Massive Dragon Ball Super Interview Officially Translated Into English

In Japan, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero‘s Blu-ray Edition came with a 62-page booklet including a staff interview with the movie’s Director, CG Director, and Executive Producer of the Dragon Ball franchise, several character design pages, a section on the film’s background art & prop design, and a collection of visuals from the movie.

GameRant’s official Japanese to English translator has combed through the staff interview with Tetsuro Kodama, Jaehoon Jung, and Akio Iyoku and translated their complete conversation with Toei Animation Producer Norihiro Hayashida into English. Learn more about Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero‘s production design, why the Dragon Ball team swapped to CG animation, and the Easter eggs the Super Hero staff peppered throughout the movie.

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Q1. Looking back, what was the production process for the flashback sequences we see at the beginning and throughout the film?

Kodama: The aim was to create a style that was somewhat different from the main story or past works. I consulted with the animation director, Mr. Kubota, who was in charge of the scene’s direction, and we worked it out in detail.

Iyoku: Although we said it should be “different than the main story,” it couldn’t be too different, but it couldn’t just use old footage either. Balancing that was difficult. Since this was a part that Toriyama himself specifically prepared as an introduction to the main story, we were also careful not to “overdo it.”

Q2. The panoramic view of the area around Red Pharmaceuticals as seen from Hachimaru’s POV was pretty vast, wasn’t it?

Jung: The director drew a rough design of the background, and I basically recreated that. In actuality, it’s even wider than what you can see in the movie, but if you try to make everything CG, it costs a ton of money, so we adjusted the range to make it look good within the budget.

Q3. The heroes at the autograph session that Dr. Hedo is lined up for seem to have become a topic of conversation among fans.

Kodama: The setting was basically, a hero series that Dr. Hedo is a massive fan of was being exhibited at Comic-Con. The live-action stars are there, and Dr. Hedo is waiting in line to get their autographs.

Iyoku: There is a line of dialogue saying Dr. Hedo loves heroes, but we couldn’t script a scene to delve deeper than that. I think these interludes help subtly flesh out the characters, though.

Kodama: The heroes shown aren’t the Gamma units themselves, but you can see that Dr. Hedo was heavily influenced by them.

Q4. There was a lot of trial and error that went into the conversation between Magenta and Dr. Hedo in the car, wasn’t there?

Iyoku: It’s a scene where Magenta, Dr. Hedo, and Carmine talk to let the audience get to know their characters better. It was absolutely necessary, but for a conversation, it was quite long. That’s why we had them eat biscuits and kept them in constant motion so the audience wouldn’t get bored. The production team’s effort really made me think, “The visuals here are amazing.”

Q5. The genealogy connecting Dr. Gero to Dr. Hedo hadn’t been clearly explained until now.

Iyoku: There was a request to show a family tree, so I consulted with Toriyama. In the games, Android 21 was based on Gero’s wife, and Android 16 already has a backstory, too. We added them to the tree as “Vomi” and “Gebo,” but making Gebo the father of Dr. Hedo didn’t quite line up, so we made a few adjustments.

Q6. Many people have asked about the powder Magenta puts in his cup—what is it?

Jung: He’s putting cinnamon in his coffee, right?

Kodama: Yeah, that’s cinnamon. There was a TV show that once said “cinnamon is effective for hair growth,” and Magenta is interested in that. He puts in so much that he ends up going “Blegh!”

Iyoku: For a split second, you can see Carmine laughing at him (laughs).

Q7. You put a photo of “Colonel Violet” on Magenta’s desk.

Kodama: Yep. I wanted to decorate the CEO’s office with a bunch of photos.

Iyoku: You can’t see them all, but there are also photos of past Red Ribbon Army officers.

Kodama: Magenta is someone who longs for the heroes of the past, or maybe he’s like someone who decorates their space with photos of athletes.

Q8. “Prison 8,” where Dr. Hedo was held, ended up with a very playful design.

Jung: We didn’t want to make it like just another prison, so we added a theme-park feel. Though it got cut off, there’s even a ticket vending machine.

Kodama: It had a different design at first, but it went through a ton of changes over time.

Jung: The entrance was all thanks to the Director’s playful touch, too. You think a giant door is going to open, but then a tiny window at the bottom opens, and Hedo pops out (laughs).

Q9. Putting the RR mark at the entrance of the new Red Ribbon Army secret base was a funny idea.

