THERE’VE been many lovely, amusing, stylish Japanese animated features and hopefully we’ll see more.

Born on TV in the 1980s, the hugely popular “Dragon Ball” franchise was something else entirely.

Tadayoshi Yamamuro’s 2015 feature is a colourful, noisy, energetic panoply of violent fantasy. A cumulative boredom wafted over me as opposing factions met, noisily bashed each other up, met again, bashed… get the message? Then, re-entering the real world’s light as the closing credits rolled, wondering how on earth to write about it, I bumped into an epiphany.

As a five-year-old, watching “Dragon Balls” every morning on TV, she loved it to bits. Now, perhaps in her twenties, slightly built, quite attractive, wearing black pants and a Batman top, she asked me quite spontaneously, how had I enjoyed the film? I told her what I’m now telling you.

Five-year-olds may very well love Yamamuro’s film without understanding it or needing to. If you watched the TV series, it’ll likely give you a nostalgia rush. If you’re an adult of single-digit intellectual age, it may get through to you. If you’re not in any of those categories, I regret that I can’t provide any more-useful advice.

I saw the subtitled 2D version. The 3D version is dubbed for those who can’t read rapidly-changing subtitles.

At Dendy