Author: Travis Hayward
CHA-LA! HEAD-CHA-LA! Dragon Ball Super has finally returned! While the English dub of the hit anime series is still airing on Adult Swim, it has been well over a year since any new Dragon Ball Super content has been produced. While the series ended happily, the door was open for more stories. Thankfully, Dragon Ball creator, Akira Toriyama, has more story to tell.
Broly begins 41 years before the present day on the Saiyan planet Vegeta. The Saiyan King Vegeta III exiles the unusually powerful newborn Saiyan Broly to a desolate planet for fear that he may one day overshadow the night of his son, Vegeta IV. Broly’s father, Paragus, goes after the infant in another spaceship, but the two crash land and remain stranded on the desolate planet Vampa. Paragus vows to raise Broly into a mighty warrior and one day take his revenge on the Vegeta family.
In the present day, after the finale of the Dragon Ball Super series, we see our heroes Goku and Vegeta sparring and longing to tap even more into their hidden potential. Vegeta’s wife, Bulma, receives a call from their son Trunks telling them their Dragon Balls were stolen, but they’ve traced the thief’s location to the Arctic. Our heroes head to the frozen continent to find that their arch-nemesis Lord Frieza is waiting for them, and he’s brought Broly and Paragus with him, having found them on Vampa. While Goku and Vegeta are shocked at the revelation that two more Saiyans survived the cataclysm that destroyed their homeworld, Paragus makes no hesitation in unleashing his son’s raw, untamed power on Vegeta.
With an original script, story, and character designs by Toriyama, Broly succeeds on a level none of the other Dragon Ball films have reached. The film spends the first twenty minutes tapping into the backstories of the three main characters (Goku, Vegeta, and Broly), which is something we, as an audience, have only heard about up until this point. The film should also be noted for completely reconstructing the character of Broly, who was previously known as a mindless brute force, and making him a sympathetic man who suffered under the abuse of his vengeful father for many years. The animation and visual effects are also astounding, with certain aspects of the fight sequences switching between 2D and 3D animation.
With top-notch acting, direction, animation, and story-line, Dragon Ball Super: Broly is a MUST for all franchise fans.
Rated: PG (for prolonged frenetic sequences of action and violence and language)
Director: Tatsuya Nagamine
Staring: Masako Nozawa, Aya Hisakawa, Bin Shimada, and Ryo Horikawa
Screenwriter: Akira Toriyama
Genre: Animation
Synopsis:
A planet destroyed, a powerful race reduced to nothing. After the devastation of Planet Vegeta, three Saiyans were scattered among the stars, destined for different fates. While two found a home on Earth, the third was raised with a burning desire for vengeance and developed an unbelievable power. And the time for revenge has come. Destinies collide in a battle that will shake the universe to its core!