General Information

Movie Premiere & Promotion

The movie premiered as part of the 1991 Spring “Toei Anime Fair” (東映アニメフェア; Tōei Anime Fea) on 09 March 1991, along with another movie from the Magical Taluluto series. The event originates from the “Toei Manga Festival” that was established by Toei in 1969 as a way to showcase their popular children’s series as theatrical films during seasonal breaks in the school year. In Japan, almost all schools below the university level run a three-term school year (trimester system) with a vacation period of several weeks to a month at the end of each trimester: spring vacation, summer vacation, and winter vacation. The movies were screened together back-to-back in various cities across Japan, with a typical total running time of roughly three hours. Most festivals would last roughly one month, or as long as the seasonal vacation allowed. Tickets could be purchased at the theater, or discount tickets could be purchased in advance which covered the cost of admission, as well as a bonus item such as a promotional pamphlet describing the featured movies, and various other special presents, such as posters, paper hats, cards, and toys. Additional items, including the official theatrical pamphlet and a variety of other commemorative goods, were available for purchase at cinemas or by mail during this period.

Franchise Timeline

At the time of the movie’s premiere, both the Dragon Ball manga and Dragon Ball Z TV series were in the Freeza story arc. In the manga, Goku is working to secretly collect enough ki from the planet’s remaining life to form a Genki-Dama large enough to defeat Freeza, whereas in the animated adaptation Piccolo has arrived on Planet Namek and confidently begins to battle Freeza in his second form.

Home Video Release

Up until the Dragon Box DVD sets began being released in the early 2000s, the only Dragon Ball properties released to home video in Japan were the original seventeen theatrical films, most of which were available on VHS, LaserDisc, and 8mm film reels. These home video releases were a luxury for most fans, as they came at a rather high price point for the time. They were later re-released in the late-1990s to replace the then out-of-print VHS tapes with a lower price point and slightly alternate covers.

After releasing the entirety of the three Dragon Ball TV series, Toei released their fifth and final “Dragon Box”, which was entitled “Dragon Box The Movies”. The Dragon Box contained all seventeen original Dragon Ball movies presented in their theatrical 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio. As a special bonus for the movie’s first DVD release, Toei dug through their vaults and included some of the movie’s original promotional material.

Following the “Dragon Box”, Toei began releasing each movie individually on DVD. To help promote the sale of movie individual discs, Shueisha handed out a free promotional DVD highlighting the releases at Jump Festa 2009. The DVD contained promotional trailers for each movie which were narrated by veteran Dragon Ball cast member Shigeru Chiba, the voice of such notable characters as Pilaf, Garlic Jr. (TV series), and Raditz. More information about the promotional DVD is available in our “Home Video Guide”.

In July 2018, the original seventeen theatrical films were released on Japanese Netflix and Amazon Prime streaming services. The addition of the movies themselves was heavily promoted throughout social media, however it was not announced or promoted at the time that they were actually new, high-definition remasters of the films scanned, and subsequently remastered, from the original film negatives. Shortly thereafter on 09 August 2018, Toei Animation formally announced the release of these newly-remastered versions of the movies across eight Blu-ray volumes. All non-credit versions of the opening and endings included with the release are up-converts of those originally included on the original LaserDisc releases and all bonus promotional materials (trailers, digests, etc.) are presented in their original standard definition format as included in the Dragon Box release.

Movie Synopsis

Piccolo is peacefully meditating on his own when Gohan and Hire Dragon appear to show off their new whistling dance. Piccolo quickly yells at Gohan to stop, as the high-pitched whistling is hurting his sensitive Namekian ears. Meanwhile, a strange planet is quickly approaching the Earth. Goku and Kuririn attempt to redirect the oncoming planet with a Kamehameha, but it has no effect and the planet simply pushes our heroes aside. The planet suddenly explodes and a spaceship is found to have landed on the Earth. An invasion force under the direction of Slug, a Super Namekian with a heart of pure evil, quickly takes over the surrounding area.

Gohan soon arrives to fight off the invading forces, and is easily dispatching most of them. However, Slug has been observing the battle from inside the spaceship and notices the Dragon Ball on Gohan’s hat. Bulma, Chi-Chi, and Oolong then arrive as Chi-Chi encourages Gohan to fight on, but Bulma insists on knowing Slug’s ultimate goal. After taking Gohan’s Dragon Ball Slug says he plans to use the Earth as a new vehicle, as his has been destroyed. Gohan won’t let this happen, but is easily defeated by Dorodabo and Angira, Slug’s right-hand men. Slug then reads Bulma’s mind and learns of the Dragon Balls on Earth. He quickly dispatches his men to gather the Dragon Balls and eventually wishes to have his youth restored.

