Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero Hides Easter Eggs From Star Wars, Shin Godzilla and Decades of Dragon Ball

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is a "Love Fest not only to the history of Dragon Ball itself but to other superhero franchises films and pop culture as a whole." I have gathered 90 Easter eggs, fun facts and secrets from the film, running from start to finish, so the next time you see it you may appreciate it that much more.

Some of these are nods to the original manga, some are callbacks to classic Dragon Ball Z fights, and some borrow openly from Star Wars, the MCU and Shin Godzilla. Near the end I also have one scene I am not a big fan of, but it is still a cool scene nonetheless.

The opening honors the original manga and the Cha-La Head-Cha-La intro

The film opens with a flashback to the history of the Red Ribbon Army, and it is based on the manga. Goku's Nimbus cloud, the Kinto'un, is purple here. That is its color in the original colored pages of the manga. When the anime premiered the cloud was yellow, and because of that, later reprints of the manga, like the full color edition, changed it to yellow. The original color, though, was purple.

Then we get Red Pharmaceuticals, the company that served as a front for the Red Ribbon Army. The Red Ribbon Army coming back under a new name is nothing new. In Dragon Ball Online, the Dragon Ball MMORPG, there is the Red Pants Army, which is supposed to be a continuation of the Red Ribbon Army. You could say this was Toriyama's way of bringing that idea back for the new movie.

The third Easter egg comes when the characters talk about the Androids and we see an X ray shot of an Android's hand. This is a tribute to the Cha-La Head-Cha-La intro from Dragon Ball Z during the Android and Cell Saga, where a hand is X rayed and becomes an actual humanoid hand. I love that Easter egg.

Number four is the father son Kamehameha. In the full color version of the manga and in other depictions of that moment, Goku's hair is black, whereas in the anime Goku is a Super Saiyan. This film chose to go with the manga colors, one of many ways it pays tribute to the original source material. The CGI intro with the title card also literally guides you from West City to Magenta's Red Ribbon base, something I did not notice until my most recent time seeing the film.

Hachimaru's point of view borrows from The Terminator and one room from Star Wars

The next Easter egg is the top down shot seen from the point of view of Hachimaru, Dr. Hedo's bee robot that we find out about shortly afterward. This first person perspective is very similar to the classic Terminator films from James Cameron. Toriyama has borrowed a lot from those movies for the Dragon Ball anime and manga, including, of course, the Android and Cell Saga. Hachimaru then sees his own reflection, which confirms that it is indeed him.

One of my favorite Easter eggs is a scene that was obviously borrowed from Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Toriyama loved Star Wars, so it makes sense. Remember when Anakin turns to the dark side? This room is almost identical to the Emperor's room on Coruscant.

On the left of that same room you can see a Red Ribbon battle jacket, which is similar to the one Staff Officer Black used to fight Goku in the original Dragon Ball.

Who Gamma 1, Android 16 and Android 21 were modeled on

Did you notice that someone who looks like Trunks is doing a meet and greet with the unnamed superhero character that Gamma 1 was based on? In the world of this film there is an original retro hero that the Gammas were modeled after.

Gevo is Dr. Gero's son, the person Android 16 was modeled after. Toriyama revealed this in an interview years ago, but this is our first look at what he actually looked like. Vomi is obviously who Android 21 was based on. Android 21 made her first appearance as the main villain of Dragon Ball FighterZ, so now we know that she is based on Dr. Gero's dead wife.

The sequence where the cards are laid out looks just like the Dragon Ball Heroes arcade game. Many people have not played it, but trust me, it looks just like this. The early Android models shown here are also clearly patched up like Frankenstein's monster, which is what Android 8, also known as Hatchan or Eighter, was based on when Toriyama designed him in the 80s for Dragon Ball.

Magenta's desk photo hints that Violet could be his mother

In one shot we see Magenta, who is short like his dad. I think they both have Napoleon complexes. In one of the most interesting Easter eggs in the entire film, if you look at Magenta's desk, there is a picture of Commander Red and Violet side by side. Why are they next to each other? Could Violet actually be Magenta's mother? Red and violet combined make the color magenta, so that would say something rather cheeky about Commander Red.

We then see the heroes from earlier again. There is the Gamma 1 guy, and the one on the right kind of has a head like Cell. I wonder if that may have helped inspire the Cell in this film, or even the original Cell from DBZ. There are more battle jackets here too, and a guy who kind of reminds me of Judge Dredd, but that may be a coincidence.

Pan's teacher, whom we see later in the film, is driving the car ahead of Magenta. That was pretty cool foreshadowing that I did not pick up on until a recent rewatch.

Oreos, animation errors and War of the Worlds saucers

We all know Dr. Hedo loves Oreos, but in real life Oreos co-promoted this film in Japan, and they sold Oreos with Dragon Ball characters on them.

