Dragon Ball Z Movie 01: Ora no Gohan wo Kaese!!

When I look back on the very first DBZ movie, I always find it ironic how it's actually among the best in the line up. Each of the following movies venture the exact same path, which is to provide the viewer with low brow entertainment through lots of action and comedy. I have no beef with this. The problem is, once you get pass the first batch of movies, you start to sense the lack of innovation and even creativity. They become unbelievably gimmicky and that feel of a cash in is all over the place. Dragon Ball Z is definitely an anime series youmust be a die hard fan of to consistently enjoy. Dragon Ball Z: The Dead Zone is a pretty fun title. It feels a lot more like the Dragon Ball series, as it takes the viewer on a near non stop action-filled ride. Almost from the very beginning, the action begins and rarely lets up, and it's actually a real joy to watch. The production values pretty much delivers; the battles do utilize that boring reused cel format, but the energy attacks and minimum choreography provide the fun. Especially during one of the moments when Goku is dodging and blocking various attacks from the combined might of the main villains goons. There are also some nice background shots of the palace they battle in, and later on in the destroyed ruins of the place. The battles at different points takes place during the evening under an orange sun set that looks really nice. Now normally when it comes down to voice acting, I prefer to watch the dub because that way I can focus better on animation and music without having to look down at subs. This is one of those rare moments I can't tolerate the dub though. The voice acting itself isn't the problem, but there's this one musical scene that takes place with Gohan that is far better in the sub, because it actually contains the song. While in English, the entire scene feels bland. On top of this, I do believe the sieyuu is far better, with the legendary Kamiya Akira voicing lead villain Garlic Jr and Masako Nozawa voicing Goku. They had some really good chemistry going here. The plot follows Goku as he tracks Gohan to the villain Garlic Jr. Garlic gathers the Dragon Balls to make a wish, and from here fist start flying again. During the later movies, characters will appear only to be taken down in record time. Here, characters like Piccolo and even Krillin are used pretty well. One of the main problems I've always heard about this movie was the 45 minute length. When looking at the fact this is a franchise flick that rarely has a good plot to work with anyway, and a majority of the time the action scenes aren't breaking any new ground. I just can't see length as a problem. If anything, Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone feels too ordinary even for that time. Overall, this is a solid movie that actually fits into main continuity, something you won't see often in the later movies. The action scenes do depict character deaths yet it's nothing over the top. The movie feels child friendly for the most part. Fans of the series will more than likely enjoy this. Newbies really shouldn't start here since character development is non existant. For them, I recommend coming into the first season of the main series. If that piques your interest enough to move further, then go ahead and give this a shot. Highs: Short and to the point, knows what it wants to be Lows: Average at best, mainly for fans of franchise

When it comes to the Dragonball films in general they usually follow something different. instead of the canon material that the series contains It instead mixes certain content from the series themselves but only to present a different setting that usually is not always direct from the series. So therefore, Do not go into watching them expecting anything that great of a premise in the first place since its not meant to do so, except just take them as special added content for its standard viewing alone. So on to the first Dragon Ball Z Movie When I finished watching the film, I thought it was just average.Nothing special, it mainly follows a group of demons that show up with the main lead villain Garlic Jr who looks to find the dragonballs and gain immortality which probably out of all the villains in the movies ironically Garlic Jr is the only one who manages to succeed in doing this, however this apparently backfires on him in the dumbest way possible towards the end of the film. As for the characters of course you have Goku, Piccolo, Gohan, Krillin and Kami as they battle against Garlic Jr along with his henchman on standby. Kami being there also shows a tense history between him and garlic jr from their past but also as well as a showdown its also a rescue mission for goku as his son gets kidnapped early on which as I mentioned at the start of this review the movies share similarities of content compared with the series since gohan being kidnap feels like that time when raditz in the series kidnap gohan also. The Characters I really don't need to give an introduction to as most people would know who they are already so I won't waste much time talking about them. As for the villains, I found them forgettable. Animation was very good funny enough, especially during the fight sequences as they look very fluid in combat. For a film that was aired back in 1989 during its initial release its surprisingly well done for something that came out over 25 years ago. Music was also okay but nothing memorable. The thing I didn't like in the film was the ending which was lame since the villain being immortal seals himself with his own move called the dead zone which for some reason is the title of this film and that to me is a dumb move for a villain with immortality to possess and I was also quite put off by gohan who starts getting high and going off into his own fantasy world being somewhere up in cloud 9 but all in all I feel this was mainly a mindless and not so long film to get through thankfully so despite having really dumb villains I still found this easy just to get through, All in all, its a very simplistic film meant for action and just passing some time.

Dragon Ball Z movie 1: Death Zone is a movie that can be watched before even starting Dragon Ball Z, but it requires finishing the original show if you want to know who the characters are. The story is about the son of the God of Earth's former rival Garlic Jr who wants revenge for his father's defeat and create a world for demons. To do that, he and his henchmen ambush Piccolo who is God's evil counterpart to indirectly eliminate him since the lives of God and Piccolo are connected. Because of circumstances, the main character's son has been kidnapped too. It is up toGoku, Krillin and Piccolo to stop Garlic Jr and save Gohan. It is a simple story with a rather unique premise for Dragon Ball. This is the only Dragon Ball movie God is involved and one of rare accessions he is involved in combat. Not to mention, we get more insight about his past and Garlic Jr doesn't feel like an antagonist that came out of nowhere like many other Dragon Ball antagonist. Visually this movie strikes as unique since in terms of presentation it really feels like a movie and not like an extended episodes. Even the use of colors are unique for Dragon Ball which frequently uses bright colors such as blue and green and fights are in daytime. In this movie, they use more eerie colors like reddish orange for the sky and a more darker color pallett on the fighting stage and antagonists giving a more demonic or scary feel. Action and humor are Dragon Ball's bread and butter and Death Zone combines them well since it is the transitioning period between Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, it can combine them excellently. Gohan is often used for the comic relief scenes but even in combat we see these when Goku fights Garlic Jr's henchmen which displays great use on weapons too which were useful back then. This movie is also the first time two characters who are enemies put their differences aside and work together. That being Goku and Piccolo showing how much of a threat Garlic Jr is that even the strongest characters up to this point have to work together. However there is some criticism. While many Dragon Ball Z movies don't fit the main story it doesn't hurt ignoring them or seeing them as what ifs. But if you want to watch Dragon Ball Z with filler and all, you are required to watch this movie since it will play a role in an arc of Dragon Ball Z. Meaning that not being able to explain the inconsistencies between anime series and film can be off putting since the characters meet Gohan in Z the first time but this movie can only work before watching Z in terms of fitting into the main story timeline of the anime adaptation of Dragon Ball. The last criticism is how the badguy is defeated because he is at fault mainly and another point might be considered a Deus Ex Machina which did get build up in the movie. But it isn't too bad when you watch or have watched Dragon Ball Z since it happens often and is someone's character trait that will get a payoff at some point. Overall this movie is good. Little short and lacks the transformations of the good guys many fans are hoping from Dragon Ball, and the main antagonist might not be that memorable, it still is an experience you will enjoy.

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