The Other Side of Animation 270: Dragon Ball Super – Super Hero Review

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com/camseyeview. It would help support my work, and keep the website up. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this review!)

It’s finally time to do a review on a Dragon Ball film. It’s shocking that I have yet to talk about one of the biggest franchises in the anime industry, one of the most important shonen action shows for Japan, the US, and well, the entire world. Even if you aren’t into anime, you have at least heard of Dragon Ball or one of the individual series that is connected to the franchise. It was hard to escape during the mid-late 90s and the early-mid 2000s. It’s only recently that we have been getting a resurgence of the franchise with two films Battle of the Gods and Ressurection F, alongside Dragon Ball Super, Dragon Ball Super: Broly…happened, and now we have what is right now, as of this writing, the biggest film in the US right now. Let’s just dive right into the biggest movie in the franchise, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. 

The film is directed by Tetsuro Kodama, written by Akira Toriyama, and produced by Toei Animation. Instead of following Goku and Vegeta, we instead follow Piccolo, dubbed by Christopher Sabat. He’s training Gohan’s daughter Pan, dubbed by Jeannie Tirado. As the time passes, Piccolo has an issue with feeling like he is being the actual father figure to Pan than her actual dad Gohan, dubbed by Kyle Hebert. While this is going on, the iconic villain organization the Red Ribbon Army, now being led under the radar by Magenta, dubbed by Charles Martinet, obtains a young super scientist named Dr. Hedo, dubbed by Zach Aguilar. They make a deal that Hedo will help Magenta with taking over the world if they can make super androids that are superheroes. That’s how we end up with Piccolo and the Z fighters having to deal with Gamma 1 and Gamma 2, dubbed by Aleks Li and Zeno Robinson. Since they can’t get the help of Goku and Vegeta, can the rest of the gang save the day and stop the Red Ribbon Army from coming back from the pits of the earth to rule the world? 

Let’s talk about the animation. Outside of the goofy title of the film, the big uproar about this film was that it was in CGI. It has some 2D moments and bits, but it was for the first time, all CGI. To be honest, this is basically how Studio Orange, the famed studio behind Beastars, would probably make the film. It might use slower frame rates, and sure, sometimes the backgrounds look like typical CGI anime quality backgrounds or very low poly, but unless you are paying attention to that, you really won’t notice. They also had a ton of nice little animation details from how Piccolo holds his phone or flies a plane to how the doctor Hedo and Magenta eat the Oreos when they have a discussion at the beginning of the film. Some of the vast background shoots look a touch clunky, and you can tell when some buildings look too CGI against the much better-looking humans, but the CGI animation is handled well and you never feel like the action is never hampered by the CGI. The designs look on point, and while they do have some moments where they use 2D animation that are noticeable, we have seen what bad CGI looks like from the anime industry, and this ain’t it. 

The script itself is very self-aware and comedically driven, which isn’t all that shocking to many people that are aware of Toriyama’s style of writing. It’s filled with dialogue gags, puns, goofy gimmick names, a few raunchy jokes here and there, and as many lines as possible to avoid getting dragged through the ground by smarmy internet personalities that make their living off of pointing out “plot holes”. It can be a bit on the nose with how they try to cover up as many loose ends as possible, but at the end of the day, it works because the story isn’t about Goku and Vegeta taking center stage to defeat the new Red Ribbon Army androids. Yes, they may be overexplained, but with how bad media literacy is these days, overexplaining is better than ignoring the fact there will be knuckleheads on the net that will look for anything to complain about for views. 

