or "Why didn't the authorities stop the Red Ribbon Army?" or "Why is Gamma 1's cape red?"

From here, it's a pretty faithful retelling of the movie, which kind of makes the "filler" scenes even more conspicuous. It's refreshing to see the actual story move along without all these pointless diversions. On the other hand, it's kind of dull, because I already covered the movie and there's nothing else to talk about here.

There is some extra stuff in the Gamma 2 vs. Piccolo fight. Piccolo loses an arm, but then he grows a new one and makes it all long to catch Gamma 2 off guard. It doesn't slow him down much, but it's something we didn't get in the movie. I do find it a bit strange how Gamma 2 notes Piccolo's regeneration ability like it's this new data to add to his files. Shouldn't the Red Ribbon Army have all of this intel programmed into Gamma 2 by now?

Moving on, when Piccolo infiltrates the Red Ribbon base, he gets stopped by his superiors, who remind "94" that he isn't assigned to this area, but another soldier offers to switch assignments so "94" can gain some valuable experience watching Hedo eat cookies.

Again, what is the point of this? We're just derailing the story so Toyotaro can waste a page explaining how Piccolo managed to get this far into the base. In the movie, nobody notices or cares that "94" is in the command center instead of the hangar. That's because they're all faceless, interchangeable henchmen. They wear masks and refer to each other by numbers, for crying out loud! This is why Piccolo disguised himself in the first place! If Toyotaro wrote Star Wars, he'd do a whole scene where Luke Skywalker has to rewrite the Death Star's duty roster just so "TK-421" can get reassigned to prison detail. Nobody cares!

Okay now this is more like it. We get to the part where no one can reach Goku and Vegeta because they're training on Beerus' planet, and so Toyotaro gives us a little more of the sparring match Goku and Broly had in the movie. It's not a lot, but this is the sort of thing filler is good for. Toyo also does a whole montage recap of the DBS: Broly film, which is perfectly serviceable, but it annoys me because it demonstrates that he could have done the same thing with the Red Ribbon Army flashback in Chapter 91, but instead he did the briefing scene with Sgt. Nutz. Ugh.

We see the same scene where Vegeta explains the importance of mental training, although when he talks about all of their recent opponents, he adds manga-only characters like Moro, Gas, and Black Frieza. And that's fine, although it's strange when he talks about Jiren and Black Frieza in the same breath like this. In the manga, Vegeta has gotten pretty good at "Ultra Ego", his answer to Goku's Ultra Instinct. And Goku's learned to tap into UI at will. So I'm pretty sure Jiren and Moro aren't really an issue for either of them anymore. I mean, the only reason Goku couldn't defeat Jiren by himself at the Tournament of Power was because he lacked experience using UI, and now he's much better at it.

The point I'm getting at is that in the manga, Vegeta doesn't need to do "mental training" to defeat Jiren because he's already surpassed him. And he might need it to surpass Broly and Black Frieza, but he speaks as though that's their secret, and he needs to learn how to do it himself. I'm pretty sure Broly isn't "relaxed" between attacks when he's using his full power. He was kind of freaking the fuck out back then. Black Frieza might have been doing something like that, but he only hit Vegeta once, so I'm not sure how he could be certain.

So then we move on to the part where Piccolo wishes for a power-up from Shenron, and we just skip the part where Dende upgrades Shenron to do that. The implication here is that DBS-manga Shenron always had the ability to make Orange Piccolo, and no one bothered to ask before. Kind of annoying.

Anyway, while Piccolo and Bulma are getting their...ahem... enhancements, Trunks sees them and calls Goten. They make plans to sneak out and play superheroes again, even though Goten's grounded and he really doesn't need to run up a bigger bill with his mom. I guess this is the throughline for Goten and Trunks in Dragon Ball Super. No matter what happens, Dragon Team tries to keep the boys out of it. It's not just Chi-Chi wanting Goten to study. Back in Resurrection F, Bulma tells the others that she doesn't want them fucking around during the battle with Frieza. And Vegeta ices them out of the tournaments with the other universes because he doesn't want them turning into Gotenks and being dorks the whole time. The Saiyaman X-1 and X-2 caper probably didn't do much to convince anyone that Goten and Trunks have matured.

But they still crave the excitement of being in the thick of things. They know the adults are trying to keep them out of it, and that just makes it more exciting. I suppose this is the legacy of the Buu Saga, where they had to get involved because there was no other choice, and they've had the bug for DBZ mayhem ever since, but their parents said no.

And maybe that's why Goku and Vegeta were so determined to train the boys in the End of Z episodes. Sometime after Super Hero, they came back home, heard about the Saiyamen costumes and the battle with Cell Max, and decided that they needed to be toughened up. Like, okay, you want to go fight bad guys like we do? Stop doing the poses and quit relying on fusion and learn how to do it right. And if the sparring sessions are too hard for you, you can always go back to doing your homework like your mom wanted."

That's why Goten's so frustrated in DBZ 289. He just wants to go on dates or screw around, but his only options are a) homework and b) fight for-ev-er *clap clap clap-clap-clap*.

And now that I think about it, this is where GT dropped the ball with Goten, because he doesn't really seem to have gained anything from that. Hitting the books and getting hit by Goku should have made him a bit more serious about his life, but instead he's just constantly talking to girls on the phone, because that was the only thing GT's writers seemed to think of for him to do.

I mean, they kind of got it right with Trunks, who went into GT with a lot of responsibility and skills. He didn't enjoy his position, but you could tell he'd grown a lot as a person since the end of DBZ.

So yeah, maybe I'm beginning to appreciate Big Goten more than I did before, but this newfound perspective still doesn't do much for this part of the manga. There's just a lot of nothing happening here, and throwing more Krillin, Goten, and Trunks at it doesn't help matters.

