Dragonball Z: The Tree of Might

This week I thought I'd rewatch one of my favourite Dragonball Movies titled The Tree of Might, this was the third movie released during the run of Z in Japan and focused on the arrival of a Saiyan space Pirate who resembles Goku and his group of mercenaries as they want to use the Earth to plant the tree of might in order to produce its fruit which gives a considerable boost in power to the user, thus making them the most feared Pirates in the galaxy, or so they'd hope.

Of course Goku and the rest of the gang would soon put a stop to that and it goes pretty much how you would expect, the gang put up a decent fight, get stomped on, Goku powers up and takes care of the big bad and then they go home, with all being well until the next movie. The plots of these movies remain fairly linear and simple throughout the run of the original thirteen films but I wouldn't say that writes them off as not worth your time.

There certainly those I would suggest staying well away from like the Bio Broly movie, but the likes of the Bojack, Metal Cooler and Janemba movies not only offer interesting villains but also offer up a decent twist on an existing story or something entirely new, Bojack especially rides on the popularity of Gohan defeating Cell and while recycling that story somewhat it does add enough spins on it to keep it fresh.

I would say this film falls in to that sort of bracket where it obviously takes many queues from the First Saga of the show but adds enough to make it well worth a watch, but why would I say this is one of my favourite films in the franchise compared to others?

Now to me this movie was nearing the end of that original series feel presented up until the Saiyan saga, just before characters like Tien, Yamcha and Chiotzu became almost totally irrelevant and I feel like this is one of my favourite of the movies because of these elements. What I mean by this is there was not a focus on powering up to a new form and the enemies seemed like a threat while still remaining just a bit above the protagonists in terms of power, unlike someone like Freiza who was leagues above the protagonists.

It was not so much the Saiyans show featuring other guys as it slowly turned in to as the show went on, there was this focus on other characters more and their efforts to help in the fight against the threats coming to Earth, I've gone on about how I feel about this period a lot but I think it's because I never really appreciated it as much until I saw the original series on UK TV when Z had finished airing.

Turles as a character used to confuse the hell out of me when I was younger and only heard about the movies online, It didn't help that I had this sticker book when I was a kid that gave you a little bit of info on certain characters, I remember there was a family page for Goku and it referenced his two brothers and father. I was so excited at the prospect of another brother who rivalled him at one point but it never happened.

I don't think I was the only one who was confused about this, If I remember correctly a lot of the subs online did refer to Turles as his brother, I'm sure some dubs at the time corroborate this too. It is a little odd that he would look that much like Goku and not be some relation but I guess the answer is a lot of low class warriors from Vegeta look alike. I'd rather that wasn't the explanation however I do like that it supports the idea of Turles being the 'what-if' version of Goku who didn't hit his head as a child.

I felt his group of rag-tag space pirates was pretty neat, although I wasn't sure if the humanoid people were meant to be Saiyans originally or not until a few years after my initial viewing, regardless they were pretty decent being that they gave the rest of the group trouble rather than being easily beaten by everyone they came across. I felt the android looking dude Cacao was fucking bizarre though, but I really liked his design because it's a nice mix between the classic Saiyan battle armour style we're used to but mixed with an organic and chrome looking android. He almost looks more like he belongs in a Saturday morning cartoon as the villain of the week.

So much like most enemies in the show and movies Turles is defeated with the Spirit bomb, which at the time I'm more or less fine with as it was a relativley new technique and this movie takes a lot from the Saiyan saga, but as the movies go on Goku always seems to win with a spirit bomb related move... This can get really tiresome but at least they have moved on from that technique as of late I suppose, there are elements surrounding the use of this move that I did enjoy however.

I liked that everyone didn't just hang back when Goku was gathering energy but they launched an all out assault on Turles even though they knew it was a futile effort. The whole point of the spirit bomb is that it could take a while to gather a huge amount of energy so leaves a huge opening for an attack against the user, most of the time villains won't just hang back and let this happen but something that always annoyed me was that Freiza just stood there for a number of episodes and let this happen. Turles on the other hand goes to attack Goku right away.

Having Goku fail with the spirit bomb first of all was actually interesting and shows he can't rely on it all the time in order to win, but having him then think to use the energy from the tree itself was a good touch, at least it explains how he could get so much energy so quickly right away but then again you could say if he is taking energy from the planet then why wouldn't he have already taken energy from the tree as it was already a part of the planet at that point? I know this is just a movie and the plot is not super important but it I always get a little irked by these sort of things, gotta take Anime seriously right?
The fight scenes in the film were overall some of the best in the movies, rivalled only by the likes of the first Broly movie. While they remain short the way the enemies fight is so much more brutal than anything we had seen at that point, it relied more on actual hand to hand rather than the beam spamming the series is known for. Turles is particularly brutal in the way he smacks people in to the ground and blasts that at such a close range, he also manhandles Gohan pretty fucking regularly throughout the movie, to me Turles is the antithesis of Goku in that he absolutely does not let up and perfectly encapsulates what I think of when I imagine the ruthless Saiyan race.

I think of the early four movies released for Z this is my favourite, the first movie feels like an extension of Dragonball, the second is pretty forgettable and the fourth is almost a total retread of the Demon King Piccolo story but with added movie only power ups like the 'false' Super Saiyan. Perhaps it's because this film focuses more on the early Saiyan saga kind of story line and features a similar group of characters and motives.

I absolutely love the Saiyan saga all round, more so now I have seen the original series because it's that bridge from the original to what Z is more known for, the crazy power levels and constant transformations. The Saiyan saga was the first time in the series that things felt kind of hopeless for the gang, the majority of the team had been killed by Nappa and they still had Vegeta to face after, Goku was no where to be seen and only three fighters remained.

While nobody dies in this film the same group who get killed by Nappa are brutally defeated early in the fight. Goku is around the entire time so it doesn't really convey that same form of hopelessness for the group but I can see that they were attempting to retread that same kind of plot line.