Look at the upper right portion of one scene: Gohan is supposed to be a full power Super Saiyan, but his hair is black. That is an animation error. Not to mention that Goku has a symbol on his gi, which by this point in the series he did not have.

We also get another angle of Trunks killing Frieza. We can presume this was captured by the original spy robots from Dragon Ball Z, and I guess he kept the clip all these years. It looks cool, anyway.

The alien craft in the scene where Magenta is lying to Dr. Hedo about Bulma really resemble the saucers from the classic War of the Worlds film. We know Toriyama loves classic films, so this makes perfect sense.

Pan, Videl and Gohan's home life are full of callbacks

This is the only time in the entire film we see Yamcha, Tien Shinhan, Chiaotzu and Roshi. Notice what is at the front of the car Carmine is driving: a Magenta bobblehead.

Super mineral water is real, and in Japan it helps with recovering from hangovers after drinking the previous day. I tried it myself when I went to Japan, and let me tell you, it is pretty unpleasant. The GTH on Pan's shirt could be a devilish joke, a curse sending someone to the underworld. Why? Because her grandpa is Mr. Satan and her mom is Videl, which is a pun on the word devil. That makes the most sense, plus there is a devil on the actual shirt.

Pan learning how to control her ki and fly is exactly how her mom learned to fly from Gohan in Dragon Ball Z, when their love was just beginning to blossom. Of course, in the Dragon Ball Super anime baby Pan knew how to fly, so either they forgot about that detail, or perhaps baby Pan did it instinctively and now that she is older she may have forgotten how. Videl being a martial arts teacher is a pretty cool idea and goes back to Dragon Ball Z, where we see her training, because she is a legitimate martial artist. Her stuffed animals are a great Easter egg because they are inspired by other Toriyama manga that are not Dragon Ball, such as Neko Majin Z, which is sort of a Dragon Ball type of thing.

Besides Gohan using Microsoft Word on his laptop, the pictures on his desk are from his wedding to Videl, and on the left is a picture of him as a kid with Goku holding him, from Dragon Ball Z episode 2. That is "one of the most wholesome Easter eggs of this entire movie." Gohan also studies bugs, as he did in DBZ movie 1, Dead Zone. Dragon Ball is based on Journey to the West, Buddha found enlightenment through his study of insects, and Buddha was the main god in Journey to the West. The ants being referred to as Super Saiyans and turning gold is a reference to Darwin's theory that animals evolve when threatened, sort of like they do in this very series many times.

Gamma 2 blends Ultraman and Kamen Rider while the Red Ribbon base borrows from Wakanda

Our first look at Gamma 2 tells us a lot. This character is a combination of Ultraman and Kamen Rider, two very popular shows that were around when Toriyama was much younger. These tokusatsu shows had a massive influence on Toriyama, and both Gammas borrow a lot from those characters. The English letters in the background are made to resemble comic book font and classic Dragon Ball, and Piccolo breaks the fourth wall and can see them. More on that below.

Toriyama based the shark gun on classic World War II era airplanes. The entire Red Ribbon Army is based on World War II armies such as the Soviets and the Nazis, and Gamma 2 is wearing clothing that resembles the Nazis. The upside down L on the Gamma's belt means gamma in Greek. We also get another Red Ribbon Army battle jacket, the same one Black used against Goku in Dragon Ball. It does not just resemble it; this appears to be the exact same model.

Piccolo beats up a Red Ribbon soldier and sneaks into the base, like we see all the time in Star Wars. The Easter egg is that the guy he knocked out looks a lot like Wild Tiger, the fighter Pan beat up in the tournament at the end of Z, in the last three episodes.

Super Hero borrows a lot from the MCU and other superhero films, but I can hardly believe how blatantly the Red Ribbon Army base borrows from Wakanda. Wakanda is surrounded by a force field that camouflages it from the outside world, exactly how this base is designed. It is blatant and obvious, and it would not be the last time this film borrows ideas from Infinity War.

Vegeta's pink shirt, Buu's blue tongue and Gamma's hologram honor the details

When we see Vegeta on the screen in the Red Ribbon base, he is wearing the pink shirt he wore very early in the Android Saga, when Trunks showed up. Also take a good look at Majin Buu's tongue: it is blue, as in the colored version of the original manga. In the anime it was red. As I said above, this film honors the manga in many ways.

Gamma also has a hologram projecting from behind his back that shows the English words we saw when he fought Piccolo. This is a brilliant way to make something that would not make much sense make scientific sense, and it is awesome. "I did not even notice this until like the fourth time I saw the movie."

