Dragon Ball Z Movie 12: Fukkatsu no Fusion!! Gokuu to Vegeta

After a janitorial mishap, an unsuspecting custodian transforms into Janemba, a fat, yellow demon who wreaks havoc throughout the afterlife. Gokuu Son has been competing in martial arts tournaments for the undead since his heroic death in the battle against Cell. Soon, Janemba's chaos draws Gokuu and fellow combatant Pikkon toward him, forcing the pair to figure out a way to defeat the giant monster.

After a bout with him, Gokuu witnesses Janemba undergo another transformation: the demon sheds his fat and changes color, turning into a sword-wielding enemy more powerful than anyone Gokuu has faced thus far. With the aid of his similarly deceased rival Vegeta, Gokuu must stop the terrifying Janemba from disrupting the very fabric of the universe.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Son, Gokuu Main

Nozawa, Masako Japanese

Vegeta Main

Horikawa, Ryo Japanese

Gogeta Main

Nozawa, Masako Japanese

Janemba Main

Genda, Tesshou Japanese

Son, Gohan Supporting

Nozawa, Masako Japanese

Freeza Supporting

Nakao, Ryusei Japanese

Trunks Supporting

Kusao, Takeshi Japanese

Bulma Supporting

Tsuru, Hiromi Japanese

Son, Goten Supporting

Nozawa, Masako Japanese

Videl Supporting

Minaguchi, Yuko Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Watson, Barry Producer

Yamauchi, Shigeyasu Director, Storyboard

Koyama, Takao Script

Reviews

Jan 1, 2025

N0T3LI_

Recommended

Fusion Reborn is EASILY the best Dragon Ball movie so far. It has pretty much everything you could want from one of these.
Taking place somewhere within the Majiin Buu Arc, this movie centers around a disaster in the afterlife. Havoc breaks loose when the culmination of evil thoughts of all humans is concentrated into one being: Janemba.

Transforming the arena into a colorful array of jelly beans, this creature at first seems quite harmless- but back on Earth, the imbalance causes the dead to rise. Old villains return for more, like Frieza (and HITLER???) while Goku fights the reality bending blob.
The fight sequences themselves in these ... movies are really nicely done, and flow well. Janemba can create portals and basically camps Goku. It really kicks up when Goku transforms into SSJ3- and Janemba gets a transformation of his own. Phasing in and out of reality, he wields a blood sword and pushes Goku to the brink. The last section of this movie involves biding time as Goku and Vegeta attempt to get their fusion down right. When they finally do, an epic conclusion sends everything back into place.

This is also the best looking movie since Dead Zone and The Worlds Strongest (some really nice thick line-art). I personally loved this movie, and trudging through some of the more tedious films in this franchise was well worth it. It's comedy is pretty on point with Goten and Trunks, and there's some pretty cute moments with Videl and Gohan. Overall I highly reccomend!

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Oct 22, 2023

Jolt9515

Mixed Feelings

Let’s get straight to the point, this is without a doubt the most overrated original DBZ movie by a long shot. Even on my 4th watch, I fail to understand why people consider this the greatest Dragon Ball anything when it's just another boring story with admittedly good looking animation (at points). The only reason anyone likes this movie is because of one scene at the very end that barely lasts 3 minutes of screen time.

STORY
Fusion Reborn has a pretty strong setup and introduction (as most of these Z movies tend to have). After the defeat of Majin Buu (presumably in a timeline where Goku ... was not brought back to life by the Elder Kaioshin) a second Otherworld Tournament is taking place. Now I really enjoy the Otherworld, I think it’s Toriyama’s most visually striking and creative locations, (certainly more so than rocky wastelands or grassy plains!), and I find Paikuhan to be a pretty well done anime original character. As the fight between Goku and Paikuhan gets underway, we get an ominous voiceover telling of a great danger that will soon arise at the Otherworld Check-In station, followed by the 2nd Z opening We Gotta Power (a welcome addition, it is a great OP)

After the short break, we are reintroduced to Lord Enma and the primary function of the Otherworld, to sort the good and evil spirits who pass through. If you watched DBZ, you should be familiar with how Otherworld works, but for those who don’t, what you really need to know for this story is that all evil souls are sent to Hell, where their souls are cleansed and reincarnated into the living world. In Hell we see this soul cleaner in action, holding a glass tank for all the “evil ki” to be dumped into (basically nuclear waste). A teenage demon operating as the tank clerk isn’t paying attention when suddenly the tank housing all of this evil ki clogs the machine and causes not just it, but all the other tanks to burst, releasing all the stored evil into Otherworld. The demon begins to transmogrify into a being called Janemba, which I guess is supposed to be a conglomeration of all the evil ki in Otherworld.

