Dragon Ball Rewatch, Week 53 - DBZ Movie 4

[Robo4900]

Hello, ladies, gentlemen, and everyone between and beyond, and welcome to week 53 of the first Dragon Ball rewatch of the decade.
We're doing five episodes a week, and we'll be watching every single episode of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT. All 508 episodes. Plus the TV specials and the movies.
I encourage you all to watch in Japanese with subtitles, especially if you have never done so before, but watch along in whichever way brings you the most joy.

The good news is KBABZ has returned to aid in trivia!

The bad news is, this week's viewing is the immensely crappy DBZ movie 4, the one with Lord Slugg.

Previous thread: Week 52 (DBZ 70-74)
Next thread: Week 54 (DBZ 75-79)

Anyway, without further ado...

Dragon Ball Z
Super Saiyan Son Goku
Dub title: Lord Slug
Originally released 9th of March 1991
Director: Mitsuo Hashimoto
Animation supervisor: Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, Masaki Satō
Written by: Takao Koyama

The gang reckon with the arrival of the mysterious Lord Slugg, who seeks eternal youth!

Interesting trivia:

• Lord Slugg was originally released on Marth 19th, 1991 as part of the Spring "Toei Anime Fair", alongside a movie from the Magical Taluluto series.
• This is the first Dragon Ball movie to open straight into the intro, rather than having a prologue section first.
• Gohan's starting outfit in this movie is from his original introduction in the opening of the Saiyan Arc, presumably chosen so Slugg can take the Dragon Ball from Gohan's hat. Consequently this movie is the first time Gohan has an extended fight in this outfit.
• Gohan's whistling is of course not done by Masako Nozawa; instead it was performed by Hajime Ueshiba, who whistles and plays piano professionally.
• Daizenshuu 6 recounts stories of children imitating Gohan's whilstling while exiting the theatre.
• Maeda designed Hire Dragon's outfit to have bells that with ring as it danced along with Gohan.
• Piccolo and Gohan can sense Lord Slugg's arrival from a MUCH greater distance compared to Goku's ability to detect Tullece in the previous movie.
• This movie is Dr. Brief's first appearance in a Dragon Ball movie.
• The Capsule Corp. observatory's location is unknown, however its interior bears a resemblance with the launch bay from the second episode of Dragon Ball GT, including the upper balcony.
• Bulma's outfit in this movie is from the 23rd Tournament Arc.
• The seeming destruction of Earth isn't the first time a "bad ending fake-out" has been used in the anime: during the 22nd Tournament, Yamcha has a vision from the hospital of Goku losing his fight with Tien, which isn't revealed as such until he bolts awake.
• The NBS logo seen on the set after the computer simulation has a map of the world behind it. The Daizenshuu map only has landmasses similar to Africa and Asia, however the NBS map clearly has North and South America on it.
• This movie is the first time Naoko Watanabe is heard playing Chi-Chi. She would take over the role starting with DBZ Episode 88 after her previous actress, Mayumi Sho, left to raise her newborn child.
• The shot of the boat being engulfed by the sea is very similar to a shot from the anime when Ma-Junior flattens Papaya Island.
• Minoru Maeda adjusted Lord Slugg's design a bit by giving him a helmet and chest armour to disguise his Namekian heritage. Maeda decided against giving him a cape since it would have been too Namekian-like, even though Piccolo is the only one to ever wear one.
• How exactly Lord Slugg's empire interacted with Freeza's, while an interesting thing to think about, goes unexplained.
• One of Lorg Slugg's men appears similar to Drum, appropriate given Slugg's Namekian origin.
• The names of Lord Slugg's men are all puns on the Andromeda galaxy, since they all come from space.
• It isn't explained how Gohan's Dragon Ball stays attached to his hat. Glue, maybe?
• The scene of Bulma summoning Shen Long that Lord Slugg reads is specifically of when she, Roshi and Oolong wished Goku back to life in the Saiyan Arc.
• The limitation of the Demon Clan to last even an hour in direct sunlight did not seem to be any hindrance for Daimao or any of his men when they were conquering Earth.
• When Chichi takes the warm drink to Gohan, she's seen walking past a pinboard with a calendar on it with "3 March" written on it. This doesn't confirm the date, as March is the 3rd month of the year, nor is any year given. However given that none of the days are crossed out, the movie likely takes place on March 1st.
  • On the calendar, March 21st is highlighted in red. This is because that's one of the days Japanese Vernal Equinox Day falls on, which commemorates the beginning of spring and as such can vary between the 21st and 20th of March, depending on the astronomy. The date on the Lord Slugg calendar is incorrect however: throughout the entire run of Dragon Ball, Vernal Equinox Day fell on the 20th of March, never on the 21st.
