When it comes to main franchises, keeping stories in order can be tricky. For the sequel series to Dragonball, Dragon Ball Z has started out with its episodes and feature films coming out fairly in line with each other. Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone (1989) was right in line with the start of the Saiyan saga that was about to begin as the first season. It’s a nice bridge between the last season of Dragon Ball and the beginning of Dragon Ball Z. As to what it looks like, when the Saiyan saga or first season ended, another feature was released under this title. At this point, things are working out okay, somewhat.
This story follows Earth’s heroes caught in the way of Dr. Kochin (Troy Baker) and his master Dr. Wheelo (R. Bruce Elliott) looking to take over the world. However, in order to do that Dr. Kochin needs to capture the body of the world’s strongest fighter. With that, they capture Master Roshi (Mike McFarland) and Bulma (Tiffany Vollmer) with their bio-engineered fighters. The thing they don’t know is that Goku (Sean Schemmel) is now the strongest fighter and no longer Roshi. With that, Goku is about to face his next biggest enemy. Written by Takao Koyama and directed by Daisuke Nishio who have been the familiar duo for the last few films, this movie remains in line with how the others have been produced. Sort of. There does seem to be some issues though.
As stated before, there are important parts about this film that show that the narrative to this entry is somewhere after season one. Reason for this being Goku is able to perform the Kaoken and spirit bomb techniques. Those moves only existed after the first season. On top of that, Gohan (Stephanie Nadolny) now has a stronger relationship with Piccolo (Chris Sabat). The problem is that in this film Piccolo is alive, and was resurrected in season two. The only time there would be a break was inbetween Namek and Earth that’s after season three and that wouldn’t be until 1992. Everything would have lined up perfectly if Piccolo was not featured in this entry or he was shown to be gone. The introduction of Dr. Wheelo and Kochin is okay though. It’s the same kind of context like the previous film with Garlic Jr.
Although Dr. Wheelo and Kochin were never shown in the Dragonball series, them being written in works despite it not being the best. It is interesting to know that even for the supporting characters like Bulma have villains tied to them and not just Goku. The voice acting for this feature now has all the current actors behind the characters. Stephanie Nadolny as Gohan, Sonny Strait as Krillin, Cynthia Cranz as Chi-Chi and Bradford Jackson as Oolong all reprise their roles as their respective characters. Nothing can replace those voices as they are the most iconic of the English dub of the anime. Troy Baker as Dr. Kochin and R. Bruce Elliot as Dr. Wheelo have gone on to voice for various other animes but start off here sounding convincing too.
The animation style to this feature is as what one would expect it to be from this era of 1990s. Anime during this time had a certain charm about it only true fans can appreciate even with its flaws. While it still doesn’t make sense as to why cinematography is needed by Motoaki Ikegami, doesn’t go explained or is seen very clearly. Surprisingly again, the musical score to this entry was rewritten as well. Composing the new score this time was Nathan M. Johnson which fits the scenes shown. For a lot of the scientific aspects for Dr. Wheelo and Kochin, Johnson relies on creepy sounding synthesizers. Again, it fits but if Shunsuke Kikuchi had originally scored the feature, so why change it? Kikuchi’s music needed no changes at any point for any aspect of the franchise. It makes no sense to do such things.
This feature almost fits perfectly from a timeline perspective but it doesn’t because of Piccolo. Cinematography and the new score is unnecessary too. The animation, voice acting and new batch of villains make it still interesting to watch.
Points Earned --> 5:10
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