Dragon Ball Z Movie 08: Moetsukiro!! Nessen, Ressen, Chougekisen

Dragon Ball Z Movie 8 The legendary Super Saiyan is the best Dragon Ball movie so far and the first Dragon Ball film with an actual movie length of 80 minutes giving the writers enough runtime to craft a fantastic story.
The movie's premise is about Paragus, another Saiyan survivor, inviting Vegeta and his friends to Planet Neo Vegeta to rebuild what Saiyan's lost and with Vegeta finally becoming a king. Since Vegeta isn't interested, Paragus baits him with a warrior with immense power: The Legendary Super Saiyan who up to this point in the anime version was hyped as a warrior that appears once every ... 1000 years. Even at the beginning of the movie, the power of Broli was hyped up as even King Kai gets terrified enough to ask Goku for help.

Before the real review starts, there is a big misconception about the movie and its lead villain Broli as many think he has no depth and has a lame backstory, mostly stemming from a fan parody by Team4Stars who seem to have a personal grudge against the character. But there is a reason why Broli was and is still as popular as he is since if he hadn't a personality or was a bland villain, he would be forgotten like Super 13 or Bojack. But instead, Broli spawned 4 total Dragon Ball movies and was popular enough to get 3 new incarnations of his character: Broly (from Dragon Ball Super movie Broly), female Broli (from Dragon Ball Super) and Bio Broli (from the Dragon Ball Z movie Bio Broli).
These so called "facts" by the fans will be debunked in this review.

This movie does a great job in redeeming the Super Saiyan form as in the anime it was claimed to be a form that appears once every 1000 years, but over the course of the series there are multiple characters to take the form. Not to mention, this suppose unbeatable form gets rendered useless in the face of some robots build by an army Goku destroyed when he was a kid. Basically, Super Saiyan was downgraded into a mere power up instead of a mystical form that appears in the time of need that can't be stopped. Thus the REAL Super Saiyan brings it back to its near undefeatable glory.

Broli does what Broly (from DBS) does better backstory wise as his connection to Goku is build better since they were born the same day instead around the same time giving the concept of destiny being involved more believability. There are many symbolisms that can be drawn out by it and the movie plays with the idea of who and what the legendary Super Saiyan really is:
- Broli has the power of the legendary Super Saiyan and is destined to destroy the universe. He embodies everything what Saiyans prior to DBS existing stand for but on a higher magnitude.
- Goku has the spirit and potential of the legendary Super Saiyan and destined to save the universe. He embodies everything what Saiyans don't stand for, a warrior with a kind heart and got the benefit of being trained by various martial art masters.
In other words, one rejected his Saiyan nature and the other fully embraced it. If anything, Broli is a perfect counterpart to Goku and possesses more than just looking like him what many "Evil Goku's" try yet fail.
Even their upbringings clash as both are exceptions to how Saiyans are treated after birth. As usually Saiyans with low power like Goku are sent to places with no real challenge as Saiyans with high power levels, the elites, are treated with respect. Goku was sent to a planet where he got the benefit to be trained by literal gods while Broli was meant to be executed because he was too strong hence being dangerous.

Broli is one of few characters who is muscular in Dragon Ball and can be taken serious as a threat. He takes full advantage of his body and the movie makes sure that the viewer can imagine the feeling by each impact delivered by his attacks.
Broli was portrayed as an unmovable force, like many villains prior, he took attacks head on without any damage. But unlike those prior villains, Broli actively walked into attacks giving the feeling that nobody can stop this monster and proving his self confidence.
Personality wise Broli shines in this movie. At the start, you won't see it because of a mind control device that actively prevents Broli from thinking. Once he transforms, Broli shows his true face in one of the best transformation sequences in the franchise which is terrifying in any language you view this movie in. Broli is a psychopath who enjoys torturing his opponents and breaking their battle spirit. Each action he does is done with that in mind as he would ask someone how much they care about a certain person hinting his next target basically showing Broli understanding others' feelings and wanting to destroy them. Broli's dialogue has hidden intentions giving him a lot of depth many modern fans don't give him credit for.
The most terrifying thing about Broli is however that one cannot escape his wrath as many characters believe they escaped him only for him to appear and crush their hopes the last minute.

