‘Dragon Ball Super: Broly’ Gives Goku’s Origin a Superman Nod

‘Dragon Ball Super: Broly’ Gives Goku’s Origin a Superman Nod

Dragon Ball Super: Broly is, at its core, a major revision of the franchise's core mythosregarding the Saiyan Race and their history. One of the biggest changes the film is no doubt the origin story of Goku, which gets the biggest retcon of all!

Basically, Dragon Ball Super: Broly takes the oft-debated Dragon Ball Minus bonus story from the manga and makes it official canon. If you know anything about Goku's origin story via Dragon Ball Minus, then you know that it is, essentially, a Superman origin tale!

In Broly's opening act we meet Goku's father Bardock, a warrior of Planet Vegeta when it falls under Freeza's rule. Years later, Bardock and his fellow Saiyan warriors are out conquering worlds when they get an order from Freeza to return to Planet Vegeta. Bardock is suspicious of the decree, and starts to question and investigate. What he discovers is that Freeza is afraid of the Super Saiyan God legend, and Bardock deduces that Freeza would probably eradicated the entire Saiyan race, rather than risk the legend one day coming true.

Realizing their end is coming, Bardock confides in his wife Gine that he will be stealing a space pod to secretly send their son Kakarot off to another world. Despite Gine's initial reservations, they enact their plan, packing Kakarot into the pod and bidding him farewell, before blasting him off into space, headed for Earth. Bardock picks Earth for the fact that its inhabitants have low power levels and primitive tech, which would allow Kakarot to flourish as a Saiayan conqueror. Soon after, Bardock is seen leading an attack on Freeza's mothership in space, and trying to block the evil emperor's Supernova blast - only to be disintegrated along with all of Planet Vegeta. If you know anything about DC Comics lore, that's pretty much Superman's origin in a nutshell.

The merits of Dragon Ball Minus' Goku origin retcon or often debated, but clearly Akira Toriyama felt as though Goku has grown into enough of a heroic figure and icon to stand along the greats. How Dragon Ball fans will react is a whole different story...

Dragon Ball Super: Broly is out now. Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release is available to stream on FunimationNOW, VRV, and Crunchyroll.

'Dragon Ball Heroes' Reunites Future Trunks With Zamasu

'Dragon Ball Heroes' Reunites Future Trunks With Zamasu

Super Dragon Ball Heroes promotional anime series has put all of the multiverse on notice as six new powerful foes aim to not only destroy the Omni-King, but destroy every strong mortal in their path.

But one of the foes is a familiar face in the returning Merged Zamasu, and fans saw his reunion with Future Trunks in the latest episode.

The latest episode of the series revealed the final member of the Core Area villain group, Hearts, as he revealed not only a scary new ability but the powerful weapon, the Universe Seed. But this also saw him bring in Merged Zamasu to Universe 6, where Vegeta and Future Trunks had come to fight alongside Universe 6's warriors.

Zamasu still has his hatred for mortals, and threatens that Hearts should not order him around. And this is where Future Trunks and Vegeta see Zamasu has returned. Unfortunately, due to the pace of the episode, all they have time to do is react to the fact that he's come back. They both question his return, and soon the episode starts building to an even greater confrontation to come.

Merged Zamasu was one of the strongest foes in the Dragon Ball canon, and was pretty much unstoppable. Even with Future Trunks' strongest abilities yet, he, Goku, and Vegeta could not bring him down. With him being erased by the Omni-King at the end of the Future Trunks arc, fans have been wondering how he's come back to life in Heroes. Either way, Zamasu's on a mission of vengeance and Future Trunks will be in his path.

Hopefully Zamasu and Future Trunks will clash officially in future episodes of the series. Episode 9 of the series is currently scheduled to release March 14 in Japan. It's titled "Goku Revived!! Strongest vs. Strongest Collide" and the synopsis for it reads as such, "Jiren stands before Cumber, who has appeared and run amok in Universe 11. A fearsome battle unfolds between the two. Just then, Goku, whose whereabouts had been unknown, appears alongside the Great Priest.”

If you're unaware of this arcade game the promotional anime series is based on, Super Dragon Ball Heroes is the latest digital card fighting game and the top earner in the digital card arcade scene in Japan. Developed by Dimps, the update brought enhanced graphics and the ability to play as seven characters at the same time and provides all sorts of fantastic fan-service never seen in the original series.

If you want to catch it for yourself, Episode 8 of Super Dragon Ball Heroes is online now. It's titled, "Invasion of the Ultimate, Worst Warriors! Universe 6 Demolished!" The previous synopsis for the episode reads as such, "Vegeta and Trunks rushed over to help Universe 6, but will they be able to escape this predicament?! Don't miss the unfolding chaos! Trunks and company face an uphill battle against Oren and Kamin's fierce combination attacks. In the middle of the fight, the Core Area warrior Hearts appears and reveals his shocking plan."

'Dragon Ball Super' Shares Official Gogeta Character Designs

'Dragon Ball Super' Shares Official Gogeta Character Designs

Character designs for the official, canonical version of Gogeta from the Dragon Ball Super: Broly film are making the rounds, and while it doesn't confirm anything new, they are extremely cool to look at.

