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duhragonball · 6 years ago

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Dragon Ball Z Movie 4: Lord Slug

The fourth DBZ movie premiered on March 9, 1991 as part of the Toei Anime Fair. The Japanese title was “Son Goku the Super Saiyan”, but when Funimation released it in the U.S., they named it after the villain, Lord Slug.

Before we get into this, I want to talk a little about the chronology of this movie, because I find it fascinating. This movie came out right after Episode 81 of the anime aired, and before Episode 82. So a person in Japan in 1991 could watch Piccolo fight Second-Form Frieza, then go to the theater to watch Goku fight Lord Slug, then watch Frieza use his Third Form to turn the tables on Piccolo.

The point I’m making here is that the Super Saiyan form hadn’t even been properly introduced in the anime. Goku hadn’t even gotten a chance to fight Frieza, let alone turn into a Super Saiyan for the first time. That wouldn’t happen until Episode 95, which wouldn’t air until June.

However, the DBZ manga was further along in the story, so where was it at in March 1991? According to Kanzenshuu.com, chapter 315 of the manga was published on March 5, 1991, in Weekly Shonen Jump. That chapter features Goku working on the Spirit Bomb to defeat Frieza, while Piccolo tries to provide a diversion. Goku wouldn’t transform into a Super Saiyan until chapter 317, which was published two weeks later, on March 19, 1991.

In other words, this movie marks the first time Goku transforms into any kind of Super Saiyan. The movie isn’t part of the main DBZ continuity, and the Super Saiyan form Goku uses doesn’t look quite right, but that’s what King Kai calls it, and that’s what the title of the movie calls it.

So why did they do this? My guess is that Toei had some inside knowledge on where Toriyama was headed with the story, and they figured a Super Saiyan transformation was on the horizon, so they went ahead and did their own take on it, which ended up resembling the genuine article reasonably well. Up to this point, all anyone really knew about Super Saiyans came from Vegeta, who kept going on about how he and Goku were “becoming” Super Saiyans. The implication here being that eventually one or both of them would finally reach that level.

I feel like the Movie 4 Super Saiyan design was mostly based upon the Golden Oozaru seen in Episode 66. At least, the yellow aura and highlights seem to have been inspired from this.

At any rate, I think the concept with this movie was to build on the idea of Goku finally achieving the Super Saiyan power and using it to wreck a bad guy’s shit. It feels kind of cheap to give that sort of thing away when the Frieza Saga was still building up to it, but maybe it’s a smooth marketing ploy. Fans would have been anxiously awaiting the big payoff in the manga and the TV series, and this movie would offer the merest taste of what awaited them once Goku tapped into that power. In Movie 4, Goku only used a Super Saiyan form to beat up Lord Slug for a couple of minutes. In the canon, Goku would use the Super Saiyan form to brutalize Frieza for a lot longer than that. So really, this movie isn’t so much a spoiler as a sneak preview.

So let’s get started. Gohan finds Piccolo meditating, and shows off a trick he taught Icarus (aka Haiya Dragon). When he whistles, Icarus dances. Piccolo ignores this completely, which is kind of dumb, because Gohan is a friggin’ dancing machine in this sqeuence. Icarus too, but I kind of hate Icarus. He just looks like a refugee from some other cartoon.

As it turns out, Piccolo can’t tune out Gohan’s whistling because it’s on some sort of sonic frequency that causes him intense pain. This will be important later.

Meanwhile, there’s a rogue planet headed on a collision course with the Earth. Dr. Brief is checking it out with his telescope, and he’s found life signs on it. So blowing it up may not be an option.

So Goku and Krillin head up to take care of things. Not sure why they’re the only ones on deck for this. Yamcha, Tien, and Chioatzu were all in the last movie, but maybe this time around, Toei is less certain that they’ll be returning for the rest of DBZ.

The boys try to knock the planet off course with their hand energy, but somehow it doesn’t work and they end up getting swept aside by... something.

Then, uh.... I’m not sure what’s happening here, honestly.

And here’s the title card.

In... West City? Bulma was watching the planet’s trajectory with Gohan, Oolong, and Icarus, but then they got knocked down and buried in dirt when the planet came too close.

And I guess the other planet distintigrated?

However, some sort of vehicle survived the other planet’s demise, and it’s landed near the city.

A bunch of Stormtrooper knockoffs emerge, and inform the curious onlookers that the Earth has been claimed for Lord Slug, “king of all the universe.”

