Pilot Episode Review: DRAGON BALL HEROES

Time for another pilot review. This time it’s about the awaited Dragon Ball Heroes. 

The episode starts with Son Goku and Vegeta training as always. When their training gets interrupted by Mai, who brings the news of Trunks is captured. Faster then someone says anime, Goku, and Vegeta fly away to save him.

Dragon Ball Heroes is a spin-off series that has arrived after the success of Dragon Ball Super. The reason for “spinoff” is because it’s not meant to be “canon” for the Dragon Ball lore. It exists to make a commercial for the card game by the same name (and that’s the problem).

Yes, a show that purely based on a product can have a good/decent story, but this episode sure had not. The pacing is pretty nonexistent. Why do I say this? Because the story goes faster than Barry Allen that has tapped into the speed force. Granted, I can understand the fast pace because of its runtime (9 minutes), but it is still a big problem.

What annoys me the most is that they seem to have an idea for a story arc (due to the episode ending with a cliffhanger and all), and not just make anthology stories that people expected at first. They could have done so much more with this pilot episode. I can even go so far as to say that the animation felt a bit lackluster. If they put the C or D team on this, it would not surprise me one bit.

The only thing that did not feel like a let down was the voice acting.

As of right now, if this continues with its nine-minute length, and speed force type of pacing, I won’t have any hope for this show. However, if this episode is an expectation with the rest getting a typical running time, this could have a chance to being something legit.

Yes, the idea of Dragon Ball Heroes is fanservice, but that doesn’t disqualify its chance of being something good.

Like I said in my review of Eden’s Zero‘s first chapter. Just because you have a slow start, does not mean that you can’t win (or at least end up with bronze). Even though I’m not a fan of the pilot, I’m going to keep an eye out and see if it get’s any better.

My final score is 3 out of 10 dragon balls.