Dragon Ball Z: Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan ( ドラゴンボール Ｚ ゼット 燃 も えつきろ！！ 熱 ねっ 戦 せん ・ 烈 れっ 戦 せん ・ 超 ちょう 激 げき 戦 せん , Doragon Bōru Zetto Moetsukiro!! Nessen Ressen Chō Gekisen , lit. Dragon Ball Z: Burn Up!! A Red-Hot, Raging, Super-Fierce Fight) , also known as Dragon Ball Z: The Burning Battles, [1] is the eleventh Dragon Ball film and the eighth under the Dragon Ball Z banner.
The original release date in Japan was on March 6, 1993. Due to the popularity of the movie, it spawned two sequels: Broly - Second Coming and Bio-Broly, which collectively are known as the Broly Saga.
Not only has it become by far the most well-known of all 15 movies under the Z Banner in terms of popularity, but it's also infamous for its usage of American rock bands for its English score.
The opening scene is set in space and shows a vision of the South Galaxy being destroyed with the voiceover saying that the galaxy has been shattered (In the original Japanese version, the galaxy is only stated to be under attack). King Kai stands on his planet, sensing the galaxy's attack and destruction and, in fear, he says that his galaxy is next.
While at a hanami picnic, during a painful karaoke session courtesy of Krillin, a massive ship arrives. Out comes a group of soldiers and Paragus, one of the few surviving Saiyans. He invites Vegeta to rule over a New Planet Vegeta. Vegeta initially refuses, until Paragus appeals to Vegeta's ego by asking him to kill the Legendary Super Saiyan that has completely destroyed the South Galaxy.
Gohan, Future Trunks, Krillin, a drunk Master Roshi (in the Funimation dub, Bulma claims that Roshi is behaving strangely because an unknown person hid all of Roshi's girlie magazines, and Oolong and Krillin claim after arrival that he overdid himself by "eating too many tuna sandwiches"), and Oolong depart with Vegeta (Future Trunks' reasons being to try and stop his father from doing something stupid, as Trunks was suspicious of Paragus' motives).
Goku is waiting with Chi-Chi for a school interview to try to get Gohan into the school. Goku is then called telepathically by King Kai and then teleports to King Kai's planet (it appears that Goku was talking to himself at the school, and shortly after Goku teleported, Chi-Chi is asked if Goku is a magician). At King Kai's planet, Goku is informed about the Super Saiyan wreaking havoc over and having already eliminated most of the South Galaxy. King Kai also warns Goku that the North Galaxy is next. Goku tries to sense this Saiyan's ki, and after some difficulty (including forgetting the direction south was) manages to lock in, but notes that it is weak. He then uses Instant Transmission to get to the origin point of the signal, where he ends up shocked by the destruction caused as well as the massive output of the energy trail. Soon after Gohan, Future Trunks, Krillin, Master Roshi, Oolong, and Vegeta arrive, a report comes in that the Legendary Super Saiyan is attacking another planet. Vegeta takes Paragus' son, Broly, and investigates.
At first, the group on New Planet Vegeta believes that Paragus has good intentions and honestly wants to create a new Planet Vegeta, besides Future Trunks, who does not trust Paragus and tries to stop Vegeta. Later on, it is revealed that the planet is on a collision course with a large comet, Comet Camori. Gohan, Krillin, and Future Trunks stumble upon the fact that the city on New Planet Vegeta is in ruin, and thus obviously not usable. Also, there is slave labor commencing on the planet. Gohan and the others interfere, but a punch to the air from Krillin is enough to drive away reinforcements. Krillin then begins to show off, until he accidentally punches Goku in the face when the latter warps in on New Planet Vegeta, presumably from following the Super Saiyan's trail.
While Vegeta and Broly are investigating the attack on Todokama, Gohan, Future Trunks, and Krillin go out to investigate the new Planet Vegeta. They find a slave colony strip mining the planet to send energy to the palace. Gohan, Future Trunks, and Krillin quickly break up the slave labor going on at the colony. This is also when Goku arrives on the planet to be punched by Krillin. Paragus also first meets Goku during this scene, and immediately identifies him as Bardock's son. After a few tense moments, Goku eagerly accepts Paragus's proposal to have a feast. During the feast, Goku deduces that Paragus's Ki energy does not match the signature he had followed to get to the planet, although he wasn't able to give it much more thought after Oolong threatened to eat the entire banquet before Goku had a chance to eat.
