New Live-Action Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot Ad Unleashes the Nostalgia

Bandai Namco released a new live-action preview for Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot on Friday that’s got all the feels and all the nostalgia it needs to get you excited for the game. It’s only in Japanese and hasn’t been released by Bandai Namco’s other branches around the world, but you don’t need to be fluent to understand the point that it’s trying to make. It’s full of people young and old enjoying Dragon Ball Z to show why fans are looking forward to Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot.

The ad begins with an adult who’s presumably coming home from work with a copy of Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, eager to tear into it and start playing. Those scenes are then juxtaposed with images of younger Dragon Ball Z fans watching the TV series on old, boxy TVs and living out their Dragon Ball fantasies by “powering up” like Goku and unleashing Kamehamehas.

We get to see a few scenes from the actual game mixed in here to show Goku using his own attacks in clips that have been previewed recently, but the main draw here is definitely the nostalgia as opposed to new clips. “We are all Son Goku” is in the trailer of the live-action ad as if the intent wasn’t already clear enough from the kids showing off their best Goku impressions.

We’ve seen multiple ads and trailers leading up to the release of Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot meant to show off its different features and incentivize people to check it out, but this trailer might be one of the smartest ones yet. It serves as a succinct answer to the question of why someone would want to return once again to a story that’s already been told so many times across manga, anime, and video games.

One could argue that pretty much all of the Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot previews have been centered on nostalgia since the game is essentially a retelling of Dragon Ball Z, and you wouldn’t be wrong by saying so. We’ve seen trailers and features pertaining to fan-favorite villains and smaller moments like Goku’s driving test episode, but there have also been new reveals like another member of the Ginyu Force named Bonyu whose story will be explored in the game. Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, said in the past that this game will give players a chance to explore moments that “haven’t been told in the manga” like Bonyu’s backstory.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot will release for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC platforms on January 16th.