[sephioux]

I'm still very much alive, infact- take these Gammas from the new chapter

[laladbzland]

[cosmicsynthetics]

Magenta and His Eeby Deeby

I've got a headcanon that Carmine is probably a Huli Jing/Kitsune/some kind of fox spirit due to Several Reasons that I don't have the oomph to elaborate on right now. Anyways, have this before I regret drawing it! It was inspired by this illustration of Daji.

[mangoninja13822]

[generallemarc]

Thinking of getting into the Dragon Ball Super manga

I watched the entirety of the anime(well, except the first two arcs since those were just lower-budget versions of BoG and RF), so I'm already well equipped to ignore and/or handwave any dumbass lore decisions they make. I'm just here to have a good time with the characters I grew up with getting into more awesome fights. For those who've read it-will I enjoy it with that mindset?

[bones4thecats]

Dragon Ball: Super Hero × S/O ; Prompt

Characters: Gamma 1, Gamma 2, and Piccolo Inspired By: Random idea... I guess? A/N: This took a while to write (like three days max) but it was totally worth it. Hope you guys like it! ⚠️ Spoilers/Trigger Warnings for: FLUFFY BRAIN-ROT ⚠️

Disclaimer: Person A -> G.1 S/O & Piccolo / Person B -> G.2 S/O

╔══════════════════════════════════════════╗

╚═════ Gamma 1 ══════════════════════════════╝

🦈 The sound of metallic footsteps made the silent Red Ribbon Army Headquarters bearable to walk around without any fear of a cricket chirping out of nowhere. Not that many members of the re-made group feared much

🦈 Gamma 1 strutted around in search of a specific member of the Army, his S/O. They said they would be coming back by 16:00, or 4:00 pm, from shopping for some things that Dr. Hedo needed for a new experiment. Well, that and some things to spoil the young genius with

🦈 He blinked calmly as he approached their door. The symbols that his S/O had drawn laid popping on the wood. While Commander Magenta wasn't fond of the random drawings around, he had to accept it. Y/N was of amazing use to the Red Ribbon Army, after all

🦈 The door opened as Gamma 1 twisted the handle and pushed it inside. The first thing that caught the Android's eyes was his S/O laying on the bed, knees bent on the side of the mattress while their arms did the same on the opposite side

🦈 You groaned dramatically as Gamma 1 cocked an 'eyebrow', wondering what you were doing laying on your bed in such a way. While you normally did sit or lay in unique manners, this was one of the most unique ones yet for your boyfriend

"Love? Why are you laying down in such a way?" He asked.

🦈 Sitting up as you looked at your boyfriend, he noticed a glaring difference on you. Your face had a slight bruise on the cheek, specifically your right one, which Gamma 1 would plant kisses on daily

"You can't kiss my cheek anymore because even the slightest touch makes it practically stab me in the face with pain. This is what it must feel like to be deprived of everything without consent..." You griped as you buried your face into a nearby pillow.

"Why would you think I wouldn't give you a kiss on the cheek anymore?"

"Like I said!" You drawled. "My bruise is trying to murder me!"

🦈 Gamma 1 sighed, you were always a hint dramatic. It wasn't horrible to the point of sabotaging any relationships you had, but it wasn't the best thing to occur when it came out. Normally having it result in your boyfriend carrying you around in his arms or just holding you as you ranted

🦈 Walking to the top of your bed, Gamma 1 reached and delicately pulled the pillow out from your grasp. It was obvious that you had been crying, as your eyes were puffier with the light now hitting them better

"Sit up." He said, making you shuffle upwards to make room for your boyfriend.

🦈 Thankfully, Dr. Hedo had made beds that sustained the weight of both of the Android twins at once, so you didn't have to worry about any incident when laying down together

"Go ahead and lay down," he continued, "and tell me about the rest of your day. Specifically how that bruise occurred."

🦈 You sighed dramatically with your hand over your head, acting like you were in a drama-centered theater production, and began to rant about your day, from going to the store, being hit in the head by a ball some kids threw accidentally, to having to practically force Dr. Hedo into eating something real quick

🦈 Gamma 1 smiled, his metal-cheeks just barely twitching upwards as you acted out. While many would find this quality annoying, Gamma 1 adored it about you. You were different. He liked that.

╔══════════════════════════════════════════╗

╚═════ Gamma 2 ══════════════════════════════╝

🐳 You were used to your boyfriend, Gamma 2, being a complete idiot. His cockiness usually got ahead of him, resulting in some unfavorable situations to be made

🐳 Gamma 2 was not only having a bad day, but he hadn't been able to see his S/O in over 36 hours! You had been sent out by Commander Magenta to grab some paperwork to sign off a deal with another company and hadn't returned from your miles-long journey to-and-from

🐳 He crashed onto the chair, his feet raising and hitting the ground, making a loud bang echo in the building. The passing soldiers just shrugged and continued on their shifts, weapons raised and guards up

🐳 Gamma 2 groaned as he shifted, trying to bring his knees up to his face to bury into, and it was not going as he planned

🐳 As he kept shifting and trying to bring his knees up into the chair, it was so small that it wouldn't allow anymore room for his feet to rest, which was starting to annoy the powerful-Android

🐳 All of a sudden, the door nearby opened, revealing your form there. Your stoic expression calming Gamma 2 down and making him jump up and fly into you at full-speed

🐳 When he hit your frame to hug you, you mentally thanked Dr. Hedo for adding some enhancements onto your form. He knew that Gamma 2 was an excited fellow and he wanted you to be safe from any kind of danger you faced. You were like the new Android 17 and 18

🐳 Your hair flew back from the pressure of the air before falling back down on your back. Gamma 2 just smiled and clung to your body, asking how you were and how much he missed you

🐳 Blinking as he emphasized his last couple days, you mentally looked a lot differently than you did on the outside. While anyone who passed would've guessed that you were annoyed, a select few (Dr. Hedo and Gamma 1), would know that you were happy to be near your boyfriend

"-And I swear, if I have to listen to another documentary without you suffering by me, I may just combust!"

