In the blink of an eye, Kaio-sama watches the southern galaxy get destroyed by some unknown Super Saiyan ki. If this mysterious Super Saiyan is allowed to run rampant, his own northern galaxy, where Planet Earth is located, will be in grave danger...
The denizens of earth go about their daily life without a care for the troubles of the southern galaxy or Super Saiyans. Even Son Goku finds himself with his wife Chichi in line to be interviewed for a potential cram school for Gohan. Chichi drills the bored Goku on how to answer certain questions: Like, "What are the father's hobbies?" Goku says his hobbies are fighting strong guys! Chichi tells him to say "Reading and sports".
"Chichi..."
"... is this interview a fibbing contest?"
Meanwhile, Kuririn, Gohan, Trunks, Oolong, drunk Muten Roshi, Dr. and Mrs. Brief, Bulma, and for some reason Vegeta, are having a pleasant spring picnic. Kuririn indulges in some karaoke, and we discover he is incredibly tone deaf. Vegeta threatens to make him pay for subjecting him to such awful singing.
Suddenly, a spaceship lands in the middle of their picnic.
And off of it comes a Saiyan named Paragas.
Paragas and his minions claim to be from the New Planet Vegeta, which they are hoping to establish with Vegeta as their new King (even Trunks is invited, as their Prince). And by doing so, once again establish Saiyan dominance throughout the universe. Vegeta isn't interested until Paragas says that he may be the only one strong enough to defeat the Legendary Super Saiyan. Intrigued, Vegeta decides to leave to the New Planet Vegeta with Paragas, and Trunks follows to make sure his father makes it home alright. And for some reason, drunk Muten Roshi decides to come along as well, forcing Gohan, Oolong, and Kuririn to follow as his chaperones.
Kaio-sama contacts Goku to ask him to get to his world right away, as the situation is dire. But Goku explains that he can't, because he's in the middle of Gohan's cram school interview and Chichi won't feed him if he doesn't stick around for it. Kaio shouts that he'll just feed him instead!
Goku's priorities are in order.
Kaio explains about the Super Saiyan who wiped out the southern galaxy and appears to be targeting the northern galaxy next. Furthermore, he might be stronger than Goku and his friends! This, of course, excites Goku. So Goku starts searching the universe for a Super Saiyan ki, keen to track down this powerful new foe and put a stop to him.
Goku teleports to a newly dead world... with strong traces of this so-called Legendary Super Saiyan's ki. Goku reckons to leave behind such ki, he must be a deadly monster, indeed...
On the New Planet Vegeta, Vegeta meets Paragas' son, Broly. One of Paragas' men report that the Legendary Super Saiyan has been spotted, so Vegeta takes Broly and leaves into space to track him down. (I guess Vegeta took Broly because he's such a cutie.)
Elsewhere on New Planet Vegeta, cute little aliens are being forced into labor camps.
So it's Son Gohan to the rescue!
Gohan manages to scare off Paragas' minions, and of course Kuririn takes credit for it. As Kuririn throws wild punches, he accidentally punches Goku in the face.
Goku, who has just arrived via Instantaneous Movement.
Goku runs into Vegeta, who is returning after a fruitless search for the Legendary Super Saiyan. Predictably, Vegeta says he won't need Goku's help defeating the LSSJ. But Goku only has eyes for Broly.
Broly, who begins glaring at Goku with a fierce determination in his eyes. It's only when calmed down by a strange device Paragas holds that Broly tears himself away from Goku.
It turns out that Broly is the Legendary Super Saiyan.
And Paragas has been controlling his son with a device for years now.
... but something about Kakarotto, who was born the same day as Broly, has stirred up the Legendary Super Saiyan's ki.
"I'm shocked by Paragas' son. He was just born and yet his Battle Power is already 10,000."
"Bardock's son, with a Battle Power of only 2, made Paragas' son cry!"
"His Battle Power may be low, but that kid named Kakarotto at least has a lot of guts!"
"I'm shocked by Paragas' son. He was just born and yet his Battle Power is already 10,000."
"Bardock's son, with a Battle Power of only 2, made Paragas' son cry!"
"His Battle Power may be low, but that kid named Kakarotto at least has a lot of guts!"
And the duel of fates is on!
It hits Goku then: This is the ki he felt!
This is the one who destroyed the Southern Galaxy! Broly, the Legendary Super Saiyan!
But before Broly can lose further control, Paragas once again calms him down.
The next morning, Vegeta is tired of being led around by Paragas and wants to leave. Paragas begs him to stay, promising he'll meet the Legendary Super Saiyan in due time, but Vegeta isn't having it. Just then, Goku arrives with news: The Legendary Super Saiyan is right there. It's Broly. Then Trunks and Gohan arrive with more news: This whole planet is a sham, made to look like a bustling metropolis by cute alien slaves.