Inside the ship, an orange bad guy impatiently demands a timetable for “converting” the planet. He points out that they have to hurry, because Lord Slug isn’t as young as he used to be, and Slug takes offense at this.

Slug kills him immediately, which is pretty wild. This was the first DBZ animation I ever bought on home video. Probably 2000 or 2001. I used to see DBZ tapes for sale at stores, but they were all episodes that had already aired on TV. This, however, was brand new, and it aroused my curiosity. But this orange dude was featured prominently on the box art, and as it turns out, he didn’t even make it past his first scene. He didn’t get to fight anybody; Slug took him out before he had a chance to get out of the ship.

He asks one of his crew how long the conversion will take, and then he zaps that guy when he doesn’t like the answer. Finally, another crewman gives him a shorter estimate, and Slug seems satisfied with that.

Outside the public found the aliens’ declaration of conquest amusing, right until they opened fire on everybody.

Gohan fights back, smashing the visor of an alien’s space helmet, and he cries out in pain when he sees the sunlight.

Inside, Slug is irritated at Gohan’s defiance, until he notices the Dragon Ball on his hat.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Chi-Chi jumping in to back Gohan up during this fight. She takes out a couple goons, but she spends a little too much time basking in the spotlight, so a bad guy gets the drop on her.

Then Slug comes out and grabs Gohan’s hat. He seems to have a lot of trouble pulling the Dragon Ball off, considering how strong he’s supposed to be.

Then the main henchmen show up and explain to Bulma and Oolong that Slug plans to turn Earth into a planetary vehicle. Bulma protests that this is impossible, but I’m pretty sure that’s what that other planet was before it broke up in the atmosphere. Apparently all of that was intentional. Slug only used that planet to bring him to Earth, then destroyed it because he planned to use Earth as a replacement.

I’m not sure what the point of that is. What makes Earth a better “vehicle” than the planet they were using before? It’s prettier, but it won’t be once Slug’s done with it.

But Slug is more interested in the Dragon Ball, which stirs some dim memory.

Bulma somewhat stupidly points out that he can’t use the Dragon Balls without a Dragon Radar, so Slug uses some sort of telepathy to learn more from her.

Then he hands her radar to one of his goons and gives him an hour to find the other six balls.

There’s one.

That guy had another.

I guess there’s one under this rock.

And here’s three more! Wow, that was easy!

Slug uses his wish to have his youth restored, kind of like King Piccolo did. Hmmm...

With that out of the way, he moves on to converting the Earth.

I’m not sure what this entails. Mostly, we see a machine in the upper atmosphere generating a thick blanket of smog over the whole world. Then it gets really cold, I guess because the sunlight can’t get through.

Then the bad guys all remove their helmets and celebrate.

Wait, Demon Clan?

According to the bad guys, they can’t last more than one hour in direct sunlight, and they seem to prefer the cold, so I think this was just the initial step to make Earth more comfortable for them while they move on with the conversion process. I’m a little confused by the idea that demons can’t stand warm weather or direct sunlight, since we never saw any of that affect King Piccolo’s Demon Clan, or Garlic Junior’s crew in Movie 1. I guess Lucifer’s gang from Sleeping Princess in Devil’s Castle had an aversion to sunlight, but do they have anything to do with these guys?

So what happened to Goku and Krillin? I’m not sure where they ended up, but Yajirobe finds them and gives them Senzu beans to get them back on their feet.

I don’t know how long they were out, but the whole city has been iced over in that time.

Back at Goku’s house, Chi-Chi is trying to take care of everyone in spite of the beatng she took from Slug’s goons. In the dub, they had her sneeze to indicate that she was ill from the cold weather, but this makes more sene. Otherwise, I like how cute and cozy this scene is.

Unfortunately, Gohan snuck out of the house, and Chi-Chi suspects that he’s headed out to fight space crime again.

Then Bulma notices that Oolong is missing too. Does Bulma think Oolong is her son? I mean, it just seems kind of weird how she connects the two ideas.

For now, Gohan’s just doing some recon on the bad guys. I’m not sure why Oolong bothered to come along if all he was goning to do was complain, but he agrees to pipe down.

The bad guys spot Gohan and try to gang up on him, but then...

Piccolo time, baby!

The three main henchment show up to take care of this. I guess I’d better get their names out of the way before I forget. The one with bat wings is Dorodabo. The dub calls him “Wings”, I guess?

The handsome guy in the back is Angila. He has stretchy arm powers, but that’s about all we ever see. The little green one is Medamacha. Zeeun would have been here too, probably, except Slug killed him when they arrived.