I'm a little unsure if I like the actual plot of the movie, specifically the Tree itself, like I understand why Turles would want to use the fruit to become stronger, because he comes across as someone who has removed himself from the Saiyans and therefore doesn't really care about the pride aspect of his people like perhaps Vegeta would, he is absolutely fine with using artificial means to gain immense strength rather than earning that power outright.

I guess he is even more a mirror of Goku because he is a lower class warrior, he states in the film he has continuously been eating the fruit from the tree after he plants it on multiple planets, so that suggests his gains are only due to that rather than him being strong on his own merit, perhaps he really was as weak as Goku and Raditz were at the start of the show, I think that's pretty interesting.

But I just found the idea of a giant ass tree as kind of dumb, I mean it creates a nice dystopian feel to the Earth visually in the film but it just looked goofy as hell sticking out of the planet like that, I suppose you could go all turbo religion and link it to the forbidden fruit in Eden and how Turles represents the evil surrounding that biblical story but I felt it could have been handled better.

One thing I can't stand about the movies and some of the filler during the latter of the Freiza Saga was Gohans pet fucking dragon, this dumb as fuck puff the magic dragon ass fuck comes swooping in all the time causing a ruckus and getting Gohan into trouble constantly.

I'm glad he gets shot up in one of the later movies, It doesn't help he's included in dumb little dance numbers with Gohan in the Lord Slug movie. Unfortunately he is in the film quite a bit and I feel he offers nothing to it other than something to detract from plot. The one good thing I will say about this Dragon is that I guess it does kind of go back to the way Gohan was with that dinosaur during his training with Piccolo as Gohan is this kind spirit much like his father and will befriend almost anyone or anything, I always thought these training episodes were pretty good.

I thought it was pretty cool that as a bi-product of Turles' ship landing at the beginning near a large wooded area, that it actually set the whole thing a light. It's pretty unusual to have something happen just because an enemy has arrived like this, but I enjoyed Gohan and Krillin using their ki as a means to fight against the flames and put them out, sort of like how Roshi put out the Ox Kings castle fire in the original series.

Don't worry about the forest and all the animals though, they just realise they can use the dragon balls to bring it back to the way it was, which is fine but you'd think if these guys are fighting people all the time they'd wanna save their wish to bring back a whole population or a friend or something right? This wish was totally wasted anyway as the Tree of Might just grew right after and fucked the planet up on a much wider scale than a forest fire ever could.

I can see why GT used the Shadow Dragons as a bi-product of the gang using the balls way too often. While they did use the balls I did like that the opening title screen of the movie showed a montage of them being collected rather than use too much time in that actual film focusing on their collection, so in that respect the pacing of the film was pretty good. The search can be interesting but I think at this point we've seen the journey to collect the balls way too much.

A great point used in the plot this time around was that Goku not destroying most of the planet when he was a child actually benefits the enemy as the seed of the tree needs a suitable host planet with plenty of wooded areas. I feel like that sort of element is usually absent from a lot of things where a positive actually creates a much larger negative for the protagonists, however you could argue the points about the Shadow Dragons creation is pretty much this in GT as I had already mentioned, I'm all for this sort of thing though.

I don't know if it's just me but I always like when a villain asks the enemy to join him/her, it kind of makes me imagine a scenario where the good guy does join them and they fuck up the galaxy together, I guess a lot of the time it's just a desperation tactic where you'll probably end up killed but in the case of Vegeta and Turles when they offer it to Gohan it almost seems genuine as they want to keep the Saiyan race together and keep it strong.

Although the only reason Gohan as a great ape was stopped was because of that dumb dragon, which is somehow an easier way to stop him than his own dad screaming at him, I liked that Goku states the reason he and his son care about the dragon and therefore every living being on Earth is because they're earthlings and not Saiyans, you can tell already that while Goku is still coming to terms with being a Saiyan that he will always identify as an Earthling deep down.

You know as I've gone on I feel like I've listed a lot of negatives about a film I claim is one of my favourites in the franchise, and I still do love this movie and that has not changed but having rewatched it for this review I can see a lot more issues with it than I remember.

That is not to say it is in any way a bad movie and not worth a watch but perhaps like with most of the films you need to know what you're in for while watching it. I think if you're going to rewatch something like the Saiyan Saga then perhaps this film is a nice way to end it all off on as it just feels like a retelling of sorts of that saga anyway, but on it's own merits it is still quite enjoyable.

The fight scenes alone are amazing and way better than some we see much later on in the series, the brutality of it all is exactly what I expect from a warrior race and perfectly encapsulates what I want in a villain, none of this honour bullshit these guys just don't care and will be as ruthless as they need to be to get the job done.

But the main reason I like it I think is because it feels like the last point in Z where the show feels like the original series, I feel like it is a great end point to that era in the show and also nicely sets up the bigger threats to comes like the battle on Namek, Goku remains a man who has discovered his heritage as a member of a warrior race but also remains true to his ethos of being a protector of Earth these are both huge points in the Namek saga that was soon to come.

Dragonball GT: A Hero's Legacy (TV Special : 1997) + The Positives Of Dragonball GT

This week I take a look at the original chronological end point to the entire animated Dragonball universe with the GT TV special A Hero's legacy, which originally aired in March 1997 in Japan. Interestingly this is the only special, OVA or movie to come out of the GT era and featured a more or less entirely new cast of characters. This was created as a way to show how the world after the original Z fighters has turned out and if there were still heroes around who could potentially take up their mantle if need be.

While it does not really divulge in to that area as much as the epilogue of the series did with the battle between both Goku Jr and Vegeta Jr it does show us the origins of a potential successor to Goku's legacy as the English title suggests. But how does this TV Special hold up today, and while it is not as good as the Z specials featuring Bardock and Trunks is it worth a watch after all this time?

