So I’m back to watching
1 episode of OG Dragon Ball a day, and I just finished the Red Ribbon arc. I figured that now is the perfect time to move on to this film.
The last time I watched this movie was in 2012 (literally the same day that I saw
Life of Pi (so weird that I retain that memory)). But this time I’m rewatching it in sub.
I will say that this could’ve been a
3.5 or even a
4/10 if it didn’t condense the original Dragon Ball story so much, like they didn’t even have a proper reaction to when Shenron is being summoned for the first time.
Hell, I would’ve even preferred if they kept switching things up, like Eighter sacrificing himself was a nice touch.
Also I can’t lie, making Goku this OP really made it harder on taking his journey seriously, especially when one little rocket was enough to knock him out (I would’ve preferred if they had established that his energy was zapped from that Kamehameha).
But in terms of stuff that I like, the art style is absolutely gorgeous. This is what I wanted GT to constantly look like throughout (and maybe even Super too). It even helped build up the smaller things like Goku’s relationship with Eighter, like that snowball fight was so joyous to watch.
And the soundtrack too was just so good. I think it may have been re-used from GT (this is sort of a GT movie, in a way), but I love the Japanese soundtrack and I think it’s absolutely underrated.
Idk if they ever planned for this movie to branch into sequels, but man it does feel like a missed opportunity that they never got to do a World Tournament or even a King Piccolo story. Sadly, I guess that the Dragon Ball hype train died in the mid-late 90s…