Piccolo utterly demolishes “Wings”, to the point where he pleads for Piccolo to switch sides. Apparently he recognizes Piccolo as a fellow Mazoku, implying that they really are related somehow. Yeah, but Piccolo can stand direct sunlight, so how does that work?

But Piccolo blows him away, and that’s the end of that. This right here is the main reason why this movie is better than “Tree of Might”. At least in Movie 4, Piccolo gets a chance to shine and beat down a henchman in awesome fashion. In Movie 3, he was just a punching bag for Turles, along with the rest of the Z-Fighters.

Gohan, on the other hand, doesn’t do as well. Medmacha’s power is to spawn gross clones of himself, which leap onto a victim and drain their energy.

Why does one of them have to grab onto Gohan’s face like that? Gross.

Piccolo tries to help, but Angila tunnels underground to grab his feet.

Still, Piccolo manages to save Gohan from their killing blow.

But before Medamacha can finish off Gohan, Goku and Krillin show up. He offers to let them leave without a beating, as long as they take their cloud machine thingy and never come back.

The offer is declined. Medamacha tries his attack on Goku this time, but Goku just muscles the clones off and kicked Medamacha’s ass.

Then Angila tries to hit Goku with a mouth beam, but Goku deflects it back on him, and I’m pretty sure that kills him.

The rest of the henchmen all retreat to the ship, but Slug kills them all for their cowardice.

Krillin offers to handle Slug for Goku, but it doesn’t go well...

For what it’s worth, things don’t go much better for Goku either. Slug knocks him around town for a while, and Goku can barely keep up.

What I really love about this movie is how colorful everything is. This is a story about the world being covered in literal darkness, but they still made it easy to see what’s going on and fun to watch. I’ve watched Movie 4 maybe six or seven times, and I wouldn’t say it’s one of my favorite DBZ films, but it’s definitely a good one. And it’s leaps and bounds above Avengers: Endgame, which featured maybe a hundred superhero characters, and in the final battle they’re all just inky figures battling vaguely on a sepia background. They should have asked Thanos to meet them on Iguana Street.

Desperate, Goku resorts to his trump card, the Spirit Bomb, but it’s no use.

As King Kai explains, the Earth just doesn’t have any energy left to offer for the Spirit Bomb, kind of like what happened in “Tree of Might”, only this time Goku can’t just siphon power from the Tree of Might.

So where did all that energy go, exactly? I mean, Slug just made it dark and cold, and it’s only been what, a few hours? Days, at most? Are we saying there’s no genki left anywhere for Goku to make a Genki Dama with?

So Goku’s out of options and at the end of his rope. Slug goes in for the kill when...

Yeah, bringing you another disturbing creation From the mind of one sick animal who can't tell the difference And gets stupefied.

BITCH.

YOU.

THOUGHT?

RRRRRGGGHHHHH!

This right here? Fuckin’ awesome! Lord Slug is a first-class jerk, and Goku broke his hand so hard that his hand has Super Saiyan aura all over it. Cool! This should have happened to more villains who fought Super Saiyans. What does it mean when this happens? Does it hurt? Who cares? It looks amazing.

Goku follows this up with a punch to the face, and it leaves more Super Saiyan aura on Slug’s cheek. Bad ass!

King Kai watches all this from his planet and he’s all “What in the wide world of sports is a-goin’ on here?” Then he recalls the legend, and wonders if Goku has somehow become the legendary Super Saiyan.

Annnnd that’s why this movie doesn’t fit into canon. In the manga, King Kai watches Goku turn Super Saiyan on Namek while he fights Frieza. He was surprised in that scene too, which means Movie 4 can’t have taken place before all of that, or King Kai would already know about it. And Movie 4 can’t take place after Frieza, because King Kai would see Goku beating down Slug and say “Oh, wow, he’s doing that thing he did with Frieza that time.”

I AM CHAMPION CHRISTMAS

Mmmph! Goku dropping some hurtin’ bombs on Slug. This whole sequence is a little too short, but now that I’m re-living it through screencaps, I gotta say it really hits the spot. This shot is just beautiful, but you can’t get a chance to savor it when you watch the movie.

I’m not sure why Goku just stopped in the middle of all of this. It’s unclear if he’s got any sense of reason while he’s in this state. Regardless, Slug decides to get serious in order to deal with this development.

Since Goku wrecked his left arm, he just rips it off and grows a new one...

