Galaxy Express 999

Though Leiji Matsumoto is a popular mangaka and anime director, I will admit the only work of his that I was familiar with for the longest time was his collaboration with Daft Punk, Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, based on the band’s Discovery album. Aside from that, Matsumoto also has a number of works, either his creation or with his direction, that share a universe with an overarching space setting known by fans as the Leijiverse (Intertsella 5555 being one exception). Among these that I’m more aware of are Space Battleship Yamato, Space Pirate Captain Harlock and Galaxy Express 999; the last of these was a manga by Matsumoto that was adapted into an anime that itself received a more compressed film adaptation directed by Rintaro, which I recently decided to watch. Without having seen the source material, I thought the movie was overall really good, though there were some minor nitpicks that bothered me a little.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly

Note: The following review contains spoilers for Dragon Ball Super.

Since Broly’s first introduction in Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan, he has become a popular, if divisive, character among fans. After 25 years and two prior movies, Broly is the subject of a new movie, Dragon Ball Super: Broly, which not only sees him reinterpreted by Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, but also officially inserted into the Dragon Ball canon, following the events of Dragon Ball Super. Following a recent theatrical screening of the official English release, we can safely say that this film’s version of Broly is significantly improved in just about every way.

Following the Tournament of Power, Universe 7 has returned to a peaceful state. With the knowledge of stronger fighters in other Universes, Goku (Sean Schemmel) continually trains with Vegeta (Christopher Sabat) so that he can better fight them in the future. During a sparring session, six of the seven Dragon Balls are stolen from Bulma’s (Monica Rial) lab by members of the Frieza Force, which leads them to travel to the Arctic to retrieve the final Ball before Frieza (Christopher Ayres) can. When they reach their destination, however, they are forced to fight a Saiyan named Broly (Vic Mignogna), who turns out to be their strongest adversary yet.

The story is somewhat complex, though pretty easy to follow. The first part of the movie explores the origins of the Saiyans and their relationship with Frieza, specifically the events surrounding the destruction of Planet Vegeta and what led up to it. We also see the new origin story for Broly and his father, Paragus (Dameon Clarke), which provides a better motivation and context for their actions while tying them into the Dragon Ball timeline pretty seamlessly. However, there is somewhat of a pacing issue when the backstory shows Bardock (Sonny Strait), since his attempt to defend Planet Vegeta occurs very quickly after protecting his son, Goku, by sending him off-world.

When the story gets to the present day, it moves along at a better pace. It doesn’t waste too much time to get to the confrontation with Broly, but it spends enough time to properly flesh him out into a more three-dimensional character with his own personality and desires that clash heavily with what Paragus wants from him. This helps to make Broly more sympathetic and provide a deeper motivation for his anger-induced fighting abilities. Once the fight with Broly begins, the movie follows a similar trend from Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan where the majority of the remaining runtime is spent on the fight. Unlike the original Broly movie, however, the fight is more of a tense back-and-forth, with a couple major scenery changes, that escalates to a climactic finish that, in the end, feels earned.

Broly (Vic Mignogna, left) in a fight with Vegeta (Christopher Sabat, right).

As for the animation, it’s quite simply the best that Dragon Ball media has to offer. A bump in quality is to be expected from a movie with a higher budget than a typical anime episode, but the difference is spectacular here. Largely due to a change in character designer, with Naohiro Shintani replacing Tadayoshi Yamamuro after a decades-long run on the franchise, the designs are more animation-friendly, which allows the fights to be animated with unprecedented fluidity. Even outside of the fight scenes, the vivid color palette helps everything pops off the screen as a visual feast for the eyes.

During the actual fights, every movement is very fluid and the animation is highly consistent while still retaining the feeling of hand-drawn animation. There’s a portion of the fight against Broly that’s rendered in CG, but the stylized approach to it, seemingly inspired by Dragon Ball FighterZ, helps it blend in to the point where it’s hardly noticeable. Energy moves are very flashy and in a greater abundance than Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan, but does nothing to remove the tension of the fight. In fact, I felt a chill while witnessing Broly’s new transformation sequence, as the animation was able to perfectly capture the pure rage that built up within him throughout the fight.

Paragus (Dameon Clarke) as portrayed in Dragon Ball Super: Broly.