Iyoku: Originally, there was an illustration of the base entrance drawn by Toriyama. Since it’s the main stage for a large part of the film, we asked the production team, including the Director, to think seriously about the details. During those discussions, we thought, “They’re trying to hide, but they’re failing at it.” They just can’t help but announce “We’re the Red Ribbon Army!” (laughs)

Q10. The design of the plastic bottle Pan holds was quite a struggle, wasn’t it?

Iyoku: That’s right, the plastic bottle!

Kodama: The bottle design was tough. We went through drafts A, B, C, D… all the way to F. Surprisingly, there are tons of scenes where characters are seen holding plastic bottles, so they couldn’t look too shoddy, but they couldn’t look too flashy either. Striking that balance was harder than you’d think.

Q11. Peneko’s smartphone ringtone was excellent.

Kodama: The ringtone was added by Mr. Nishimura, who is in charge of sound effects.

Iyoku: If anything, Peneko is more of a Penguin-Cat than a normal penguin, so I think a simple “Meow” was perfect. The design of the smartphone case was tough, though. We redid it so many times.

Jung: The scene was a bit vague at first, so I wondered what to do…

Kodama: We discussed it and revised it over and over.

Iyoku: It’s not just “cute,” but “creepy-cute.” The way the belly protrudes…getting that balance right when translating it into a smartphone case design was difficult.

Q12. Piccolo has a very unique way of holding his smartphone.

Kodama: That’s because we wanted to show Piccolo’s unfamiliarity with technology. Also, in the early stages, his nails were long, so we settled on that grip, but it’s actually very hard to model. If your wrist isn’t flexible, you can’t hold it like that.

Q13. Piccolo scratching the window to get Gohan’s attention really highlights their relationship, didn’t it?

Kodama: To be honest, I was really just messing around when I came up with that (laughs). We thought about what a Piccolo-style signal would be, and ended up with that “screeeech” sound.

Iyoku: True. Piccolo and Gohan wouldn’t just press the intercom button at the front door, that’s not the kind of relationship they have (laughs).

Q14. Tell us about the gimmick-filled Red Ribbon Army base.

Kodama: From the start of production, we talked about a base that felt like “an overturned toy box.” We thought it would be fun to have rails and attraction-like elements. We added waterfalls, festivals, all sorts of things.

Iyoku: Since the base is where the battle is set, we thought it would be good to have plenty of gimmicks ready. Among those ideas was one where they would fight on a battleship.

Jung: The Director was saying “Battleship~” until the very end (laughs).

Iyoku: I wanted to see giant characters like Cell Max fighting while holding a battleship, but it didn’t happen.

Kodama: Actually, you can catch a glimpse of a remnant of that idea. There was a very exciting moment in which Dr. Hedo would board a battleship and lead the RR Army…

Q15. You even built in very minor details, like Kame House…!

Kodama: Actually, when the model for Kame House was finished, I was convinced. “This movie is going to work,” I thought. Though, it only appears in the film for about 1.5 cuts (laughs).

Q16. The improved martial arts choreography is also a highlight of this film.

Kodama: This was also a concept we had from the beginning. We wanted to move away from just repeating left and right punches. Since it’s CG, there are no limits on the number of frames, so we could pursue more realism, things like putting your weight into it, punching properly, and kicking properly. That was our main focus this time around.

Iyoku: It’s all about expressing everything with the whole body.

Kodama: But animators haven’t exactly gone around punching people (laughs). So, the challenge was how to create that sense of impact and intensity without lived experience.

Jung: We added things like perspective shifts and took a few visual liberties. We looked at the fine movements frame by frame and adjusted the parts where the CG looked off.

Kodama: We wanted every single frame to be picture-perfect.

Jung: The Director checked every frame and pointed things out with a very critical eye, like “This specific thing is weird.”

Kodama: I’m sure everyone thought, “You’re looking that closely?” (laughs).

Jung: Honestly, you were super nitpicky.

Iyoku: I think a big reason for the quality of this particular work is that we obsessed over it to that extent.

Q17. We can’t forget to talk about the battle scene in the rain!

Kodama: This is a symbolic scene in the movie, so we put a lot of effort into it. We made the weather progressively worse leading up to this. When Gohan turns Ultimate, the ceiling cover of the base breaks, and the sky clears.

Jung: It turned out well in the end, but with the number of cuts in the rain scene, this part was truly difficult. Since the rain impacts the characters, we made sure the water splashes and individual droplets were visible. We matched the splashes to the character’s movements. However, if it’s too realistic, it becomes too much. Figuring out how to distill that into animation was tough.