The basic plot of the special is something a lot simpler and light hearted than what you may be used to as it follows Goku Jr, a descendant of Goku 100 years after the defeat of Baby. We see now that Pan is an aged woman and the only Z fighter left, along with her Grandson Jr who is more of a crybaby like Gohan used to be and afraid of fighting. As we progress we see that Jr is bullied at school and refuses to stand up for himself, which Pan disagrees with.

But as she reminds him to stand up for himself she suddenly falls ill and it taken to hospital, it's actually pretty touching as Jr doesn't have anyone else and promises he'll do better to become strong, but Pan realises she's been too hard on him and even references her Fathers training with Piccolo. As Jr returns home he remembers Pan telling him about the dragonballs and believes if he finds the 4 star ball he can wish for her health to recover.

Of course he fails to listen to his Grandmother and believes he only needs one ball rather than all seven. Jr makes his way to Mt Paozu where Goku grew up in search for the ball and along the way meets a number of people, some who steal from him and some unlikely allies like his former bully Puck. As they reach Paozu they are tricked by a number of enemies similar to those Goku and Bulma first encountered on their journey.

After being tricked in to entering a creepy looking house both Jr and Puck are almost turned into dinner for the demons that reside there, however Jr escapes by using some of his Saiyan strength, alluding to his ability to turn Super Saiyan and shortly after Puck falls from a ravine after a bridge breaks making Jr feel extremely guilty and believing his friends death was his own fault, however he uses this loss to push himself as a person and conquer his cowardice.

We see examples of this throughout with his battle against Shusha and his protection of defenceless creatures like the Bear he encounters. After reaching Goku's old house we again encounter the demons who are now joined by their leader Lord Yao. After Yao begins to harm the Bears Jr encountered earlier we see Jr tap in to the Saiyan potential he always had and obtain the power of a Super Saiyan, with Yao defeated Jr finally finds the four star ball and attempts to make a wish to save both Pan and Puck.

But of course nothing happens, which leads Jr to become frustrated and the be visited by a familiar face, Goku. Goku explains that all seven are needed and that Jr has become braver than he thinks, shortly after a helicopter flies overhead with both Pan and Puck inside, showing that the balls weren't needed at all, and with that Goku disappears. This suggests that Goku really did become one with the balls during the end of GT and that he will always be with Jr as long as he holds on to it.

Now while this was a pretty short 40 minute or so special there was not a lot of room to work with, which seems to be an issue with a lot of the features surrounding the franchise but I quite enjoyed what the studio did with their time and thought they used it as well as they could as it was more of a prologue to the end of the franchise.

Interestingly I always believed this special was created after the end of GT in Japan and therefore at the time acted as the end all for the entire animated side of the franchise, but what this really is is actually more of a prelude to the last episode of GT. I say this because this actually aired in Japan between episodes 41 and 42 which were the first and second episodes of the Super 17 Saga, so there were still a number of episodes to go until we reached the epilogue of the series which featured Goku Jr again.

Now this special never aired in the UK so I personally did not have a chance to see it until a while after the series was over on UK television and because of that I thought it fit better as something that aired after the series did, so I'm curious as to how the Japanese reacted to this showing up before the last Saga of GT and if in retrospect they feel it spoiled what happened to Goku at the end of the series.

I quite enjoyed this special for what it was and felt as though its biggest strength was that it was pretty much an early episode of the original series with the focus on an adventure between a small group of characters in environments we're familiar with and plot points that feel as though they could be right out of the original series, particularly the first few episodes with Lord Yao pretty much being the Bear thief who tried to stop Goku and Bulma all those years ago, and the three demons acting kind of like a more serious Pilaf and co, minus their need for the dragonballs.

A dynamic I quite enjoyed with this is that Jr doesn't seem to have parents around much like Goku and is raised by a Grandparent much like Grandpa Gohan raised Goku. The first scene we see Pan and Jr in shows that Pan has taken her role as a Grandparent to similar levels as  Grandpa Gohan as she teachers Jr manners and also trains him in ways much akin to that of Roshi. She also still idolises her Grandfather and constantly reminds Jr that he is much like him and that he should aspire to become as great as he was.

I think the character of Jr is refreshing in the sense that he is the protagonist now and was raised to be a fighter to a certain degree, much like his predecessor. I like that he seems to be this amalgamation of Goku as a child, Kid Gohan with his power and original fear and also Goten with his excitable nature. It seems as though he has inherited traits from the majority of his family and made them mix enough to be an entirely new character.

It's a shame we won't really get an expansion on his character as he has never really appeared in any media outside of this special and the final TV episode, perhaps one day we'll get his inclusion in a game and a few what-if stories from that. It's also a shame we never got a brief run down of how the rest of the Z fighters lives turned out after Omega Shenron was defeated but to be honest this special is pretty self contained and I believe it could be viewed with no prior knowledge to the series and still enjoyed.

I honestly felt like the use of Super Saiyan in this special was unnecessary, it kind of took it away from that original Dragonball feel that it was going for and threw you back in to that idea of 'oh yeah we're in a world where we can just be super strong and throw ki all day'. However while it was not something they focused on a whole lot in the special it does connect to the idea that Jr may be the next saviour of Earth someday along with Vegeta Jr who can also go SSJ and they may one day have to face an uber strong enemy just like their predecessors.

I think the general hate I've seen online for this special stems from GT itself, after Z finished in the West at least many may have assumed this new series would be more of the same, with huge epic battles and the like, but when we saw these more 'goofy' aspects like Goku becoming a child again or these until then unheard of Black star balls which spell the end for Earth. I know for me that's how I originally felt about the series when it first aired in the UK.

In the UK the broadcast order we had was Z, GT and the back to the original series, because of this I was sort of in the dark about the past of Goku and co, so I never experienced this great adventure for the dragonballs and the tournaments before I saw GT. But now that I have seen the entire series multiple times I appreciate its beginnings a lot more and because of that I can see a lot more of the positive in the GT side of things.

Don't get me wrong GT has its problems and I won't deny that there are aspects that I really do not enjoy but I can see a lot more positives now and I've spoken to others who agree with me and even made me see some positives where I had not before. For example the biggest positive for me was actually the start of the show, it was not about power levels it was about a small bunch of people going back to searching for the dragonballs but this time on a much larger scale.

