Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound – Review

Throughout all the Dragon Ball movies we’ve reviewed, this one seems to be the most interesting. Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound finally takes place in the right place, about one year after destroying Cell. This movie might no have Goku fighting in it, but it is still extremely good. The story with Bojack is that it has been at least a year since Cell was vanquished and this rich old guy decides to hold an intergalactic Tournament with special guest fighter Mr. Satan (or Hercule). During this tournament all the Z fighters with the exception of Goku and Vegeta participate. However in the final rounds a new villian emerges to destroy the earth. With Goku out of the picture and Vegeta lacking the will to fight it is up to Gohan to stand and fight. There was such an interval in the storyline between the Cell Saga and the Great Saiyaman Saga that if the animators had thought about it, they could have given Bojack and his henchmen their own Saga.

The original fans know this is a classic, and it’s a great interlude in between the three Brolly movies, but alot of new American fans are getting sick of the whole repetitive fighting against big bad guy type thing. That’s fine for them, but I loved this movie. One ploy that really grinds my gears is the misuse of Vegeta.  In the show and the manga Vegeta does get the chance to show off, but here its equal to abuse in my opinion. Like most of the movies you can usually not fit this one into the flow of the regular series all that well, though it fits a bit better than others. This film takes place after Goku’s death in the Cell Games, so he is NOT the hero. Don’t expect to see him for more than a few minutes. This is Gohan’s show.

I also love the brutality of the movie seeing as how everyone is getting kicked in half and having holes punched into their guts. Also, normally, this wouold annoy me but I appreciated the amount of fan service moments. Vegeta and Piccolo appear out of the blue, but offer little help in actually defeating the villains. Like I said, this is all abotu Gohan. One other thing that I don’t like to much about is Hercule. As usual he’s a little idiot who is afraid to fight and somehow he is a world hero again for what Gohan did. I suppose that is the nature of this character though. Anyways, if you’re an avid Dragonball Z fan or even a beginner fan, please go out and buy this movie. We still have many more DBZ films to cover.

All in all, another successful entry into the Dragon Ball universe. Though I would like to have heard a cleaned up Japanese language mix, the blu-ray disc I watched this on still had a decent set-up. Also, for such an older anime, the picture quality was solid. That said, it is a nice package that delivers the good. Gohan quickly kills Bido and Bujin and actually defeats Bojack rather easily. The power of SS2 Gohan is unrivaled apparently. You owe it to yourself to witness his incredible power. It’s hard to find, but if you can get your hands on it, then you’re gonna watch a real good movie.