"Is that so?"

"YEAH!"

🐳 Sitting down in a nearby chair while the Android burrowed his face into your stomach while sitting on the floor, you continued to listen to his dramatic rambles. You could sit here forever listening to his adorable speeches...

╔══════════════════════════════════════════╗

╚═════ Piccolo ═══════════════════════════════╝

🪺 Piccolo trained and meditated all day, when he wasn't watching Pan with you that is

🪺 Your boyfriend and you normally would just sit down and do whatever you wanted. You normally watched something on your phone while Piccolo just meditated, he enjoyed these moments with you dearly

🪺 But the moments you held deeper was when you could finally get underneath his grumpy-exterior

🪺 Take the other day for example. You had a crap day, coming home from dealing with Bulma and Vegeta's aggression for nearly four hours in a 'therapy session'

🪺 You closed the door behind you with your foot and stumbled into the living room, plopping your bag down on the ground next to you as your legs gave out and you collapsed onto the soft sofa that you got for you, Pan, and Piccolo to rest on when babysitting

🪺 The yells of the husband and wife made you groan and try thinking of something else, ranging from the fight you had against Frieza on Old Namek years ago to the newer fight there was against almost every other universe in existence

🪺 Piccolo then walked inside from the backdoor, his larger form caused larger-sounding steps. So, when he took his first plunge into the home, you knew it couldn't possibly be anyone else except for your Namekian lover

🪺 The Namekian stepped inside from the kitchen and he paused when catching sight of you laying face-first into the cushions. He knew what was up, you had been hired by Bulma to help her and Vegeta handle some anger-issues, and even he knew how bad that could be

🪺 You at first pushed it off like nothing, saying you'd be fine and that it'd be nice to hang around your two old friends. Oh, how wrong you must've been...

"Y/N? Are you alright?" He only heard the muffling of your voice coming from the pillows in a reply.

"Lift your head up. I can't understand you when your burying your face six-feet-deep into the cushions of our couch."

🪺 Pulling yourself up from the softer-materials, you looked at Piccolo and groaned, flopping back on the back of the couch that time before ranting about your day

🪺 Piccolo sat down beside you as you spoke. This ranged from how idiotic it was for the married couple of more than 10 years to argue in such a constant manner. Especially when it would seemingly die out and when one person said another word, it'd go right back up in flames

🪺 As your dramatics increased, Piccolo just watched and listened. His large ears slightly twitched as you swapped from acting like Vegeta in the situation to acting like Bulma. Heck, you even put on a blue hat to be the woman and then picked up a nearby large hunk of broccoli to act like the male

🪺 With anyone else, Piccolo would be annoyed and just interrupt with his opinions on the matter. But this wasn't anyone else, this was you. You were his chosen one. You were his one and only, no matter how long either of you lived to be

🪺 So, for now, he'd let you have your fun while he had his

[sporesgalaxy]

Another fun bit of voice trivia in Dragon Ball Super Hero is that the voice of Magenta, the short guy with the mustache, is Charles Martinet. Who had a few decades of experience voicing a different short guy with a mustache.

OH MY GOD????? THATS AWESOME

[rex101111]

people should discuss Videl more in the “strongest human in dragon ball” debates. Like yeah she can’t fire energy blasts or whatever, but as far as everyday, non-beam throwing humans go, she’s pretty much at the top.

Like, she was able to break a dude’s neck with just one kick, when she was in high school. And not just any regular guy’s neck either, she broke this guy’s neck:

Look at him! He’s got a neck you could use as a sewer pipe! Sure it took pretty much all the strength she had and he got up right after thanks to Majin Magic Bullshit(TM), but still! She took down this super enhanced monster of a guy with one, well placed kick. 

Since she’s teaching martial arts (as of Super Hero at least), she’s obviously still keeping up her training (more than Gohan probably, which is kinda funny), and is probably stronger than she was back in the Buu Saga, even with whatever break she had to take when she was pregnant with Pan.

Imagine Videl still sneaks off to do the occasional vigilante action (with or without the costume, you can’t convince me she and Gohan didn’t keep those), and the police can’t really stop her because she’s A. Daughter of Hercule, the guy that (as far as anyone knows) saved the planet twice over. and B. they just saw her grab the steel pipe one robber tried to hit her with and bend it in half. They ain’t fuckin’ with that.

Magenta obviously had to pick between either capturing Pan or Videl to get Gohan’s attention, and while Pan would be the more obvious choice he might have considered that a child would be too well protected and maybe he should go for the wife...until his surveillance team see her break like twenty bricks at once as a demonstration of proper punching technique and he decided it best not to fuck with that.

If Videl caught wind of her daughter getting captured she would have marched her way to that Red Ribbon base and found her way in, and very politely ask that they return her daughter before anyone got hurt. A few unlucky goons get a few chuckles in at this middle aged house wife trying to act tough before they get grabbed by the head and smashed into the nearest wall. 

Sure when Cell Max jumps out she would probably just grab Pan and leave the beams and explosions to the experts, but Imagine Magenta calling for reinforcements of regular troops to help him at some point...and not getting an answer. Carmine checks the cameras...and sees Videl putting one last enemy in the most brutal triangle choke ever witnessed by man. Videl sees the camera focus on her, tightens her hold, and growls, “where’s my baby, you BASTARDS?”

