#which it might as well be since just calling it 'broly' doesn't narrow it down

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z Super Broly 4: The Quest for Peace

I don’t know what image to use to start this off, so I’m gonna go with this shot of Bulma, because it’s pretty non-spoilery, and I thought she looked cute hiding back there in her li’l snowsuit.  

I’m not sure how to organize my thoughts on this, so let’s start with just a general overview of the movie.   It was really good, and I think this movie proves that Akira Toriyama still has a tremendous talent for storytelling.   I think he’s taken a lot of lumps from critics over the years, but personally I prefer to lay the blame on the other creators who work with him or for him on these types of projects.  The filler scenes I’ve been covering on my Dragon Ball Liveblog sort of bear this out.   The stuff adapted from the manga has very clear characterization and plot continuity.   Point A always leads to Point B and the loose ends tend to get tied up later on.    But whenever the other guys at Toei get involved, things get a little wonky, and the details don’t always add up.    The worst parts of the Dragon Ball Super anime have a similar feel to the dopiest filler scenes from Dragon Ball and DBZ, so I don’t think I’m lionizing Toriyama too much in this.   He’s not perfect, but he knows how to make these characters work. 

The best evidence of this is how he took a glorified monster heel like Broly and made him into a sympathetic character.   The Movie 8 version of Broly had a very similar origin story to this newer, greener Broly.   For the sake of discussion, I’m going to be calling them Broly ‘18 and Broly ‘93, all right?  

Broly ‘93 was born with a really amazing power level, and King Vegeta had him killed because he might become a potential danger some day.  Paragus tried to intervene, and ended up sharing his son’s fate, but they ended up saving each other’s lives and Paragus raised him in exile, dreaming of the day they could take revenge against King Vegeta. 

Broly ‘18... pretty much everything I just said, only King Vegeta shot him into space instead of trying to stab him.   That makes a huge difference, because it allows Paragus to run off and find him instead of getting condemned to death for defying King Vegeta in person.   One of the plot holes in Movie 8 was that Baby Broly ‘93 managed to survive getting stabbed and Paragus ‘93 managed to survive taking an energy blast from King Vegeta, and then they both survived the planet exploding.  

Watching this movie, I could really tell that Toriyama went over the 1993 film with a critical eye.    Not too many people watched Movie 8 and felt much sympathy for Broly, even though he kind of deserves some.  Broly ‘93′s dad controlled him with a creepy device, and tried to use him as a weapon of revenge against people he’d never met.  The trouble is that Broly ‘93 never got the spotlight to demonstrae why he might deserve some pity.   He just stood around and then he went bonkers and destroyed those aliens’ home planet.   Toriyama watched this and realized it’d be a more compelling story if the audience felt sorry for the big guy.  

And so you have scenes of Kid Broly trying to survive on his own.    You have new characters introduced who befriend Broly ‘18 and confront Paragus for how he treats him.   And when it’s time for Broly ‘18 to fight, he’s actually at a disadvantage.   Vegeta really works him over good for a long time before Broly starts building up enough power to defend himself.  It was rather shocking to me to see this character being treated as a weaker fighter, even temporarily.   This was probably something Movie 8 lacked.   Broly ‘93 looked pretty pathetic in his base form, but no one ever picked on him or anything.   Later, when Gogeta is finally turning the tide against Broly ‘18, it becomes clear that Broly ‘18 is definitely losing, and he’s going to be killed, and it’s not right, because he never asked for any of this.  

There’s a definite Android 8 quality to Broly ‘18.    It’s not quite the same.  Broly ‘18 isn’t a pacifist and he’s not afraid to fight, but he’s in that same boat where he’s a character introduced as this enormous threat, and then it turns out he’s pretty gentle at heart, and he’s only on the front lines because he’s been coerced into it.   I think Toriyama looked at the 1993 version and said “Okay, he’s way stronger than Goku and Vegeta.   That’s his gimmick, so he has to keep that aspect.   But there has to be some trade-off for that.   He has to have a great weakness to balance out his immense strength.” 

That’s pretty much true for all of the Dragon Ball characters.   Master Roshi is introduced as an invincible fighter, but he’s consumed with lust and other carnal desires.   Goku’s the great hero who always rises to the occasion, but he’s really naive and careless about a lot of things.   Bulma’s a technological genius, but physically weak and also very self-centered.   Vegeta is powerful, but often blinded by his ego.    Most of the movie villains lack that balance.   Broly ‘93 is a great example of a movie villain who’s just sort of unstoppable until the end of the movie, when Goku finally punches a hole in him and he explodes.  Broly ‘93, Bojack, Super Android 13, none of these big galoots are brought down by a fatal flaw.   They’re just really strong until it’s time for them to not be really strong any more, and then they get wrecked.

