@TravMoody
DRAGON BALL SUPER: BROLY (Hall H – Thursday) – Bro. It’s a Dragon Ball panel in Hall motherfucking H. It’s a strange year for Comic-Con, sure, yeah, but longtime fans of the legendary anime and even recent Dragon Ball Super bandwagon n00bz (see: yours truly) just have to be thrilled with all the SDCC love that Goku and company are getting.
On top of a neat offsite “North American Tour” exhibit in the neighboring Marriott Marquis, Dragon Ball is currently gearing us Saiyan Juniors up for the 20th Dragon Ball flick — the first ever DBS film — showcasing Broly. If you’ve been playing and keeping up with the Dragon Ball FighterZ video game (coming soon to Nintendo Switch!), you’ll know that Broly is one of the fighter’s chief DLC characters. Now we know why. While the series creator Akira Toriyama wasn’t in-house, Dragon Ball reps brought word from Japan that this is the DB movie he’s most been involved with, taking the Broly character from the older anime films and updating aspects of his character.. even so far as promising to make him the “most anticipated villain in the world”. Toriyama promises DBS: Broly to be a large scale triangle epic, with plenty of Goku & Vegeta, focusing on the Super Saiyans’ secret past.
Of course, the two fan favs will also be the film’s centerpieces. They were in this panel, anyway. Fans in Hall H were joined by the English dub voices of Vegeta, Christopher Sabat, and Goku, Sean Schemmel. Really, the charismatic, ultra projected voice of Sabat should have just moderated/hosted the panel. The guy they had was nervous and immediately admitted he wasn’t a pro “at this”. One of the coolest reveals in the panel was of Vegeta’s character evolution, including his first ever animated appearance donning the red locks. Sabat even reflected, ever so humorously, on the cult status of voice acting such mega characters, icons that drive longer lines at Cons than many celebs. “[Britney Spears] wont leave us alone”, Sabat quipped.
Of course, I can’t leave the report without mention of the appearance of a pair of WWE Superstars. Just like the current storylines on RAW, Zack Ryder (who hardly got even a “woo woo woo” from the crowd”) felt out of place, having claimed he liked Broly for looking “all Zack’d up”; cool, but it’s like, why are you here? Thankfully, The New Day’s Kofi Kingston, who admitted he wasn’t even halfway through DBS (thanks, Vince!), did recall the WrestleMania moment (one in which Jenn was actually in attendance!) when TND wore Saiyan armor and Kofi had his hair out like Captain Ginyu. I felt some real weeb passion melting through Kingston’s veins, though, when speaking on how much impact the anime’s themes and guidelines had on the pro wrestler. “Goku embodies everything that we strive to be”. Yup, just another victim to Broly’s struggle. 3.25/5 Bibles.
-Travis Moody