What appear to be Gogeta character model sheets on a display at Jump Festa 2019 have surfaced online. You can check them out in the tweet below:

Gogeta, of course, is the fusion of series protagonist Goku and sometimes-antagonist, mostly-protagonist Vegeta. The form is accomplished through the Fusion Dance rather than, say, the Potara earrings -- which results in Vegito. It's the more powerful of the two as well.

The fusion plays an important role in the upcoming Dragon Ball Super: Broly film, so it's not surprising to see the character designs out in the wild. Prior to its inclusion in the new Broly film, Gogeta had been considered non-canonical given that it previously had only appeared in Dragon Ball Z films. Now that it's canonical, however, there's every possibility that we could see more Gogeta -- and even Super Saiyan Blue Gogeta -- in the future.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly officially released in Japan this December, and the English premiere was recently held in the United States as well. Funimation will bring the film to theaters in the United States on January 16th. Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block Saturday evenings. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release of the series is complete and available to stream on FunimationNOW, VRV, and Crunchyroll.

What do you think of the official Gogeta design? Are you excited to see him in action when Dragon Ball Super: Broly releases widely in the United States in 2019? Let us know in the comments!

'Dragon Ball Super' Unlocks Buu's Godly Power

'Dragon Ball Super' Unlocks Buu's Godly Power

Dragon Ball Super's latest manga chapter shifts the scales in Goku and Vegeta's battle against the evil powerhouse sorcerer Moro - and for once things actually shift in their favor! The chapter starts off with both Goku and Vegeta prepared to die defending New Namek's final Dragon Ball against Moro - knowing full well that the sorcerer's malevolent magical abilities cancel out all of their Super Saiyan powers. And, with his new ability to sense the Dragon Balls directly, Moro indeed shows up on their doorstep looking for a fight!

However, just when Goku and Vegeta think it's all over, the Galactic Patrol shows up to take Moro on, and they bring a secret weapon with them: Majin Buu!

Buu is inconveniently napping when the Galactic Patrol springs into action, but Moro's evil presence quickly wakes the big guy up. And it's not just Buu who wakes up: something inside Buu that's been long dormant also wakes up - or rather, someone.

This entire "Galactic Patrol Prisoner" arc in the Dragon Ball Super manga began with the backstory of how Daikaioh (aka the King of Supreme Kais, who Majin Buu absorbed to become "Fat Buu") first defeated Moro ten million years ago. Well, ten million years wasn't long enough for the grudge to die, because as soon as the part of Daikaioh inside Buu sense Moro, the old god comes out fuming, ready to kick some ass!

As it turns out, Buu really is the perfect weapon to weild against Moro. The combination of Daikaioh's knowledge, and Buu's malleable, taffy-like body, negates Moro's fiery planet-energy attacks, and provides immunity to the villain's energy siphoning powers. In short: Buu is the Moro-killer that the good guys have been desperately waiting for! Unfortunately, the issue ends with Buu standing triumphant and ready to thrash Moro - but we have to wait a month to actually see it happen!

Given how much we learned about Buu and his absorption process during his big arc in Dragon Ball Z, it will be interesting to see how he evolves, now that Daikaioh's persona are more active and woke inside him.

Boruto Upgrades Major Akatsuki Technique

Boruto Upgrades Major Akatsuki Technique

One of the most intriguing aspects of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations is seeing how the world of Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto has evolved ever since the end of the original series. Not only has this meant seeing how some of the fan favorite characters have grown into adults, but this has also led to seeing how the technology of the world has advanced since that first series. Some of the biggest plots so far have focused on this adaptive technology, and the new villainous faction Kara is a good example of it.

Acting as the newest generation's iteration of Akatsuki, it seems that Kara has upgraded a major technique thanks to this technology as Delta has seemed to have mastered having a completely replaceable body as teased by the puppet master Sasori back then.

In the original series, Sasori of Akatsuki is a fierce foe as he's replaced much of his organic body with puppetry technology. He was able to transfer to a new puppet at a moment's notice, but he had a glaring weakness in the organic core he needed to retain to live. But the completely technologically implanted Delta had none of those weaknesses, and in fact, ups this technique up a notch in the latest chapter.

In Chapter 34 of the series, the drone fans had seen tailing Delta flies back to Kara's hideout. Once it inserts itself in a device powering two other Delta bodies, one of the Delta arises. She retains her memories across bodies, and it's implied that it was not a big deal for her to blow herself up and be revived in this new body.

As her body was completely destroyed with a self-destruct, she didn't need to keep an organic part of her body alive in order to get a replacement body. This eliminates Sasori's weakness in trying to replace his own body, and is a good example of how these newest villains are that much stronger thanks to how the world has advanced in the years since Akatsuki was a threat.

Originally created by Masashi Kishimoto for Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 1999, Naruto follows a young ninja, with a sealed demon within him, that wishes to become the leader of his home village. The series ran for 700 chapters overall, and was adapted into an anime series by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex that ran from 2002 to 2017. The series was popular enough to warrant a sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations which is set several years after the events of the original Narutostory and features the children of many of its key characters such as Naruto and Hinata..