DRAGON BALL Z – BROLY – THE LEGENDARY SUPER SAIYAN / BROLY – SECOND COMING (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan

A Saiyan warrior has arrived on Earth and his plea for assistance had ignited a clash between Goku and Vegeta.  Sparks will fly as the two battle to be the one to confront the galaxy’s new menace, yet the true danger lies much closer.  The volatile Broly has his own agenda, and his target is the most powerful Saiyan in the Universe!  But will it be Goku or Vegeta?

Broly – Second Coming

Defeated but far from dead, the Legendary Super Saiyan Broly has returned and he’s got a fierce thirst for revenge.  Not only will he threaten Goku, but his rage will imperil every innocent soul on the peaceful planet.  All Earth’s heroes must unite and join this terrifying battle, an undertaking which could prove their last!

In November 2007, FUNimation Entertainment had their first release using Hi-Definition Blu-ray technology with the release of their two of the most succesful  “DRAGON BALL Z” films “Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan” (the eighth “DRAGON BALL Z” film released on March 1993) and “Broly – The Second Coming” (the tenth “DRAGON BALL Z” film released on March 1994).

As a “DRAGON BALL Z” fan, the Broly films have always been my favorites, especially “Broly – The Second Coming” which I first saw (in Japanese) at an anime club meeting back in 1994.  But whenever there is a film with Broly, you can expect a lot of action and intense battles.  And personally, the “DRAGON BALL Z” films that involve “Broly” plot-wise are the best!

Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan

The eighth film “Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan” takes place around the time period possibly right after the “Cell” saga (because Future Trunks is featured).  The Z-fighters are at the park for some R&R while Chichi and Goku are at an important school meeting in order for Gohan to hopefully get entrance to a good school.

Out of nowhere, a spaceship arrives at the park and Paragus with many soldiers ask Vegeta (or Prince Vegeta) to come back to claim the planet “New Vegeta”.  But it’s important for Vegeta to fight the legendary super saiyan who has been destroying new planets.

Meanwhile, King Kai calls Goku telephatically that there is a new threat and he needs to stop this new threat.

With Future Trunks, Gohan, Krillin, Master Rohshi and Oolong traveling with Vegeta to the new planet, Paragus introduces his son Broly.  While at the new planet, the group notices that something fishy is going on.  There are slaves from different planets being mistreated and learn that Paragus may not be a friendly Saiyan.

Goku manages to make it to the new planet and comes across Paragus and Broly and when Broly sees Goku (Kakkarot), he starts to get angry for some reason.  After several interactions with Broly, Goku starts to discover that perhaps, Broly may be the legendary super Saiyan and to make things worse, there is something quite unstable about him.

You learn that Paragus and Broly were executed and left for dead by Vegeta’s father before Planet Vegeta was destroyed.  Paragus has been using Broly as a way to conquer planets and leverage to become a great leader, while Broly.  Since he was born with ultimate power levels, he was deemed a threat and executed as a baby.  But somehow, he and his father were able to escape Planet Vegeta.

As a baby, Broly was born in a station right next to Kakkarot (Goku) and because of Kakkarot’s constant crying, it somehow caused some resentment in Broly and somehow, he blames Kakkarot for his misfortune.

And thus, Broly and his father Paragus want their revenge against Vegeta and Goku.  The two Saiyans must team up with their friends to take on the most powerful Saiyan ever.

Broly – The Second Coming

For the tenth “DRAGON BALL Z” film titled “Broly – The Second Coming”, Vedil, Trunks and Goten are searching for the Dragon Balls.  The group needs only one more and thus they end up in a village full of people in fear.

The people have used their young as sacrifices every year to appease a monster and with another child being offered for a sacrifice, Vedil is not going to stand up for it.  Thus the three decide to take on the monster that the village has been fearful of.

As they wait for the monster, Vedil and the other two hide inside a pot.  Both Trunks and Goten are hungry and Trunks manages to steal an apple.  Goten is so hungry but when he tries to get food, Vedil slaps him.  Goten starts crying and then you notice that Broly has been encased in ice and the cries of Goten (who he thinks is Kakkarot) awakes him.

Meanwhile, the three end up defeating the monster and helping the village, not until Broly makes his appearance and Vedil, Trunks and Goten try to fight him before he destroys any village or the planet.

Trunks and Goten manage to spot the final Dragon Ball and think that maybe Shenlong can fight Broly but Goten doesn’t know how to activate the Dragon Balls.  The three try to fight the best as they can, meanwhile Gohan senses trouble and speeds off to help his brother, Vedil and Trunks and thus setting up a major battle between Gohan and Broly.

VIDEO AND AUDIO:

“DRAGON BALL Z” is featured in High Definition Widescreen at 1920 x 1080P.  According to a flyer inside the case, there is information about the transfer and how the original Japanese film masters were transferred via an industry-standard Spirit DataCine, passing through a Digital Vision DVNR10000 to remove film grain and another round of processing using a Teranex VCooo video computer.  These digital noise-reduction units helped to remove thousands of instances of dirt, scratches and debris.