  • Also on the cork board are a picture of Master Roshi, and a picture of Goku holding up an infant Gohan.
• Gohan's room once again has a Malboro Formula 1 car in it, this time in the form of a poster. As explained in the DBZ Movie 2 trivia entry in regards to the model of this car seen on a shelf, the famous Malboro racer is referenced by Dragon Ball because the team sponsored Jump through 1990, and Toriyama is a big fan of the sport.
• There's also of course a big Arale poster on the wall; the placement to the right of the door is exactly where the Policeman Arale picture was placed in Bulma's house during Episode 2 of the original anime (it was not present in the manga).
• Gohan and Oolong once again flee the house for misadventues without telling Chichi, just like in the prologue to DBZ Movie 2.
• As seen on a sign, the truck that Gohan and Oolong hide behind is on Iguana Street West.
• The jewelery shop at the bottom of the building where Piccolo fights Dorodabo on is called Moulin Rouge. Moulin Rogue was a cabaret in Paris that birthed the can-can dance. As revealed by the truck, this is the same street where Gohan and Oolong were hiding.
• Medamatcha should not have performed a whistle, considering he didn't close his lips enough.
• This movie provides a rare look at Piccolo's shoulder pauldrons without the cloak completely covering it.
• Goku's arrival parallels his in the Saiyan Arc: after Piccolo takes considerable damage to protect Gohan, Goku arrives and ignores the villains talking to him to tend to Gohan (Goku also catches one of his victims by his back and tosses him to his comrades). It's also similar to his fight with Jheese and Butta, where he makes complete fools of them and hides in plain sight. Angira even looks a bit like Jheese!
• Slugg's disposal of Kuririn (a single karate chop without other movement) is exactly how Cell would eventually defeat Mr. Satan in the Cell Games.
• In the wide shot after Slugg hits Kuririn away, the hole blasted in the wall of the Moulin Rouge shop is missing. It reappears when Slugg tosses Goku into the truck.
• Very famously, the Super Saiyan identified by Kaio in this movie contradicts the Super Saiyan that appeared in the manga; the movie debuted a mere 10 days before Goku would achieve it in the manga. The major difference outside the lack of pupil's is Goku's hair: it remains black instead of turning blonde. Interestingly Toriyama adopted the blonde colouring to save him and his inker from having to ink Goku's hair all the time, so it's possible this decision was made after Lord Slugg was animated. Toriyama did however come up with the idea that the transformation made Goku's hair stand up, which he retained for his storyline.
• Despite punching themselves through multiple buildings, Goku and Slugg always seem to fight in the same Iguana Street West section of the city.
• Lord Slugg's "fleshy bits" on his arms are coloured beige, a middle-ground between anime Piccolo's pink and Daimao's yellow when he's old. Slugg is the only Namekian to have this colouring.
• The green Moulin Rouge appears in one of the shots as giant Lord Slugg fights Goku, despite Slugg destroying it earlier in the movie.
• When Goku is punched through the street into an underground highway, a yellow aircar can be seen that looks a lot like Thunderbird 4, the yellow submarine. Here, the front grille is now on the back, it lacks the roof fin and only has one thruster.
• This is the second movie in a row where Goku is crushed in the hands of a giant villain.
• It's also the second movie in a row where the main villain is defeated by a Genki Dama.
• It's the third movie in a row where major damage upon the planet's environment is part of the villain's plan. In this case, it's freezing temperatures.
• Despite pulling his ears off, Piccolo should still be able to hear the whistling; presumably he did it to lesson its impact. Indeed, he has no trouble hearing Yajirobe talk about Senzu Beans at the very end of the movie.
• The music as Goku admires the sun being out again contains refrains similar to the first track in "Gift of the Dragon Balls", which played when Goku recalled his first meeting with Chichi at the 23rd Tournament.
• The cyan and purple outfit that Gohan wears during the closing credits are identical to the ones Goten wears in the Great Saiyaman Arc and Dragon Ball Super.
• The car that Roshi overtakes Goku in during the end credits is a Caterham 7, a superlight sports car from the United Kingdom. The specific paint job is the one used for the Caterham 7 at the start of the opening to 1967 British Sci-Fi show The Prisoner.
• Lord Slugg contains many, MANY parallels with Piccolo Daimao. Both escaped the drought of Namek and are incredibly powerful warriors of pure evil who swiftly gather the Dragon Balls and wish for their youth (although Lord Slugg wishes for eternal youth specifically). Ma-Junior is also referenced as well with the giant form and using stretchy limbs, as well as pulling off their broken arm to regenerate it.