I just think Videl should get to be cool, is all.    

[ogradyfilm]

My Five Favorite Movie Villains of 2022

[The following list contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!]

De Guiche (Cyrano): A pompous, foppish aristocrat that wields his wealth and influence like a blunt instrument, Ben Mendelsohn’s De Guiche adds a delicious complication to the love triangle that drives Cyrano’s conflict. As far as he’s concerned, romance doesn’t exist; sexual relationships are all about power and control. This philosophy essentially positions him as the witty, strong-willed Roxanne’s antithesis—making his lecherous obsession with her all the more unsettling. His show-stopping song, “What I Deserve”, is a chilling ode to male entitlement and toxic masculinity.

Namor (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever): Regal. Machiavellian. Sexy as hell. Marvel’s original antihero is as complex and compelling on the big screen as he’s always been on the page: physically imposing yet deviously manipulative, temperamental yet sensitive, vindictive yet honorable. While he favors shock and awe tactics, absolutely devastating Wakanda’s forces in every skirmish, the leader of Talokan is also a cunning strategist and shrewd diplomat; even his eventual “defeat” ultimately benefits his empire—exactly as he orchestrated.

Miles Quaritch (Avatar: The Way of Water): Gleefully sadistic and unabashedly egomaniacal, the resurrected Colonel Miles Quaritch is machismo and bravado incarnate—a brutish jarhead with delusions of grandeur. His quest to avenge his own death at the hands of Jake Sully and Neytiri is motivated primarily by wounded pride; indeed, when he learns that his hated foe managed to tame his flying mount without the aid of sedatives, he becomes determined to mimic the feat—an act of petty one-upmanship that reveals everything the audience needs to know about his character.

[FINAL WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW THE BREAK!]

AJ Gilbride (Barbarian): What makes Justin Long’s unrepentant rapist so disturbing is that there’s nothing especially remarkable about his particular brand of evil; he’s simply an enormous douchebag, selfish and utterly devoid of empathy. Worst of all, he’s completely self-aware, frequently apologizing for his morally repugnant behavior and promising to change his wicked ways. Whenever an opportunity for redemption arises, however, he consistently rejects it—which makes his grisly, gory demise delightfully cathartic.

Miles Bron (Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery): The killer at the center of Benoit Blanc’s latest murder mystery could easily have been a shallow sendup of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Steve Jobs; fortunately, Rian Johnson’s sharp script and Edward Norton’s savvy performance elevate the otherwise broad caricature. This New Age tech bro may be the dimmest bulb in any given room, but he’s charming, charismatic, and confident enough to inspire loyalty and obedience among his followers and hangers-on. He’s the personification of capitalism gone awry, living proof that you don’t need to be intelligent or industrious to become a billionaire—just conniving, manipulative, and ruthlessly pragmatic.

Honorable Mentions

Magenta (Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero): A scathing parody of author Akira Toriyama’s experiences with editorial interference—and a hilariously ineffectual antagonist to boot.

Corey Cunningham (Halloween Ends): A meditation on the cyclical, self-perpetuating nature of alienation and violence; this unjustly persecuted youth’s gradual corruption is heartbreakingly tragic.

The Grabber (The Black Phone): The perfect marriage between an iconic design (courtesy of Tom Savini) and a captivating performance (courtesy of Ethan Hawke); leaves an indelible impression with minimal screen time.

The Podestá (Pinocchio): The model conformist—unwaveringly jingoistic, mindlessly subservient, and incapable of independent thought. He'd be pitiful... were he not such an abusive, tyrannical, fascist piece of trash.

Colonel Tom Parker (Elvis): This Mephistophelian trickster enriches the rather predictable biopic surrounding him; I don’t know what the hell Tom Hanks is smoking nowadays, but it is imperative that Hollywood keeps him supplied.

[silverwoodwork]

Android 21 offers some "critique" for the new Red Ribbon regarding Cell Max, much to Hedo's dismay

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super Movie 2: Super Hero (3/5)

"What are any of us doing here? We're not even in this movie!"

So the Red Ribbon Army is trying to stage a comeback with a fresh crop of new androids, and Goku isn't around to stop them, because he's on Beerus' planet training with Vegeta and Broly. While Piccolo figures out what to do without them, the movie just goes ahead and shows us what Goku is up to. For about ten minutes.

I'm pretty sure this part of the movie is a concession to Goku's fans. Let's face it, the people love Goku, and to do a Dragon Ball movie with no Goku at all would be a risky proposition, no matter how good that movie is. Looking back at the old DBZ films, Movies 9, 10, and 11 were mostly Goku-free, but he still put in a brief appearance in each one. But those are also regarded as some of the worst entries in the series, and I don't think that's a coincidence.

Now, I'm a fan of Dragon Ball in general, so the idea of a Piccolo and Gohan movie is not only appealing to me, but I'd say it's long overdue. I'd take a Yamcha/Tien movie any day. Or a Launch standalone film. I sat through GT, so it'd take a lot to keep me out of the theater. But Toei's trying to run a business here, and they can't just depend on die-hards like me to bring in the ticket revenue. So I'm sure the decision to focus on Piccolo was a controversial one in the home office. But they probably reached a compromise by giving Goku a decent chunk of screentime as a make-good.

One thing that makes this movie so good is that they don't just toss out a character for the sake of having them in the movie. They actually take a moment to show what that character is doing these days, even if it doesn't affect the plot that much. That's important, because it lets the viewer come away feeling like they got something out of the cameo they just saw. For example, we've seen Goku and Vegeta on Beerus' planet before. This is nothing new, but this time Goku's trying to help Broly control his power. And Vegeta's trying to meditate so he can learn how to imitate Jiren's power. Goku doesn't really understand his approach, which goes to show that Vegeta's trying to push beyond the scope of the training they've done on Beerus's planet before now. Gohan is studying ants, Videl has her combat sports class, Piccolo's a homeowner, etc.

