Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018) review

Release date for the English dub

"Do the impossible, see the invisible
Row! Row! Fight the power!
Touch the untouchable, break the unbreakable
Row! Row! Fight the power!"
- Libera me from Hell (Gurren Lagann)


While this is not the type of series I'd usually write a review about, as this blog is mainly for down-to-earth mystery series, I've been a huge fan of the shounen action/adventure Dragon Ball series most of my life along with couple other shounen series such as Bleach and Rave Master that I used to follow over a decade ago along with these detective fiction series such as the Poirot TV series. I just happened to decide for christmas and the new year to watch the Broly film subbed and then English dubbed again in January of 2019. Note also that the original Dragon Ball manga was created by Akira Toriyama, known for his beautiful artwork for the fantastic Dragon Quest game series.

Even though I don't have much to say about Super as a series (I heavily prefer the original DB and Z parts of the series and Super is sort of like GT to me), I did watch Super weekly for some of the entertaining fights such as Goku vs Kefla and Vegeta vs GoD Toppo, even the Goku Black arc, as well as the great discussions I've had with other Dragon Ball fans around the world on sites such as Narutoforums and YouTube, and when Dragon Ball Super: Broly was announced and claimed to include the infamous Legendary Super Saiyan in the canon storyline of the series, I've been really pumped up to learn more about it. Actually I had a feeling it was about Broly before it was revealed, and I'm a huge fan of the original Broly movies due to their manly, brutal action. The movie was spoiled by five different trailers that I've heard of many hated, however, DB is not a story-heavy series so I don't mind them; the trailers spoiling almost every plot point in the film did not make me not want to watch it in the slightest. So, in this post I will also be pointing out reasons for why you should watch the movie.

Broly introduced to the canon of Dragon Ball

Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018) starts with a half an hour flashback, which is something really special to the Dragon Ball series because as I already mentioned; it's not a story-heavy series. It's always been about the action and the character development that comes with it. The flashback deals with the events of Frieza taking over his father's, King Cold's, army and taking over as the dictator of the Saiyan race that are known for their ability to conquer planets from a very young age by turning into Oozaru's, great apes of great power. In the flashback we get introduced mainly to Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Minus version of the original flashback that causes Goku to be sent to Earth from planet Vegeta.
The flashback introduces the watcher to Bardock and Gine who are Goku's parents. As Bardock smells death in the air from Frieza's spaceship suspiciously hanging around planet Vegeta despite Frieza's army not telling the Saiyan race anything about why, Gine and Bardock decide to send Goku to a planet with low power level where even their young son could stay alive. That is Earth. It's a neat moment also due to Bardock claiming that he wants to save his weak son because he's been a brutal monster up until that point. So he shows that in his last moments even the original saiyan's can have morals and show heart.
Around the same time, another Saiyan, Paragus, is notified by King Vegeta, father of Vegeta, that Paragus's son, Broly, is to be sent to a faraway planet with powerful monsters on it. King Vegeta with jealousy in his eyes tells Paragus that he should be happy that Broly wasn't getting executed by him despite the young boy being a 'monster' that in the future can become a threat to the Saiyan race. Paragus understands that King Vegeta is actually jealous that the young Broly has more potential than young Vegeta, as King Vegeta's son has to be the strongest of the Saiyan race. Paragus goes after the capsule that was to be sent to the deadly planet, but as he reaches the planet, his spaceship breaks down and him and Broly are left to stay there for many years, decades, to come until Frieza's army finds and recruits them during the present timeline of this Broly film.
The flashback plotlines happen at the same time as Frieza is planning to eradicate planet Vegeta and the ball of death that he uses to destroy the planet is shown once more in this movie along with a quick showcase of Bardock's last stand against Frieza. These three major plotlines are interesting as Dragon Ball doesn't normally do multiple storylines at the same time, and in the first 30 minutes of the film they are pulled off neatly. The flashback is what connects the four most important characters of this movie, Goku, Vegeta, Freeza and Broly, and make the fights feel more personal than they've felt since the Dragon Ball Z era.

