There is a “Lost Movie” or a DBZ Movie 14
There have been a variety of special presentations that could be mistaken as a mysterious “DBZ Movie 14” but none of them fall in the same chronology or marketing scheme as the rest of the movies. Let us break them down:
Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans
The most-often-cited example of a “lost movie” is Saiya-jin Zetsumetsu Keikaku (“Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans”), either the games and/or its associated home animation releases. Long story short, there was a Famicom (NES) game, a two-volume VHS release animating the “proper” path to play through the game (to be used as an “official visual guide”), and then finally a two-volume remake of the Famicom game for the Bandai Playdia using the same animation (as well as many new scenes) from the two-volume VHS release, which Toei itself also considers an “OVA”.
This was not really a stand-alone feature presentation even on home video (it was split into two parts), and its supporting nature with regard to the video games makes it a pretty special case. It is far more worthwhile to go into the whole history of this feature than it is to just handwave it as a “movie”!
Gather Together! Goku World
An interactive game from the “Terebikko” line, Dragon Ball Z: Atsumare! Gokū Wārudo (“Dragon Ball Z: Gather Together! Goku World”) was released where the player would use a telephone peripheral to play along with a fully-animated story involving time travel. It ultimately ends with the battle with Cell, so while it was a new “feature” that could be “watched”, it directly involves the normal storyline and was not an actual “movie” that was released.
The Path to Ultimate Strength
The 10th anniversary Dragon Ball (sans-“Z”) movie, Saikyō e no Michi (“The Path to Ultimate Strength”), is another special feature often represented as “Movie 14”. While this was indeed released in the time period when the Z TV series was ending, due to it retelling parts of the earlier story, it is not traditionally given the “Z” classification. It may be worth noting that as a part of the individual DVD releases after “Dragon Box: The Movies”, the first three Dragon Ball movies received chronological numberings of 14, 15, and 16 (since the Dragon Ball Z movies were released first), and the last release of this 10th anniversary movie was therefore emblazoned with the number 17.
Heya! Son Goku and Friends Return!!
2008 saw the release of Ossu! Kaette Kita Son Gokū to Nakama-tachi!! (“Heya! Son Goku and Friends Return!!”). This approximately-half-hour special premiered during the Jump Super Anime Tour in late 2008, a tour across ten Japanese cities with showcases of various new animated shorts. It was streamed online (in raw Japanese, subtitled in English, and subtitled in several other languages) directly by Toei themselves after concluding the tour. It received a limited DVD release in Japan in early 2009 (to the Japanese public, only, by sending in postcards that came with certain Jump magazines), as well as a bonus inclusion in the Battle of Gods (see below) “Limited Edition” home video release in Japan. While it was played in a “theatrical” setting, its short length, progressive-thinking release style, and story connectivity with the standard timeline also makes it hard to classify as a potential “DBZ Movie 14”; it also was not even named under the “Z” banner, instead just having the “Dragon Ball” name ahead of its individual title.
Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans
2010 saw the release of Raging Blast 2 on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. As a part of the game, a special re-made version of Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans was included, now called Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans. It told mostly the same story as before but at a quicker pace and by cutting out some of the superfluous scenes from the original “Visual Strategy Guide” and Playdia game versions’ animation, such as shutting down the various gas machines and minor monsters.
Episode of Bardock
December 2011’s Jump Festa event saw the debut of the animated adaptation of Episode of Bardock, originally a three-chapter spin-off manga by Naho Ooishi. The feature was packed alongside Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans on a special bonus DVD that came with the March 2012 issue of Saikyō Jump, a special manga compilation magazine published by Shueisha. Like the 2008 Jump Super Anime Tour special, Episode of Bardock is likewise branded under the larger, general “Dragon Ball” title rather than “Z” specifically.
Battle of Gods
Finally, 2013 brought us the only example of a true theatrical film that could truly be classified as “DBZ Movie 14” if one were so inclined: Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods was the first theatrical presentation for the franchise in 17 years, debuting in Japan 30 March 2013 and seeing a home release later that year in September. The film’s storyline takes place between the defeat of Majin Boo and the 28th Tenka’ichi Budōkai and is the first film in the franchise to feature extensive production work from original manga author Akira Toriyama.
It feels as if there are a never-ending slew of new productions ranging from minor to somewhat-more-substantial that fans either mistakenly or intentionally label as “DBZ Movie 14”, but Battle of Gods is the one that comes closest!
(Does that mean Resurrection ‘F’ is “Movie 15”, then…?! Sure makes sense to us!)