Compare this to Battle of Gods, for example. Now BoG's a good movie, don't get me wrong, but a lot of the characters who appear in the film are utterly wasted. Tien shows up but he looks and acts exactly the same as he did the last several times we've seen him. Then he shows up in Resurrection F and nothing's changed either. He says he left Chiaotzu and Yamcha behind for the big fight, but would it matter either way? If they showed up, they wouldn't do anything new with those guys either.

The trick is to not just put Ox King in your movie, but to have him mention something that he's gotten up to lately, something Ox King fans can mull over later. "Oh, hey, remember how Ox King said he was going back to school to get a sociology degree?" You can sink your teeth into that, even if that's the only thing that you find out about from him. It's a lot better than "It's Bulma's birthday, and one of the guests is Ox King, a character who certainly exists."

Let's talk about Vegeta's revelation in this movie, since it caused some commotion among the fans. Goku complains that Vegeta had just been sitting still lately, which he thinks is a waste of time. Vegeta explains that he's been studying the way Jiren fought during the Tournament of Power. While he dominated Goku and Vegeta--sometimes both at once-- Vegeta is certain that Jiren isn't that much stronger than they are. What made Jiren so tough to deal with was that he was completely relaxed until the very moment he chose to strike, which allowed him to put all of his power into those brief offensive moments. But since Vegeta can't do that himself, he's trying to train his mind to conceptualize it before he tries to make his body learn how.

So a lot of fans saw this and concluded that the studio hates Goku, or they think Goku's an idiot, or that the studio is stupid for failing to remember that Goku has meditated before in the past. There has always been a subset of the fanbase that tries to turn everything into a Manichean conflict between Goku and Vegeta. In this case, if Vegeta figures something out before Goku does, then it means that Toei or Shueisha or Akira Toriyama himself must hate Goku.

This is stupid on the face of it, because Akira Toriyama literally created the character and he's credited with the screenplay for this movie. If he truly despised Goku, why would he even have Goku in the movie at all? He could have killed him off a long time ago. Why even make a Dragon Ball movie when he could have been working on some Dr. Slump project instead?

All this scene is... and I promise you, it's nothing more to it..., is a exploration of what the boys are doing on Beerus' planet. They train here, of course. We've seen that before, but why are they training here? Well, they need to receive instructions and guidance from Whis, and this is where Whis lives. Okay, and why is Whis so important to the process? Why can't they just stay on Earth and spar like they used to do? Because that only gets them so far. They need to learn new ways of thinking in order to surpass the level they're already at.

And what does that mean exactly? Well, they can't just do a million pushups. It doesn't work that way. There's other things they have to figure out, and that requires them to think of things they hadn't thought of before. And Whis is already beyond them in terms of power, so he knows things that they're still struggling to grasp. But Whis can't just spell it out for them. He can describe what they need to do, but it's still up to Goku and Vegeta to understand and internalize it.

And that's what they're doing here. They're basically brainstorming ways to get stronger. This time, Vegeta had an idea, and he's following it to see where it leads. Whis approves, so he seems to be on the right track. Tomorrow, maybe Goku will have another good idea, and so on.

But it's not always going to be one or the other who has the breakthrough. And it would be stupid for them both to have the same idea at the same time, just so the partisan fans won't feel slighted. Goku seems to think he can get a lot out of working with Broly, but that hasn't paid off just yet. It might prove more productive than what Vegeta is working on at the moment, but there's only one way to find out.

As far as Goku failing to recognize the value of meditation, well, he's had to re-learn that lesson several times. People will point to the time he meditated in Otherworld, or the time he meditated during his training with Mr. Popo, but they forget that this sort of focus and concentration was part of his training with Master Roshi as well. Whis scolded both Goku and Vegeta on this point when they first trained with him in Resurrection F. We can draw one of two conclusions here.

Goku's quest for greater strength is a flat circle. He just keeps re-discovering the same fundamentals, making a big gain in power, and then forgetting how he achieved that improvement.

Akira Toriyama is recycling the same martial arts hokum over and over again, because he only needs to show the characters working for greater strength. He does not need to design a genuine and internally consistent system for fantasy martial arts, any more than the writers of Star Trek need to explain how dilithium crystals make the ship go.

Anyway, Whis proposes a Goku/Broly/Vegeta three-way match, but no one wants Broly to fight in case he flips out and wrecks the entire planet. Then Beerus wakes up and finds out he has new houseguests. Goku explains that this is a good place to hide Broly from Frieza, and before Beerus can object, he meets Lemo and samples his cooking. It's good, so Beerus decides he can stay. Then Cheelai walks by with a bag full of loot she stole from Beerus' home. But Beerus decides he likes Cheelai's looks, so he agrees to let her stay too. So that's decided.

I've also seen some fans gripe about how Cheelai didn't spend much time with Broly in this movie, and Beerus' crush on Cheelai muddies the waters further. Look, none of these characters got a lot of screen time in this movie. This scene could be cut entirely and you wouldn't miss a thing. Half of it is Goku sparring with Vegeta, so of course Broly and Cheelai weren't going to have a whirlwind romance in this thing.

All I know for certain is that Cheelai walked by Broly and went out of her way to say he was "looking good", which is a lot more than she complimented anyone else on this planet. I mean, she's stealing Beerus' stuff, which ought to tell you how much she's into his lanky purple ass.

Moving on, Whis still wants to do that sparring match, if only so Broly can learn to appreciate a high-level battle with the fighters maintaining control of their powers. But Goku wants to eat first and so they stop for lunch.

