Dragonball Z - Movie 08: Der Legendäre Super-Saiyajin

To be blunt this is easily the best Dragon Ball Z movie. The Funimation version is actually better than the original because it has some awesome music. It starts off a Super Sayian destroys the south galaxy and we're next. Now the Z fighters are up for a huge challenge. To defeat the Legendary Super Sayian. You don't have to know anything about DBZ to love this movie. If it was in theaters and a little longer this would easily be a hit on the silver screen. I give it a 9/10. If it was longer I would give it a 10.

The "Dragonball Z" movies are certainly good, but they ran into this huge problem. They were just too short! These things were as short as 40 minutes sometimes! They are probably the shortest films I have seen in modern times that have been considered feature length, but not this one! Okay, 72 minutes still isn't that long, but this really feels like a movie based on "Dragonball Z". We get introduced to Broly and it's great that we actually get movies that have a recurring villain. We even get a great backstory when we realize he placed literally next to Goku on the day he was born!

I love the allusions to Bardock too. The other main villain is named Paragus. It didn't take too long to figure out that his name was a pun on "Asparagus". I admit that it does seem a stretch to have the villain named "Broly" as a reference to broccoli. They even themselves point this out, so it was fun. The pacing was great and the artwork is as good as anything featured on the show or other movies. I love how they try to make this story personal. Master Roshi shows off his muscles, but still doesn't get to fight. This is why the more recent movies are even better. ***1/2

Vegeta giving up hope after finally finding what he's been looking for his whole life is on par. The animation is awesome in this one. The alien locals dying in Broly's blasts was truly horrifying. Broly is awesome I just wish he got a better introduction in this film. The filmmakers did a wonderful job at showing just how powerless any normal Saiyan is against Broly. Especially when Broly created a crater with Vegeta's body. And then proceeded to crunch his dad into a football and hurl him at a planet... I liked that the end battle took place as the planet was colliding with the asteroid. Although I didn't like the pooling of energies and Vegeta being the absolute worst.

This Dragonball Z movie actually has a very decent runtime of an hour and nine minutes. That may not seem like a long movie, but compared to other Z movies it is a nice bit of time indeed. Why does the simple increase of length help the movie? Well for one thing they had time to set up the movie while still having a decent fight at the end that is just not another 2 minute fight where someone powers up and decimates their opponent like in the first film with Cooler. This one has a strange mysterious alien getting Vegeta to his planet. He is a Saiyan and he wishes that his prince return to the new Vegeta planet. Well he is not really interested until told of the legendary Super Saiyan warrior creating havoc. The thought of challenging this warrior leads Vegeta onto the ship to the new planet with quite a few Z warriors in tow. A bit more buildup to follow, when I first saw this one I was very worried that there would not be enough time for a decent fight, but thankfully the longer running time meant there could be one giant fight between the Z fighters and Brolly who was the legendary one. Still, while it is good it has its faults as well. For some reason Vegeta is completely out of character here. He shows fear of this warrior and freezes up at the sight of him basically conceding they had no chance against him. This is not something Vegeta has ever done in the regular series. This is the same warrior who usually goes after the much stronger foes still thinking he is going to win. I also did not like the way this Super Saiyan is taken out, but that has more to do with how he is presented later (he would appear in one other film and sort of another one). Overall, though this one is very nice has a great fight and great humor as I loved the scene where Master Roshii challenges Brolly.

This film marks the longest of all the Dragonball Z movies. Over an hour in length and could actually pass as a full feature film. It also has one of the most complex storylines of all the rest of the movies. I won't say much about it, as it's storyline is it's strogest point with fighting coming in a close second. Brolli, who is apparently the REAL Legendary Super Saiyan, is intent on destroying the galaxy and it's up to the Z team to stop him. Well, it's more fun to watch what happens than for me to tell it. Let's just say that Brolli goes through some wicked transformations and does some brutal, brutal damage to the Z team. He's unstoppable through much of the film and when he does say something it's usually pretty wicked or scary. Like... "Monster? No, I'm the devil!"

You'll enjoy this movie so very much it'll make your head spin. It's a great collage of great storytelling and fighting. But once you've seen it a few times it begins to lose it's impact. So make sure that first viewing is a good one! ;)