Janemba’s distortion of the living world and the Otherworld is the primary conflict of the movie, and unfortunately this is where the interesting part ends. From here we get the typical Dragon Ball Z action that many know and love. Later in the film we see Freeza, as well as many of the movie villains, begin to attack Earth, and Gohan (as the Great Saiyaman) goes to stop them. This could’ve been a pretty interesting rematch, but unlike in DBS, Freeza was not able to train, and gets one shot by a Super Saiyan Gohan. There’s a lot of other weird antics we get to see on Earth, like Goten and Trunks fighting Hitler, but as outlandish and absurd as it is I can’t say I’m a fan.

CHARACTERS
Alright, starting off with the man of the hour Goku. Goku is Goku. There’s not really much to add, he’s pretty much the same as he’s always been. Goku trying to figure out how to fight fat Janemba was pretty fun to watch. That’s all I really have to say

Paikuhan: Earlier I praised Paikuhan as a well done anime original character, but unfortunately he doesn’t do much in this movie. I suppose he does figure out the primary weakness of the evil ki barriers (I just call them the jellybeans) floating around, as well as Janemba itself, being…shouting insults at it? It’s a silly concept that could really only fit in the world of Dragon Ball. At the end of the movie Pikkon tells Goku and Vegeta that he’ll hold off Janemba while they undergo fusion, but then proceeds to get absolutely washed by Janemba IMMEDIATELY, so that was pretty funny I guess.

Vegeta: Oh boy Vegeta. Where to begin? I said at the beginning that this movie presumably takes place AFTER the Buu Saga ended. Why is this important? At the end of the Buu Saga, Vegeta has arguably his biggest character moment in the series in admitting that Goku is indeed number one, and from there we can assume that he starts to push his ego aside when it comes to a threat like Janemba. Well for those of you who think Super regressed Vegeta’s character, I point you to this movie. Vegeta is so goddamn insufferable it's honestly surprising. He insists that HE and HE ALONE will be the one to defeat that weakling Janemba WITHOUT the help of that clown Kakarrot, and outright REFUSES to do Fusion (even though he agreed to use the Potara before this movie happened). When he gets taken out by one of Janemba’s attacks, he whines that “even in the Next World I’m still inferior to Kakarrot.” This is honestly the worst depiction of Vegeta in the series to me, arguably worse than in the Tournament of Power.

Janemba: Conceptually, Janemba isn’t bad at all. I’m one of the few people who doesn’t absolutely hate the Buu Saga, so I’m all for this force of nature kind of villain. He has a shit ton of cool abilities and tricks up his sleeve that keep the fight scenes pretty engaging, one of the few things I liked about this movie.

The other characters don’t really have enough screen time for me to make any meaningful comments on them. Moving on to…

ANIMATION
I have to admit, this movie has some really good animation, especially Super Saiyan 3 Goku vs Janemba. There’s a reason that clip is one of the 2 things people post to tell you how good this movie is!! Seriously though, not just Fusion Reborn, but all the Z movies have moments that are really well animated. No complaints from me.

SOUND
Not bad at all, typical of what you would expect from Dragon Ball performances. The soundtrack was pretty good but nothing super memorable.

CONCLUSION
Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn is a film with a strong premise and terrible execution. It relies on its good animation and cool moments to make up for an otherwise underwhelming story. Not the worst of the Z movies, but it’s certainly not the masterpiece that fans will try to say it is.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jan 1, 2023

redwaifu

Not Recommended

This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I wanted to watch this after seeing the goku vs janemba clip on YouTube. I thought the whole movie would be like that but no, this movie is unfunny, stupid and childish. I love dbz, I love some of the movies. But this was terrible. It feels like the target audience is 3 year old. I'm genuinely surprised most dbz fans love this movie because to me it was insultingly stupid. But then again anime fans aren't exactly known for liking high quality. This and bio broly are offensively bad and if you care ... about your time I would suggest you don't watch this

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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