Episode 01 of the
Dragon Ball Heroes PR anime (promotional anime) aired last Friday (technically, it was Saturday in Japan) and its release has confirmed a few, long-held assumptions. The PR anime will consist of only 8-minute episodes and it will not be formally broadcast anywhere outside of Japan. That means no Crunchyroll simulcast or Funimation simuldub. Whether the PR anime is eventually repackaged as a special or movie after all the episodes air remains to be seen.
The first 90 seconds are for the intro and the end credits take up 24 seconds. That means that of the episode's 8 minutes and 45-seconds, only 6 minutes and 51 seconds of actual footage was left to move the story along.
The first episode is titled
Goku vs Goku: A Super Battle Begins On Prison Planet!
As usual, the Western Dragon Ball fandom owes a
huge thanks to @Herms98 for providing English translations.
The anime opens with Whis training Goku and Vegeta on Beerus' planet. The angel is still clearly leagues ahead of Vegeta and Goku.
Suddenly, Mai appears completely out of nowhere. Then, the mysterious Fu,shortly appears right after. How either of them managed to get to Beerus' planet is a mystery, never mind the fact that Mai (and presumably Fu) lives in a newly created alternate timeline after Zeno destroyed the original Future Trunk timeline.
Of course, Vegeta doesn't believe anything Fu is saying about him being friends with Trunks. Goku on the other hand, goes right along with Fu's story. The Supreme Kai and Whis also don't buy Fu's story but Goku and Vegeta, ever confident in their strength, head off to Prison Planet with Fu.
As soon as Goku and Vegeta get to Prison Planet, they run into Xeno Goku. This clearly isn't the loveable goofball that Dragon Ball Super depicts Goku as- no, Xeno Goku should remind folks of the version of Goku that was present during the end of Dragon Ball Z.
Right off the bat, it's Super Saiyan 4 vs Super Saiyan Blue time. It's difficult to gauge who has the upper hand and they appear equal. However, it should be noted that Dragon Ball Super Goku still has the Kaikoen form and Ultra Instinct.
Confronted by Xeno Goku, Fu wastes no time in revealing his evil plans. It should have been obvious to everyone involved that he was a villain.
Xeno Goku reveals that he's a member of the Time Patrol, a task force whose job is to catch, "dimension-crossing evildoers."
Following in the tradition of all great, evil masterminds, Fu then explains that Prison Planet is a "testing ground" of his own creation. He gathers warriors from all different timelines, dimensions, and planets to battle. Trunks has been imprisoned because of his past time-traveling "transgressions", an unforgivable act according to Fu.
Fu then goes one step further and explains that the only way to escape Prison Planet is to gather the planet's seven dragon balls. How Fu created dragon balls wihout a Namekian is another mystery.
Xeno Goku explains that he let himself be captured on purpose to investigate what Fu was up to. He already has the 1-star Dragon Ball in his possession. Fu then explains that the other six dragon balls are in the possession of other prisoners and that they will have to fight them for possession.
The PR anime finally jumps to Trunks, who appears to be lying in a prison cell and wearing a green prison jumpsuit. His cell door opens and he makes a break for it.
He's quickly confronted by Frieza's brother, Cooler. A non-canon character that's only ever appeared in the Dragon Ball movies. Cooler demands that Trunks hand over the dragon ball in his possession.
We then cut to Fu, who's in a laboratory of sorts, monitoring all the prisoners. Other notable characters appearing on monitors in the lab are King Cold and the non-canon movie villain, Bojack. There's also another character in the upper right, but it's difficult to make out who it is. Our best guess is that it's either Janemba (another Dragon Ball movie villain) or one of the Dragon Ball GT Shadow Dragons.
Just before the episode ends, it's revealed that the Evil Saiyan Kanba (Japanese for Cucumber) is also being kept in Fu's lab. He's apparently planning to unleash him at a later time.