Paragus is one of two characters that show how terrifying Broli is. During the movie his pride and love for Broli gets shown but also his ever lasting fear which proves King Vegeta's decision right forcing Paragus something he never intended to do at the beginning. His main goal is to take revenge against Vegeta which conflicts with his fear about losing control of Broli.
As a villain, Paragus is also very effective despite not having the power to oppose the good guys since he is far in power to many major character involved in this movie. So he has to find other means to defeat them.

The other character terrified of Broli is Vegeta as Broli represents everything Vegeta wanted to be. Vegeta as a character, since he is royalty considered himself to stand above all Saiyans which is why he has a massive grudge against Goku. However, Broli's entire existence challenged this idea even more by having a power that makes Vegeta look like a mere insect despite not having royal blood. And thus tackling the concept of class vs talent and status vs power.

Future Trunks serves as the voice of reason for Vegeta and since this movie is about the mightiest Saiyan, there is a necessity to have all Saiyans involved that can put a fight.

Goku in this movie represents everything Broli stands against. Despite all the torture Goku received, he still didn't back down from Broli. Even back when they were babies, Broli could sense something in Goku others couldn't and the movie showed it in various ways as both babies fought by crying which in many cultures symbolize guts and being in good health. And it can be reasoned with that Broli associates his execution attempt with Goku beating him back then. Goku also served as a motivation for Vegeta to step out of his shell and face his fears.

Visually the movie stands out too. Since the battle takes place at night, the characters wearing bright outfits stand out. Especially Broli who has a unique color pallet even by modern Dragon Ball standards making him stand out in every single panel shot with the dark blue sky in the background. There are also many Broli shots that let the character fill the entire screen seen from below making him look even more imposing.
Lastly there environment plays a massive role in this movie. Not just visually but also as a massive disaster is threatening everyone aside from Broli through it adding a time limit in addition to the fight where victory seems to be impossible to archive.
The environment also played a role moreso in combat itself as it lures the viewers and combatants in false security before Broli manages to catch up and torment them.

Even tho this movie is amazing, there are some criticism. That being Piccolo being in the movie who basically exist to safe Gohan. However, he still was one of few characters that directly talked to Vegeta trying to convince him to participate.
Another negative might be how Broli lost which is through a similar mean to other movies. However, in this fight it seems more reasonable to show what Goku has over Broli adding a fitting end to conclude the film and the use of fate in how and where the attack was delivered. The movie has a lot of comedic scenes. They are funny but not in a memorable way since some seem to be referential ones which many viewers won't get. But the jokes don't overstay their welcome nor do they ruin the atmosphere too much especially since some of the characters have a good reason why they act so goofy despite a monster being let lose. Lastly the popularity of this movie also ends up being its downfall since it lead to several sequels which ruined this legendary character like retconning his transformation to an upgrade of Super Saiyan instead of being what Broli becomes when he turns Super Saiyan and devaluing the theme of fate from this movie.
And this movie is not possible to fit to the main storyline as Goku and Gohan, who look like they are from the Cell Saga, use their base form in this movie instead staying Super Saiyan the whole time.

Overall, if you care about finding out more about Saiyan culture, see more quality character development for Vegeta and a movie that explores more than just the fight against a strong villain this movie delivers on all fronts. Not to mention of its great use of all characters involved. This movie is a must see.

It's a good DBZ movie that explores the myth of the Legendary Super Saiyan. It delves into both the scenery and the characters, including the powerful force of the villain.

The fight scenes are very good, with each character, even Piccolo, battling against Broly. The destruction of the scenery during the fight blended well and had various changes in terrain.

It's a shame that in some scenes we see Goku being comedic, as this is a high-risk situation and there's no room for funny expressions, only seriousness.

