The new Dragon Ball: Sparkling Zero trailer takes us back to the late '90s, and Toonami after-school viewers are loving the nostalgia.
Publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment released a new trailer for its upcoming super-powered fighting game yesterday, and it's edited to fit right in with the commercials you'd expect to see on Cartoon Network's Toonami block in the late '90s and early 2000s.
There’s some classic lo-fi dramatic music, quick cuts to a bunch of iconic DBZ faces saying cool lines, what sounds like a voiceover from veteran DBZ actor Christopher Sabat, and it lasts 45 seconds — about the length of a Toonami commercial. Even the thumbnail looks like it belongs on a VHS stop screen. Check it out below and prepare for a dramatic, Ratatouille-style flashback moment.
DRAGON BALL: Sparking! Zero – Featured Trailer – YouTube
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It was nothing more than a bunch of cells when Toonami was at the height of its powers, delivering beloved Japanese anime to kids around the world, but I'm happy to see so many millennials enjoying the new Sparkling Zero trailer.
“Whoever was responsible for marketing the trailers for this game needs a massive raise,” reads one comment on YouTube. “Every trailer makes me more and more excited for this.”
“Millennial DBZ fans were like 'fine, I'll do it myself', went to game design school, got hired at Bandai Namco, and are working on this game/editing these trailers,” says another, “Respect.”
“The lo-fi background sound, Chris Sabat's voiceover mixed in with character soundbites and power-up sequences – someone said it before, but this has an early 2000s Toonami/Adult Swim vibe to it and I love every bit of it,” wrote a third fan. “They're aware that the majority of their player base comes from that era.”
Dragon Ball: Sparkling Zero is smart to capitalize on that era, considering it's another Budokai Tenkaichi game and that series debuted right after the first Toonami installment. We'll see what other references there are, not including the 20 Gokus and 15 Vegetas, when it launches on October 11.
Check out our Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero Hands-On Preview to see why we think it has the potential to revitalize anime arena fighters.