Of course, the English voice acting is the best I’ve heard yet for the returning characters, as the same voice actors have been playing them for over 20 years. Having seen Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan beforehand, there was an especially noticeable improvement in Vic Mignogna’s portrayal of Broly and Dameon Clarke’s portrayal of Paragus, the latter of which sounded much less stiff and more emotive than before. I also liked the voices of the newly introduced characters, including Erica Lindbeck as Cheelai and Bruce Carey as Lemo, as they seemed to fit the characters.

If there’s one real criticism, it would be that Goku and Vegeta don’t really have a character arc to speak of. Apart from some character development for Goku at the very end, neither of them really changes in any significant way. However, since this film placed a lot of emphasis on fleshing out Broly as a character, one could argue that this was really less of a “Goku” or “Vegeta” movie and (fittingly enough) more of a “Broly” movie.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly is, simply put, the best Dragon Ball film I’ve ever seen (even if I haven’t seen very many). The story and development of Broly are both a vast improvement over Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan and the animation shows just how far the franchise has come and how far it could continue to go with a new character designer and animator at the helm. This is a must-see for Dragon Ball fans, especially if you’ve also seen Dragon Ball Super or are a fan of Broly in general. Though the story is written in a way that could potentially be viewed on its own, it’s still not completely penetrable for those unfamiliar with Dragon Ball. That said, if you’re in that camp, I’d still recommend it on the animation and character of Broly alone.

Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan

If you’ve been in enough discussions about Dragon Ball, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of the character Broly. Making his debut in 1993 in the non-canon film Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan (Dragon Ball Z: Burn Up!! A Close Fight - A Violent Fight - A Super Fierce Fight in Japan), Broly went on to become a rather popular character within the fandom, more so than any of the other movie-exclusive villains in the franchise, to the point where he even got representation as a DLC fighter in the recent game Dragon Ball FighterZ, a game whose roster is otherwise devoted to select canon characters as of the Dragon Ball Super anime. The endurance of Broly’s popularity would ultimately culminate in the debut of a canon version of the character in the recent film Dragon Ball Super: Broly. In preparation for the new film, we have decided to rewatch Funimation’s 2003 dub of the original Broly film (via the Broly Triple Feature Blu-ray collection) as a way to compare the two versions of the character.

While Chi-Chi (Cynthia Cranz) is trying to get him to behave in order to get Gohan into a private school, Goku (Sean Schemmel) receives a distress call from King Kai and is forced to leave via instant transmission. Meanwhile, a picnic involving the other Z fighters is interrupted by the appearance of a Saiyan named Paragus (Dameon Clarke), who tells Vegeta (Christopher Sabat) about the creation of a new Planet Vegeta (the Saiyan homeworld). As Vegeta, under the promise of fighting the Legendary Super Saiyan, goes along with Paragus, Master Roshi (Mike McFarland) ends up getting himself, Krillin (Sonny Strait), Gohan (Stephanie Nadolny) and Oolong (Bradford Jackson) on board, with Future Trunks (Eric Vale) getting on board just as the ship closes. On the new planet, Paragus introduces his son Broly (Vic Mignogna) as Vegeta’s servant. When Goku arrives, his presence causes Broly to act up, one of many signs that something is not right about the new Planet Vegeta.

While the plot is pretty straightforward, there isn’t much to it, as the bulk of the second half of the movie is dedicated to the actual fight with Broly, the aforementioned Legendary Super Saiyan. While Broly himself is indeed an interesting character, his backstory didn’t seem to have enough exploration as it could have, as while we do get to see it, his motivation for fighting Goku is rather lacking. That said, the final battle is very well-done and has some actual tension as the other fighters along with Goku try and figure out how to stop Broly, even if the reason for his downfall is a little questionable. Though the movie is non-canon, it seems to place itself sometime around the Cell Saga in the series, given the presence of Future Trunks and his participation in the events, as well as only the base Super Saiyan form being available to Saiyan characters in this story.

Goku (left, Sean Schemmel) preparing a Kamehameha against Broly (right,
Vic Mignonga) in his Legendary Super Saiyan form.