The round chamber containing Cell Max looks remarkably like a variety of things: Majin Buu's containment unit, a Saiyan space pod, the Death Star and, yes, a giant Poke Ball. Remember when Majin Vegeta put Goku against the rock? In this film's fight between Goku and Vegeta, it is Vegeta who has his back against the wall. Beerus loves ice cream, but not just vanilla ice cream: he loves Vanilla Super. What does that taste like?

When Piccolo goes to Korin Tower, we see at the top Goku's Nyoibo, the Power Pole, which connects Korin Tower to the heavenly realm. Yajirobe is wearing the exact same clothes he wears in the future timeline; to my recollection we do not see him wear these in the regular timeline, which I find interesting. The blue dragon was pulled from a Toriyama cover art piece for the Dragon Ball manga from many years ago. There is also an awesome YouTube reference, where the watch collection has 70k but the Gohan and Piccolo clips have the fewest views, and there is writing on the right side of that page I would love help making out.

Batman, Thor and Superman shape Gohan's big moments

Is it just me, or does one Red Ribbon guy look an awful lot like John Cena? Maybe it is just me. The Red Ribbon Army symbol projecting into the sky is literally copying the bat signal. Gohan's epic entrance is reminiscent of Thor in Infinity War, and I love it.

During the fight with the Gammas, Gamma 1 busts out a fire kick that looks a lot like Fei Long's kick from Street Fighter, with a little bit of Pikkon's technique. However, this is the inazuma kick we see in so many anime, including Gogeta Blue doing it in Dragon Ball Super: Broly. It is a signature anime jump kick, and it is awesome.

When Gohan turns Super Saiyan and tosses his glasses away, that is literally inspired by Clark Kent throwing his glasses away to become Superman. When Gohan transforms into Ultimate Gohan, he completely clears the cloudy, thundering skies, exactly like he did in Dragon Ball Super when he sparred with Goku. It is one of the greatest scenes in the movie.

Wrestling moves, Spider-Man 2 and Orange Piccolo's Namekian roots

There are a lot of wrestling moves in this film. The first is Gohan delivering a legitimate DDT, the way Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Raven and Jon Moxley do it. I thought that was awesome. The shot's positioning is exactly how Gohan looked at the end of the film when he used the same technique, which I did not pick up on until multiple rewatches. Then Gamma busts out a dropkick, and later we get yet another wrestling move, the giant swing.

The scene with Gamma 2 and Piccolo on the train really reminds me of the Spider-Man 2 battle between Peter Parker and Dr. Otto Octavius, and I thought that was a great tribute.

When Piccolo becomes Orange Piccolo, you see the tree of Planet Namek on his back, representing his Namekian roots as he taps into that power. This was revealed in the novelization. Bullets flying off Orange Piccolo is borrowed from Superman, who did it for the first time many decades ago. There is also a green crate behind Dr. Hedo that looks like it says Cuba. Did Fidel Castro help fund Cell Max?

When Magenta reveals his body, I cannot help but think it reminds me a lot of cyborg Tao Pai Pai from the end of the original Dragon Ball series, with similar technology and similar ideologies behind Tao and Magenta.

Cell Max revives Toriyama's favorite version of Cell and echoes Bio Broly

Remember when Gohan is trying to find his glasses and Piccolo realizes his eyesight improves when he transforms? That is great foreshadowing for the end of the fight, when Gohan Beast directly hits Cell Max in the forehead from a far away distance. His eyesight did not just improve; it improved dramatically when he became the Beast.

Cell Max's design is obviously meant to resemble second form Cell, Toriyama's favorite version. When he was writing the original manga, his editor Torishima told him it looked ugly, and that is how we got Perfect Cell. In 2022, Toriyama showed some love to his favorite version of Cell with Cell Max. Easter egg number 65 is one everyone remembers: Gohan has trouble catching the senzu, just as in DBZ he could not catch the Potara Goku threw at him.

This film also borrows a lot from Bio Broly. We have Goten, Trunks, Android 18 and Krillin in major fighting roles, just as in Dragon Ball Z movie 11, the third Broly movie. On top of that, Cell Max and Bio Broly are both knockoffs of other characters, the original Cell and the original Broly. There is no way this was just a coincidence.

One of my favorite Easter eggs is Cell Max's photon attack, which is directly lifted from Shin Godzilla, the live action film by Hideaki Anno, where Godzilla fires photon blasts from his dorsal fins. They are the exact same color and look exactly like the ones Cell Max uses.

Gotenks, Krillin and Piccolo replay classic Dragon Ball Z fights

We see the failed fusion where Goten and Trunks form fat Gotenks, the first time we have ever seen a teen fat Gotenks, obviously a throwback to their early failed fusions in Dragon Ball Z. When Gotenks is tossed around like a volleyball to attack Cell, that is a throwback to how Gotenks did the same thing to Majin Buu. Now he knows what it feels like to be bounced around. Gotenks also delivers an insulting taunt to Cell Max, exactly like the one Trunks gave Bio Broly in that movie.