Vegeta and his interactions fit well with the context, as he's obviously more influenced by the tradition and myths of the ... Saiyan race. This generates an atypical fear of the Saiyan and creates a humiliating scene.

Certainly, the most important focus of the movie is the character of Broly, who has a very cool design and, when he transforms, becomes an unstoppable monster that increases his power infinitely. Broly has a sadistic characteristic that fits well with his transformation, and this is demonstrated in the fights and in the destruction of the enslaved alien planet.

The way the fight ends is very simple and bad, something that is repeated in many DBZ movies. It's not easy to swallow, considering Broly is a very powerful character.

Anyway, the animation has the same quality as Z, and the soundtrack is also the same as Z.

Overall, this movie manages to create a good fight, realistic interactions for the characters, but with a poor conclusion

Next December, the highly anticipated “Dragon Ball Super Movie: Broly” (which will finally fulfill the wishes of many Dragon Ball fans of bringing the character to the canon) will hit theaters, so I decided to check once again “Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan”, the first of the 3 old DBZ non-canon movies featuring the villain and also the most popular and favorited one probably along “Fusion Reborn”, only to confirm my bewilderment on how can the former hold this distinction.

First of all, most of the old DBZ movies tell a story that either just can’t fit in the chronology of the main story (implying ... a continuity break) or unnaturally interferes with it in a questionable way, failing to build much interest in the audience due to the sense of irrelevancy and/or discontinuity, and this one is no exception. Right in the midst of the confrontation against Cell, and knowing how their world is in danger thanks to his presence, Goku happily accepts Kaio’s petition to investigate and deal with a threat coming from the southern galaxy without even knowing how much time this is going to take him, and Vegeta, who only wanted to fight Cell as soon as possible to prove himself, receives an invitation of another saiyan survivor called Paragus not only to become the king of a restored saiyan empire in a new planet, but also to fight against the legendary super saiyan who, according to Paragus, is causing havoc in the aforementioned galaxy, represents a threat to the new empire and Vegeta is the only one who can defeat him. The saiyan prince, who always heard stories about him, doesn’t even ask him why he would represent that since he was supposedly one of theirs, and tempted by the possibility to restore the glory of his race, also accepts to leave the same as Goku, both completely forgetting about Cell’s imminent threat and whose name, despite this, was curiously never ever mentioned throughout the entirety of this movie, as if that threat had never existed in the first place.

How is the audience supposed to buy this? Was it really that hard to add just a tad of credibility by just dedicating a few lines of the script to this situation? Just a simple “hey guys, let’s make this quick, remember we have to go back to Earth soon to fight Cell!”? I know this lack of credibility and realism is present in many DBZ movies, but that is still no excuse. Anyway, once they arrive on the planet, they meet Broly, the son of Paragus and a very peculiar saiyan survivor characterized by a suspicious calmed and gentle personality (an uncommon trait for the saiyan race), but who in reality was hiding a monster inside that was going to cause a lot of troubles for the Z team.

It just boggles me how Broly can be one of most beloved and popular villains among the DB fans. He is totally uninteresting, even for DBZ movies standards, or more precisely, was made uninteresting in the way. He could have been an intriguing villain. As someone who was overthrown and sentenced to death by his own people -given the threat he represented to the King for being born with an enormous power he had never asked for-, condemned to wander through the galaxies living in inhospitable conditions and who was later mind-controlled by his own father who wanted to make use of his colossal strength for his selfish purposes, he had a lot of valid reasons to be angry inside, to seek for revenge, and the potential to become more than just your average forgettable DBZ movie villain who wanted to conquer the world or something…was always there. But unfortunately, the movie failed to take advantage of this potential at all by presenting him at first as this enigmatic robotic dude who doesn’t say anything, doesn’t do anything besides making these wacky angry facial expressions whenever he stares at Goku (in such a way that it feels almost as if he was programmed to do so) and by then turning him into a dull over-muscled beast with just 2 brain cells: one that he uses to destroy and kill everything in his path, and the other one to yell: “Kakarott!”. And this was everything the movie did with his character, the famous Legendary Super Saiyan!