This introduced to us new environments, new races and new albeit smaller threats with aspects of Z thrown in slightly such as Goku going Super Saiyan against Ledgic and having a short but sweet battle. I really enjoyed that, but soon after the series reverted to a new powerful enemy showing up and constant battles happening. This is not to say I did not like the Baby saga, I actually enjoyed the focus on the Tuffle race and a little look at the history of planet Vegeta which was only briefly touched upon in Z and again in Plan to eradicate the Super Saiyans. I did find the use of Vegeta being possessed again to be a bit tiresome and Baby to be slightly annoying as a villain but overall the story and motive of the character was interesting to me.

With this saga also came the Super Saiyan 4 form, which people seem to have mixed feelings about, personally I prefer it to the God form because if its use of mixing the style of a Super Saiyan and the ascetics of the original Great Ape form it felt like the legend of the Super Saiyan had come full-circle. I do think it looked best on Goku rather than Vegeta or Gogeta however, even if the idea that his power was so great that it made him jump back in to an adult form and then back again was a little dumb to me.

I quite enjoyed the remainder of the show with the Super 17 Saga being a nice short break between the two bigger Sagas and the Shadow Dragons being the end all of Villains. Originally I thought the Dragons themselves were an underwhelming enemy but always thought their origins as a creation of all the over use of the balls to be an interesting idea, as well as their relation to certain wishes. After discussing them with a friend Id been convinced that actually these enemies were a great way to end the series with the main plot device of the series overall now being turned on it's head and giving the heroes the biggest threat they've ever faced.

Overall I think GT is not as bad as a lot of people seem to think, I think a lot of people were like myself and were so connected to Z and not DB that we thought this 'new' direction was just an oddity, maybe a lot of people decided it was the start of the beating of a dead horse or maybe they just did not like that it was ultimately not the story Toriyama had intended. Regardless it's always going to be a part of the franchise and whether you see that as a stain or just a bit of glass that's not as polished as the ones next to it is up to you, but I think this special took a lot of the great aspects of GT and used them as a great way to chronologically end a popular series as best they could.

I really like how in this Special even in English Goku Jr is voiced by Stephanie Nadolny who voiced Kid Goku in the original series, along with Kid Gohan and Goku as a child in GT, this really does keep with the Japanese tradition of having Masako Nozawa voice the characters and his descendants and while the English dubs strayed away from this for the most part this use of having Nadolny back for Jr really seemed to fit with the nostalgic feeling the special was going for with it playing out much like an original Dragonball episode, I thought it was such a nice touch of the English team to do this and really served as a good note to end on until new features would be made over a decade later.

There are a few more interesting notes on the voice acting in both the English and Japanese versions, one of the more interesting is that the character of Susha the frog like enemy who attacks Jr is voiced by Peter Mayhew who played Chewbacca in the original Starwars movies. Now I can't seem to find any reason as to why this is, as he does not really have any other voice acting roles that I know of but nonetheless it is pretty cool. I honestly wanted to ask him if he remembered doing the voice work when I saw him at London Comic Con one year but never did, maybe next time.

Now on the Japanese side we have Jr's companion Puck who sticks with him throughout the early part of his adventure for the dragonball. Puck is actually voiced by Toru Furuya who voiced Yamcha throughout the entire series, now this again just brings us back to that feeling of the original series where it's just a bunch of friends having a wacky adventure while the search for some Magic balls. While you could say it would have been better to have a female protagonist join in and be voiced by Bulma I think ultimately this was decided against as Pan filled in that female role to a degree.

I think the choices on both sides really work and benefit the special, it seems as though the staff really wanted this to be a nice little book end to the franchise and make you feel nostalgia but at the same time content with the way things have turned out for this world, sure you could argue it leaves a lot to be answered but I think that's best, you're never going to have everything answered but you do have the opportunity to decide some things for yourself or keep a discussion going with other fans about what you think could have happened to certain characters before these events.

While you could say with the new movies GT is essentially retconned, I personally like to think it takes places in a separate continuity because to me that doesn't just erase all the neat things that came out of that series. I mean who knows the movies could soon connect everything back together in some way even if it does mean tweaking certain aspects and facts but until that happens I am perfectly alright with the separate universe idea and love that it is slightly touched upon in some games such as Xenoverse with Beerus and co wondering when Goku turned into a child again and asking how he obtained this unheard of Super Saiyan 4 form.

I think a lot of the fan base do whine too much about the 'canon' of the franchise and like I have said before to me these little things don't really matter to me, like the little changes Toriyama made in Dragonball Minus to Bardock and stuff, why does that effect your enjoyment of the franchise so much? If it helps just think of it as another universe. Or why not just take aspects of it all and make your own conclusion to what happened? You can argue the franchise is being milked to a degree but then hasn't it always?

Look at the amount of games and re-releases of the show on home media etc, it's not going to go away any time soon and if you're familiar with the Dragonball Heroes game in Japan you'll know there are what-if scenarios and characters all over the place, but the 12 year old in me loves seeing even GT Trunks going SSJ3 but that doesn't mean im mad because he didn't do it in the show, I just enjoy the ride and the breathe of fresh air these ideas bring to the series as a whole.

I think this special overall is worth a watch if you're going through GT again but personally id wait until the last few episodes to watch it, I think GT has gotten this negative stigma attached to it but I can see why but honestly as a bookend to a viewing of the series this special still does it's job really well by giving you a glimpse at the future of the world we've seen for so many years while making you feel a huge sense of nostalgia for the original series.

But I'm really curious to what you guys think about GT and if you think you would ever give it a rewatch, let me know on Twitter @Scatmanbegins or on facebook if you've got me on there, as always thanks for taking the time to read this.

