General Information

Movie Premiere & Promotion

The movie premiered as part of the 1992 Spring “Toei Anime Fair” (東映アニメフェア; Tōei Anime Fea) on 07 March 1992, along with two other movies from the Magical Taluluto and Dragon Quest series. The event originated 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 beginning of the Artificial Humans story arc. In the manga, Piccolo is in the midst of confronting imperfect Cell in Ginger town and learning as much as he can about their new foe, whereas in the animated adaptation the newly transformed Super Saiyan Vegeta has just handily defeated No. 19 and No. 20 (Gero) flees back to his laboratory.

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

One peaceful day the New Planet Namek is engulfed by the Big Gete Star, which begins sucking the energy from the planet. Back on Earth, Dende sees what is happening and immediately sends Goku and the others off to save New Planet Namek from this danger. Meanwhile, on New Planet Namek, robot soldiers begin hunting down all the Namekians in order to gather their energy. Some of the Namekians put up a resistance, but it only proves to be a futile effort. Just as the robots are about to finish off some of resisting Namekians, Goku and the others appear!

As the battle is about to begin, Metal Coola appears before them. Goku is shocked to see he is still alive, but vows to defeat him once again. While Goku begins his one-on-battle with Metal Coola, the others take on the robot soldiers. Piccolo soon figures out that by concentrating their ki at the moment of attack, they can easily pierce their heavy army. However, they are eventually captured as the increasing number of robot soldiers overwhelms them.

Goku and Metal Coola seem quite even, but after using both the Kaiō-Ken and Shunkan-Idō Goku realizes he is outmatched. With no other choice he finally transforms into a Super Saiyan. However, even his increased power and speed have little effect on Metal Coola, who can regenerate thanks to his mechanical self-repairing ability. Goku finds himself in dire straits, but at that point Vegeta appears and saves him, saying he will be the one to kill Kakarrot. The strong Super Saiyan combo quickly overtakes Metal Coola, and after using all of their strength they finally smash him to pieces.

The two Saiyans fall to ground, completely exhausted, but to their bewilderment they see they are totally surrounded by hundreds of Metal Coolas. Even though they are completely outmatched, the two will not go down without a fight, but are eventually captured. Inside the machine planet they find the core of Coola, who explains how he took over the Big Gete Star and used it to create mechanical duplicates of himself. Coola then quickly begins to drain their energy and the two scream out in pain. At the same time, Yajirobe and the others are about to be sawed up so that their energy can be absorbed, when the saw abruptly stops.

Coola appears to have drained all of Goku and Vegeta’s energy, when more energy suddenly explodes from the two. Their Super Saiyan energy quickly overwhelms Coola’s circuits and the Big Gete Star begins to collapse in on itself. Meanwhile, the others flee from the exploding machine planet to safety. Back inside Coola creates a mechanized body and rushes forward to finish of the duo himself, but with Vegeta’s help Goku is able to pierce Coola’s chest with a ki attack, blowing him up along with the Big Gete Star.

As the smoke clears, Goku and Vegeta fall back to the planet and crash head first into the ground. Yajirobe heals everyone with some Senzu and Goku is glad to see everyone else is okay. The Namekians thank him for all he has done, but Gohan wonders where Vegeta went. Goku says he must have taken off after being given a Senzu. In space, Vegeta is flying in a space pod, holding Coola’s main computer chip in his hand… He slams it closed, crushing the chip with a “Hmph!”

Characters, Items, & Settings

The following original character profiles were translated from Daizenshuu 6 and supplemented with information provided in the “Dragon Box The Movies” Dragon Book. Additional character design comments from the movie’s character designer, Minoru Maeda, have also been included as published in the “Design Lab” section of the “Dragon Box The Movies” Dragon Book.

• Metal Coola (メタルクウラ; metaru kūra)
  After being done in by Goku, his brains drifted to the machine planet Big Gete Star. Fusing with the main computer, he was regenerated as a Metal Coola with self-repairing capabilities. He torments Goku and the others with battle ability that has increased several levels.

  I made him on the concepts of “Coola in metal” and “plus, a lot of them will appear”. Nowadays, it would be possible to depict lots of them using CG… but at the time, we drew them all by hand, so anyway, it was rough. I drew the highlights, reflections and such while looking at an actual metal art-object, and even specified light and shadow in the design illustrations. This is probably the work I struggled with the most, including both designs and workload. (laughs)
   — Minoru Maeda

  
• Battle Robot (戦闘ロボット; sentō robotto)
  Battle robots that are controlled by the Big Gete Star’s main computer. There are many of them, and their arms are equipped with nets for capturing people, machine guns, and energy cannons. Their armor is strong enough that it can only be penetrated by a concentrated attack.
  
• Guidance Robot (誘導ロボット; yūdō robotto)
  A robot that guides those captured inside the Big Gete Star. He took the captured Namekians as well as Gohan and the others along, and tried to pulverize them to suck out their energy. Even though he is only about half the size of a grown adult, he is so tough that not even Yajirobe’s punch budged him.
  

Items

• Big Gete Star (ビッグゲテスター; biggu gete sutā)
  The fearsome machine planet Big Gete Star, which sucks up a planet’s energy after clinging onto it. A computer chip floating through a universal graveyard took in the objects around it and absorbed their energy. It grew gigantic by repeating the process multiple times. That main computer regenerated Coola.
  

Setting

The events of the movie take place primarily on New Planet Namek or within the Big Gete Star, although some minor scenes do occur on Earth and in space.

• New Planet Namek (新ナメック星; shin namekku-sei)
  A planet with an environment similar to that of the previous Planet Namek, which was destroyed by Freeza. The Namekians discovered it with the assistance of Porunga. It has many swamps, and an environment that the Ajissa plant can grow well in.

General Notes

• Daizenshuu 6 classifies this movie as an event that fits within the continuity of the original story, explaining:
  

  From Goku’s mark-less dōgi, to Dende being God and Vegeta transforming into a Super Saiyan, it can be inferred that this is an event from between when the Cell Games were announced and their opening.
   — “Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 6: Movies & TV Specials” (p. 88)

• 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 1992 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, and DVD.
• The movie was eventually adapted and released by Shueisha as a film animation comic in July 1992, and subsequently re-released under Shueisha’s “Jump Remix” line in July 2004.

Name Puns

• The “Animation’s Gleanings” section of the Supplemental Daizenshuu notes that Metal Coola’s name comes from the fact that “his body is made of metal”.

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 1992 at AVACO Studios in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture; pieces recorded for the film are designated by the numbering M13xx, where xx stands for the ordering of the track within the film itself. Certain pieces of this music have been made available on three 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 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 141, which plays as Piccolo and God contemplate merging once again in order to defeat Cell. 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 much of the Cell 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 “Hero (You’re the Hero)”, 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, supporting vocals are provided by singer Yuka Satō, who is known primarily by her stage name, “YUKA”. The song was first released as part of the Dragon Ball Z Hit Song Collection 10 album on 21 March 1992, 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 1992