Iyoku: True. If you overdo the splashes, it becomes distracting. You have to do it just enough so it blends in.

Kodama: It’s hard because you just can’t overdo it.

Jung: At first, the Director told me to make it a “downpour,” so I did… but the screen just turned completely white (laughs).

Iyoku: If you make it too realistic, yeah, that happens.

Kodama: You have to pick your battles. At first, I thought, “If it’s raining, the characters should get wet and have spots on their clothes,” and we made those, but if you do that, it quickly becomes overwhelming. So we removed that effect. There are splashes, but no wet spots.

Iyoku: When pursuing realism, you can choose to focus on many different things. You shouldn’t overdo it, yet you shouldn’t underdo it either. So, while we could add in some more detailed movements and more facial expressions than usual, we had to constantly seek that balance.

Q18. I’d also like to hear about Cell Max.

Iyoku: The Cell Max we created this time is an “incomplete product” activated in an unfinished state. That means he doesn’t have the consciousness of the previous Cell. He’s a monster where you don’t know if he has intelligence or just instinct. I think that made it really hard for the voice actor.

Kodama: I hope people will notice Cell’s paint job. As he activates, ink flows in, and the colors fill him up.

Iyoku: The rays emitted from his whole body are also impressive. Beams are usually very linear, but these don’t just diffuse. The movement changes in sync with Cell Max shaking his body. The sound is good, too.

Kodama: It’s a nice sound! We clarified the colors of the rays and ki blasts for each character to bring out their individuality.

Iyoku: Cell Max’s movements were tricky, too. His body’s shape and balance are different from those of a human. It was hard to know exactly which parts to move and how…

Kodama: He’s agile despite his size. The soles of his shoes are even detailed in the settings, which I thought was great. There were also some unpredictable movements, like “Why is he flapping his wings here!?”

Q19. The production team really went all out with Gohan’s Special Beam Cannon, didn’t they?

Kodama: This film was produced in sequential order, like a live-action movie. We started from the beginning of the story, and this scene was the peak.

Iyoku: That’s why when you watch the whole film, the intensity of the battle in the second half is on a different level.

Jung: Gohan firing the Special Beam Cannon…we consulted with the director on whether to make his expression closer to Piccolo’s version. We paid close attention to every detail, from the color scheme and shape to the scale when compared to the massive size of Cell Max.

Iyoku: Definitely. Everyone gets chills when the camera zooms in tight on Gohan as he performs that legendary attack. That specific timing is the best. And the expression in his eyes when he awakens, too.

Kodama: It’s so good, right?

Q20. Gamma 2’s death became a very memorable scene.

Iyoku: Regarding the illustration of Cell Max and Gamma 2 used for the second wave of theater gifts…we didn’t actually ask for that. Toriyama drew it of his own accord. That felt so deep and heavy…I felt like it had been decided from the start that #2 would, in a sense, die.

Jung: In terms of how it was shown, he didn’t just turn to ash and vanish; he turned into light. The latter half of the battle takes place in the dark, but in that scene, we made it so the sun gradually starts to peek through.

Kodama: He catches that incoming light and turns into light himself.

Iyoku: True. It’s a scene that we didn’t want to make TOO gloomy, so I think the transition was handled very skillfully. The music matched it well, and it connected beautifully to the bright ending.

Kodama: My personal obsession was that this last scene was on a slope. It’s definitely not a comfortable place to sit (laughs).

Q21. The end credits also went through some twists and turns.

Iyoku: Since the credits are very long this time, we asked for post-story illustrations to be inserted so people would stay in their seats and watch the final scene.

Kodama: Initially, I wanted to do a “what happened to the Red Ribbon Army?” story where Soldier No. 15 wakes up, and the surroundings are a crater. But I gave up on that and went with the Kinto-un Story instead (laughs).

Iyoku: We asked for that at the very, very last minute.

Kodama: …Which is why I completely forgot to draw Peneko’s whiskers (laughs).

Release Date

June 11, 2022

Runtime

100 minutes

Director

Tetsuro Kodama

Writers

Akira Toriyama

Producers

Norihiro Hayashida

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  Masako Nozawa

  Son Gokû / Son Gohan / Son Goten / Gotenks (voice)

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  Toshio Furukawa

  Piccolo (voice)