Krillin's Kienzan disc bounces off Cell Max, exactly what happens in Dragon Ball Z when Perfect Cell is formed. Krillin then busts out the Taiyoken, the Solar Flare, which he also used in Dragon Ball Z against first form Cell to escape him.

The shot of Gamma 2's sacrifice is one of the most amazing scenes in the film and is directly inspired by Ultraman: the way he flies and the way he can go into space make it a great tribute to that classic show. Piccolo turning giant in the flashback to Dragon Ball is identical to how he looked in the original manga, another tribute to the source. When Orange Piccolo slams Cell Max's tail, that is a tail slam used by Sun Wukong in some Journey to the West films.

Piccolo's pep talk to Gohan about his incredible potential mirrors what Goku told Gohan during the Kamehameha beam struggle with Super Perfect Cell at the Cell Games, and Piccolo himself gives Gohan a very similar speech at the start of his training in early Dragon Ball Z. The Piccolo vs Cell Max kaiju battle is awesome, especially the double punch, the exact same style Blue Goku and Golden Frieza used in the Tournament of Power recruitment episodes of Dragon Ball Super. Naotoshi Shida, the very well respected and beloved animator, is responsible for both sequences. There are also plenty of homages to the Raditz fight: Cell blasts off one of Piccolo's arms cleanly and cauterizes the wound, and holding up a beaten enemy by the arm is something Goku has done to Nappa and Burter, and now Cell Max has done it to Piccolo.

Gohan Beast's transformation is a near shot for shot redo of Super Saiyan 2

The sequence where Gohan turns into Gohan Beast is the most obvious Easter egg of them all. It is an almost shot by shot redo of Gohan turning Super Saiyan 2 for the first time in Dragon Ball Z episode 184.

When Cell Max attacks, Gohan Beast no sells the body punch, very reminiscent of Dragon Ball Z movie 5, the first Cooler movie, when Cooler punched Goku in the gut and he did not react at all. Both characters were in their strongest forms, just like Cell Max and Gohan here. Gohan's kick to Cell Max is a tribute to the way he kicked Cell at the Cell Games when Cell turned giant, the stomach kick that made Cell spit up Android 18 and revert to his second form.

Cell Max's giant blast looks a lot like Frieza's giant blast when he fought Super Saiyan Goku on Namek. It has to be the biggest ball in the history of Dragon Ball; I cannot think of one that was ever this big. It looks like a combination of the planet destroyer Frieza used with the Revenge Death Ball, and when it concentrates it resembles a dark Spirit Bomb, a Genki Dama. I love the colors here.

Piccolo holding Cell with both arms for Gohan to finish him is taken from how Goku and Piccolo killed Raditz at the start of Dragon Ball Z, except the roles are reversed: Piccolo holds the enemy while Gohan charges the blast. Gohan's blast then fires off the Earth exactly like the Kamehameha he used to kill the original Cell, and the same happened when Vegeta used the Final Flash. I would call all of these super dramatic finishes.

Cell Max's explosion is the one scene I am not a fan of

When Cell Max gets bloated and gigantic and is about to blow up, it is obviously a tribute to how Cell got huge and was about to explode in Dragon Ball Z. But I have one question that does not make much sense to me. In Dragon Ball Z, Cell explains that when he explodes, the Earth would go with him.

Here we have a far more powerful Cell, and the Earth does not even blow up with him. Based on power scaling, you would think that if Cell Max exploded he might take out the universe, or at least a galaxy. Yet the Earth still lives. I am not a big fan of this, because Cell Max blowing up the way the original Cell did should have obliterated the universe, but it is still a cool scene nonetheless.

An Infinity War dusting, a Gotenks tease and Vegeta's final win

Then we get another blatant Infinity War borrowing: Gamma 2 getting dusted exactly like what happened at the end of Infinity War when Thanos snaps the Infinity Gauntlet after getting all the stones.

Goten and Trunks do the fusion pose one more time and get it right, but we are robbed of seeing a true adult Gotenks. Fans have wanted to see what that would look like for decades, and we were denied it. Toriyama and Toei are a bunch of trolls for teasing us like this. During the credits, what I found pretty cool is that they show storyboards and unfinished art on the left, so you can see the process of how these scenes were made.

The final Easter egg, number 90, is Vegeta saying he finally beat Kakarot, which he says in many video games when he defeats him. This somewhat contradicts the end of Dragon Ball in the Kanzenban ending, when he says he will someday defeat Goku. But remember, this fight was a sparring match with no blasts and no transformations, and Vegeta did get the win.

Should Cell Max's explosion have taken the Earth, or even the universe, with it, or does the film get a pass?