Super DragonBall Heroes is a 2018 martial arts adventure Japanese animated television series, created and produced by Toei Animation. Taking place after DragonBall Super, the series follows protagonist Goku as he fights along side his friends to stop villains who threaten the multiverse.

Seasons: Season 1 (2018), Season 2 (2019), Season 3 (2020), Season 4 (2020), Season 5 (2020), Season 6 (2021)

The story feels…chaotic. It’s interesting and takes the series in a different direction but it hardly gives us a second to take in what’s happening before whisking us to the next fight. There’s so much fighting it’s stupid. There are some interesting plot twists (I personally like the Demon Realm idea) but the story isn’t given time to marinate so it feels like partially frozen food. It’s like the writers saw how straight to the point Kai is and how awesome the fights from Super are and thought how great it’d be to combine the two. Interesting character arcs? Non-existent. Things happen with no real buildup. Characters are given no backstory, no motivation (outside of just wanting to destroy stuff) and certainly no character development. (3 out of 5)

Heroes manages to introduce a lot of characters, some more interesting than others. One of my biggest beefs with the series is its over reliance on Goku and Vegeta. Because of this a lot of older characters are practically forgotten. And not only that, new characters such as Hit, Kappa, and Jiren are forgotten as well. This could’ve been an excellent way for the Z fighters to team up with the Pride Troopers, giving the Z fighters the spotlight again while fleshing out the Pride Troopers. There are some interesting side characters but they aren’t given much to do and if you haven’t played the games you won’t know who they are.

The villains are a bit of a mixed bag. Personally, I do like Fu, Cumber, Kamen, Oren, Towa, and Hearts. I think they have great personalities, good motivations, and cool abilities. What I don’t like is all of these villains that make an appearance for the sake of making an appearance such as Cooler, Turles, Janemba, and Bojack. I was hoping that Cooler would do some awesome shit but he only has one cool fight and that’s a wrap. I don’t know if they can reach the heights of Frieza, Cell, and Buu but they’re pretty cool in their own right. There’s a lot of room for improvement but what we get is okay. (3 out of 5)

I’ve never been the one to nitpick on the animation style. I still like the old school feel of the original series. However, I can admit that it looks really good. Some of the clothing design choices are okay but they don’t seem necessary. Vegeta’s uniform is changed again and it’s not that impressive. Janemba’s color design looks dumb. Would’ve looked better if they’d alternated his design a little to make him look more demonic. GT Goku and Vegeta make an appearance and the question still stands. When they transform where do their clothes go? Also, when Cumber transforms why does his clothes (and especially his mouthpiece) grow. Still, it looks really good. (3 out of 5)

The sound design is really good and when it comes to the voice performances they’re as good as in the previous series. The music is okay. There are some themes that I think make the series epic but most don’t feel impactful nor catchy. I loved in the Ocean Dub version of DragonBall Z where the characters had their own unique themes and it’s just lacking here. (3 out of 5)

Like its predecessor, Heroes expands on the concept of the previous series. What hurts the series is the writing. It’s full of plotholes, it’s messy. Things happen seemingly out of the blue with no real buildup. Characters from the films pop up but they aren’t canon so how (and why) are they there? Then their presence serves no purpose. Like Super, the power scaling is trash. It’s inconsistency is ridiculous. The whole time patrol bit just feels messy. I do like that the GT version is considered canon but in an alternate dimension.

If you’re looking for fights, there are a lot of really good ones. So many fights that it doesn’t make any sense. The demon realm is not explored enough. I like that a threat from the demon realm is actually threatening the regular one but it would’ve been better if the demon realm as a whole was waging war with the living one. In that scenario, all the universes could’ve been involved. When it comes to the villain characters, I will say that I do like the characterization. They’re unique with good abilities, personalities, and motivations. The direction is good, though not as tidy as it could be. (3 out of 5)

In the end, Super DragonBall Heroes is a decent follow up to DragonBall Super, although it does have its share of problems. Really, the super fast pace, plotholes, unimpressed music, and poor writing choices hurt the series. But its story is good, characterization is strong, cool villains, good animation, and great fights make the series worth a watch. Super DragonBall Heroes gets 3 out of 5.