Dragon Ball Heroes Big Bang Mission ep 3: is it worth watching?

Super Dragon Ball Heroes Big Bang Mission episode 3, the 2020 promotional anime episode that brought back Turles and Bojack, had a few moments I enjoyed. Overall, though, was I entertained? Not really. I'd forgotten this series existed until the episode turned up in my feed. That rarely happens to me with Dragon Ball, but nobody's perfect.

The episode is titled Reunion with Powerful Enemies Turles and Bojack. Dragon Ball Heroes was once again trying to bring back villains from the 13 old Dragon Ball Z movies for this storyline. My feelings about these promotional anime are no secret. I've talked about them in every review. Still, when they get something right, however small, they deserve credit for it.

The Turles and Bojack fight that opens the episode was fun

I liked the start of this episode. It made me laugh. Bojack and Turles are together, and Bojack recognizes Turles as a Saiyan. Turles replies, "So what if I'm a Saiyan?" Then Bojack jumps on him and they start fighting. Fu says that with guys like these, a fight is inevitable. It's as if he can't believe these super villains can't get along.

It was great because Turles is sitting there eating a fruit from the Tree of Might, and he's enjoying it. It's probably the original Tree of Might, not the new tree from Heroes. I think it was done as a tribute to the movie. It matters more as an Easter egg than as something with deeper meaning.

If you understand the power scale of the movies, Turles has no chance of beating Bojack. This is Dragon Ball Z movie 3 against Dragon Ball Z movie 9, two completely different levels. Then again, who knows how many fruits he ate to boost his power? Maybe he ate many more. I found it entertaining. Fu then fires a red beam to calm them down and tells them they should get along, since both of them were defeated by Goku and the others.

Fu's time travel explanation raises more questions

I found it strange that Bojack recognized Turles as a Saiyan but made no comment about why he looks like Goku. Fu explains that he pulled them from another timeline, using time travel to rescue them before they lost. Goku defeated Turles and Gohan defeated Bojack, but in this Heroes timeline they were never defeated. Fu saved them, and that's why they're here.

That makes it even less clear how Turles has a piece of the fruit. Maybe Fu pulled him out while he was eating it in the third movie. Or maybe Bojack's skills have declined, so he couldn't fight Turles properly.

I'm giving this more importance than it needs. I always say not to think too hard about Heroes, because it makes no sense, and here I am doing exactly that. I'm not defending bad storytelling. The story quality in the Heroes promo anime has been bad from the start. My point is that spending time and brainpower trying to understand something that can't be understood is wasted effort.

Turles meets Goku, and Nozawa's villain voice is back

Goku, Xeno Trunks and Vegeta are searching for an evil bird, and Tokitoki has told them it can be found at this location. So Bojack and Turles end up face to face with Goku, Vegeta and the whole group. Turles is still eating the fruit, and he recognizes Goku as Kakarot.

I loved Nozawa's voice here, which is a lot like the voice for Goku Black. Clearly, Goku Black's voice was modeled on Turles. Goku Black came many years after The Tree of Might was released in Japan. Hearing that classic villain voice again, with that "Yo, Kakarot," felt great.

They fought a little, but is there really much of a connection between them? Maybe they didn't want to show Gohan again. I would have liked to see an older Gohan fight Bojack. That would have been interesting.

Vegeta recognizing Bojack breaks any idea of canon

Bojack says, "I always wanted to meet you, Saiyan." That means when Fu pulled him out of the movie, it must have been before Vegeta and Bojack first met, before Vegeta arrives at the battle arena in movie 9 to save Trunks. So Fu probably pulled them out before the movie's events, though I doubt that makes sense for the other timelines.

Somehow this Vegeta, the Dragon Ball Heroes Vegeta who is supposed to come from Super and has no continuity with the Dragon Ball Super movies, recognizes Bojack. So please don't tell me movie 9 is canon and the rest aren't. This proves again there's no such thing as canon, because none of it makes sense. This Vegeta had never met Bojack before.