After some time passes, the Earth’s temperature has drastically dropped as Slug has covered the planet with dark clouds, blocking the sun’s rays. Gohan has recovered, and not giving up the fight to save his planet he returns to challenge Slug. Unfortunately he is still no match and is about to be defeated, but is saved by Piccolo, who easily defeats Dorodabo. However, Gohan has had his energy drained by Medamaccha and Piccolo is seriously injured by Angira while protecting Gohan. Goku suddenly arrives, pulverizing Angira and Medamaccha with his overwhelming strength.

Kuririn pays no attention to Goku’s warning and decides to take on Slug, but is no match for powerful Namekian. Goku and Slug begin a one-on-one duel, but it is soon evident that Slug’s strength surpasses even that of Goku’s. With his back against the wall, Goku summons all of his strength and is overtaken by a golden aura. His Super Saiyan powers have manifested! Goku quickly overwhelms Slug, but the evil Namekian has one last trick up his sleeve – the Super Giant Body Arts technique!

Slug once again turns the table on Goku, but at that moment Piccolo remembers the effects Gohan’s whistling had on him. He rips off his own ears and yells at the beaten Gohan to start whistling. Slug quickly falls to ground in utter pain, releasing Goku from his grasp. Piccolo takes the chance to transfer his remaining ki to Goku, who then flies up over the dark clouds and begins forming a Genki-Dama with the energy from the sun. Slug flies up to stop him, but is hit head-on by the Genki-Dama which sends him crashing into the nearby machine creating the dark clouds. As the clouds disappear, the sun’s rays bring peace back to the Earth once again.

Characters, Items, & Settings

The following original character profiles were translated from Daizenshuu 6, along with additional character design comments from the movie’s character designer, Minoru Maeda, as published in the “Design Lab” section of the “Dragon Box The Movies” Dragon Book.

• Slug (スラッグ; suraggu)
  A Super Namekian with a heart of pure evil. With his youth restored by the Dragon Balls, he plots to conquer the universe.

  Toriyama-sensei designed the basics, but with the flow of the story, in order to hide his being a Namekian, I added things like a helmet and [chest] protector as well. Since it would have been too Namekian-like if I had given him a cape. (laughs)
   — Minoru Maeda

  
• Angira (アンギラ; angira)
  He seals up his opponent’s movement with his freely stretching arms. Like the rest of the warriors, he hates the sun.
  
• Dorodabo (ドロダボ; dorodabo)
  The one with the greatest superhuman strength. He has a cowardly personality, and ambushes his opponents.
  
• Medamatcha (メダマッチャ; medamatcha)
  He can split four bodies from his back, which latch on to his opponent and suck their energy.
  
• Zeiun (ゼエウン; zēun)
  He’s executed by Slug for slipping up and saying “Slug-sama is already getting old.”
  
• Gyoshu (ギョーシュ; gyōshu)
  A scientist that has sworn allegiance to Slug. When asked, Gyoshu says it will take 10 days to convert Earth into a planet cruiser, which irritates Slug and he is killed.
• Kakuja (カクージャ; kakūja)
  Like Gyoshu, he is a scientist that has sworn allegiance to Slug. Having been ordered by Slug, following Gyoshu’s death, he tries to modify the Earth into a planet cruiser in 3 days.
  
• Hire Dragon (ハイヤードラゴン; haiyā doragon)
  A dragon that befriended Gohan in the previous movie. Gohan has tamed the dragon, teaching him to dance when he whistles.

  In the scene where it dances along with Gohan’s whistling, I designed a costume in order for it to make noise with little bells. There actually was a reason why Hire Dragon looked like that. (laughs)
   — Minoru Maeda

  

Setting

The events of the movie take place on Earth, and more specifically in the immediate area around Slug’s Fortress that has landed on Earth. The exact location on Earth is never confirmed.

• Around Slug’s Fortress (スラッグの要塞周辺; suraggu no yōsai shūhen)
  This is the area where Slug’s spaceship and fortress landed to take over the Earth. Judging from the buildings visible in the surrounding area, it appears that it is not far from an urban area.