Presumably later on, Gohan, Krillin, and Future Trunks learn from the slaves that the Legendary Super Saiyan does indeed exist, as their home planet had been destroyed by it, and made clear that the Legendary Super Saiyan was not Paragus. Future Trunks then guessed that Broly couldn't be him either due to him being a "toothpick", with Krillin deciding Paragus was possibly right. Meanwhile, Paragus is observing Comet Camori and madly declaring for it to collide with the planet, and then promptly kills Moah after he expressed fear (in the Japanese version, Paragus killed him to ensure his silence), making clear Paragus knew about Camori colliding with the planet and planned for it. Shortly afterward, Vegeta and Broly return from Todokama. Upon arrival, Vegeta expresses annoyance at Paragus for failing to tell him where The Legendary Super Saiyan is, as he can not find it without knowing its location. Goku is at the palace, and greets Vegeta. Vegeta tells Goku he dose not remember inviting him on the *guest list*". He then tells Goku to stay out of his way as he tries to find and kill this *Legendary Super Saiyan*. The first time that Broly sees Goku, he immediately recognizes him and gets extremely angry. A fight almost breaks out between Goku and Broly until Paragus brings the latter back under control by using a mind-control device put on him when he was a teenager. Unfortunately for Paragus, Broly has found a way to bypass the mind-control which the device has over him.
During this scene, portions of Broly's past are told by Paragus. Broly apparently was disturbed and emotionally unstable as a kid and blew up at least one planet. During his teen years, when Paragus tried to restrain Broly, Broly elbowed Paragus in the face, blinding him in his left eye and leaving a noticeable scar. After this incident, Paragus was struck with the fear of Broly's unnatural Saiyan strength, so he was forced to have a scientist develop a ring to control his power, an incident that nearly resulted in Broly killing Paragus. However, after the ring worked, Paragus decided to use Broly to conquer the universe. Later on that night, Paragus walks into Broly's room and tries to figure out why Broly is resisting his control, until he realizes that Goku and Broly were born on the same day. Broly was born with a power level of 10,000 while Goku was born with a power level of 2, according to two scientists of Planet Vegeta on the day they were born.
It is said that Goku cried constantly, keeping Broly awake for days on end. From then on, Broly would constantly hold a grudge against Goku, and Goku's arrival was most likely the reason he was resisting his control. After Paragus reflects on the past, Broly attacks Goku during the night. It is in this fight that we see Broly in his Super Saiyan form. Towards the end of the fight, Paragus reasserts control over Broly and forces him to stop attacking Goku. He barely manages to do so, foreshadowing things to come.
Eventually, Gohan, Trunks, and Krillin bring the slaves they freed back to the palace, and they identify Broly as the one that attacked the planet. The same time, Goku waits out for Vegeta at Paragus' ship and exposes that Broly is the Legendary Super Saiyan. Then, Paragus decides to reveal the truth about why he brought Vegeta and the others onto the planet. Broly walks towards Goku, shouting "Kakarot!" repeatedly. While in the walk towards Goku, Broly goes into his Super Saiyan form again. Vegeta, stating that the "Saiyan" was his to kill, transforms into a Super Saiyan and kicks Broly on the shoulder, but the attack has no effect. He then fires a Photon Bomber at Broly, to no effect as well. Broly soon rages out of Paragus' control and becomes a monstrous behemoth of a Super Saiyan, his most powerful form. Vegeta, stunned by Broly's power, falls to the ground, eyes wide with fear, while Broly declares that Kakarot will be the first in his slaughter.
Enraged beyond control, Broly destroys the strip mines and the slaves' home planet. Broly goes after Goku and Gohan in a chase, destroying forests and slaves with a barrage of ki blasts. Then Paragus decides to reveal the entire story to Vegeta about his son and his own near execution at Vegeta's father's hands, as well as their desire for revenge, if not for King Vegeta, then his son, at least. Broly then demands that they fight against him with all their strength, or else he will destroy New Planet Vegeta (in the dub, he sympathizes with their desire to not fight him, and makes clear he'll destroy the planet no matter what they decide). The chase stops and Goku turns Super Saiyan. Gohan follows suit and then Trunks comes to help and also transforms into his Super Saiyan form. This is when the action really starts. To make it short, the battle is Broly in his Legendary Super Saiyan form versus Goku, Gohan, and Trunks in their Super Saiyan forms (Goku stated that Broly wins round one, but then it gets to round 2). Master Roshi then attempts to fight after tripping and causing himself, Oolong, Krillin, and the surviving Shamoans to land in their vicinity, although largely because of his earlier drunkenness, he ultimately wasn't able to maintain his Max Power form. Broly then turns his attention to the Shamoian slaves currently huddled in fear and, after giving a speech about their desires to return to their home planet being strong enough to occasionally look up at the sky, proceeded to lob an energy wave at their direction, only for it to impact the planet in full view of the slaves instead, causing him to mockingly ask if he blew up the planet before cackling insanely. Gohan was horrified by this display of cruelty and deemed the Saiyan as pure evil, as well as Future Trunks to declare that the universe itself will be destroyed if they don't stop him then and there. Goku then orders Krillin and Roshi to clear the area as Broly turns towards them to resume their fight. The battle gets intense but remains completely one-sided.