Dragonball: Episode Of Bardock (OVA: 2011)

 
This week I take a look at another obscurity within the Dragonball franchise titled Episode of Bardock which was originally a spin-off Manga published in 2011 issues of V-Jump by Naho Ooishi who was relatively new to the franchise with only being hired in 2009 and having experience from producing the Manga adaptations of Yo! Son Goku and friends return as well as the Dragon Ball Heroes card game. The original reason for this Mangas creation was actually due to DB Heroes which is a card based arcade game in exclusive to Japan which primarily features a lot of 'what-if' scenarios with one of them being Bardock becoming a Super Saiyan. This Manga set out to explain this 'what-if' scenario in more detail, perhaps as a way to have more people be interested in the game.

In 2011 Bandai along with V-Jump decided to create an animated adaptation of this Manga along with the re-release of The plan to eradicate the Super Saiyans as a part of the SSSS Project, which has been described as a way "to take the first step towards new developments and further expansions of Dragonball titles." This was originally released for streaming online and then later in March 2012 on a disc that came with an issue of V-Jump. Finally it was made avalible to fans worldwide with the release of the Dragonball Z game for Kinect on the Xbox 360, which I'm sure nobody picked up because it was terrible.

As Bardock was such a popular character within the franchise thanks to the TV special featuring him the studio decided it was time for this expansion on his character and his story after his 'death' at the hands of Freeza. The general outline of this story is that after being killed during the destruction of Planet Vegeta Bardock wakes up on a mysterious planet that looks similar to that of Planet Vegeta. As he awakens he soon realises he is being nursed back to health by two small aliens named Ipana and Berry with medicine similar to that used by the Saiyans and Planet Trade organisation.

Shortly after two Space Pirates arrive and claim they are to conquer Planet Plant, cementing that this is indeed Planet Vegeta in the past, Bardock makes short work of them and decides to take off alone. In the next scene a Freeza like being named Chilled (HAH) arrives to the planet and pretends to be the Galactic Police in order to get close to the inhabitants of the planet, he soon finds out his underlings were killed by Bardock and decides to seek him out. Berry begins to suspect that something is amiss here and warns Bardock, however Chilled has already begun to start terrorising the planet, which sends Bardock in to a rage as he remembers the death of his comrades.

Bardock then attacks Chilled after mistaking him for Freeza, Chilled overpowers him at this point and begins to gain the upper hand while stating he is the 'strongest in the Universe' much like Freeza was known to do. As Chilled is about to deliver the finishing blow Berry jumps in the way and takes the hit, causing Bardock to remember the destruction of the Saiyans and thus become a Super Saiyan.
Naturally Bardock lays the smack down on Chilled much to the appreciation of the Plant people and does a typical heroic walk off into the sunset.

We then see Chilled just moments away from death on his ship informing his underlings of the transformed warrior he had just faced known as a Super Saiyan, he then informs them to warn his descendants of this warrior, suggesting that this is how Freeza came to fear the Saiyans and also that Bardock may have been the original Super Saiyan of legend.

Like most of the Dragonball OVA's Toriyama did not have much involvement at all especially in terms of the story, which he was totally absent from, it seems he was only really involved with the design for Chilled as around the time of the Mangas release some concept art was shown in V-jump. Although he was not very involved with the project it would be interesting to see what he thinks of the project as he is a known fan of Bardock and did use him again shortly afterwards in the Jaco Manga.

I really liked the design for Chilled and naturally it followed the style of Freezas first form as it was designed by Toriyama himself, but it also put a spin on it having him be much shorter in appearance than Freeza, yet much more menacing looking thanks to the Orange colour scheme and the twisted almost Devil like horns. Chilled seems to be much more demonic and impish looking when putting him next to his descendent, he also reminds me of Freezas son Kurieza from the Neko Majin Z Manga with his short stature.

I thought Chilled was a pretty decent addition to the DB universe as a way to explain how Freeza came to learn of the legend of the Super Saiyans and why he feared them so much, but I feel like it would have been just as good to have the original Super Saiyan take the role of defeating him rather than Bardock, I just feel the entire use of Bardock in this special is kind of silly. This is partly because It's quite ambiguous as to why Bardock has suddenly woken up in the past.

Time travel is not really a new concept to the franchise with the Android saga featuring it prominently and I think it can work well but it is a tricky subject to work around and to just have it thrown out there that Bardock has suddenly gone back in time with no real explanation really did annoy me, not that this is something they studio have come out and said is 'canon' or is part of the time-line but to have a character who is afflicted with the ability to see the future you would think that they could have worked that in to the OVA as something to do with his sudden time travelling.

I feel as though this story could have just been made to introduce an entirely new Saiyan to us who started off the legend itself by defeating Chilled and it would have had the same effect. I understand that Bardock is a popular character and I'd be lying if I said I did not want to see more of him but I feel that having him suddenly become a 'good guy' in saving a bunch of aliens from a Freeza lookalike and doing some heroic walk off into the sunset is just a little strange for his character. We've always seen Bardock act like a typical Saiyan in that he loves to fight, to kill and to win.

We have seen some examples of him caring with his sending Goku to earth and his love for his wife in Jaco, but I just don't feel like he is the type to care enough about third parties in his battles. It is fair to say he was just acting on his hatred for Freeza at that point but still it is a little strange.

I generally feel pretty mixed on this OVA in that I really love that they are doing all these new projects with the franchise but I feel as though they are creeping closer and closer to fan fiction territory in some cases, especially with the DB Heroes game where everyone can suddenly go Super Saiyan 3 or 4, which is fine in the 'what if' scenarios the games follow  but need to stay away unless explained well in the Manga or Anime format. This is where this OVA fails for me more than anything, it doesn't try to explain anything it just seems to be there for the sake of it being there, for the sake of pleasing some fans who just want to see Bardock go Super Saiyan and just to keep the franchise going.