Movie Notes

• This is the first time Naoko Watanabe is heard portraying Chi-Chi. Following this, Watanabe fully took over the role of Chi-Chi in the animated TV series beginning with Dragon Ball Z episode 88. Chi-Chi’s original voice actress, Mayumi Shō, left the series in November 1990 (following episode 66) after giving birth and opting not to return in order to take care of her newborn child.
• Gohan’s whistling was provided by Hajime Ueshiba, a professional whistler and pianist. The “’91 Memorial” section of Daizenshuu 6 recounts stories of “children imitating Gohan’s whistling when they came out of the theater after seeing the movie”.
• The name placard on the news desk of the NBS anchor reporting on Slug’s planet crashing into Earth shows the name “M. HASHIMOTO”, a clear nod to the movie’s director, Mitsuo Hashimoto. As he scrambles to leave the studio, he has packed some of his personnel belongings in a leftover box labeled “TAMIYA” with two stars below the name. This is an additional reference to the popular model kit manufacturing company, Tamiya. The side of the box is also labeled with “Lotus Europa” (ロータス ヨーロッパ; rōtasu yōroppa) written in katakana, indicating that the Tamiya box had originally been packaged with model kits of the Lotus Europa car.

  

  

• As Chi-Chi walks to Gohan’s room in the Son household to bring him a warm beverage, she walks past a cork board where a calendar of March 1991 (the month and year this movie premiered), is hanging next to photos of Kame-Sen’nin and Gohan. When Chi-Chi enters Gohan’s room a poster of Arale Norimaki from Dr. Slump — Arale-chan is hanging to the right of the door, while a poster of a “Honda Marlboro McLaren MP4/6” Formula One racecar is hanging to its left.

  

  In 1990, McLaren Racing became one of Weekly Shōnen Jump’s main sponsors and the magazine would frequently feature their advertisements, in addition to providing cover illustrations from current serializations, like Dragon Ball. Akira Toriyama is himself an avid fan of Formula One racing and often made mention of it in his weekly Jump commentary. The exact car model mentioned above was also featured in an advertisement in this movie’s respective pamphlet handed out at the Toei Anime Fair, promoting the 1st and 2nd rounds of the 1991 Formula One Grand Prix that would be broadcast on Fuji TV.

• Son Goku first transformed into a Super Saiyan in Chapter 317 of the manga on 19 March 1991, just 10 days after this movie premiered. The “Super Saiyan” transformation seen in this movie was conceived by the anime staff prior to this, and is different from what Akira Toriyama eventually solidified. Daizenshuu 7 officially lists this transformation as “Pseudo Super Saiyan” (擬似超サイヤ人; giji sūpā saiya-jin) and describes it as:
  

  A state that Goku transformed into in the movie “Super Saiyan Son Goku”. It’s similar to Super Saiyan in that the entire body is wrapped in an aura, but the hair is not completely golden. Also, his eyes become white, as if he had lost consciousness. It looks as if Goku’s anger at being cornered by his enemy Slug overran and made him like a Super Saiyan.
   — “Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 7: Dragon Ball Large Encyclopedia” (p. 134)

  Coincidentally, the “Particulars Dictionary” section of Daizenshuu 7 notes that Toriyama came up with the idea of having Goku’s hair stand up in his “Pseudo Super Saiyan” form. Toriyama would later incorporate this idea into his finalized version of the transformation for the manga, however he opted to also change the hair color for more practical reasons:

  I decided on the design for the Super Saiyan for, to be honest… a simple reason that will leave you saying “What?”. I always have only a single person, Assistant-kun, helping me with my work. That Assistant-kun’s time was always taken up doing the black fill of Goku’s hair, so the biggest reason was in order to save time. Because when he became a Super Saiyan, we wouldn’t have to do the black fill. It also had the effect of making it easy to tell from his appearance that Goku had gotten stronger, so it killed two birds with one stone.
   — Akira Toriyama, “Dragon Ball Super Exciting Guide: Story Volume” (p. 88)

• Daizenshuu 6 classifies this movie as a “movie inconsistency”, explaining:
  

  From the fact that Goku has not yet become a Super Saiyan, this story takes place before the final showdown with Freeza. However, at this time Goku should be in the midst of his battle on Planet Namek… This must also be a movie inconsistency.
   — “Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 6: Movies & TV Specials” (p. 70)

• Although this movie was presented in a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio in theaters, it was actually animated in a 4:3 fullscreen format. In fact, when the movie was initially released in 1991 on VHS and LaserDisc, it was presented in this 4:3 fullscreen format. However, the “Dragon Box The Movies” release would later drop this format, instead presenting all of the movies in their original widescreen theatrical format. Overall, this movie has been released to the home market on VHS, LaserDisc, 8mm film reel, DVD, and Blu-ray.
• The movie was eventually adapted and released by Shueisha as a film animation comic in March 1994, and subsequently re-released under Shueisha’s “Jump Remix” line in April 2005.