And yeah, then this movie up and decides to give us Goku/Vegeta III, just like that. I don't want to oversell it, but it's an excellent fight. Whis sets the ground rules to that transformations and ki blasts are forbidden, so in a lot of ways this looks a lot like the kind of battle they might have had at the 25th Budokai before Babidi's henchmen got involved. We only get to see a few minutes of it, but they're so evenly matched that the fight takes a really long time to settle, so maybe it's just as well.

Beerus notes that Vegeta's moves have changed in an almost imperceptible way, due to his recent meditation training. Still, he loses interest in the fight and decides to get ice cream while the boys slug it out. I'm pretty sure Cheelai never cared in the first place, but Broly is enthralled with this action. He's getting to watch two of the greatest Saiyans ever put on a clinic, and he's soaking it up like a sponge.

But the important thing, at least as far as this movie goes, is that Beerus tosses an empty ice cream carton onto Whis' staff, so no one notice it flashing when Bulma tries to call him.

Which means Piccolo's on his own, at least for the time being. He gets the news from Bulma while he's picking up some senzu beans from Korin. The situation looks pretty bad, since Piccolo estimates that the Gammas' power is roughly on par with Goku and Vegeta's. And Dr. Hedo might know 17 and 18's weak spots, so they might not be able to help either. There is Majin Buu, though...

.... ha ha ha! No, did you think this one was going to be any different? Buu's sleeping through this crisis too. Seriously, why did they keep him alive at the end of the Buu Saga if no one had any plans to use him for anything?

So what about Gohan? That's what Korin asks, but Piccolo just says they can't count on Gohan right now, which... ouch.

But Piccolo does have one other idea, and so he flies up to see Dende on the Lookout and asks him to draw out his hidden power. See, the Kami of Planet Namek, Grand Elder Guru, was able to power up Krillin and Gohan way back in the day. Now, Dende is the Kami of Earth, so Piccolo figures Dende could do the same for him.

Only, no, it doesn't work that way. Turns out a Dragon-Type Namekian has to reach a certain age before they can use that sort of ability, and Dende's too young. On the other hand, Dende suggests using the Dragon Balls to solve the problem. They could simply wish away the Red Ribbon Army, but Piccolo doesn't care for that idea. Okay, well what about using Shenron to draw out Piccolo's hidden power? Can Shenron do that? Dende's like "gimme a minute."

So Dende wheels out the cart with the model of Shenron on it, and he powers a flask of water on the model. This makes it glow, and somehow upgrades Shenron so that he can grant a wish to draw out a person's hidden powers. Piccolo remarks that he had no idea any of this was possible when he was Kami. To be fair, when Piccolo was Kami, he didn't even know he was a Namekian, so there's a lot of stuff he was out of the loop for.

Now all Piccolo needs is the Dragon Balls, but Dende tells him that Bulma probably has them already. Ever since Frieza came back, Bulma's been gathering up the Dragon Balls every year, using the wishes up so that they'll be inactive in case any bad guys try to use them. Piccolo calls to ask her and yes, she has the whole set. In the dub, he asks her how many she has and she's like "Oh, uh.... All of them?!" I can't be sure, but I think that's a reference to the "All of them?" line from the dub of Dragon Ball, when Piccolo tried to zap Goku, but he missed all his vital organs. Anyway, Piccolo tells her to hang on to the balls until he gets there.

So they summon Shenron and it works. Piccolo gets stronger, and the Dragon promises that he threw in "a little extra".

That still leaves two wishes to use, so Bulma asks for a nicer ass and slightly longer eyelashes. Then she realizes -- too late-- that they could have wished to bring Goku and Vegeta back to Earth. Whoops.

"Shenron, I wish for you to bring Goku and Vegeta to Earth, so that they might bear witness to all this junk within my trunk."

So Piccolo returns to the Red Ribbon base and just walks right back to the line of soldiers there in Magenta's command room. They're still talking, and Piccolo tells the other soldiers he had to go potty. No one suspects a thing.

Magenta's trying to figure out what to do next. He'd like to target Goku and Vegeta, but no one knows where they are. Mr. Satan is too risky, since no one seems to know what his powers are, exactly. Then Carmine suggests Gohan be the next target. His intel says that it was Gohan who defeated Cell, and he has lots of spy footage of Piccolo going to his house to visit, which suggests that Gohan is a "shadow boss" in Bulma's organization. Magenta likes the idea of taking Gohan out, but he doesn't want Red Ribbon guys operating in the city, since it's too soon to reveal their presence to the wider public.

But if they could kidnap Gohan's daughter and lure him to the Red Ribbon base, then they could fight him on their own turf. Carmine finds that to be a good idea, as it would improve troop morale. Magenta orders a two-man team go to fetch Pan, and Piccolo volunteers, saying that he lives in the same neighborhood and knows Pan's face, because she's the granddaughter of Mr. Satan.

Dr. Hedo objects to the kidnapping angle, but Magenta tells him to mind his own business. Hmmm...

So Piccolo will be picking up Pan from preschool after all, just a bit later than planned. I don't know why Pan can't just run home by herself. She made it all the way here from Piccolo's house, didn't she?

One thing I like about this scene is how there's one other kid here who gets picked up, and that kid's mom apologizes for being late, so it's pretty clear that it's well after 1pm. Pan's been here a while. Her teacher assures here that someone will show up soon, but Pan's still kind of disappointed.

The other Red Ribbon soldier sent to do the kidnapping thinks this will be easy, so he just walks right up to Pan and tells her his mom sent him, but she demolishes him with a single blow.