Episode summaries, airdates, and titles courtesy of Kanzenshuu's episode guide. Trivia written by KBABZ.

[KBABZ]

Yes, AHM BACK!! And I didn't just do Movie 4 either! I went back and did Trivia to include below! (including the useless shit Robo cuts out before posting it)


- Tree of Might -

Spoiler:

• The satellite at the start of the movie bears a resemblance to Sputnik-1, Earth's first artificial satellite and the instigator of NASA and the Space Race.
• Gohan's sleep-study set is a Capsule Corp-branded cassette player.
• This movie is of course the first appearance of Hire Dragon (known as Icarus in Funimation's dubs). Hire Dragon is a non-manga character who Toei would position as Gohan's childhood companion, appearing in this movie, Lord Slug and Cooler's Revenge, as well as appearing in the filler Garlic Jr. arc and the infamous driving episode. After Gohan matures in the Cyborg Arc and attains Super Saiyan 2, Hire Dragon would not appear again, however Goten does reference him while playing with some Dinosaurs in the Great Saiyaman Arc. The source of Hire Dragon's name is unknown.
• The technique used by Krillin and Gohan to put out the forest fire is similar to a kiai, first used by Tenshinhan to deflect a Kamehameha, and later Cyborg Tao's Super Dodon-pa. Kiai's are based around shouts, however in this movie they are expelled using the hands.
• For the opening of this movie, the explosion sound effect that plays in the intro is used for the ship that blasts past the camera.
• The ship itself is the orange ship used in the Baba mini-arc, and it once again has the grey booster on the back (in the anime only, this was ejected in order to avoid a heat-seeking missile).
• The shot of Gohan in the intro running away from the dinosaur directly references the original Head Cha-La intro, which is otherwise fully replaced by the Dragon Ball hunt that plays instead.
• KBABZ has only just noticed this, but the lyrics of Head Cha-La reference the Genki-Dama. That means that in the anime, the technique is referenced 20 episodes before it first appears in the story.
• The monkeys that appear in the Shen Long summoning scene use the same designs from the ones in Dragon Ball's very first chapter, which were then re-used for the Colonel Silver filler arc.
• As you might guess, Hire Dragon's wings are far to small to actually lift him.
• This movie marks the first time Shen Long has ever tried to attack someone. He must have learned after Daimao killed him!
• When Chi-Chi turns around in the bathing scene, she assumes a fighting stance, referencing her martial arts knowledge displayed during the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai.
• Goku going out of his way to give Hire Dragon food and shelter is very similar to what he'll do later in the DBS Broly movie for Broly, Cheelai and Lemo.
• The ship used by Yamcha and Puar has a similar design to the ship Gohan jumps off in the Dragon Ball Kai intro.
• Tullece's men start a design trend among the next few movies of dressing them in non-standard armour to help them stand out.
• Unless Piccolo happened to be much closer to Tullece's men than Goku, Goku should have easily been able to sense them before calling Gohan out to supper.
• The shots of the animals fleeing from the Tree of Might use the same lineart animation as when they fled from the forest fire.
• The very first building destroyed by the Tree of Might's roots has the same design as the hospital Goku stays in after the fight with Vegeta, explaining it's somewhat awkward perspective.
• Tree of Might is the second movie in a row to use environmental decay as a major plot threat, after Dr. Uiro's machine in The World's Strongest.
• Goku's name on the mug in the dining room scene is spelt "Goku", rather than "Gouku". "Gokuu" is also a possibility, but the spelling presented on the mug brings to mind using Bulma's dress in the opening chapter as reasoning to spell her name as "Bulma" rather than "Bloomers" or "Buruma".