Name Puns

• In keeping with the Namekian slug/snail theme, Slug gets his name directly from the word slug. Keep in mind that this is not as blindingly obvious in Japanese as it is in English.
• The “Animation’s Gleanings” section of the Supplemental Daizenshuu states that all of Slug’s main henchmen are named after the Andromeda Galaxy. This naming scheme was chosen for the simple fact that they all come from outer space.
  アンドロメダ星雲 (a·n·do·ro·me·da se·i·u·n)  ›  アンギラ (a·n·gi·ra)  +  ドロダボ (do·ro·da·bo)  +  メダマッチャ (me·da·ma·t·cha)  +  ゼエウン (ze·e·u·n)
• As described in the “Animation’s Gleanings” section, Kakuja’s name is derived from the Japanese word for “scholar”, “gakusha“.
  学者 (ga·ku·sha)  ›  カクージャ (ka·ku·u·ja)
• Gyoshu’s name is derived from the Japanese word for “professor”, “kyōju“.
  教授 (kyo·o·ju)  ›  ギョーシュ (gyo·o·shu)

Musical Score

The orchestral score for this film, as with all Dragon Ball Z TV series background music, was composed by Shunsuke Kikuchi. It was recorded on 13 February 1991 at AVACO Studios in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture; pieces recorded for the film are designated by the numbering M11xx, where “xx” stands for the ordering of the track within the film itself. The score also features musical pieces of uncertain authorship, which may have possibly been composed by Kikuchi, but appear to actually be stock music. These tracks have been designated with the numbering U-11xx, and unless noted otherwise, remain unreleased. Certain pieces of this music have been made available on four CD releases:

• The first Ongakushū (“Background Music Collection”) volume was originally released on 21 August 1992 and re-released under the budget-priced ANIMEX 1200 series on 22 September 2004.
• The five-disc Daizenshū collection released on 01 April 1994, with the fifth disc specifically containing movie background music up through Dragon Ball Z Movie 9.
• The three-disc Dragon Ball Z BGM Collection was released on 22 February 2006 and contains an expanded selection of Dragon Ball Z TV series and movie background music than originally featured on the Daizenshū set.
• The sixth Dragon Ball Z Hit Song Collection, entitled “Battle Point Unlimited”, was released on 21 March 1991 and contains a selection of theme, insert, and image songs from the Dragon Ball Z TV series and movies.

The table below outlines all of the musical pieces used in the film, and which (if any) CD releases contain said music. Most Dragon Ball background music collections compile multiple pieces of music into a single track (or suite); as such, individual pieces tend to not have their own unique titles, but rather exclusively have catalog numbers. The CD listings below indicate which disc (if applicable), which specific track, and which individual piece within that track’s suite of music is that scene’s corresponding background music.

Following each film’s theatrical run, its musical score was eventually incorporated into the TV series to supplement the show’s existing catalog of background music. The first episode of Dragon Ball Z to feature music composed for this film was episode 97, which plays as the scene from Freeza and Super Saiyan Goku’s battle on Planet Namek transitions to one of Freeza’s planet outposts, where the soldiers cannot believe there is someone actually stronger than Freeza. As with other films’ musical scores, some pieces would go on to become synonymous with a specific character or scene within the TV series. Not only was the film’s musical score heavily utilized throughout the remainder of the Freeza arc, but it remained in frequent use through the remainder of the TV series.

Ending Theme Song

As with most of the preceding Dragon Ball Z movies, this movie features an exclusive ending theme song with vocals from singer Hironobu Kageyama. Titled “Give a Genki-Dama at Bad Things!!”, the theme song was written by Chiho Kiyo’oka and arranged by Kenji Yamamoto, with lyrics provided by Dai Satō. In addition to the main vocals from Hironobu Kageyama, the supporting chorus vocals are provided by SHINES. The song was first released as part of the Dragon Ball Z Hit Song Collection 6 album on 21 March 1991, just two weeks following the movie’s premiere. It has since been released on multiple albums and compilation sets.

Movie Credits

All credits listed below are as originally presented in the theatrical film. All original credit errors have been corrected to maintain accurate spellings throughout the site. For more information and a complete listing of the series staff, visit the Production Guide.

Cast Credits

The cast credits are traditionally listed in order of character importance within the series or episode. For more detailed information about the series cast, visit the Cast Guide.

Opening Credits

Ending Credits

おわり

The End

© TOEI ANIMATION STUDIO 1991