Then Piccolo reveals himself and Pan recognizes him by his ki and calms down. The teacher already knows Piccolo, so she's cool with him, and Piccolo explains that this was all a security drill arranged by Mr. Satan. Now, in the dub, Piccolo addresses the teacher as "Janet", implying that he knows her as well as she knows him, and I think this is what led to the genesis of the Piccolo/Janet ship. I don't have a lot to say about it that hasn't already been said, but I'm all for Piccolo and Janet getting together. Janet's a fine foxy lady, and Piccolo's reputation speaks for itself.

Of course, Piccolo now has to fly the Red Ribbon airship back to base. He's a pretty crappy pilot, but he manages. I like to think Janet is still impressed, though. "Wow," she thinks as he flies away, crashing into a billboard. "Is there anything he can't do?"

Piccolo's plan is pretty simple. He explains the situation to Pan, and convinces her to play along with the kidnapping. When Gohan shows up to rescue her, he'll kick everyone's ass and that'll take care of everything. Actually, that sounds a little half-baked to me. Piccolo got a power up from Shenron, but is that enough? Anyway, they bring Pan to the base and take a video of her acting scared, then Magenta sends Piccolo and the other guy back to the city to show it to Gohan. Wait, why is that Namekian chair back there? What's that about.

Well, it doesn't matter because Pan sees some cookies and she's like "Don't mind if I do!" but then...

Carmine takes the plate away! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

You suck, Carmine!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Pan would probably attack him right there, except Piccolo's behind him trying to calm her down.

So Piccolo and 15 go to Gohan's house, and Piccolo takes him to the window since he knows Gohan won't answer the door. Notably, Gohan doesn't recognize Piccolo through his disguise, even though Pan saw through it immediately. Also, Gohan hasn't bothered to change out of the clothes Piccolo put him in this morning. Those must be fascinating ants he's working on.

15 shows Gohan the video of Pan and RIP the windowsill.

He turns Super Saiyan and scares the shit out of 15, who promises Pan will be fine if he just returns with him to the base. Gohan gets so mad he makes a crater in the ground...

... and the house starts to list down into the hole. But Piccolo doesn't mind because his plan is working. Gohan's back in a fighting mood and he can clobber the Gammas!

Or can he...?

[roy-dcm2]

DBS Super Hero Reaction

I finally watched Dragon Ball Super Hero. Here’s my thoughts.

I think it’s weird that in a movie with the term “Super Hero” in the title, that LOVES to make overt references to the past, we don’t get any mention of Great Saiyaman 1 / 2. Of course, it’s all an allusion to Gamma 1 / 2 as Tokosatsu-style heroes.

Honestly, it’s really fun to see Magenta POV from the outside looking in and telling us what some people THINK is going on with Capsule Corp. I imagine he put this together from the scraps of information that he could glean from Dr. Gero’s observations. It does track.

People know about Nappa and Vegeta arriving. The Saiyan’s pod ended up at CC. And it would be easy for people to spot the Namekians living in Capsule Corp. So, you could conclude that Bulma is getting access to Alien Tech. But, Magenta also assumes that the Capsule technology is rooted in alien tech. As far as we know, it isn’t. And then Magenta jumps to the conclusion that CC is paving the way for an alien invasion… without evidence.

Obviously, Magenta is biased. Being a military organization, everything looks like a battle. He can’t contemplate that the Saiyans and Namekians are essentially refugees, and CC is just being philanthropic.

Overall, the movie is just fun! It has those original Dragonaball references for old fans like me, and the Tokusatsu stuff for the younger audience (in Japan). They are being cheeky with the Goku and Vegeta stuff. Whis forces them to fight without transforming because they had no idea what was happening in the manga. (They made this movie in the middle of the Granola arc, even though it takes place AFTER it). So, they couldn’t show off Ultra Instinct / Ego.

As I like to say, the movies are just more, and this movie gave us a bunch of really great Piccolo scenes. Him chastising Gohan, pretending to be a Red Ribbon solider, all the stuff with him and Pan. The main event fight doesn’t start until about an hour in… so, we get more time of them NOT fighting than fighting. I love it.

This is Piccolo's movie... and I don't want to hear any BS about "Piccolo is Gohan's real dad." As much as I like Piccolo. Piccolo spends half the movie telling the audience that Gohan isn't good enough. Then at the climax, Piccolo just expects Gohan to find it in himself to defeat Cell Max. Which is the the EXACT same thing Goku did during the Cell Games! Except Goku ALWAYS believed in his son!

With that all being said… I kinda wish this wasn’t canon.

Mainly, because as good as the set up is, the conclusion feels unearned. It might be a consequence of being a movie, but (in my opinion) when you have two big character developments, at least one of them should feel triumphant.

First, it irks me that Piccolo wishes to unlock his hidden power and Shenron “throws in something else.” Why can’t it just be his hidden power? Now I’m wondering what the fuck that symbol is. And this is the second time someone has WISHED for a power-up. It feels really lame and unearned. It kinda sucked when they did it for Super Saiyan God, then it sucked again when SS Blue just happened. Now, we have Orange Piccolo on that list.

Maybe they’ll explain it better in the manga, but what made SSj1 (and SSJ2 to a different extent) was how well they seeded them before they appeared. (SSJ3 sucks because they didn’t build up to it correctly.)

My theory is that it's a mix of Ultra Instinct / Ego, but it still doesn't explain how he managed to tap into either of them. You could say because Gohan talks about practicing the "demon drill" in secret, he's also been training with UI-UE in secret too.

Then there’s Beast Gohan. 25 min into the battle, Piccolo gets bodied, and Gohan rages out. I’d like to know why this isn’t just the SSJ2 transformation? What is this transformation? Where did it come from? I have my theories… but from a narrative perspective, it’s just a dues ex machina. SSJ1 was not a dues ex machine – it had real ramifications after it happened. Beast Gohan appeared to resolve the plot and then disappeared.