... because Slug is actually a Namekian. Dunh-dun-DAAAAAAH.

So were all the henchmen his mutant offspring, like King Piccolo’s “Demon Clan”? If so, why were they vulnerable to warm climate and sunlight?

Then he grows huge, while King Kai fills Goku in on who this guy is. Like Kami, Slug was sent to another planet during Namek’s extinction event, but where Kami was sent to Earth, baby Slug was sent to Planet... uh, Slugg. Okay.

Also, he’s a mutant Namekian, which caused him to be pure evil throughout his entire life. And he’s a Super Namekian. I’m not sure if King Kai meant to connect those three ideas together or not. My takeaway from this is that Slug was intended to resemble an evil twist on Kami. Where Kami was corrupted by evil and split into two beings to purify himself, Slug was just evil through and through, and never had any interest in splitting himself, so he’s as strong as Kami/Piccolo would have been if they hadn’t split.

And that’s sort of the tie-in to what’s been going on in the anime around this time. In Episode #81, we see Piccolo fuse with Nail and seemingly hold his own against Frieza. And Nail told Piccolo that he would have been even stronger if he had fused with Kami instead. So I think this movie was born of the idea of taking that idea and making it a new bad guy for Goku to fight.

Of course, Goku’s a Super Saiyan, and that’s supposed to be even better, right? Well, maybe, except he somehow lost that power boost when Slug unmasked. I’m not sure if the shock of seeing Slug rip off his own arm made Goku lose focus, or maybe that Super Saiyan form was only temporary. Either way, he’s no match for Slug now.

But then Piccolo shows up and grabs Slug’s antennae. Slug angrily grabs at him instead...

But that just plays into Piccolo’s plans. Next, Piccolo rips off his on ears....

... then he calls out to Gohan to whistle that song he was doing at the start of the movie. It drove Piccolo nuts, and his gamble is that it’ll hurt Slug even worse, on account of him having bigger ears.

And it works! Slug realizes what’s going on, but too late. Well, not exactly too late, right? He could rip off his own ears, couldn’t he?

Then Piccolo drags himself over to Goku and donates the last of his energy to him to revive him.

Goku wakes up and expresses his gratitude for Piccolo’s noble efforts. I guess this marks the first time Goku and Piccolo are depicted as unambiguous friends?

Meanwhile, Slug tries to blast whatever’s making all the noise, but he misses and takes out his own ship instead. Whoops.

Then Goku uses the Kaio-Ken, which is boosted by Piccolo’s ki. As Gok charges, Slug sees giant images of Goku and Piccolo flickering back and forth.

And Goku tears a hole through Slug. So I guess all of that was more powerful than a Super Saiyan?

Goku figures it’s time for him to tackle that machine that’s messing up the weather, but then Slug grabs him as he tries to fly into the sky.

But Goku shakes him off and climbs up above the cloud deck, where he can use the sun’s energy to make...

...a Spirit Bomb!

Goku blasts Slug right into his own smog machine, destroying both of them and returning the world to normal.

And so Goku takes a moment to enjoy all the nature he just saved. Good hustle, Son.

Yajirobe shows up and says he was nearby in case anyone needed more senzu beans....

But Krillin says he’s been hiding this whole time.

Then a Namekian hand grabs Yajirobe, and everyone thinks it’s Slug.

... But it’s just Piccolo asking for a bean. This is literally what they did at the end of every Scooby-Doo.

I was about to say this is the first time Piccolo’s eaten a senzu, but I forgot about the one Goku fed him at the 23rd Budokai.

So everything’s wrapped up nice and neat, except for Piccolo’s missing ears, but he can just regenerate those, so it’s all good.

Oh, and Master Roshi slept through the whole thing. You’d think he would have gotten cold when the smog machine was running, but oh well.

After that, we get this pretty cool montage of the characters while the end credits roll, so I’ll just leave you with that.

I’m not sure what this last one is, but I like Goku and Gohan posing like dorks. Piccolo looks like he’s embarassed to be seen with them...

And that’s Movie 4. It’s a pretty good movie! Goku uses Super Saiyan power and borrowed power from Piccolo and a Spirit Bomb to kick the bad guy’s ass, and Piccolo and Gohan get to do some stuff. You even get to see Chi-Chi mix it up a little, and how often do we get to see that?

#dragon ball #2019dbliveblog #lord slug #goku #piccolo #gohan #krillin #bulma #chi chi #oolong #icarus #dbmovieliveblog

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