How many times can villains come back from being dead? Apparently many times. This isn’t uncommon at all. Look at all the famous horror icons throughout the years where they were declared officially gone, only to come back for another round. Well it seems as though, this isn’t just for American cinema as it also happens in the anime industry too. Broly as a misunderstood and brainwashed villain from his first introduction gave an interesting depth and more lore exploration for the ever growing universe that Akira Toriyama had created. Obviously he was popular enough where he was brought back for another entry, although with less than impressive explanations. From what it looks like, that wasn’t enough for fans or producers either and decided to make one more entry for this enormous roided out Saiyan.
The story for this entry is after Mr. Satan (Chris Rager) “wins” his world martial arts tournament on a technicality with Android 18 (Meredith McCoy), Mr. Satan is confronted by an old rival named Lord Jaguar (Bill Townsley). In order to show Mr. Satan how much better he is now, he used science to create bio-engineered warriors. What isn’t know is that one of the townsfolk from the prior film had joined forces with Lord Jaguar with a DNA sample of Broly’s dead body to recreate Broly as a biowarrior. Goten (Kara Edwards) and Trunks (Laura Bailey) who also tagged along catch wind of this and help 18 and Mr. Satan keeping the biowarriors from taking over. The script for this entry was written by Takao Koyama who has been the go to person for these films.
For director Yoshihiro Ueda, although he hasn’t directed too many of the features, they still have worked on the series. There’s one glaring issue with this feature and that is the story. There really isn’t one, this is just another reason to get the original legendary super saiyan back in another film. Viewers aren’t going to care why Lord Jaguar doesn’t like Mr. Satan. That’s just the way it is, mostly. Surprisingly, the one thing writing does accomplish here is much better continuity from the show and the prior weaker film entry. For one, the townsfolk who felt pointless in the past movie now have a connection to this one and for a reason. The other is, one could practically place this film’s events right in between when Mr. Satan wins against 18 before the real terror Majin Buu appears.
Normally, these movies have either a character that doesn’t belong or takes place at a time where it would disrupt the shows current set of events that are unfolding. Now why the others couldn’t accomplish this, who knows. The acting is well performed as usual. Chris Rager as Mr. Satan is possibly the best part of the film due to the level of slapstick comedy he generates. Mr. Satan is just a completely wholesome and silly buffoon and that’s why a lot of people (viewers and animated fans alike) enjoy his presence. Meredith McCoy, Kara Edwards and Laura Bailey all voice their characters well too. Even Sonny Strait has a few lines in there, as well as Vic Mignogna, although technically he says no actual words.
Bill Townsley is also good as Lord Jaguar, however his role in the show has been for more notable characters. The animation still looks good for its time, and has the same classic 90s anime feel to it. The same goes for the action, which there is plenty of too. Lastly for music, the score was still meddled with by Mark Menza, but thankfully with no dated contemporary rock music. That doesn’t mean Menza’s score is great though, because the original music from Shunsuke Kikuchi should have been left alone. It really makes no sense why music should be rescored if it works as it does. It’s just very unnecessary.
Believe it or not, despite it not having any kind of remarkable story and with slightly better music although not great, this feature is better than Broly – Second Coming. This entry has better continuity, a different focus of characters which makes it fun, good voice acting and animation.
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