The overarching story is pretty much focused on Gohan and Piccolo’s relationship and characters as of this point in the franchise’s history. Everyone in the Dragon Ball fandom tends to agree that after the Cell and Buu Saga, Gohan and Piccolo tended to get shafted in terms of how they were represented. Once more powerful and imposing characters were introduced, they got shoved to the sideline. Poor Gohan got turned into a neglectful dad by accident, due to having his dad’s hyper fixation that wrecks everything. It’s to reevaluate the multi-decade-long bond and dynamic that Gohan and Piccolo had, since one of the most memorable story arcs was when Piccolo trained Gohan before the Saiyans arrived in the original show. It’s mostly a reboot/restart to make Piccolo and Gohan bigger players for the next film or TV series, which is nice, since how many times can you stagnate the story by having Goku and Vegeta solve the problem? It’s also a story about how some extremely evil people will take advantage of the ignorance of others, and stoke their anger and rage with misinformation that can lead you down the wrong path to deal with a situation. It’s a very topical story due to what we have been dealing with for the past couple of years. It’s very simple, but the execution of it all works well enough for the story of a Dragon Ball film. You aren’t here to see some big cinematic methodical think-piece film. You aren’t here to see a Makoto Shinkai or a Mamoru Oshii film. You are here to see a strong enough script for a franchise mostly known for action. Luckily, the story is good enough to carry you through the different action set pieces, and the action itself is bombastic, thrilling, and grand in scale. They have definitely learned to move away from how the TV show set up fights, to realizing “hey, we are a movie and can do so much more”! The camera does a good job following along or being right beside the characters so you can feel the most intense impacts of every punch, kick, beat down, and energy blast. The voice cast is also on par with the absurdity, the goofiness, and the serious moments. When you have a stacked cast with talent including Kyle Hebert, Christopher Sabat, Sean Schemmel, Jeannie Tirado, Aleks Le, Zeno Robinson, Zach Aguilar, Charles Martinet, Justin Cook, Jason Marnocha, the always amazing Monica Rial, Sonny Strait, Johnny Yong Bosch is perfect as Broly, Eric Vale, Robert McCollum, Meredith McCoy, Jason Douglas, Ian Sinclair, Erica Lindbeck, Kara Edwards, and Bruce Carney. Naoki Sato is the composer behind the film’s score, and it’s rambunctious, imposing, and thrilling to sit through, and matches the tone of the franchise. 

The criticisms of this film are minor and don’t truly hinder the film’s experience. While the film does enough to catch you up on everything going on, it may be more approachable to fans of the long-running franchise, due to the main focus being on the long-running dynamic between Piccolo and Gohan. Sure, you probably won’t see this film unless you are a fan, but you will get more out of it if you know about the connection our two leads have with one another, and how Piccolo was a surrogate father to Gohan early on in Dragon Ball Z. Some other minor critiques include the humor being hit-and-miss, and how some villains’ characters were fairly weak compared to the great android duo of Gamma 1 and 2. 

Even with those minor complaints, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is, well, for a lack of a better word, super! It’s another action-packed heroic explosion of thrills and laughs that make for a very satisfying theatrical experience, and yet another fantastic film based on a TV show in 2022. If you can go see this film, even if you already have seen it, you should go see it again. When you see that a Japanese-animated film is playing in theaters, you should absolutely go watch it, because we need to make sure more of these films hit theaters. Now then, next time, we take a look at a limited series for Netflix called Lost Ollie. 

Rating: Go See It!

The Other Side of Animation 227: Josee, The Tiger, and The Fish Review.

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com/camseyeview. It would help support my work, and keeps the website up. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this review!)

Heads up: I was able to watch this film via a screener sent to me by Funimation. I got no other form of monetization other than the screener. Thank you, Funimation.

Funimation was always an odd one when it came to foreign animated film distribution. Even when they were the original distributors of Mamoru Hosoda and some of Makoto Shinkai’s films, they were never doing enough to get in the nominee circles, unlike GKids and Shout! Factory. They could have some of the most financially successful and acclaimed films and still not get nominated. Films like Your Name and Demon Slayer: Mugen Train are successful as all get out, but they are still just successful among that scene in the film industry. It’s a shame because after getting acclaim from Your Name, their focus went more toward distributing anime series. They brought over the occasional film, but they either weren’t big hits or were based on a hit franchise. GKids took the crown of “Got an animated film from Japan? We will probably distribute it”. Maybe it’s because they were bought by Sony, but they recently have started picking up films again, and films that aren’t even attached to any major franchises! These include the hour-long Stranger By The Shore, and today’s review, Josee, The Tiger, and the Fish. 

Directed by Kotaro Kamura, based on the short story by Seiko Tanabe, written by Sayaka Kuwamira and produced by Bones Inc, this animated film was released back in October 2020 in Japan and then competed in June 2021 at the Annecy Film Festival, which got beat out by Flee. Luckily, during the Annecy Film Festival, Funimation picked up the rights and gave it an, unfortunately, limited release, but I’m sure at some point you will all be able to watch it. So, was it worth waiting a year for this film? I mean, you can read the review to find out. 

Our story revolves around a young man in college named Tsuneo Suzukawa, dubbed by Howard Wang. He is a college student who works part-time jobs to get enough money to try and study overseas in Mexico. One evening, he ends up saving the life of a young woman named Kumiko Yamamura aka Josee, dubbed by Suzie Yeung, who was pushed in her wheelchair down a hill, and Tsuneo ends up catching her. While making his way back to Josee and her grandmother’s place, he decides to take the grandmother’s offer to be Josee’s caretaker. It doesn’t start well with Josee being tedious to work with, but will Tsuneo find out that there is more to his life with taking care of and bonding with Josee? Will Josee find a new spark and love for life? 