• It's kind of unbelievable that the Tree of Might would cause such ravaging destruction across the Earth, and yet it leaves Mount Paoz alone such that Goku and Yamcha (not to mention Tien and Roshi, who had to arrive from elsewhere) don't even notice.
• Tien and Chiaotzu use the Dodon-pa on the Tree of Might. This is the first time Chiaotzu has used the move since the 22nd Tournament, and the first time Tien's been shown using it at all.
• Once again Goku and the others don't notice Tullece's men at all despite being extremely close by, until they actually meet them.
• The dialogue from Krillin and Tullece, and the lack of Vegeta, suggests that this movie takes place after the fight with Vegeta but before everyone left for Namek (which of course means Yamcha, Tien and Ciaotzu shouldn't be there).
• Krillin's Kienzan is shown as a blunt force move when it crashes into the cliff, rather than as a precise slicing move as it normally is.
• The shot of one of the twins flying up to face Gohan has the background moving at 12 frames per second, rather than 24fps like it normally would be.
• The shot of Gohan charging the Masenko above his head is one of the few shots in the movies that doesn't work in the full 4:3 frame: the effect is cut off at the top. Since the 4:3 version was intended for home broadcast, it's likely that this was left in because CRT televisions of the day crop into the picture (called Overscan), thus the mistake wouldn't be seen.
• This is the second time Gohan deals serious damage to his opponent with a flying headbutt.
• When Tullece scan's Gohan battle power, legible numbers appear on the visor, a rarity for the devices at the time.
• The idea of lower-class Saiyans looking alike is presumably to justify why Tullece looks like Goku. In modern Dragon Ball works such as the DBS Broly, this idea has been abandoned.
• Gohan's battle power is rated at 10,000. This is an incredibly high number for him at the time this movie is supposed to be set, considering he wouldn't reach that sort of power until fighting Guldo on Namek. This would also give him a battle power of 100,000 when he turns into an Oozaru later, hence why Goku needs to use the Kaio-Ken to escape.
• Tullece decides to destroy the artificial moon in order to prevent himself from turning into a Great Ape. Normally destroying the source will turn a Saiyan back to normal (as in the 21st Tournament and the Saiyan Arc filler), which Tullece handwaves by saying the effects of the moon will last a little longer after he destroys it.
• Goku uses a move extremely similar to Krillin's Kienzan in order to cut off Gohan's tail.
• The giant ferris wheel in the amusement park scene has "D.B.Z." written on it.
• At this point, Piccolo is able to fire the Makankosappo without having to spend a lot of time and energy charging it up. Cell would also be capable of this when he copies the movie during the Cell Games.
• Like several of the other DBZ movies, Tree of Might copies various fights and situations that came before it from the manga/anime. In this case, Krillin and co. participating in the battle, Gohan going Oozaru, Goku's use of Kaio-ken, Goku's matchup with Tullece, and Tullece's face when hit with the Genki-Dama, are all taken from the battle with Vegeta.
• It's unclear whether Tullece actually would be capable of defeating Freeza with the power of the fruit, given the emperor's astronomically high battle power compared to those in this movie. It's possible Tullece didn't know Frieza was able to transform.
• In the final scene, Roshi mentions that if Goku hadn't hit his head, he would have joined Tullece. Roshi is forgetting that Raditz arrived with the same proposal on his own island a year earlier.
• The end of the film is one of the very few times Goku mentions a scar on his head from his fall in Mount Paoz.
• The end song refers to "gods of destruction": this is almost certainly meant metaphorically, that Tullece is a god-like being intent only on destruction.

