‘Dragon Ball Super’ Movie Trailer Has a Curious ‘Minus’ Connection

Dragon Ball Super fans have been hyped about the series’ first movie, Dragon Ball Super: Broly – at least until some fans spotted a franchise connection that has them a tad bit worried. Thanks to one scene in the Dragon Ball Super: Broly trailer, fans can’t stop seeing a connective thread between this new film and one of the franchise’s most infamous installment: Dragon Ball Minus!

If you don’t know, Dragon Ball Minus: The Departure of the Fated Child was a Dragon Ball bonus story featured in Shonen Jump magazines in 2014. The story covers a very crucial piece of Goku’s history: how his father Bardock and mother Gine sent Goku/Kakarot from Planet Vegeta to Earth, in order to escape the Saiyan homeworld’s destruction at the hands of Freeza. The manga storyline introduced elements that were different from the first Dragon Ball Z TV special, Dragon Ball Z: Bardock – The Father of Goku, including what age Goku was when he was sent to Earth (age three in the manga version, as opposed to a baby in the anime); the introduction of Gine, Goku’s mother; the reasoning behind Goku being sent to Earth (for his salvation vs. as a conqueror); and the manga’s updated mythos that the Super Saiyan God legend was behind Freeza’s destruction of Planet Vegeta.

As you can see in the Twitter comments Dragon Ball Minus is far from being universally-loved storyline. There are a lot of fans who don’t like the way the manga retcons Goku’s origin, turning him into something of a Superman knock-off. What now has fans riled up is a particular shot from the Dragon Ball Super: Broly trailer, which sees a young Saiyan in a pod, putting up his hand to the window, where a bigger hand (presumably a father’s hand) raises up to meet it, before the pod is presumably shot off into space. The look of the movie scene is definitely similar to a moment from Minus, in which young Goku has sees his parents bid him farewell from outside the window of his space pod.

Fans are now freaking out that Dragon Ball Super: Broly will cement the Minus origin story as franchise canon – which could indeed happen. The film is expected to retcon or “tweak” all sorts of elements of Saiyan mythology, so nothing is really off the table. How would you feel about Dragon Ball Minus getting some big time official recognition? Let us know in the comments!

Dragon Ball Super: Broly will hit Japanese theaters in December, and is expected to arrive in the U.S. around mid-January 2019. Dragon Ball Super is currently airing its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m. ET. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release of the series is complete and available to stream on Funimation, VRV and Crunchyroll.