That is not to say I did not find enjoyment in it at all, I generally liked the fight scene between Bardock and Chilled because it gave us an unhinged Super Saiyan using as much anger as possible to throw Chilled around like a rag doll rather than use any martial arts techniques or constantly use beam attacks, It really did show how Bardocks hatred for Freeza had sent him to a boiling point where he would just explode. It does end in your typical beam struggle fashion but I do like that it didn't actually kill Chilled outright, it let him linger on much like the fight between Goku and Freeza.

I felt Chilled really was the strongest part of this OVA, but I think that may be down to the performance of his Voice Actor Ryūsei Nakao who also voiced Freeza and Cooler, I feel he brings such a menacing and evil portrayal to any villain he plays within the franchise and it really works, especially when you consider that without a voice you're just looking at a small goofy looking imp of a character who really does not look as though he could be the most powerful being in the universe with the command of thousands of underlings and more.

I feel like Chilled did come in to his own slightly too rather than being a copy and paste of  Freeza, yes the same characteristics and motives were there but we almost get this look at a character who has not yet reached the infamy of his descendent and has to resort to much more sneaky and shady tactics in order to get what he wants, such as pretending to be Galactic Police officers in order to get information, rather than just killing civilians outright much like Freeza did on Namek. Overall I believe he was a great addition.

I also enjoyed the animation style used within the OVA, it seemed to be slightly better than Plan to eradicate the Super Saiyans as it used a brighter colour palette and did focus much more on details such as battle damage and backgrounds as well as the fight scenes use of decent choreography involving spins, grabs and throws. I'm clearly no expect on animation but I feel that with every piece of animated media from the franchise from Yo! Son Goku onwards has constantly improved and reached the quality we see in Battle of Gods.

Overall I did find some enjoyment in this OVA with it being a nice excuse to see Bardock again and seeing someone else from Freezas race getting the shit beat out of them. I also enjoyed that it kept to a small 20 minute time frame as the Manga was quite short itself and while I am happy that the franchise during this period did decide to branch out and create a few more animated features I feel as though this is the worst of the bunch, not to say that this is a terrible stain on the franchise but I just personally do not enjoy it anywhere near as much as the other features I've reviewed recently.

I see a lot of people online argue about this being 'canon' to the franchise because it got a Manga adaptation but then again so did DB Heroes but I think the beauty with this franchise is is that there are a bunch of things that are perhaps questionable but it's really up to you if you want to take this as what actually happened or not, personally I just like to keep this as a 'what if' story, but I feel like this franchise has such a wealth of those kind of stories that it just works to have one of them animated, I would even be open to more myself, who wouldn't like to see the return of Tiencha from Budokai 2 right?

I'm still on a huge DB hype at the moment and I will not apologise for it, but thanks for checking this review out, let me know what you thought of it on twitter @Scatmanbegins I'm all for constructive criticism or any feedback at all. See ya next week.

Dragon Ball: Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans (OVA Remake, 2010)

This week because I'm still on a major Dragonball hype we take a look at a bit of an oddity within the Dragonball franchise, an OVA originally titled Dragon Ball: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans which was originally released in 1993, re-released in 94 and then totally remade in 2010. Although each version has slight differences in the way the story is presented the general storyline  remains the same and is quite interesting due to its look at the past of the Saiyans and their planet Vegeta.

The plot begins with a brief history of the Saiyans arriving on the then Planet Plant, originally the home of the Tuffle race, we soon see that the Saiyans began to exterminate the Tuffles, steal their technology such as scouters and eventually conquer their planet. We eventually see that there was a survivor of this attack named Dr Raichi who uses his super computer Hatchiyack to contain the hatred from the Tuffle race. Before he can use the machine however he is weakened from the battle and must escape to the edge of the galaxy, vowing revenge upon the Saiyans.

After many years we see Raichi now in a more alien looking form state his machine is finally ready to extract revenge, he soon locates the last remaining Saiyans on Earth and sends some 'Destron Gas Machines' to the planet which will soon kill the entire human race. With these Gas emitters located across the planet the Z fighters soon find out and begin to destroy them, eventually they reach the final emitter only to find four old enemies waiting for them, Freeza, Cooler, Lord Slug and Turles.

After a short battle they see that each of these enemies is made from the Gas and is therefore immortal, interestingly it is Bulma who rescues them when she creates an agent that stops the gas. The gang now know they have to locate the culprit and because this remake is a shorter version we suddenly see them skip to an unknown planet where Raichi is located.

After making quick work of Raichi we see the super computer taken a physical form and begin to get the upper hand on everyone, with Goku even commenting that he may be much stronger than Broly, after a one sided battle Goku learns that Hatchiyack is left completely open to attack after he uses his Revenge Cannon and with a perfectly timed attack from everyone they finally destroy him and the planet he was on, returning home.

As you can see from that short summary this version of the OVA is rather concise and does tend to rush through the original hour long story but it is still very much worth a watch and has an interesting history behind it which we're going to take a brief look at.

Originally this OVA was released in 1993 on two VHS cassettes as a 'visual guide' to the Famicom game of the same name and served as an animated walk-through of the game. This is pretty interesting as to this day I have never heard an example of an animated walk-through other than this, perhaps it was a way in which to make sure guides would be sold for this game and perhaps many who actually did not own the game still picked up this VHS as it was a fully voice acted and animated feature.

Following this games popularity and the release of Bandai Playdia console the OVA was split in to two separate games, Dragon Ball Z Gaiden: Shin Saiyajin Zetsumetsu Keikaku -Chikyū-Hen and  Uchū-Hen, meaning the earth chapter and space chapter. This was done as the Playdia console was more a home entertainment system for younger children with the majority of its releases being anime themes quiz's with educational value in which the player would press a button and see a FMV play out.

Now I remember a number of years ago there would always be this 'lost movie' of Dragonball and you'd find a 'fan edit' of sorts made up of parts from the Original VHS' and Playdia consoles release of the OVA. From what I can find as there were many options in the Playdia versions of the game resulting in bad endings some people would release a version comprised of the main story and release it for download on sites like Limewire (remember that one!). Because most Western fans were not aware of any Famicom or Playdia game relating to this they assumed it was just another one of the films released for the series but like myself they just had to have it.