- Bardock Special -

Spoiler:

• When the opening scene was used in the Kai's first episode, Bardock isn't mentioned by the elder doctor. This is because this scene is treated as being very close to Goku being sent away as Bardock battles Frieza's men above their homeworld; in the special it doesn't happen for at least another week after that scene, and Kakarot is sent away moments before Bardock starts the fight.
• The Scouters worn by Bardock and his comrades have a button on the side, presumably to activate the scanner. In all other instances, a button on the earpiece itself is used.
• Vegeta's outfit in the Saibamen training scene is almost identical to what he'd wear in the Saiyan Arc; the only difference is that here he's wearing a singlet, exposing his arms.
• Zarbon's words about Saiyans being a fearsome force when teaming up actually predicts a subplot regarding Goku and Vegeta in Dragon Ball Super. This subplot would be concluded in the DBSuper Broly film when they use fusion: ironically, DBSuper Broly has replaced the Bardock Special in modern Dragon Ball.
• Frieza's pod in this special has three fins sticking out to help it rest on the ground; these don't appear in the Namek arc.
• The time period this special takes place in is the only time we see Vegeta wearing armour with a cape and his father's emblem. Why Vegeta discards this is unknown.
• In the scene with Bardock and the healing tank, they mention that Bardock always seems to come close to dying, and his battle power keeps rising; this is an oblique reference the Saiyan "zenkai" trait. They also mention that Bardock's current battle power is close to 10,000: this is about Goku's power when facing Nappa and Vegeta, and close to Gohan's power in Tree of Might.
• With the exception of meeting Karin and Tenshinhan and training with Mr. Popo, the recap of the original Dragon Ball anime at the start of Dragon Ball Kai covers all of the events seen by Bardock: Goku meeting Gohan, Goku leaving with Bulma, Goku training with Krillin, Goku defeating Piccolo Daimao, and Goku fighting Majunior. Several shots are even shared between both Kai and the Bardock Special!
• The shots of Goku being a huge problem for Gohan are taken from Z Episode 2, where Roshi explains Goku's true history.
• The shot of Bardock stepping out of the healing tank is exactly the same as Vegeta doing the same at the start of the Namek Arc.
• Of Bardock's men, Toma is the only one whose name is mentioned.
• Dodoria's attack on Bardock leaves a scar in the ground very similar to the one left behind when Gohan attacked a mountain after Piccolo threw him at it.
• In Bardock's vision of Goku's pod arriving to Earth, it has land masses incredibly similar to North and South America. This is yet another variation on Earth's geography (contradicting other works like the Red Ribbon Army Arc, the Mystical Adventure movie, and the Daizenshuu map).
• Selipa and several of the mess room patrons are the first female Saiyans depicted in a Dragon Ball product. It would take Toriyama another five years to include one in Pan at the very end of the manga, and a further eight years for his second, Gine.
• In the Namek vision towards the end of the movie, Frieza is incorrectly drawn with red eyes.
• Vegeta's cold reaction to the news of his homeworld being destroyed reflects his attitude when he Dodoria tells him that Frieza actually destroyed it.
• The scenes depicted in the closing credits of the special show two Arcs left out by Bardock's vision: the Red Ribbon Army and the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai arcs.
• Goku's behavior at the end of the special is somewhat contradictory to his backstory from Episode 2 of Z, where he was a violent boy until his accident. Here, he's rather happy and only harms Gohan with a soft kick on the chin.
• Notably, Vegeta's father is not present in the Bardock Special at all; he and the idea of Saiyans having a monarchy would not be invented until the first Broly movie in 1993, three years after this special aired.

[MasenkoHA]

I enjoyed this movie despite it’s somewhat poor reputation . I realize Goku going “Super Saiyan”
was purely a marketing move to get butts in seats (he hadn’t even become a Super Saiyan in the manga yet) and this form has been retconned to “Pseudo Super Saiyan” but I quite like it. The canon one is pure Toriyama. It exist to cut corners and it still works in it’s simplicity but this one is plain cool and unadulterated awesome.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

The Big Green and Speedy dubs of this movie are hilarious, here's some of my favorite bits from each. Both of them have me breaking down laughing every time.

Big Green

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyLiZM2 ... 2&index=81

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp0DHbt ... 5l&index=4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW5dtfW ... &index=107

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZW6yA31scU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-0XeEq ... l&index=12

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVvDF2Z ... l&index=13

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTxg3cf ... l&index=15


Speedy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3NAKKKQYWY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Upy2SEnP9MU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aUIsKJ ... u&index=15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KUU-Oo ... &index=103

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk2CVXOAy-w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2sAsaE ... &index=105

[Matches Malone]

Finally, the citizen kane of anime.

I know this movie has somewhat of a mediocre reputation, but I like it overall. It doesn't have anything that particularly stands out, but it's a fun 50 minutes of DB content.

[KBABZ]

Finally, the citizen kane of anime.

I know this movie has somewhat of a mediocre reputation, but I like it overall. It doesn't have anything that particularly stands out, but it's a fun 50 minutes of DB content.

I dunno, I watched it for the first time, in Japanese even, and I find it thoroughly uncompelling. It bungles nearly every element regarding the writing, moving from scene to scene, and making me care about Slug!

[Robo4900]

I watched it a couple of years ago, I think, and I found it insultingly bad at the time, and almost immediately forgot everything that happened in both it and Coola 1. The two biggest clunkers in the Dragon Ball movie canon, one after the other.

Coola 1 comes at the end of February, for those curious. Coola 2 will be in March.

[KBABZ]

I was actually SHOCKED how little the Super Saiyan form came into play and how unimportant it ultimately was; Goku just falls back on the Spirit Bomb again just like any other movie, and Super Saiyan is treated as just another Kaio-Ken-type move.

The Bardock Special was pretty cool, giving us a peek into Saiyan day-to-day, and how Bardock grew to respect his son. It's the type of story that doesn't beat you over the head with its own hype, it just delivers its story. I was also quite shocked that Bardock saw Goku's entire personal history! Having only seen Kai and read about the special, I thought it was just Goku on Namek, the destruction of Vegeta, and that was it.