Piccolo, having both sensed Broly's power from Kami's Lookout and deduced where Goku was headed due to overhearing King Kai's conversation with Goku earlier via his enhanced hearing, shows up after Broly defeats the boys and saves Gohan from a potentially fatal attack (during which, in the Japanese version, Broly tells Piccolo that he (Broly) is not a monster, but, in actuality, the devil). Piccolo then gets around to handing out senzu beans to everyone. Not long after, the four warriors then decide to gang up on Broly, who stands on a thin cliff. In only a matter of scenes, all four of them become annihilated by Broly again; Goku continuously gets punched in the face, Trunks and Gohan are both brutally clotheslined, and Piccolo is kicked twice, and then blown meters away from a ki blast into a cliff. Recovering from the blast, Piccolo attempts to get Vegeta to fight. In shock, he refuses and is abandoned by Piccolo. Meanwhile, Goku is having a hard time doing anything to Broly, except giving him a good time. Vegeta soon rediscovers his inner Super Saiyan pride, transforms into his Super Saiyan form once again, and joins the fight against Broly. His efforts, however, are futile as he is blown directly into a cliff and knocked unconscious. Broly later finds his father, Paragus, attempting to flee inside a Saiyan space pod, leaving his son to die in the explosion of the planet. Broly crushes the pod in return and throws it directly at the comet, ending Paragus' life.
Piccolo tells everyone to channel their ki and power to Goku so he can defeat Broly. One by one, they comply, except for Vegeta, who believes it to be a disgrace for a Saiyan prince to give his ki to a lower-class Saiyan. While gathering energy, Goku suffers at the hands of Broly; he is blown across the landscape by blasts, clotheslines, and very powerful punches. Finally, on the brink of defeat, Goku convinces Vegeta to help him. Goku then uses all the power that the Z-Fighters gave him to power one punch, defeating Broly.
After dispatching Broly, Comet Camori destroys the planet. However, the Z-Fighters and the remaining slaves manage to escape in the Capsule Corporation Spaceship Piccolo used to get there. In the ending, Goku and Gohan Instant Transmission back to their house, and ultimately confront an angry Chi-Chi. Goku then tells Chi-Chi that his favorite hobbies are reading and sports (the same phrase that Chi-Chi wanted Goku to say at the school interview). Chi-Chi then faints out of exasperation.
The events of this movie take place around the time of the final showdown with Cell, before the Cell Games. [2]
Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan was originally released on VHS and Laserdisc in Japan. In 2006, Toei Animation released Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan as part of the final Dragon Box DVD set, which included all four Dragon Ball films and all thirteen Dragon Ball Z films. These were presented in a new widescreen transfer from the original negatives with a 16:9 aspect ratio that was matted from the original 4:3 aspect ratio.
Funimation released Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan for VHS and DVD on August 26, 2003 in both edited and uncut forms. [3] As was the case with all previous releases, the movie was released in an unmatted 4:3 aspect ratio. The DVD featured an English dub with a soundtrack featuring songs from American rock bands, portions of the Faulconer Productions score for Dragon Ball Z and an original score done by Mark Menza. In 2006, Funimation bundled Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan with Broly - Second Coming and Bio-Broly in a new DVD box set entitled "Broly Triple Threat". It was released on September 12, 2006 in uncut form only. [4]
On November 13, 2007, Funimation released Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan and Broly - Second Coming on Blu-ray as a test for their upcoming "Double Feature" line. Both movies were then fully released with Bio-Broly as a "Triple Feature" on March 31, 2009 on DVD and Blu-ray. [5] Both sets featured a brand-new widescreen transfer from Video Post & Transfer and a new audio mix for the English dub featuring the original Japanese score done by Shunsuke Kikuchi in addition to the old mix featuring the American rock bands, Faulconer Productions score and Menza score.
Funimation repackaged the Double Feature DVDs into three new thinpak sets, the second of which was released on December 6, 2011 and included The Return of Cooler, Super Android 13!, Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan, and Bojack Unbound. These three sets were also released together in the Canada-only Dragon Ball Z: Complete Movie Collection featuring reversioned artwork of Goten and Trunks from Bio-Broly on the cover.