When you look at the film and this premise, you dread that it’s going to be one of those films. You know the ones, right? These are the romance films that deal with an able-bodied lead who falls for someone who is either handicapped or has some deadly illness that milks the misery and sadness of the situation. It turns what should be a dramatic story into one that ends up coming off unintentionally hilarious or more mean-spirited with how melodramatic the overall story develops. It’s either that or the person with the handicap or sickness is there to help elevate the bland, boring, able-bodied protagonist in order to find his spark in life. These films tend to come out either during award season or come out during dryer times of the film year. Sometimes you get one that changes the formula around, but most of the time, they are very paint-by-number experiences. What does this film do differently then? Well, it has a good story, likable characters, emotional and realistic themes, and beautiful animation. Unlike many films in this genre, the real strength of the story does lie in its two main characters. You understand why Josee is so aggressive and snappy at strangers due to how the world around her has treated her, which shines a light on how some people treat others who have disabilities. You also understand Tsuneo’s drive and forgetting everything around him when you get into that one-track mindset. Instead of one character lifting the other, both of our leads help each other out. This is such a great element to the story, because otherwise, by a lesser writer or director, Josee would be the prop that helps support Tsuneo get to his dreams, while Josee either accepts her place in life or in some cases of those terrible films, dies. Josee herself is a realized character who loves art, and you understand her attitude toward everyone when she’s been cooped up in her grandmother’s house. Weird how you make a more compelling story when you have a romance where both characters have agency. It talks a lot about reaching for your dreams and how you can help one another to get to them. The story can be a bit melodramatic at points, as it’s expected from anime, but it never quite took me out of the experience like a lot of romance animated features. While some of the dialogue can be a bit much, with some lines reinforcing a somewhat toxic mindset, much of the dialogue flowed well, and the film could be very funny. 

What helps elevate the beauty and emotional core of the film is the animation by Bones Inc. For those that are not aware, Bones Inc is the studio behind the acclaimed My Hero Academia series, SK8: The Infinity, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Soul Eater, Space Dandy, Mob Psycho 100, Carole & Tuesday, and the recently released Godzilla: Singular Point and The Case Study of Vanitas. They also have done work on films like Cowboy Bebop: The Movie and Sword of the Stranger. This is a gorgeous movie with drop-dead gorgeous coloring, movements, and a pretty fantastic combination of CGI and 2D elements that don’t stand out. The animators are even able to let the characters have cartoony reactions to certain lines and story beats, which is great since it shows that they are willing to break the character designs to help the characters emote a bit more for jokes, and reactions. They even let the story become fantastical with an incredible sequence where Josee becomes a mermaid with her mermaid half formed from her dress. and it’s such a creative touch that gives the film a lot of charm. The voice cast is also pretty good with an English dub that includes Howard Wang, Suzie Yeung, Dani Chambers, and Zeno Robinson to name a few of the talent behind the characters. They do a fantastic job of bringing the characters to life, and I enjoyed their performances. The music is beautiful, atmospheric, and fantastical with a soundtrack composed by Evan Call, who composed the music for the incredible Violet Evergarden series. It reminds me of a lot of Kensuke Ushio’s work from A Silent Voice. 

As much as I love and want to rave and cheer about this whole movie, I do have some very minor complaints. As I said previously, it can be a touch melodramatic, and that’s true within the film’s third act where a love triangle angle is thrown in when it wasn’t a thing throughout the entire movie. It felt like it was put there to ignite the third act resolution, and while I get that, it would have been more powerful, at least to me, if Josee made the decision herself and not because another character who was secondary to the plot decided to light the fire under her feet. I know it’s anime, and anime is known for big dramatic speeches and interactions, but they tend to be too much at points. Josee, while believable and likable as a character, does begin a bit rough around the edges. It takes awhile for her to come out of her shell, but the first few minutes are too much at points. 

Still, even with those criticisms, I loved Josee, The Tiger, and the Fish. It’s in my top five favorite animated films of 2021 so far, and it shows how strong of a year 2021 has become when studios are willing to release movies for people to watch. I mean, I know the pandemic was a thing, but still. Sadly, by the time this review comes up, it will have already gone through its limited release, but if you can find a way to watch it and support the official release of the film, do so! Now then, next time I’ll talk about the new Netflix animated feature from Japan, Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop.

Thanks for reading the review! I hope you all enjoyed reading it! If you would like to support my work, make sure to share it out, and if you want to become a Patreon supporter, then you can go to patreon.com/camseyeview. I will see you all next time!

Rating: Essential