If they were anything like myself they would have found a really low quality and poorly subbed version of the OVA, I can remember thinking it was a really cool piece of the franchise because it was so obscure. It's fair to say there was never any reference to this OVA again outside of it's release in the Japanese dragonbox collection in 2003 and a few foot notes in reference material. As it is so obscure there is not much information on how much involvement, if any Toriyama had in the project, I can imagine it was like most of the films in that he may have given some direction on what to do with the Tuffles as he did in the Z series and perhaps some character designs here and there.

The OVA was not really heard of or expanded upon at all after 2003 until the release of the Xbox 360 and Ps3 game Dragon ball: Raging Blast 2 in 2011, I cannot seem to find a concrete reason as to why they decided to reanimate this but regardless I think it was a great way to show not only Japanese fans but fans around the world something new and something they may never have heard of, I feel like the Dragonball universe really has expanded this way a lot recently with Episode of Bardock being released as a Manga and OVA, the new films and Jaco the galactic Patrolman. I honestly don't want it to end, Id love for them to continue this trend.

Interestingly a similar storyline incorporating the last remaining Tuffle storyline is shown in Dragonball GT, much like this OVA we see that the Tuffles created a Machine/Tuffle Hybrid creature named 'Baby' to extract revenge on the Saiyans. Whether or not this saga was inspired by this OVA or just wanted to use the existing Tuffle and Saiyan history is hard to say but we can see clear correlations between the two. Personally I can find some enjoyment in GT because at the start it has the charm and adventure feel of the original series but I did find the Baby Saga overall to be pretty weak other than a few episodes, so I would much rather have this OVA as a representation of a Tuffle based threat to the protagonists, especially as it does not involve the tired formula of Vegeta being turned evil.

What I did enjoy about this was that you can kind of see why Dr Raichi wants to have revenge, his entire planet was taken from him and every member of his race was killed, it's not like he just wanted to kill, to conquer and enslave like Freeza or even because he wants to be the strongest being in the universe, he generally has a motive and reason to attack the Saiyans. While we can argue that the being we see in the film is not actually him but a Ghost warrior representation by Hatchiyack that's gone a little haywire the motive still stands.

I also enjoyed the use of  movie characters such as Slug and Turles who we have never really seen much outside of their respective films, although they turn out to be ghosts it is still nice to see them return, especially in the case of Freeza and Cooler who we have never seen interact at all, although they have been resurrected in some form as seen in the twelth movie and in Freezas case the soon to be release Revival of F. It is also pretty odd to see Freeza working with a Saiyan who looks like Goku, even if it is not really him.

I do believe that this remake is the better version of the OVA to watch not only for its decent animation and because it is much more easily avalible but because it cuts out a lot of the unimportant factors of the original such as the gang splitting up and fighting random looking monsters defending the numerous machines across the world. However the remade version is only thirty minutes long which some people may prefer but I honestly would have liked it to be a bit longer and maybe have the fights last longer but I still enjoy it for what it is.

I actually really enjoyed the designs of the two new villains with Raichi looking quite similar to Dr Myuu and the machine mutants from GT with a more organic mutated humanoid look, his outfit was a little wacky however, I would have liked to see him do more rather than just use a shield constantly thinking that would be alright.

Hatchiyack was a design I really did enjoy because it was rather simplistic instead of giving him horns, a tail and all sorts of other appendages he was just a big dude with a few gem looking parts around him, although I feel like the older version of the OVA coloured him a lot darker which I did prefer to the more pinkish colour we see in this version, overall I thought he looked pretty good. I am aware that in the older version Hatchiyack does have a 'final form' of sorts where he just looks beefier with protruding shoulders and a lot more gems across his body and i'm glad they left that out of this, I felt it looked a little dumb but perhaps if they did include it it would make for a longer OVA overall.

While there is a lot I did enjoy about this OVA there were some things I believe could have been improved, such as the pacing. When we move from act to act rather than showing the characters locating an enemy or making their journey or even discussing where they need to go we just see a brief fade to black and then the next act for example when they realise they need to locate Raichi the next scene is them suddenly there rather than even having something as simple as Goku locating his Ki and teleporting there with everyone, which we know he can do as he does so in order to return home.

I did feel he fights were a little lacking and the main villain only seemed to have the one attack that he would just continue to use over and over, I can't quite remember if he did use more in the older version of the OVA but for this one they really could have improved on him a little in that respect.

Overall I think this is a great little OVA to watch if you have the time, it's not too long but it's also not super important either, I think it's most interesting because of the History behind it rather than the content itself but it does make for a good inclusion of new characters as we've seen from its inclusion with Raging Blast 2. I think this also stands to show how committed Toei have become to the fans worldwide by releasing this to the rest of the world for the first time, it seems they really understand how important this Anime is across the globe and while they may just be capitalising on that popularity at least it means we as the fans can continue to get new content so many years after the show was over.


Thanks for checking this review out, sorry it was a little later than usual.

Next week: I dont even know yet

Dragon Ball Z: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!! (OVA Special 2008)

This week we take a look at a short Dragonball Z OVA produced in 2008 to celebrate 40 years of Weekly Shonen Jump, this OVA takes a more comical approach than what we're used to in terms of Dragonball Z Movie's and Specials and revolves around Goku and his friends. Set two years after the defeat of Kid Buu the Z fighters meet for a party arranged by Mr Satan to celebrate the grand opening of his new hotel, which was gifted to him for taming Buu. During this time of peace we see that Goku and his family have become Radish farmers and Goku has been itching for a fight, which is great because luckily for him two new fighters are on their way.

As the party continues we suddenly see the arrival of a spaceship and meet a new Saiyan who actually turns out to be Vegeta's brother, originally deemed too much of a low class warrior to be royalty and sent away to a planet much like Goku was. Tarble acts much like Goku in that he is kind and gentle, which is not something we've seen from many other Saiyans until the recent release of the Dragonball Minus chapter which shows us Goku's mother and explains that there were such things as gentle Saiyans.

