Dragon Ball: Ossu! Kaettekita Son Gokuu to Nakama-tachi!!

This is my first review! Although there is no a big fight with powerful enemies I felt that this special was just to bring the anime back to life in the memory of many fans, after 11 years. I loved the way they redid the opening "Chala-Head-Chala" introduced the current characters (Goten and Trunks). The comic side still remains, with the "brawl" between Goku and Vegeta. At the end everyone ends up participating in the battle. is a great special, more not as interesting as the "Episode of Bardock".

This semi-canon anniversary special loses a lot of it's value in the post-super era, but it's still worth a watch for Dragon Ball fans who want something short and sweet. The special takes place in between the end of the Buu saga and (at the time non-existent) Super, and really it's just an excuse to see our characters we like hanging out only to transition to a low stakes action setpiece predominately featuring (kid) Trunks and Goten. I mistakenly skipped over this when I watched Battle of Gods but now that i've circled back around, I feel like Battle of Gods actually might have taken ... from this special, mostly in terms of structure and focus (ie, old weaker characters mattering, a focus on comedy and the action setpiece at the end). I think overall Battle of Gods did a better job with this formula, but I do prefer the production aspects of this special, which surprised me with consistent art and a lack of garish digital coloration/bad CG (which means above average for digital Toei). The characters all felt a little flanderized, but never too ridiculously far that it felt offensive (though Vegeta was getting there). Overall this is a low stakes, simple side story with the characters you know and love from the manga and original anime. Totally skippable, but totally watchable too.

Random additional thoughts:
-Launch was remembered!
-Vegeta having a little brother stretches belivablity in canon a bit
-Power scaling is a bit fucky (main villain should have been obliterated in two seconds lol)

I know this was the first piece of Dragon Ball media in about 11 years when it first came out, and is a pretty weightless 35-minute filler episode designed mostly just to bring back all the old characters in a fanservicey way, but I sure wish it was a little bit less bad.

The story is about Vegeta's long-lost brother who turns up alive after some evil dudes are chasing him. This is pretty good fodder for an actual plot, you know! But instead it's a silly "lol these dudes are weak so let's not take it seriously at all" story where the characters banter ... with each other and not much else. Vegeta's brother completely disappears from the story about halfway through! I wanna know more about this dude!

But whatever, back when it came out in 2008, it was probably a welcome sign for fans that the franchise hadn't been completely abandoned. But a decade later, after a whole new 120-episode TV series just finished, this feels completely superfluous.