I think my favourite moment is possibly one of the most artful in all of Dragon Ball. It's when Bardock is running up the stairs, then finds himself in the vision of Namek. After it ends, he just stands there, processing the vision, and realizing that if his visions are true, Frieza must live, meaning he'll fail. And he continues running anyway. Not a single line of dialogue was used to convey this, but it still totally works.

[Captain-Sora]

Musically, this film's score establishes both Goku's new theme for the middle group of movie OSTs (before it's revamped again in Movie and, more notably, is the first instance where Kikuchi starts utilizing the Saiyan theme initially introduced in the series as a leitmotif for Super Saiyan transformations/fights. What's neat is how he hints at it when the title card, "Son Goku the Super Saiyan," drops, which kinda makes the English title, "Lord Slug," kinda clunky in hindsight.

[WittyUsername]

It didn’t occur to me until fairly recently that this is apparently one of the more infamous movies in the franchise, right behind Movie 11. I don’t think it’s especially bad, but it is difficult to find anything that stands out about it, other than the Pseudo Super Saiyan form, which is only even there so they could justify the movie’s title.

I also find it odd that even though this movie came out while the series was well into the Freeza arc (in fact, it was released about a week before Super Saiyan Goku first appears in the manga), this movie is heavily based on the Piccolo Daimao arc. Obviously, the majority of Dragon Ball movies do have a tendency to lift material from the manga, but the Piccolo Daimao arc had long stopped being relevant by this point.

[MyVisionity]

Yeah this movie ain't really good in my view. Right off the bat there's Gohan whistling and dancing and it just feels out of character. Maybe even only there to setup the ending.

This movie seems in some ways like a poor rehash of Tree of Might with alien invaders coming and attacking the planet itself, this time with ice. Even the way Slug and the weather machine are destroyed is just like Turles and the tree.

This does seem like the closest thing to a Christmas movie for Dragon Ball, what with the wintry weather, street lighting, and storefronts.

Interesting that Slug's soldiers are all apparently demons. The direct sunlight thing on its own makes sense, but then when you consider Piccolo and the others it really doesn't. Maybe it's only demons from Planet Slug or outer space that have that weakness. Or the writers just didn't particularly care.

Slug himself... is not really all that interesting to me. I like seeing him use the giant form technique, and I like the idea of more evil Namekians, but that's about it. Funny that Kaio speculates that maybe not even Freeza could defeat Slug.

I thought the whole whistle attack was too dumb and silly. Although Piccolo ripping off his ears is funny. And what happened to extending his fucking arm?

Props to Ueshiba doing the whistling. It sounds almost like Masako Nozawa herself.

The ending credits theme is dope once more. Possibly my favorite part of this movie.

Over on the dub:

I wish Funi would have gone with a different title than "Lord Slug". I don't know what exactly, "Super Saiyan Goku", "The Super Saiyan" maybe?

Funimation's original soundtrack for this one featuring bands like Disturbed and such was pretty memorable. It helps make a poor movie much better in my view.

Funi's script was ridiculously off base from the original version. Kaio's explanation of Slug's background is nearly entirely rewritten and needlessly expanded.

Favorite Funi line: "If you've come to apply for the soldier jobs use the side entrance!" "Thanks but no thanks, we're both self-employed!"

Brice Armstrong did a good Slug.

I also find it odd that even though this movie came out while the series was well into the Freeza arc (in fact, it was released about a week before Super Saiyan Goku first appears in the manga), this movie is heavily based on the Piccolo Daimao arc. Obviously, the majority of Dragon Ball movies do have a tendency to lift material from the manga, but the Piccolo Daimao arc had long stopped being relevant by this point.

It's probably because they were on Namek so they decided to use a Namekian villain, borrowing from the child of Katattsu story.

[MasenkoHA]

.

I also find it odd that even though this movie came out while the series was well into the Freeza arc (in fact, it was released about a week before Super Saiyan Goku first appears in the manga), this movie is heavily based on the Piccolo Daimao arc. Obviously, the majority of Dragon Ball movies do have a tendency to lift material from the manga, but the Piccolo Daimao arc had long stopped being relevant by this point.

They already did the Saiyan thing with Tulles. They weren’t going to rip off Freeza when the story in the manga wasn’t finished yet. So if they were going to rip off a storyline from the main series well....Piccolo Daimao was it.


Plus like MyVisionity noted the cast was currently on Namek so it made sense to use that as a jumping point.


