As "Dragon Ball Super" temporarily ended with the Tournament of Power arc in March, fans were elated when news came of a new anime to hold them over until the main show returned. As pure filler fluff and glorified advertisement for the currently Japan-exclusive arcade game of the same title, "Super Dragon Ball Heroes" does its job but ends up being kind of a detriment to the rest of the franchise as it basically spoils us.
Whereas the main Dragon Ball anime shows have time to flesh characters and conflicts out, SDBH's episodes are very condensed but somehow never seem to really cover very much. Episodes are overstuffed with characters, transformations and explosive energy blasting to promote events that happen in the game, but it all rarely serves any purpose beyond that; it's just fan-pleasing guff riddled with plot holes and inconsistencies. Luckily, the manga expands and fills in gaps. Remember that fetch quest for the Special Dragon Balls that Fu mentions in the first episode? The manga covers that and more, featuring more zany stuff like Hatchiyack fighting Majin Ozotto over a Ball.
Watch in teeth-pulling awe as Vegito in Super Saiyan Blue (the most powerful one) boosted with Kaio-ken can't beat the bland Evil Saiyan Cumber's base form. The most funnily egregious example of a useless character, though, is Cooler, who joins the heroes' side with Future Trunks (who is similarly useless here), suddenly gains a snazzy new -- and 100% original -- transformation, throws a single punch, and spends every episode after standing on the sidelines doing sweet F-A. Combined with cameos from the various Super Saiyan forms, fusions, Ultra Instinct and so on, SDBH starts to feel like stuffing yourself on your nan's delicious cake until you feel sick. This is what I'd call high-cholesterol Dragon Ball.
The animation and art style, overseen by Yamamuro, are bland, flat and unimpactful but at least consistent. The action often feels far slower than it should be. The fights are almost all boringly choreographed and samey with this lazy formula: punch-punch-punch, energy blasts, character flies out of dust, Kamehameha beam-struggle. Yawn.
The show, as of this review, has covered two separate story arcs: the Prison Planet Saga and the Universe Conflict Saga. This recent arc has actually been a big improvement over its predecessor so far as it has a more interesting (but still insane) story, higher stakes and better animation. It's actually starting to explore concepts that I would like to see implemented into the canon story of "Dragon Ball Super" (Goku training under the Grand Priest? Sign me up, lol). Let's hope this keeps up.