The cleaned footage signal went through a da Vinci 2K Plus color system to ensure that the colors were true to the original film prints.  The final media for transfer was Sony’s HDCAM, a high-definition digital tape.

With that being said, let me first say that a lot of older Japanese animated films have not been taken care of.  In fact, many anime films have had warping and major issues that restoration even to DVD has not been all that great.  Unless, there was an expensive facility developed for it (such as the recent “AKIRA” release which was an expensive remastering process), there’s only so much that can be done to make an older Japanese film look great.

There is a big difference between the video quality of “Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan” which has looked like the previous “DRAGON BALL Z” films that were released on Blu-ray and “Broly – The Second Coming”.  With “Broly – The Second Coming”, one thing you’ll notice is a slight art difference with the background art and also the colors are much more vibrant and colorful.

One can say that the later the film is, the better the colors and I suppose that you can say in this case, the tenth film is much, much cleaner and colorful than the eighth.

But with that being said, “Broly – the Legendary Super Saiyan” does look good for an anime film that is 16-years-old and “Broly – Second Coming” which is 15-years-old which colors and animation is so far the best in video quality compared to the other “DRAGON BALL Z” films and specials preceding it.

Now one of the things that has been an issue with older “DRAGON BALL Z” films is the scratches and dust.  Despite the DNR units that helped to remove thousands of instances of difrt, scratches and debris, again… with a lot of the original Japanese film sources not really being taken care of, there is only so much that can be done.  And in this case, there are visible scratches, dust and even some warping at times but nowhere as numerous as the first two “DRAGON BALL Z” films.

As for audio, audio is presented in English 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound (HD-DTS), English Stereo and Original Japanese.  Unlike the newer “DRAGON BALL Z” Blu-ray releases, there is typically an English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD audio track with the English with newer music and another with the Japanese music track.  Because this is a 2007 Blu-ray release, the track I tend to listen to is the English track with the original Japanese music.

Having watched these film in original Japanese before, I watched it again in Japanese but when watching on Blu-ray, you want that awesome sound, so watching these two films with the Pantera and rock n’ roll guitar and percussion driven music was definitely a first for me.

I have to admit that hearing the heavy metal like guitar churning and heavy hitting music, definitely added an enjoyable side to watching these two films and really gave the film some extra energy during the battle scenes.

And when it comes to the English dubbing, FUNimation Entertainment has one of the best well-casted series with “DRAGON BALL Z” films.  In fact, it’s actually difficult for me to watch the original Japanese (that I grew up watching for years) because of the significant vocals with the English dub track.  So, the English dub track was well-acted and again, enjoyable!

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The “DRAGON BALL Z” films really don’t come with anything for special features but surprising enough, there were two featurettes.  One that featured the transfer and bringing “DRAGON BALL Z” to Blu-ray.  From making the films as 16×9 and other technical but informative facts about the transfer.  The other is mainly a promotional for the upcoming “DRAGON BALL Z” television series to DVD.

With many “DRAGON BALL Z” films being short and sweet, one of the exciting things about Broly is that he has made his appearance in three films (which includes the eleventh film “Bio-Broly”).  It’s important to note that at this time of my review, FUNimation Entertainment has planned on a triple feature “Broly” release in Spring 2009.  So, suffice to say, this double-Broly release may be out of print.

Suffice to say, the Broly films are my favorite “DRAGON BALL Z” films.  There is a good plot, intense action and overall, compared to the other films, the Broly films are just enjoyable!

“Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan” is the longest running “DRAGON BALL Z” film at 71 minutes.  The second film “Broly – The Second Coming” is about 60 minutes long.

I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed watching these two films again, especially my personal favorite “Broly – The Second Coming” on Blu-ray.  The colors were just vibrant and after watching many of the films out on Blu-ray thus far, to see the clarity of the tenth film was just amazing.

Granted, the transfer is not perfect and there are signs of scratches, dust and a little film warping on very few frames but I was very impressed with the transfer to Blu-ray for both films considering how old the films are.

As mentioned, the “Broly” trilogy will be released on Blu-ray in Spring of 2009 and this “Broly” double feature may be out of print and no longer be available.  This Blu-ray disc was the first release for FUNimation Entertainment back in 2007 but nevertheless, if you are able to find this release for a low price or have no interest in the eleventh film “Bio-Broly”, then definitely pick this title up.

Overall, the “DRAGON BALL Z” Broly films are just fun to watch.  I have to admit that I enjoyed listening to FUNimation’s heavy metal, guitar and percussion driven music soundtrack during the battles, considering I’m more into the original Japanese dialogue and music.  Being a hardcore “DRAGON BALL Z” fan, I was a bit skeptical at first of heavy rock bands being used for the musical soundtrack of the English dub but it definitely added a charged up, energetic feel to those action-packed moments.  And there are many action-packed scenes on both features.

Overall, another solid “DRAGON BALL Z” release and these two films look good on Blu-ray.   “DRAGON BALL Z” fans, this double-feature is definitely worth checking out!