The heroes are on Namek in the tv series and manga>Make the villain a bad guy from Namek>Oh Piccolo was from Namek let’s rip him off

[KBABZ]

Having watched Tree of Might now, Tullece was a big let-down. I realize there's little room in these movies to explore the characters, but Tullece being an evil Goku is NEVER explored as a concept at all; he's just Another DBZ Movie Villain. They don't even bother to explain how he survived the Saiyan genocide!

[MasenkoHA]

Having watched Tree of Might now, Tullece was a big let-down. I realize there's little room in these movies to explore the characters, but Tullece being an evil Goku is NEVER explored as a concept at all; he's just Another DBZ Movie Villain. They don't even bother to explain how he survived the Saiyan genocide!

I think the most annoying thing is the official explanation for Tullece looking like Goku is “Well a lot of low class warriors looked the same” Nevermind he looks more like Goku than Goku’s own brother. No wonder the French dub and badly translated from French AB Groupe UK dub made them brothers.


Make Tullece Goku’s half brother from a different Saiyan woman, make him Goku from an alternate universe where Kakarot was raised on a never destroyer planet Vegeta. Something.

[ArmenianPepsi]

Man i'm a bit late to the party here, but i'll still chip in.

Honestly I can't muster up much of anything outside the consensus here. Movie 4 is just a drab boring watch. The only thing positive I can mention is the animation, but really that's nothing out of the norm, Toei always had their prime staff work on these flicks so of course it's gonna look awesome. Also I'm a fan of the proto Super Saiyan design, with it being like an inbetween of Kaio-Ken and true Super Saiyan.

Lord Slug is a boring villain. And when most of these Z movies ride off the hype factor of having some sort of bizarre cool new villain to fight, everything else just falls like dominoes if you can't get that step down.

[Robo4900]

Man i'm a bit late to the party here, but i'll still chip in.

It's never too late. Someone just made a post in the DBZ movie 2 thread, from ten weeks ago!

Besides, we don't roll on to the next week of viewing until Wednesday.

That said, these movie weeks are perhaps a little slow. The rest of the movies will be put in weeks alongside episodes, taking up two or three episode slots depending on their runtime (so, DBZ movie 5 will be alongside three episodes of Z). Though that said, the next movie isn't for another seven weeks (immediately following the final episode of the Freeza arc; the Garlic Jr. arc will then be fully covered by the following two weeks of viewing, then the Androids arc begins the next week).

Honestly I can't muster up much of anything outside the consensus here. Movie 4 is just a drab boring watch. The only thing positive I can mention is the animation, but really that's nothing out of the norm, Toei always had their prime staff work on these flicks so of course it's gonna look awesome. Also I'm a fan of the proto Super Saiyan design, with it being like an inbetween of Kaio-Ken and true Super Saiyan.

Lord Slug is a boring villain. And when most of these Z movies ride off the hype factor of having some sort of bizarre cool new villain to fight, everything else just falls like dominoes if you can't get that step down.

Honestly, it surprises me how highly people rate the first Coola movie, but if we go with the consensus and ignore that one (even though IMO it is the worst), this one is pretty much the definitive bad DBZ movie... Which is kind of perfect, because it keenly demonstrates everything that tends to go wrong with the DBZ movies; the "big bad plus about four or five minibosses" formula is strictly adhered to, the villains show no real character, it's highly derivative of an arc that was already on TV... To be honest, even if Slugg had been a half-interesting character, I don't think the movie would have worked, there would just be nothing else of interest going on.

I still think the next movie is worse, but this one definitely deserves its shitty reputation.

[KBABZ]

this one is pretty much the definitive bad DBZ movie... Which is kind of perfect, because it keenly demonstrates everything that tends to go wrong with the DBZ movies; the "big bad plus about four or five minibosses" formula is strictly adhered to, the villains show no real character, it's highly derivative of an arc that was already on TV... To be honest, even if Slugg had been a half-interesting character, I don't think the movie would have worked, there would just be nothing else of interest going on.

Not only that, but as someone who is watching these for the first time, Lord Slug is easily the movie that exposes how much the stories can just be an assembly of just random ideas and events. The opening of the planet crashing into Earth, causing total worldwide destruction that is forgotten about by halfway into the movie, and then it explodes for... some reason, and then Slugg's ship is there for no clearly defined reason... and his villains can't stand sunlight, okay... but then that doesn't factor into the story AT ALL. It's like an episode of The Simpsons! Not to mention Slugg, whose Namekian origin is not played for any drama or interest with Piccolo ever!

These are all problems that have befallen the DBZ movies since World's Strongest, arguably Dead Zone as well with Garlic Jr. and Gohan eating that stupid apple. And while I understand that these are basically just promotional animations to get kids excited at a school break festival, there's simply no effort put into most of these outside of the animation and drawing quality. It beggars belief and I can't believe people hold these things with any reverence whatsoever.

