Blu-Ray Review: Dragon Ball Z – Movie Collection 5

Manga Entertainment UK’s continues the trend of bringing us a ‘movie collection’ each month and this time we get to explore the storyline of Broly in the Dragon Ball Z Movie Trilogy that consists of Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan, Broly Second Coming and Bio Broly! So get those umbrellas at the ready as it’s about to get wet with blood in our review of Dragon Ball Z – Movie Collection 5.

Synopsis:

Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan: Broly – a powerful Saiyan warrior with an unspeakable evil streak – has the Z-Fighters squarely in his sights! Now, a race to save the universe turns into a test of survival skills for Earth’s mightiest warriors. Prepare for the most intense Saiyan battle in history: a clash for the ages rooted in the pains of a secret past.

Broly’s Second Coming: An investigation into the crash of a strange vessel quickly turns into a battle that not even Earth’s most powerful heroes are guaranteed to win. Broly, one of the greatest evils in existence, is back to wreak havoc on humanity! Only this time, Goku may be powerless to stop him!

Bio-Broly: Corruption and technology combine to resurrect one of the greatest evils the universe has ever known. Broly is back and more deadly than ever! The sinister Super Saiyan appears to be unstoppable until Trunks discovers a secret that could stop the symbiotic scourge! Unfortunately, it might be too late to prevent Earth’s ultimate day of reckoning.

Our View:

The fifth movie collection in Manga Entertainment UK’s stream of Dragon Ball Z movie releases consists of the Broly Trilogy; a trilogy of films which explore the rage within the legendary super saiyan known as Broly. To some Dragon Ball Z fans he is a much liked character, on the same levels of Frieza and Cell, but to others he is the most dispised with the fact that he appears in pretty much every game based upon the Dragon Ball franchise. Whether you like or loathe him he is an interesting character which unfortunately the same cannot be said for the movies that brought him to the spotlight.

Broly’s introduction begins in the eighth Dragon Ball Z movie, known as Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan, which sees Paragus, a mysterious saiyan, arrive on earth to convince Vegeta to become the king of New Planet Vegeta. Intrigued by this proposition Vegeta, along with Trunks, Gohan, Krillin and Master Roshi, travel to this new planet but along the way learn that en enemy threat endangers the planets peace. Elsewhere meanwhile Goku is in discussions with King Kai surrounding the sudden destruction of planets within South Galaxy and that this ‘mysterious threat’ will soon appear within the North Galaxy.

King Kai’s investigation soon leads Goku to New Planet Vegeta to which we discover that Vegeta, Trunks and Paragus have been undergoing their own investigation into the threat that has been sweeping the universe. In truth however this threat, and in turn New Planet Vegeta, is nothing but a rouse set up by Paragus for his revenge on Vegeta and his friends as the threat is non-other-than Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan.

From a storyline perspective Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan delivers the ‘best’ story of any Dragon Ball Z film; mainly because it has an ever-developing storyline that explores different aspects of the Saiyan race – something which the TV series rarely touched upon. Some people consider the movies to be not canon; but this film provides some backbone to elements previously discussed – which is a nice change of pace from the over-explosive-films we have had so far. That’s not all either; as we even see Vegeta become a helpless sap; something we’ve rarely ever seen in the entirety of the franchise.

Naturally Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan is filled with ‘Super Saiyan’ themed fights, as we see Goku, Trunks, Gohan and Vegeta go up against the beast; but it is the developing story that is more memorable than the destructive power of Broly – which is what the focus seems to be on the remaining films in this collection.

The second film in this collection, known as Broly: Second Coming, acts as the sequel to the events of Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan with Gohan, Goten, Trunks and Videl having to battle amongst the legendary saiyan in order to protect the planet from destruction. It all begins with Goten, Trunks and Videl searching for the Dragon Balls, but upon doing so discover a village that is plagued by a monster. The trio agree to help out the village but upon doing so accidentially revive Broly who had crash landed on earth years prior after being defeated by Goku on New Planet Vegeta.

Enraged by his memories Broly awakens to cause destruction within the area, to which Goten, Trunks and Videl attempt to stop him. Its a relatively drawn-out-fight with some comical moments, especially from Goten and Trunks; but it’s not until Gohan arrives on the scene that things get intense. It’s another fight for salvation with Gohan and Goten putting everything on the line in order to stop Brolys rampage; but it all ends rather adruptly with a family attack.

On paper Broly: Second Coming sounds like it could be an interesting film; but in reality it is one longer fight with multiple characters drawn out over a thirty minute period. Sure enough it is good, and the animation quality is an improvement from the previous film in the collection, but it just lacks a bit of backbone and story. Fortunately enough this story continues within the third film; Bio Broly.