Even though animation quality in general has improved significantly since this film’s original debut in 1993, the animation holds up surprisingly well. The animation of the Broly fight is especially good, as is his transformation into a Super Saiyan that only serves to highlight his raw power. Though the voice actors have greatly improved in their performances of their respective characters over time, the voice acting still holds up as they display the experience they still had in their roles. Vic Mignogna, best known as Edward Elric in the Fullmetal Alchemist franchise, is an interesting choice for Broly, however he still manages to show great range as he plays Broly more calmly in his base form until the character begins to transform, where his performance is truly menacing. Mignogna would continue to voice Broly in the film’s two sequels, Broly – Second Coming and Bio-Broly, as well as reprise the role years later in Dragon Ball Super: Broly.

The Funimation dub also introduced a number of additional songs to its soundtrack, most notably “10’s” by metal group Pantera. I would comment on this, however I cannot since the Broly Triple Feature Blu-ray version restores the original Japanese soundtrack, for those who are curious. That said, the soundtrack was good for what it was, working with its more minimalist nature to highlight certain moments when deserved.

Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan is worth giving a watch, if only to see the origins of a rather popular Dragon Ball character. That aside, while the movie is a little light on plot, what little there is is actually pretty well-written, though the main draw is a fantastically-animated battle backed by some really good voice acting. This movie is made more for existing Dragon Ball fans than non-fans, though its execution makes it probably one of the easier non-canon films for a non-fan to watch.

One Piece Film: Gold

In case you’re unfamiliar with One Piece, it’s a long-running series about a boy named Monkey D. Luffy who assembles a motley crew of pirates who wish to fulfill their dreams as he sets sail across the ocean to find the legendary One Piece and become King of the Pirates. The lasting popularity of One Piece has spawned a large amount of tie-in material, including merchandise, video games and movies. The thirteenth movie, One Piece Film: Gold, is the latest of these movies and the English dub received a limited theatrical run in America. While I haven’t kept up on much of anything outside of the main series, I decided to take this unique chance to see One Piece on the big screen.

Following the events of the Dressrosa Arc, the Straw Hat Pirates are flat broke. In the hopes of making some money, the crew arrive on Gran Tesoro, a floating island and independent country resembling Las Vegas. As the crew indulges in a huge winning streak, the country’s ruler and main entertainer, Gild Tesoro (Keith Silverstein), shows his true colors after he forces Luffy (Colleen Clinkenbeard) to lose all of their money in an all-or-nothing gamble and imprisons the Straw Hat crew member Roronoa Zoro (Chris Sabat) within pure gold. To prevent Zoro’s execution, the crew must now figure out how to repay their debt before 12:00 the next night.

Gild Tesoro (Keith Silverstein) rules Gran Tesoro with the power of the Gold-Gold Fruit.

Although the story is non-canon, it does a good job keeping One Piece fans entertained throughout. The story is pretty straightforward, although the third act muddies itself a little amidst several reveals of double- and triple-crosses and outright deception (managing to make plans before someone else’s plans). Certain elements also echo previous One Piece arcs, though this doesn’t detract from the enjoyability as the movie is able to weave these ideas together into an engaging whole. However, viewers who aren’t One Piece fans may easily find themselves lost in places without some sort of primer, as the main characters aren’t explained in any form apart from their names and bounties. This extends to Gild Tesoro, who has a simultaneously simple and complex motivation, although a bit of iconography present in his backstory would only make sense to longtime fans.

That said, the animation is very smooth and visually impressive in its blending of traditional and minimal CG elements. The character models all look more impressive than their television counterparts, likely due to the movie having a higher budget, and the abundant amounts of gold are all very well-rendered, which certainly helps with illustrating Gild Tesoro’s power to manipulate gold. By extension, the impressive animation also makes the climactic battles a visual spectacle. The generally bright color palette of the series is also complimented by lighting which helps with balancing and highlighting the serious and comedic aspects of the story. Particularly observant One Piece fans may also notice Easter eggs in the form of cameo appearances by characters from previous arcs.

One Piece Film: Gold is easy to recommend to One Piece fans, as it is a very entertaining filler movie with an engaging story and a one-off villain with a surprising amount of backstory. The animation and fight scenes are also impressive and the humor is a good contrast to the relatively serious tone. Viewers who weren’t fans to begin with may not enjoy it as deeply, but with the right primer from a fan, they might have an easier time swallowing the main concepts and following along with the plot, though they may still get lost in places.