[NeoZ Duwang]

This was the first time I saw this movie after a long time (Also watched the first three today, loved those) and honestly, I was expecting something much worse, I mean it WAS as bad as people say, but not boring enough to make it un-watchable, it felt more like the "Well, it exists, nothing that stands out here" kind of bad, rather than "Why does shit like that exists?" kind of bad, you know?

I just looove how this movie was released with the name "Super Saiyan Son Goku" when the transformation doesn't last more than 2 minutes. Seriously though, I like this "Golden Kaioken" design, it's not something that could ever replace the manga Super Saiyan, but it's interesting anyway, I also like when Goku hurts Slug's hand, and it gets surrounded by that flaming golden aura.
By the way, you know that Kaioken "dash" sound effect(this one: https://youtu.be/C9XDYbFcRCc?t=10)? I might be forgetting something, but I think this was the first time it was ever used for something that is not the Kaioken? I THINK that effect is also used again AT LEAST once in the Boo Arc, but I can't remember any specific instances, since this is the first time I'm rewatching the anime since I was a kid.

This is nitpicking, but it's really stupid how they felt the need to make Kaio explain that Slug was (100% pure) evil because of a mutation (not the "comic book" kind of mutation, obviously), like, he's basically saying "Most namekians aren't evil, but this one is!", which I hope it's not something you would need help to realize... I think they only did that because they reeeally wanted someone in the movie to compare him to Piccolo Daimao.

The best part of the movie is how Muten Roshi was asleep for the whole thing, just that.

Edit: I forgot to mention that Gohan's clothes in the ending have a color that reminded me of early Boo Goten's clothes

[WittyUsername]

Man i'm a bit late to the party here, but i'll still chip in.

It's never too late. Someone just made a post in the DBZ movie 2 thread, from ten weeks ago!

Besides, we don't roll on to the next week of viewing until Wednesday.

That said, these movie weeks are perhaps a little slow. The rest of the movies will be put in weeks alongside episodes, taking up two or three episode slots depending on their runtime (so, DBZ movie 5 will be alongside three episodes of Z). Though that said, the next movie isn't for another seven weeks (immediately following the final episode of the Freeza arc; the Garlic Jr. arc will then be fully covered by the following two weeks of viewing, then the Androids arc begins the next week).

Honestly I can't muster up much of anything outside the consensus here. Movie 4 is just a drab boring watch. The only thing positive I can mention is the animation, but really that's nothing out of the norm, Toei always had their prime staff work on these flicks so of course it's gonna look awesome. Also I'm a fan of the proto Super Saiyan design, with it being like an inbetween of Kaio-Ken and true Super Saiyan.

Lord Slug is a boring villain. And when most of these Z movies ride off the hype factor of having some sort of bizarre cool new villain to fight, everything else just falls like dominoes if you can't get that step down.

Honestly, it surprises me how highly people rate the first Coola movie, but if we go with the consensus and ignore that one (even though IMO it is the worst), this one is pretty much the definitive bad DBZ movie... Which is kind of perfect, because it keenly demonstrates everything that tends to go wrong with the DBZ movies; the "big bad plus about four or five minibosses" formula is strictly adhered to, the villains show no real character, it's highly derivative of an arc that was already on TV... To be honest, even if Slugg had been a half-interesting character, I don't think the movie would have worked, there would just be nothing else of interest going on.

I still think the next movie is worse, but this one definitely deserves its shitty reputation.

Movie 5 isn’t fantastic, but the decision to tie Cooler in with Goku’s backstory is an interesting enough idea, and it makes for a good sense of irony when Cooler is ultimately defeated. Movie 4 doesn’t have anything like that. Also, despite being a Freeza knockoff, most would agree that Cooler is a better villain than Slug.

[KBABZ]

This is nitpicking, but it's really stupid how they felt the need to make Kaio explain that Slug was (100% pure) evil because of a mutation (not the "comic book" kind of mutation, obviously), like, he's basically saying "Most namekians aren't evil, but this one is!", which I hope it's not something you would need help to realize... I think they only did that because they reeeally wanted someone in the movie to compare him to Piccolo Daimao.

Honestly a big problem with the movie overall is how Kaio delivers exposition dumps throughout the story. The entire opening sequence about the planet collision could have been much better spent explaining Slug's backstory in a non-spoilery way so that we have a better sense of his character and menace. Instead it acts more like the first third of a Simpsons episode.