It turns out that Paragas had led them to this planet being that meteor is coming to destroy it soon, and he wishes to exact revenge on the son of King Vegeta, who sent him and baby Broly to their deaths. And once they were dead, he could claim Earth as the new center of his Empire, where he would use Broly's power to rule the universe!
(Why go through all the trouble scheming when you have control over the Legendary Super Saiyan...?)
It turns out that Paragas had led them to this planet being that meteor is coming to destroy it soon, and he wishes to exact revenge on the son of King Vegeta, who sent him and baby Broly to their deaths. And once they were dead, he could claim Earth as the new center of his Empire, where he would use Broly's power to rule the universe!
(Why go through all the trouble scheming when you have control over the Legendary Super Saiyan...?)
But none of Paragas' treachery matters when Broly gets a look at Son Goku.
Vegeta watches helplessly as Goku and the other battle against Broly.
(Seeing Broly's power, Vegeta poops himself and gives up hope.)
(... and he isn't exactly wrong.)
But then... Muten Roshi steps up!!
"Broccoli, is it? Can you stand against me?"
He's still drunk.
Unable to help with the current situation, Kuririn and the others leave with the cute alien slaves to find passage back to Earth. Oh, and Broly blows up the cute alien slaves' planet, because he's a dick. With all the cards on the table, there's nothing left for our heroes to do but fight against Broly.
After thoroughly beating everyone, Broly makes to finish off Gohan--
--but his blast is stopped by none other than--
Piccolo hands out Senzu to all the Saiyans, and then the fighting begins again.
"It's no use, it's over!"
"What are you babbling about?! If you've got time to sulk around, then fight!"
"It's no use! Don't you guys understand?!"
"What kind of Saiyan prince are you?"
"Run away, everyone! We can't win!"
"Anywhere we run, it's the same thing."
"If we don't defeat him, it's the end of the universe."
"We cannot possibly win. He is the Legendary Super Saiyan, after all."
"If you've lost this much heart, then get lost, and never show your face again!"
Furiously, Vegeta at last enters the fray.
... but he doesn't do much good.
Paragas tries to escape in a Saiyan spacepod when he is caught by Broly. Realizing that his father meant to leave the dying planet without him, he crushes Paragas' spacepod, with Paragas inside of it, and chucks him at the approaching meteorite. Paragas dies at the hand of his only son.
But Goku isn't dead yet.
Borrowing ki from his allies, Goku makes a final stand against the mighty Broly.
Earth!
Fire!
Wind!
Water!
Heart!
By your powers combined, I am Captain Goku!
And with a single blow, Goku overcomes the Legendary Super Saiyan.
Proving once again that friendship can overcome anything. Or something.
Back on Earth...
"Gohan! Spring break is already over! This is all your fault, Goku-sa!"
"Chichi, my hobbies are reading and sports!"
The beginning of Broly appearing in everything.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but here he at least was a legitimate villain and not that 'Incredible Hulk' persona of which he's associated in following titles.
DeleteBroli's really not a "legitimate villain" though? Don't get me wrong, I love this film and enjoy Broli for what he offers as a foil here too, but he really isn't ever more complex than a tightly-wound ball of rage. (He just gets speaking parts in this film only, pretty much.)
DeleteParagas is more the villain in this movie than anyone, even if he's not the Big Bad. He's also the tragic figure too.
Captain Planet bit was the best, but I've been looking forward to your recap of this movie for a while. A+
ReplyDeleteThis movie might have my favorite music cue in all the various DB/Z/GT/Kai BGM. See the video for the example.
ReplyDeleteI love that cue too. I always think of it when people are heaping abuse on the original soundtrack since it's very "Western sounding," but musically/emotionally my god it's beautiful.
DeleteIt's probably nostalgia, because I watched this fansub over and over again, but this film still just "works" so well to me. It's wonderfully contained, has THE cutest framing device, no one does more than their normal personality warrants, great fight orchestrations, some of the best musical cues in the whole thing ... it's just such a strong product. Shame movies 10 and 11 trample on it though.
ReplyDeleteWith the exception of the lame ending(everyone giving goku their power)this movie for me is perfect, a good story with good pacing, I really liked the characterisation in this movie as well which I don't think is something most of the other movies get right, Vegeta's pride getting played by Paragus worked for me on a deeper level than his normal "I'm the prince of all Saiyans" rants that just end with him geting knocked into a mountain and Goku Mary sue/ing it over him, him losing the will to fight also stands I think as one of his greatest moments in the series. Paragus and Brolly were two of the DB's greatest enemies as well, I think Brolly loses a lot of his character in the english dub, The Jap version he was just pure evil, but both worked well, Paragus was a unique type of Iago enemy at least as far as the DB universe is considered. I would have liked a longer fight/struggle to have finally killed him, with everyone pitching in like the fight against Vegeta at the end of the saiyan saga rather than the Goku just becoming super strong(even if everyone leant him their energy) but it was such a good movie anyway. Top marks.
ReplyDelete