Dragon Ball Just Revived Granpa Gohan For an Anime Showdown

Dragon Ball just brought back Grandpa Gohan for an epic anime showdown with none other than Master Roshi! 

If you haven't guessed by now, the battle between Roshi and Grandpa Gohan is going down in the Super Dragon Ball Heroes promo anime, which is a breeding ground for all fan-service wishes that actually get to come to life. 

Super Dragon Ball Heroes just finished its Supreme Kai of Time Arc, which was much like the popular Universal Survivor Arc of the Dragon Ball Super manga/anime – just on a whole other scale. Goku, Vegeta, and co. were pulled into a Tournament of fighters from across all space and time – including alternate timeline variants of themselves and their worst enemies – including the Demon God Demigra. 

Behind the scenes, the Supreme Kai of Time Arc has been one of the wildest collections of different Dragon Ball characters being thrown together, into some of the wildest battles we've seen. The end credits of the Super Dragon Ball Heroes Episode 50 is a sizzle reel of some of those crazy fights – including Granpa Gohan and Roshi's showdown. 

Who Is Dragon Ball's Grandpa Gohan? 

Grandpa Gohan was Master Roshi's prize pupil and a skilled martial artist. In his elder years, Son Gohan made the discovery of Goku's space pod crash-landed on Earth. He took the strange alien child in and raised him, learning of the danger of his Great Ape form and warning Goku never to let the full moon take control.

 Unfortunately, tragedy struck when Goku eventually did get caught in the light of a full moon, became a Great Ape, and killed Grandpa Gohan in a rampage. Goku never fully realized it was he who killed Son Gohan, blaming the violent event on a made-up monster, and believing that Gohan's soul resided in the four-star Dragon Ball. When Vegeta came to Earth and fought Goku, seeing the Saiyan Prince's transformation into a Great Ape finally made Goku realize the truth about what happened to Grandpa Gohan. 

Seeing Grandpa Gohan battle Roshi isn't just superficial fan service: it's a deep shonen "master vs. student" Shonen trope at work. There's definitely a sector of the Dragon Ball fandom that would love to see the series exploring an arc looking back at Son Gohan's younger years and adventures as a martial artist under Roshi's tutelage and in the company of his fellow student Ox King. And if the hype about this Super Dragon Ball Heroes battle is any indication, the series would do well to give the people what they want!