Dragon Ball Sparking Zero Pays Homage to One of the Worst Live-Action Anime Movies Ever “Dragonball Evolution”

Dragon Ball fans have long dreamt of a live-action adaptation of the series, and in 2009, it finally happened with the release of Dragon Ball Evolution. Like many fans, I found myself going to the theatre with a group of friends, and though we had little expectations given all that had already been shown, nothing, and I mean nothing, could have prepared us for what was about to unfold. It was a movie, one of the few that we decided to walk out on (though I did eventually watch it in full later), that cared so little about the source material it stemmed from to the point that many fans have forgotten its existence entirely. Well, it seems that Bandai Namco hasn’t forgotten it, as the upcoming Dragon Ball Sparking Zero will have a small tribute to it in a somewhat subtle yet brilliant way.

As we inch close to Dragon Ball Sparking Zero’s October release, more and more creators have started to get hands-on with it, with many in-game clips now surfacing. One such clip shows Zamasu in his corrupted form performing his ultimate move while speaking some line of dialogue.

Corrupted Fused Zamasu Ultimate Move Divine Hammer!

via @MaruHaky #SparkingZero pic.twitter.com/1CzLcSaZx4

— Sparking! ZERO News (@DBSparkingNews) September 21, 2024

Before we dive into the tribute, for those who don’t know, the English voice actor for Zamasu, James Marsters, was also the very same actor who played Piccolo (named Lord Piccolo) in the live-action adaptation. A surprising fact that many might not have known, though he absolutely kills it as the voice of Zamasu.

But this is where things get very interesting. Reading the subtitles in the clip above,  it turns out that it’s a line said by Lord Piccolo in Dragonball Evolution. This was spotted by X user XenoCoffee, who shared the piece of dialogue in the movie that is said.

“Human power has failed before…
As it will…
AGAIN!”

Guys… that’s a DB Evolution quote.
They put an Evolution line in Sparking Zero. https://t.co/GQbPFdnlTt pic.twitter.com/88uGjN9ukL

— XenoCoffee (@XenoCoffeeMods) September 21, 2024

To be 100% certain, here’s the clip (timestamp 2:09 mark) in which Lord Piccolo says the line during his fight with Goku.

Look, putting feelings about the movie aside, Bandai Namco sure has gone to great lengths with Dragon Ball Sparfking Zero when it comes to things like lore accuracy and paying homage to other stuff. Sure, this movie still isn’t good, but you gotta love that the studio isn’t leaving anything out when it comes to Sparking Zero. I suppose the next question is, can we expect the live-action versions of either Goku or Piccolo to appear in Sparking Zero as potential DLC? It’s highly doubtful, as I don’t think anyone would want that outside of it being a joke chaarcter, but you never know!

Speaking of characters, the full roster has now been revealed, and you can see the list of characters available in Dragon Ball Spark Zero come to its October 11 release here: Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero to Feature 181 Characters at Launch, Here’s the List of Known Fighters

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