If they want to acknowledge the Dragon Ball Z movies, why doesn't Vegeta know the fusion pose in the Broly movie, when we saw him do the fusion pose in an earlier Heroes episode? It's meaningless. Don't even try. These things aren't very important, since this is a game promotion at heart.

What makes no sense at all is Bojack threatening to kill and bringing up Son Gohan. How would he know who Gohan is if he was pulled out before that happened? There's no explanation possible. They didn't bother with it. I know people will try to make sense of it, but you can't.

Turles barely reacts to Super Saiyan Blue

When Goku and Vegeta transform into their Blue forms, Turles comments on the transformation: interesting. Then he says he'll show them the incredible power of the Tree of Might fruit and how it makes him stronger. We've seen him eat it before, and he still couldn't beat Saiyan and Namek saga Goku, even though Goku was stronger in the movie than in the anime.

With Super Saiyan Blue, you'd expect him to ask whether this is the legendary Super Saiyan they've heard about. He has no proper reaction to Goku's transformation. If you're a Saiyan who has heard the legends of Super Saiyan or Super Saiyan God, and you see another Saiyan transform with that hair, why wouldn't you say, "Wait, what? You can do that?" There were many strange things in this episode.

I do like that he's highlighting the fruit's power again, even though in theory it shouldn't work against Goku and Vegeta, who are cosmically stronger than anything in Z. Turles and Bojack power up and a dark red energy appears around them. It reminds me of Cumber's power from the very first Heroes episode. My guess is that this is what they'll use to keep up with Goku and Vegeta somehow.

Vegeta's training comment and the divine tree fruit

Vegeta remarks that Bojack looks like he's been training. That makes no sense either. When did he have time to train if you pulled him straight out of movie 9? Dragon Ball Heroes always has logic gaps, but this episode felt like a domino effect. I was hoping they'd at least explain that Fu pulled them from the gates of hell or something. That would have made some sense. Maybe they could have shown a power up scene. I think the fruit was enough, but I don't know.

Turles calls the fruit the fruit of the divine tree. I'm not sure whether he means the Tree of Might or a tree Fu gave him. Maybe Fu gave them fruit from the new tree, and that's why he's so strong. If so, it makes sense. But then why doesn't Fu eat the fruit himself? If it gives that much of a boost, why isn't everyone eating it?

During the fight, the wide shot of Goku against Turles and Vegeta against Bojack looked artificial and bad. It wasn't as bad as Dragon Ball Super episode 5, but it looked like the animators were on vacation that day. Around then, Fu shows up with another fighter, who faces Trunks, ready for battle.

Xeno Goku and Xeno Vegeta's trench coats, and the Dr. W cliffhanger

The scene then shifts to Xeno Goku and Xeno Vegeta, wearing great trench coats. One thing I love about Heroes is that some of the character designs are amazing. I want to buy these trench coats, especially as worn by Goku and Vegeta. We saw winter outfits in the Broly movie, and I wanted to see these coats in the next Dragon Ball Super movie.

Xeno Goku and Xeno Vegeta are apparently in hell, summoned by a mysterious man in a lab coat with a high tech device over his eyes. He appeared in a Dragon Ball Heroes promo for the game a little while earlier, so he was definitely going to be a new character in the Heroes game, playable after the DLC release in Japan. His name is Dr. W, and that's about all we knew. He has a large claw-like thing on his hand, and that's the episode's cliffhanger.

My verdict on Big Bang Mission episode 3

They should have at least tried to make this Heroes story make sense, but they didn't, though that may never have been their aim. Was I entertained? Not really. I wasn't excited by the Dragon Ball Z villains returning, because none of it made sense. It was much like the Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans situation, which presented the villains much better for me. This episode was only nine or ten minutes long, and it still wasn't engaging. I didn't enjoy it.