We never get to know how he really feels or what he thinks about everything he has had to live, what his true motivations are, because he never speaks a single relevant line about himself; when he’s not the beast, his mind and behavior are under control (with a machine that the movie never even bothered to tell us how his father invented or how does it work, not even a single simple and quick explanation: it just does!) and when he becomes the beast, he doesn’t (and maybe, he just can’t) say anything about himself either, he just limits to yell: “Kakarott!”, leaving everything to speculation and allowing for some people to believe that, given the few-friends face he put to Goku and the obsession he develops towards him, the reason of all his anger was as stupid as he couldn’t bear Goku crying all the time next to him when they were babies, when the case could have perfectly been that, for some reason, he was to him just the embodiment of all the suffering he had to go through. Things are, since the information provided was so little and confusing, we could never know, losing all the opportunities to make the audience feel anything for him. At the end of the day he’s a completely shallow character, nothing else but a killing machine that likes destroying everything in his way pretty much like how Kid Buu was, except this time not even half charismatic and “lovable” like he was.

The other aspects of the movie weren’t better. First, no matter how uninteresting your villain is, you can always arrange some exciting action scenes, which also wasn’t the case here. The confrontation (that takes half the movie) was incredibly tedious and flat, failing to create any tension or genuine excitement, so much that you just wanted the Z team to finish the job quickly to get back to Earth and resume their conflict with the much more interesting Cell.

Speaking about Cell, Goku’s complete carefree attitude like if he didn’t have to solve this situation as soon as possible because Dr. Gero’s creation was waiting for him, not giving weight to the threat, was not believable. Goku was never that dumb! (At least not in the Z era). Vegeta acting out-of-character, easily surrendering after noticing Broly’s superiority, and as the prideful warrior he always was, also didn’t make sense; that was never part of his personality. Gohan, who was supposedly as powerful as his father (or even more) by this time, didn’t do much besides being passively part of the final solution and helping the alien race from the harsh labor conditions under which they had to work for Paragus, the same as Krilin and Trunks. And Roshi and Oolong, who had absolutely nothing to do here, were also included in the quest just for the sake of adding unnecessary comedy, which was terrible, unfunny and totally forced, doing no favor.

Finally, the ending of the movie feels like…”well, let’s end this, whatever way, and let’s get out of here quickly”. After a tedious, over-stretched fight, we had a rushed conclusion with the climax literally happening in the last minute before credits start rolling and goodbye.

Art and animation are pretty good, and in fact, better than the actual main series. But every single DBZ movie also does, so this is nothing particularly special here. Though I have to say I liked the greenish design of Broly’s hair and aura, which highlighted his status as an advanced and superior super saiyan. The music included some of the main series tunes (at least in the Japanese version, don’t know the dubbed one) but somehow I feel it was just ok, it couldn’t emphasize the intrigue and the action enough as opposed to what the main series always did so well.

To sum up, “Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan”, was just a total letdown. It promised to be one of the best but at the end became one of the most lackluster of all the old DBZ movies. To be fair, most of them are, but as one of the most relevant given its direct connection with the franchise’s most important storyline (the saiyan race), in this case the result should have been better. It missed the opportunity to leverage the legend of the Legendary Super Saiyan (forgive the redundancy) Vegeta was always talking about during the Frieza arc and was painfully boring, as opposed to the other two Broly based movies (“Broly: Second Coming” and “Bio-Broly”) which at least were funnier to watch since they featured the naughty kids Goten and Trunks going in an adventure and were considerably more enjoyable. I’ll honestly never understand what the DB fans found so good and entertaining in this movie and in Broly, who to me was never anything else than an over-muscled, 2 brain-celled beast obsessed with Goku for God knows why reasons, and I’m really hoping the upcoming movie, this time canon, could do something more interesting with the character and his backstory. 4.5/10.