Dragon Ball Heroes Big Bang Mission ep 12: Goku Black returns

Dragon Ball Heroes Big Bang Mission episode 12 opened a new arc, or a sub arc if you prefer, and ended on a masked Goku Black. My verdict: the episode was okay. They got some things right, and I like what they're building toward. I just want them to wrap the storyline up well.

The timing felt like a transition to a new era. Around a year before this episode, Big Bang Mission began and the original Dragon Ball Heroes anime ended.

The slow build-up and a new Golden Cooler

First of all, I like the slow burn. I also like the creativity here, and not only with the characters who were shoehorned in. Frieza and Cooler both appear. Golden Frieza returns, and we also get a new Golden Cooler.

This isn't the golden Metal Cooler from before. Cooler wasn't in his metal form, and the golden form he took on had a different design. It was weird, but the fight between them was interesting.

Hearing Ryusei Nakao voice Frieza, and Cooler, again is always a treat. I'm happy he's still around.

Goku is trapped in the universe Fu created

At the end of the previous Big Bang Mission episode, Fu was able to create a new universe. Goku is now trapped inside it. Trunks, who is in the Time Nest with Pan, works out that this new universe is linked to Universe 7. Apparently Pan is taking care of Goten and Gohan.

The link is revealed when one of Frieza's ships shows up and starts blasting a city. One of the buildings is destroyed, and that destruction is mirrored in Universe 7. That's very dangerous, because it implies that if Fu's universe is destroyed, Universe 7 will be destroyed too. Of course, I expected they would find a way out of that.

Because Fu created this universe, anything can happen. That probably means the old villains will all come back at some point, like they always do in this franchise.

Hearts, still dead, becomes Goku's ally against Fu

Goku is then saved by, of all people, Hearts, who looks different. Hearts is dead, too. He has a halo on his head. He wants to work with Goku to defeat Fu because of what Fu has done, and to figure out how to fix this mess.

Hearts was the villain, really the main villain when you think about it, of the previous Dragon Ball Heroes arc, the one with Zamasu. Now he's an ally to Goku. He's probably not a friend, but he's an ally.

There's a short fight between Goku and Frieza, but there isn't much to it.

The arc poster pointed to Cell and Norio Wakamoto

The poster for this arc showed that Cell would be back at some point, and that's great. I'm not for Cell coming back in Dragon Ball Super, because I think too many characters from the past have come back already. I know some fans want that. I'm not for it.

But Norio Wakamoto is a tremendous voice actor, and I love him as Cell, especially when Gohan is pounding him and he's screaming because he can't handle it. Having him come back to voice Cell again is very cool. He also voiced M. Bison, though I forget whether that was in the anime or the games.

The Dark Dragon Balls power up Frieza and Cooler

The big shocker comes mid fight, when two Dragon Balls end up in the stomachs of Frieza and Cooler. These are the Dark Dragon Balls. Don't confuse them with the Black Star Dragon Balls. They aren't the same as the regular Dragon Balls either.

They make Golden Frieza and the new Golden Cooler angrier, more powerful and more vengeful. It's like a Majin upgrade, but with more power.

The masked figure is Goku Black, not Fu

At the end of the episode, a figure appears on a mountaintop. I thought it was Fu. It wasn't. It was Goku Black wearing a mask.

Dark Dragon Balls and Masked Saiyans have been part of the Dragon Ball Heroes video games for a long time. They're a separate concept for Heroes, totally different from anything in Dragon Ball Z, Super or GT.

This Goku Black may have some kind of tie to the Zamasu from the previous Heroes arc, but he isn't the same as Zamasu. He's a different Goku Black. He isn't wearing a Potara, just the mask. Some people think it's Bardock, but I'm pretty sure it's not.

Nozawa voices this Goku Black, which is great. She was great as Goku Black before, and having her back in a classic role is awesome. It looked like Goku Black would be a threat in the next episode, and possibly for a big chunk of the arc.

Dragon Ball Heroes keeps dropping storylines

I wonder what's going on with the Gods of Destruction. They were supposed to stop this from happening. I guess they didn't, because Fu succeeded. I hope we get an update, because that's an ongoing storyline, though they might drop it. The Heroes anime loves to drop storylines, and I hope it doesn't here.

Where is Vegeta? Where are the Xeno versions of Goku and Vegeta? There's a lot this episode doesn't clarify. We still have unanswered questions from the first five or six episodes of the first arc. What happened to Cumber? I didn't see anything with him. The manga elaborates a bit, but the anime doesn't.

So don't expect this to make sense, because Heroes never does. I was confident the version of this storyline in the Japanese Heroes arcade game would be much better.

The story needs room to land

I want them to continue this storyline well, end it well and see something come of it. Remember, we still have Demigra. Demigra is the one who let Hearts out of hell, so there's obviously a civil war going on among the demons, and that needs to be explained. Plus there are the Gods of Destruction.

There's a lot going on in Heroes. If this were a full-length 30-minute anime, it would most likely be much better, and it would give them room to tell a better story.