We soon find out that Tarble was seeking Vegeta out to help him defeat a threat in the from of two of Freeza's old henchmen Abo and Kado. These two are a sort of tag team who have now reached a power level closer to Freeza's, who both Vegeta and Goku know they will have no trouble with, so they decide to let Goten and Trunks take them out. After a short battle both teams fuse in order to finsh the battle off however Gotenks loses for reasons unknown to me, meaning it's up to Goku who makes short work of them.

Like the majority of villains within the series, Abo and Cado are then invited to join the party, which is something that also happens with Beerus in Battle Of Gods. This is particularly interesting as the setting is also very similar to the setting of that movie. Perhaps Toriyama, who was not involved with this OVA other than the basic concept, used this setting for inspiration during his work on Battle of gods, it could be argued that he also used the idea of the remnants of Freeza's army still being around as inspiration for the soon to be released movie Revival of F.

I generally enjoyed this OVA as it finally gave us something new for the series after so long outside of the video games, I felt that excitement of coming home from school just to watch a new episode all over again when this was released, it really did give me a huge feeling of nostalgia, so I am perhaps biased in this review in that I cannot really find a fault with it however I can see some aspects which certain fans may have had a problem with.

What I really enjoyed about the short and found interesting was that the Animation style seems to follow the colour palette and style of the original Manga rather than the series itself, this is particularly clear in the way the backgrounds are presented. Perhaps this is because the special is specifically in relation to weekly Shonen Jumps anniversary or perhaps it was just a new take they were trying as there had not been any 'canon' Dragonball related features for a number of years at that point.

Regardless of the reasoning the animation presented throughout the short was a treat to any Dragonball fan at the time, I am generally not a fan of more modern Anime's style in that they all seem rather bland with little to no shading save for a select few such as Jojos bizzarre adventure, but this short really does seem to make use of a new modern style of animating in a great way and from what I've seen of the new movie it really does seem like this is the bridging gap between the series and the style used within Battle of Gods.

It was also great just to see characters like Launch, again if only for a moment as it seemed like Toriyama forgot about her and a lot of the older Z fighters after the Saiyan saga, which is understandable as characters like Yamcha and co could notreally compete with the likes of a Super Saiyan. As I originally watched the show as a child this though never really bothered me as I did not know the history of those characters, but after re-watching the original Dragonball you can see how important these characters used to be.

To have these characters seemingly relegated to a supporting cast was really disheartening to see after the Saiyan saga, I even appreciated filler episodes where they would train with King Kai and fight the Ginyu force. It is a shame that Tien is absent in this short even when appearing on its promotional poster as unfortunately his Japanese voice actor had recently passed away, regardless however it is quite enjoyable just to see that even though a lot of these characters do not have too much relevance to the story, they are not forgotten in this short as well as Battle of Gods

I think what I really enjoyed about this short was that it had this original Dragonball tone to it in that it was a bit of fun and did not take itself  too seriously, with many comedic moments and even fan calls outs like Goku saying in hindsight compared to all they've been through Freeza was not much of an opponent. I know a lot of fans had quite a few problems with the tone taken in this short, especially with elements like Vegeta's as of then unheard of Brother Tarble, who is a weak excuse for a Saiyan of royal blood and was exiled.

I think a lot of fans got in to this series with Z and really found it to be more of a serious show overall, which is fair to say with the constant battles going on within the show and the stronger and stronger enemies, with little bits of comedy interspersed when possible. People tend to forget that if you look back to the original Dragonball the series had huge amounts of comedic elements right from the get go with Pilaf's gang, Oolong and Goku's general Hick attitude, it was much like Toriyama's previous work Dr Slump in that it heavily relied on these values.

I feel the introduction of a character like Tarble really uses those elements in that yeah its really stupid and maybe messes with what you perceive as 'canon', but that's what Dragonball was like, it can introduce characters whenever it feels like, they can be as strong or weak as you like and they can even be entwined in a characters past, but it does not matter, it does not take away what makes the series special in anyway, it just adds to it.

Perhaps I say this because it was my first Anime and I watched it from when I was about 8 year old, it really did shape a lot of stuff for me and I think no matter what they add to the story over the years, I'll continue to eat it up I even like to check back with that Dragonball Heroes arcade game just to see all the crazy what if characters they come up with like adult Gotenks and stuff (which is animated if you want to check it out on youtube). There always seems to be this idea that any change to something you used to watch as a child is 'Ruining your childhood', but I think you've got to keep an open mind in some respects, especially in the case of this series.

I think the use of the original Z Opening song was a great addition, as well as it visually mirroring the original opening but in a more updated fashion with the inclusion of Vegeta, Trunk and co it was really charming to see, not only for myself who has been a Dragon ball fan since it originally aired in the UK, but also for those fans who began watching during its original run in Japan, truly this special had the correct tone in celebrating Weekly Shonen Jumps 40th anniversary by taking one of its most popular series and using that as a way to boost the nostalgia factor of the celebration for many.

Although the Ending uses a new song, 'Orange Hero' by Jealkb it makes use of nostalgic imagery by showing a short montage of Kid Goku, his meeting with Chichi and then the expansion of his family over the course of Z which just brought a smile to my face to see how far Goku had come over the course of the original series as well as Z. The song is also really catchy which always helps, although I don't believe there was ever a full version released.

Overall this short is a nice fun little look at what life has been like for the Z fighters and a great little nostalgia booster if you have notwatched the series in a long time. Id say it's a really great thing to watch before you see Battle Of Gods which Im going to do shortly. It almost makes you want to have a whole new series, but perhaps with the new movies being released this will be the extension we were hoping for, I believe a bunch of movies would probably fair better than an entire new series any way, but who am I kidding if they were to release a new series id watch it all and i'm sure a lot of you would too!.

As always thanks for reading this, sorry it was a little shorter this week, at least it wasnt Gundam related right!?