Improving this single aspect of the Broly concept opens up a world of possibilities.    For one thing, it makes all the fights in this new movie distinct.   I saw clips of Broly fighting different guys in this movie, which made me wonder how this was supposed to work.    Well, it’s actually pretty simple.   Broly steps off the spaceship, fights Vegeta, and then he starts losing.    Then he begins to learn how to keep up with Vegeta, and things get dicey.   Before it gets too tough for Vegeta, Goku decides to cut in and he fights evenly with Broly for a while, until he finds that he can’t keep up with him even at Super Saiyan Blue.    Then Goku and Vegeta tag team him for a little bit and pawn him off on Frieza.    By this point Broly’s gone so bonkers that he can’t distinguish one opponent from another, so Freiza becomes the object of his wrath while Goku and Geets take a breather to learn how to fuse.   Frieza can’t win, but he doesn’t need to, he just has to not die until Gogeta can return to close this thing out.    Then Gogeta fights Broly.  At this point Broly seems almost powerful enough to keep up, but Gogeta eventually wears him down, and Broly on the verge of defeat.  

It’s a beautiful thing.   You couldn’t do that with a 1990′s movie villain, because most of them were big dumb brutes without enough personality to function this way.    Broly ‘18 isn’t just an underdog who becomes and overdog and then becomes an underdog again.   What makes this formula work is that Cheelai and Leemo feel sorry for him on the sidelines.   On top of that I think Paragus truly does care about Broly ‘18, even though he’s a pretty lousy parent.   In the end, Paragus finally recognizes that King Vegeta had been right to exile Broly ‘18 all along.    He’s simply too dangerous for a combat situation.

I also really like how Goku tries to befriend him at the end of the movie.   It shows that Gogeta was only using lethal force as a last resort.    Once the battle is over and Broly’s no longer a threat, Goku wants to make things right and reassure Broly that they can be Saiyans and not have to kill each other or isolate themselves from the rest of the universe.   They could spar for funsies, like Goku and Vegeta did at the start of the movie.  

In particular, I’m very fond of the line at the end where Goku tells Cheelai his name, but adds “But Broly... Call me Kakarot.”   I love that because it’s like Goku is embracing this Saiyan custom of addressing each other by their Saiyan names.   He doesn’t call himself Kakarot, but all the other Saiyans do, and he wants Broly to feel like he can as well.    He can relate to Broly as a fellow outsider who had to grow up on another world.   He’s trying to give Broly a piece of the Saiyan culture, even if it’s a very small one.   It’s a big change from back when he angrily demanded that people not call him that because he was Son Goku.   After all these years, Goku’s comfortable being a Saiyan.   He doesn’t have to choose between being Goku or Kakarot.  He can be both.   He wants Broly to know he doesn’t have to choose either. 

It’s definitely a great Dragon Ball film.   The animation is well done, the writing is solid and on point.   There’s never really a place where things get dull for any appreciable length of time.   Even the space travel scenes are interesting, despite being rather low key. 

Is it better than Movie 8?   Well yeah, but I’m reluctant to say so, because I sort of have a soft spot for Movie 8, and I hate to just turn on it completely.    This new movie is superior in every objective way, though.   The characters are more developed, the action is more balanced, and the visuals are more compelling.   It’s forty minutes longer than Movie 8, and it shows.   There’s a lot of plot points that get breezed over in Movie 8, probably because there simply wasn’t room to explain how Piccolo got to the South Galaxy so quickly, or whatever else didn’t get explained.  The DBS movie actually used the Dragon Balls in the plot, which is usually a plus as Dragon Ball films go.   Call me stupid, though, but Movie 8 had Future Trunks and King Kai in it, and that makes a bigger difference than it really ought to.  

Is DBS: Broly a better movie than Fusion Reborn?   Hell no.  Fusion Reborn is friggin’ fantastic from start to finish.   Better plot, better music, cooler villain, beter visuals.   Yeah Gogeta got more time to shine in “Broly” but I’ll take a few seconds of Gogeta one-shotting the bad guy over ten minutes of Gogeta showing off.   Sometimes less is more, you know?   Fusion Reborn is untoppable, the end. 

Is it better than the Bardock TV Special?   Definitely, because the Bardock TV Special has some problems.   Is it a better Bardock/Destruction of Planet Vegeta story?  I’d have to give that some thought.   I don’t hate Dragon Ball Minus, but I don’t necessarily love the Father of Goku TV special either.   DBS: Broly pretty much adapted the entire Dragon Ball Minus story and just added in scenes of Paragus and King Vegeta.   Honestly, I’m not sure any of these really gets it right.   Each of them seems to treat Frieza’s betrayal and Goku’s trip to Earth as boxes on a checklist.   I’m not sure I can explain what I mean.    Best to save that for later.  

I’ve got other thoughts on this movie, but I think I’ll call it here for now.    If you want me to go on about a particular topic, shoot me an ask and I’ll talk about it.  But definitely, you should check this movie out.    It’s a really fun experience.