They need to do what they did with Slug and say - that wasn’t a real transformation. Then actually explain what "Beast Mode" is supposed to be.

7/10 – The spectacle is great, but the best part is the first half. Feel free to leave your comments (and theories about Beast Gohan) in the comments below!

[endlessp0ssibilities]

『Keep thinking to myself :I should write down all Ember's abilities so here we are』

1) Super Strength: Ember punches and punches hard. Not as strong as say Mighty or Knuckles, but can hold her own against them and has been known to put a decent crack in large boulders.

2) Chaos Abilities: Alot of Ember's Chaos abilities appear as the iconic purple and magenta flames.

•Punching: Doesn't have a specific name, but when punching opponents, Chaos Flames emit from her fists.

•Fireball: Akin to Shadow's Chaos Spear, although only two balls can be made and thrown at a time.

•Blips: Can teleport up to a yard from last standing position; can be done somewhat consecutively, but if done too many times, Ember will start to show signs of internal damage such as a bloody nose, ears or blood coming out of mouth.

•Chaos Blast: Another move akin to Shadow's; purple flames erupt from Ember's body, covering at most half a city block.

•Flamethrower: Breathes fire. She is half dragon after all.

•Chaos Control: With an emerald, can transport anywhere in space and time; has done it without an emerald before, but damn near had a brain aneurysm. Always made sure to have an emerald on her since.

•Super: With 7 Chaos Emerald, Ember can achieve a super form.

3)Rocket: Focusing all flame power to her palms, Ember can then use them like a jet plane, reaching up to 600 mph. Can use to temporarily fly if jumping from a high place.

4) Spindash: Can curl up into a ball and spin at high speeds. Perfect to smashing robots.

『That's all I can think of for now. More might be added?』

[greatwyrmgold]

Watched Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero on a whim the other night. Things I liked:

Pan. She had so much fun whenever she was with Papa or Grandpa Piccolo! Not so much when they were both busy fighting the giant monster, but hey.

The movie focuses on Piccolo, Gohan, and Pan instead of Goku and Vegeta.

Magenta's rant about how Capsule Corp is clearly just a front for a coalition of alien invaders working to control the Earth. It's 90% recognizable conspiratorial nonsense (minus the antisemitism and unpleasant context) and 10% weird sh*t that's just canon.

Despite the Red Ribbon Army's advanced intelligence-gathering tech, they still consider Mr. Satan to be a threat on par with Goku or Vegeta.

Piccolo has a house now!

Super Sai-ants.

Gamma 1's occasional moments of genre savvy. The first thing he says is "You say you killed King Piccolo? Did you look for the body?"

The Gammas in general, really. Especially the background squabbling-siblings moments.

All the new characters have such delightful, quirky personalities. Dragon Ball is at its best when it's a comedy series spiced with action.

Piccolo doing that thing Frieza did in the Broly movie where he hurt Paragus to make Broly get a rage-induced power-up, just without actually hurting Pan.

I can't talk much about Max Cell without ruining the positive tone I'm aiming for here, but I like the way he serves as a fulcrum of conflict between Magenta and Dr. Hedo, and that his design makes Semi-Perfect Cell look intimidating. (And not just by virtue of being kaiju-sized.)

One storyboard artist really liked the idea of the Z-fighters jumping off of high things in skydiving poses before activating their flight, and the higher-ups were right to let them do it twice.

Namekian stretchy-arms and gigantification return! Piccolo even uses both at the same time! More Dragon Ball fight scenes should use weird little abilities like that; stretchy arms aren't gonna win a fight Piccolo would lose otherwise, but they make a fight scene more unique and interesting.

The animation is good, the haters just noticed that it's CG.

Pan. She's adorable.

Things I didn't like:

Enough "Ha ha, Dr. Hedo/Gotenks is fat" jokes to stand out as a Thing.

Act 3 is basically just one overstuffed fight scene.

Cell Max is fine as a plot point and setpiece, I guess, but also not interesting.

There is no way Goten and Trunks haven't been fusing for fun enough to remember how it works. If they messed up because they were rushing or because of a disruption from the active action scene or something, that would be one thing, but suggesting that they're just rusty is...kinda dumb.

Gohan's new transformation feels like that form Future Trunks got in the Goku Black arc, in that it's an unexplained power-up he randomly got that I assume is meant to justify him fighting god-tier foes, but they didn't want to give him Super Saiyan God or Blue because reasons. My feelings about Orange Piccolo are similar, but with more understanding about why they didn't give him an existing Super Saiyan form and less irritation about being an obvious retread of the Super Saiyan 2 transformation bit in the Cell arc.

Also, Gohan's new transformation's hair. On one hand, it's among the most obvious ways that said transformation is calling back to the SSJ2 transformation against Cell, which is irritating. On the other hand, it also looks absurd. It's just...scale up Gohan's preteen hairstyle by 250% and make it gray. Why gray? And why make it that big? If it had gone full SSJ3 I might have liked it, but it doesn't go far enough, and the hair stays too stiff, like it doesn't realize it's three feet long and should be pulled down by gravity.

Basically every scene on Beerus's planet, and not just because Goku and Vegeta were there. It's good to establish why they're not coming in to save the day, but they didn't need to spend so much time on it! And they definitely didn't have to use that time on a pointless fight scene and Beerus flirting with Cheelai!

Gohan getting more focus? Getting to be a character who's important to the plot? I like that! The interpretation of that idea as "Gohan needs to focus on training instead of studying all the time"? Not so much. At least it was mixed in with a dash of "You're so focused on the academic stuff that you're neglecting your family, too," which is a less frustrating point.