The third, and final, film in this fifth movie collection (and in turn Broly tilogy) is Bio Broly and it acts as both an extension to the World Martial Arts Tournament arc of the Dragon Ball Z TV anime series and as a sequel to the events of the Broly: Second Coming film. Why exactly? Well during the World Martial Arts Tournament arc Hercule Satan promised Android 18 money for losing the match, and now Android 18, along with Krillin, Trunks and Goten, have arrived at Hercule Satan’s mansion in order to collect the money they are owed.

During this visit however an acquaintance of one of Satan’s biggest rivals arrives and issues a challenge to Satan. This challenge would involve Satan taking on bio-engineered warriors created by the man known as Jaguar on his private island and so Hercule Satan, along with Android 18, Trunks and Goten, venture off to this island. Naturally the challenge to hercule is short-lived, with Android 18, Trunks and Goten taking care of the enemies; but when Jaguar begins to reveal his ‘ultimate’ challenge, Trunks and Goten realise that it is non-other-than the Legendary Super Saiyan Broly.

How exactly did Broly get revived again? Well the charlatan from the village within Broly: Second Coming obtained some of Broly’s blood and sold it to the scientists employed by Jaguar; to which they worked hard to recreate him for use against Hercule Satan within a fight. It’s an interesting setup for a story and – in my mind at least – is one of the better storyline prospects available within the Dragon Ball Z Movie franchise; but sadly it is a rushed story that develops into a fight rather than a good plot.

With all the secrets revealed Goten, Trunks and Android 18 join forces in attempt to take down Broly to which a fight across the entire island ensues that delivers some rather interesting results for those involved.

In short three films, three (albeit similar) storyline perspectives and one enemy threat are what’s in store with this Dragon Ball Z Movie Collection; but while the first film delivers the stand-a-lone story and impact you would expect from the film the remainder do nothing but build upon the fandom surrounding Broly and his destructive force.

Extras:

Just like with previous ‘Dragon Ball Z Movie Collections’ this disc uses the same disc masters as those produced by FUNimation in America all those years ago, and as such the selection of bonus materials is not only limited but outdated.

In this case we receive a selection of trailers relating to products that were being released on DVD and Blu-ray at the time by FUNimation in America, with titles such as Dragon Ball GT, One Piece and Tsubasa being promoted.

Specs:

Media:  BD 50
Region: B
Running Time: 2:52:09
Video: MPEG-4 AVC
Audio: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 & 2.0 (English)& LPCM 1.0 (Japanese)
Subtitles: English (White)
Resolution: 1920×1080 (1080p)
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Frame Rate: 23.976 fps

Overall:

Dragon Ball Z – Movie Collection 5 could have been known as the ‘Broly Trilogy’ as while each film acts stand-a-lone they tie together to deliver a deeper story that fully explores Broly’s rage for other Saiyans. In Broly: Legendary Super Saiyan viewers are reintroduced to the legend of the super saiyan as well as the origins of Broly’s upbringing. Broly: Second Coming and Bio Broly meanwhile continue this theme of ‘destruction’ left over from Broly: Legendary Super Saiyan as both films see the legendary super saiyan resurrected in some shape or form. Naturally these two films are not as interesting as the initial film in the trilogy; but they each have their own unique charm within them.

From a High Definition perspective the films look great, with the exception of Bio Broly which offers a darker colour palette and noticeable grain when compared with the other two films. As you would expect these films do not deliver the crisp animation quality we come to expect from High Definition (digital animation) films we see today, but the high quality animation mixed with the High Definition transfer make the films better than any previous variation of the films. It shows that even back in the early ninetities these films were of high quality, even if they were relatively short from todays standards of a film.

Combine this high quality animation with the various audio options available, two of which are 5.1 Surround Sound, and we are given three different ways to watch a film that, at times, could only be watched once. The English with Japanese Background Music provides the English voice over we know and love combined with the Japanese score, while the English with US Music Audio option will retain the English voice-over but combine it a westernised soundtrack; some of which contain songs from popular American Bands. The final audio option, which is Japanese, is the original Japanese audio track; but unfortunately it is in its mono form so the audio quality is extremely low.

Overall Dragon Ball Z Movie Collection 5 delivers a trilogy of films that explores the legendary Super Saiyan known as Broly and the carnage he can bring with him. Whether you like Broly or not the films are entertaining to watch and the new High Definition presentation brings out the best of these films.

Score:

Dragon Ball Z – Movie Collection 5, which contains Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan, Broly Second Coming and Bio Broly, will be released on the 12th February 2018 within the UK.