Jun 18, 2022
Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Universe Mission!! is an adaptation of the story of a video game in the Japanese arcades and exist to promote the game. It tries to get you interested in playing the game with many fan service moments and what ifs fans were craving for for years or recently.
The anime adaptation of the game failed in delivering a good product but can the manga deliver a better product?
Story
Universe Mission is split into two story arcs Prison Planet and Universe Conflict.
Prison Planet arc is about Future Trunks being help captive in the Prison Planet. Goku, Vegeta and Mai went alongside a mysterious
...
character named Fu to safe him. There they encounter Goku Xeno which lead them fight and Fu being exposed as a bad guy.
They can't escape the planet without the Dragon Balls which are given to fighters acknowledged by Fu.
Universe Conflict arc focuses on Hearts who allied himself with strong fighters like Merged Zamas and Cumber invading various universes to complete the Universe Seed.
Art
Art may be off putting some fans as the artstyle is not as close to Toriyama's original artstyle as fans would like to. But in action scenes they look the closest to the Dragon Ball we like. Not the choreography mind you. The fights themselves are very impressive. Goku vs Goku Xeno is enjoyable to look at. And while we don't get a lot of complete fights, they show enough for us to be satisfied for the most part. The exception I can think from the top of my head is the fight between Metal Cooler vs Cumber.
Characters
Characters in Heroes are enjoyable as always. Goku, Goku Xeno, Vegeta and Vegeta Xeno are self explanatory. Oolong is also like he always is. There more interesting ones are the newly introduced ones.
Fu unlike his anime counterpart feels more like what he suppose to be: just a curious guy. He does his experiments based on that in mind. He admits when he miscalculated something and tries to fix it instead of being just happy go lucky fanfic writer.
I enjoyed Cooler the most in the Prison Planet art. He teamed up with Future Trunks to get the Dragon Balls and he values him as an ally. Like his movie counterpart he is willing to assist his allies to get the job done and we see that quiet often. That makes it all the more believable when Trunks helped him as well.
Majin Ootozo is also a crafty foe who avoids conflicts to get the Dragon Ball. It's enjoyable to see him calmly talk and take the chaos caused by Cumber to his advantage.
Cumber is one of the most bland characters and just Broli without a good personality. His title is the evil saiyan but we don't see him acting very evil. He challenges people to fights and beats them up for satisfaction. His power was well shown in the manga and made him fell like a real threat since he survived two Vegito encounters.
Merged Zamas appears here too and him teaming up with the God Hater Hearts gave us some really enjoyable interactions. In the anime he just spouts "Ningen" which made him annoying as hell. In the manga, he goes against Hearts wishes and appears to kill "accidentally" mortals. They make a great duo.
Hearts is probably the best character of Dragon Ball Heroes. He even made the anime enjoyable to watch when he roasted Cooler. In the manga, he is still a chill dude. His goal being to liberate the world from the gods. Specifically his goal is to kill Zeno who is a complete psychopath. He has the ability to read people's hearts which makes it interesting how he reacts to people's thoughts.
Enjoyment
The story is simple and well told, but that is not the main appeal of Heroes. The main appeal why many are watching it is the fan service and unlike the anime they are done well.
Super Saiyan 4 vs Super Saiyan Blue is one of the most debated things in the fanbase and the author of the manga does a good job in delivering a satisfying fight using Goku and Goku Xeno against each other.
It also knows its priorities for the most part as some fights gets more fleshed out than others but those which don't still leave a big impact. For example Super Saiyan Berserk Goku vs Golden Cooler is really short, but unlike in the anime is feels satisfying.
In almost all scenarios the manga always surpasses the anime. It even add a few fights we could have gotten that are much more interesting than what we got like Hit vs Merged Zamas.
Overall I can really recommend you reading the manga. It sadly falls off a bit in the second arc but the final fight is enjoyable. Also few things needed to be rushed, but some for the better, considering this is a promotional manga and the author is restricted by what was given to him.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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