The first time God form Vegeta is shown animated

As Frieza was resurrected by Whis, the Angel of Universe seven, at the end of the Tournament of Power arc of the Super TV series, Vegeta has become aware of the threat he poses to the Seventh Universe of the Dragon Ball multiverse (remember also that Frieza during ToP claimed that he will aim to rule above the childish but all-powerful Omni-kings of the multiverse, the Zen-Oh's). That is Vegeta's motivation to get stronger by training with Goku who wants to get stronger in order to be able to fairly challenge the other fighters in the other eleven universes. Up until the end of Super it was hinted that there is a person stronger than the Gods of Destruction in one of the Universes, then that person gets revealed the fans of the series might believe that we've seen the peak power that a mortal can have, and that it would peak somewhere between the strength of a God of Destruction and the almighty power of an Angel (like Whis or his sister). So that would mean that no one could challenge the ones above Angel level of power, such as the Grand Priest and the two Zen-Oh's. 
 Dragon Ball Super: Broly opens up new doors for what can realistically reach the levels of these higher and transcended power wielding characters by further pushing the concept of 'potential' that was brought up in Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F.' As Frieza is able to quickly become a God Ki user in the matter of training for a few months and then being able to fight Goku and Vegeta in their Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan forms (short ver: SSJ Blue), Broly is also able to bring out power that rivals even the Gods of Destruction by quickly learning as he fights against strong opponents. Broly in the movie starts as a fairly powerful child, and later as his father and him get saved Broly is a very powerful young man, but not one that would be able to challenge the Z fighters at this point in the story. However, as the story quickly develops, Broly becomes a monster to be feared and as Broly keeps humiliating Frieza, Goku and Vegeta have to resort to their ultimate trump card in order to take him out.

Broly is frankly a breath of fresh air for the Dragon Ball series. The amount of effort to the artwork and animation that were put into the movie by Toei Animation's top dogs in the animation game really make the movie shine and feel lively - it is beautiful to look at. The movie is also more character focused than Battle of Gods and Revival of F, making great use of some of the lesser character such as Frieza's army's new characters and the flashback cast; there is a sense of synergy between characters and events. I feel that Frieza was written in a more menacing way than what he ever was in Super, it is a great step back to what he was like in Z.
The soundtrack is pretty decent, for example the moment in the flashback where Frieza destroys planet Vegeta has a great OST that I need a full version for, and especially the ending theme song of the movie, Blizzard by Daichi Miura, is fantastic, I've been listening to it nonstop for a while now. 

A man with anger issues

However, that does not mean that the movie doesn't have negatives to it. Mostly the biggest and most obvious one comes to mind: the fact that the fights go at a ridicilous pace, something many can easily see as a negative aspect of the film. We go through probably about a dozen different fights.

As an example of the far, far too quick pacing for the form versus form showcase battles in this movie, take a look at this:

Base Broly vs Base Vegeta
Base Broly vs SSJ Vegeta
Base Broly and rage Broly vs SSJG Vegeta
Rage Broly vs Base Goku
Rage Broly vs SSJ Goku
Rage Broly vs SSJG Goku
Rage Broly vs SSJB Goku
SSJ Broly vs Goku/Vegeta SSJB
SSJ Broly vs Frieza
SSJ Broly vs Whis
SSJ Broly vs SSJ Gogeta
SSJ FP Broly vs SSJB Gogeta

All of that happened within 30 minutes of the film, so nowhere near the amount of time Broly was shown battling individual opponents by brutally beating them up in the original films. This movie definitely was packed and required to be longer, but still would not be as good if it was split into two films due to the content itself not requiring that, just the fights in weaker forms should have been longer.

The Legends Were True

If this movie had been a full three-hour length film, it would not have any notable negatives to it. However, that's not something that the creators can decide as the movies have to have certain lengths to them. I'd say that if the movie ever gets animated the same way Battle of Gods and Revival of F did, definitely those are probably going to be watched for the writing of the characters while the movie can be watched for the animation and quick summary of the Broly arc.

All in all, Dragon Ball Super: Broly ended up being the most entertaining Dragon Ball movie in decades that is written in a different way from the original Broly trilogy, effectively giving the old fans of the franchise something new, and what we got, was great.