Movie Review: Dragon Ball Z: The Worlds Strongest (Spoilers)

There was one thing I left out of my review of Dead Zone, Garlic Jr. loved talking. He went into monologues about how evil he was and how he would cover the world with evil. I say this now because it helps see the difference between Dead Zone, and this weeks movie, The World's Strongest. Released in Japan in 1990, we got the Funimation uncut English release the same year as Dead Zone and next week's movie, Tree of Might. Out of the original trilogy of Dragon Ball Z movies, This one is my favorite because it highlights all the good things about the early days of Dragon Ball Z without being an official part of the TV series. I'm not the only one in that opinion either, Team Four Star (the guys behind Dragon Ball Z abridged) rated this as the second best movie in the entire series. I'll get to their number 1 later down the line and everyone is already predicting what that is, or they are looking it up right now. Spoiler Alert.

The Pros- Since it doesn't fall into any specific timeline in the series, it is able to be it's own story and it does really well with that. It is a complete story with little to no plot holes. Tension and Atmosphere is fantastic throughout the film. You feel the risk that the characters are facing and it is beautifully designed for an anime film released over 25 years ago. The villains are much better this time around. When Goku encounters them, the henchmen (called Bio-Warriors) have very little dialogue and their presence alone with Goku's reaction paint the picture of how strong they are. It is a welcome compared the last film where they just talked about how strong they were. Doctor Wheelo and Doctor Kochin also work well as villains too. Kochin serves as the main talker in the movie and none of the dialogue is wasted. He does explain how he and Wheelo were heads of Bio-Engineering and altering DNA to create Bio-Warriors and society shunned them for it 50 years ago for it and they returned for revenge. Even hearing their story about what they did to one of the universities that ridiculed them helps paint the picture of how much of a threat they are. This is also one of the only times we see Master Roshi fight seriously in Dragon Ball Z. While he had a bigger role in Dragon Ball, he is pushed back to being more of a minor character the longer Dragon Ball Z ran, so it is nice to see him fighting this time around. The fight animations are much better than they were in Dead Zone and it is more reminiscent of the action Dragon Ball fans know and love.

The Cons- I really only have one problem with the movie. None of the other characters who show up to help Goku do very little to help in the fights that take place in the series. Gohan provides the Power Poll and we get another hint at his hidden power, but it doesn't do much after it happens. This story focused more on Goku and while it isn't a bad thing, it makes Krillin and Piccolo feel less important and not needed in the movie, but they are fun to watch regardless.

Final Thoughts- This would be one of the movies I would recommend to anyone that is new to anime and not sure where to start. This was also the movie that got me into Dragon Ball Z. I seriously recommend this move more than any other film from the early days of the series. It is fun, exciting, tense, and overall a joy to see.