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Is the New Dragon Ball Super Movie “Super Hero” Canon? What We Know About It So Far

Anime fans around the world (and in all 12 universes) are hyped up for the upcoming Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie. But what should we expect from it? Is it even going to be canon to the main Dragon Ball Timeline?

You’ll probably be glad to hear the Yes, it is going to be canon.

Most of the Dragon Ball movies to date are considered non-canon, meaning they didn’t really happen in the main continuity. Therefore, any consequences or changes made in these movies do not apply to the series.

The only exceptions so far are the movies in Super because they’re written by Akira Toriyama himself. These movies are as follows:

  • Dragon Ball Super: Battle of Gods
  • Dragon Ball Super: Resurrection F
  • Dragon Ball Super: Broly

Although there is another movie that is heavily debated on its canonicity: Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone. The reason for this is because the main villain in the movie, Garlic Jr., appears in the main series (He even gets his own short arc). This at the very least means that events similar to the movie happened if not the movie itself happening. What do you think? Leave a comment and I’d love to hear from you!

As for Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, the movie will not only be written by Akira Toriyama, but he will also draw the new character designs which pretty much ensures its place in Dragon Ball canon.

Akira Toriyama’s statement about his involvement in the Super Hero Movie

When Does Super Hero Take Place?

It is simply stated that the Super Hero movie takes place between the ending of the Broly movie and the end of Dragon Ball Z (Where Goku faces Uub). However, we can actually get a more specific timeframe for it based on clues in the trailer.

The Official Trailer for Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

Due to Pan’s age in the movie, we can assume it happens after the Granolah the Survivor Saga (this arc currently has no anime adaptation and is exclusive to the manga). So aside from the event at the end of Z, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero will be the most modern event in the Dragon Ball universe.

If you haven’t read the manga and are worried about spoilers, don’t be. It’s very unlikely that Akira Toriyama will include anything in Super Hero that will spoil the events in the unadapted manga arcs. We’re likely to see the manga arcs in the second season of Dragon Ball Super. Speaking of which, there isn’t much news about a second season yet sadly.

Plot

Remember the Red Ribbon Army? Evil Paramilitary organization hell-bent on world domination, destruction, or extinction? Well, they’re back and with a vengeance. They’ve created new Android models named Gamma 1 and Gamma 2.

Their current goal? Well, we’re not exactly sure just yet but you can bet it has something to do with Goku and the Z fighters who have thwarted the Red Ribbon Army’s goals time and time again.

Piccolo catches wind of the organization’s actions and decides to investigate. Gohan’s daughter Pan gets kidnapped by them, forcing the half-Saiyan to join the fight.

It’s all still pretty vague but that’s the general synopsis that we know of as of now. Judging from the trailer, we’re also going to see a bunch of the other Z fighters like Goku and Vegeta. We even get a slight glimpse of Goku fighting (training?) the now reformed Broly on what looks like Beerus’ world.

There are sure to be tons of other twists and turns that we’ll get to see in the theaters (unless there are any more reveals or leaks leading up to the movie).

Release Dates

Production of the film has actually already been going on since the Broly movie was made. As some of you may already know, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero was initially set to release on April 22, 2022, but Toei Animation got hacked, setting back production.

The current release date stated by Toei Animation is June 11, 2022 (Saturday) for the Japan release. This release date has also been Tweeted by the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero Twitter account.

Crunchyroll on the other hand has placed the international release to be sometime in the Summer of 2022.

Written by Adrian Pilanga

A lover of all thing nerdy, well, ALMOST all things (I'm looking at you every bad movie adaptation of video games ever). There's nothing better than talking about the things you're a huge fan of, so here I am.

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