Dragon Ball Movie 4: Saikyou e no Michi

This movie is just amazing! Despite being, in some ways, a retelling of the original story, I can say that it's an improved DB's beginning, with all main characters (some with minor changes in their appearance, like Staff Officer Black and General White).

Better renderized, it just became beautiful and gives joy to watch. The original magic got stronger with this special animation and it surely won't disappoint anyone who loves DB, and even the ones who had never watched it.

Some characters were excluded, like Pilaf and his comrades, and some members from RR (Colonel Silver, Captain Yellow etc.), but those were less important in the ... saga. What matters is that it shows us, in 75 minutes, all that happened before Piccolo Daimao's appearance.

So, basically, the story goes from Goku meeting Bulma, Oolong, Yamcha, Puar and Master Roshi, to the complete defeat of the RR's army, with some small changes in the way it goes and the exclusion of Goku's training with Kuririn, as well as their first Tenkaichi Budoukai.

Ending credits with "Dan Dan Kokoro Hikarete 'ku" as its background made me cry (this song really moves me). Any real fan of this incredible saga should watch it! Strongly recommended!

Wow this anime has no reviews yet. I better add mine before someone else gets the first spot!!

Ahem.

"The Path to Power" is the Dragon Ball 10th Anniversary movie that backtracks to the origin of the series, with apparently an "alternative take" on how Goku met up with his friends.

If truth be told, I was pleasantly surprised by "The Path to Power". Unlike most of the other DB movies that I've seen, this one actually has a story. Yeah, you heard me right. The usual set up for Dragon Ball movies is this: Introduce some new villain(s) within the first 5 minutes that's out to take ... over the world... and then the rest of it is just a long drawn out battle between Goku and co with the aforementioned villain(s). At some point, Piccolo would make an "unexpected" appearance in order to save Gohan (Goku's son), then gets beaten up before Goku saves the day. The end. Surprisingly, this movie deviates from that much used formula. Shocking though it may seem, THIS movie actually has a story to tell, a story that can actually be considered a proper adventure, albeit one with lots of time spent battling enemies. However my point is there IS story development here and not just a simple 5 minute set up to face up to the newer, badder, stronger than ever enemy. This is what makes it so refreshing in comparison to the other Dragon Ball movies. The story itself is decent too, and kept me interested for most of the duration of the movie despite some parts being quite predictable.

I enjoyed the comedy element of the movie as well, I remember one classic line "I don't want to touch your dirty ass" that had me LOLing for a bit. The animation is of the usual sub-par Dragon Ball standard, though I'm grateful for the lack of typical fast exchanges of blows style battle animation that's so prevalent in other Dragon Ball movies. The character designs are typically uninspiring, with young Goku looking exactly like Gohan in the other movies - they are so similar in fact, that I thought this was Gohan's story at first. It's quite funny (in a good way) to see a young, naive Goku. He's makes for a decent lead character. The frankenstein character wasn't so good though - there was one point where he suddenly changed in a way that doesn't make much sense from a character development point of view. Oh well, what the hell am I doing being so fussy about the characters in a Dragon Ball movie anyway...

My main issue with this movie isn't actually with the quality of the content (my expectation wasn't exactly sky high in the first place), it's with the frequent fanservice. I'm not a fan of fanservice even during the best of times, but it's worse here because it's highly inappropriate considering the age group of the audience thats being targeted.

Though "The Path to Power" still a way from being good, I'd definitely give it a thumbs up for good effort, and for succeeding to be one of the more interesting Dragon Ball movies.

Extended edit: having watched the first Dragon Ball movie "Curse of the Blood Rubies", I'm even more impressed with "The Path to Power" now, because comparing the two movies revealed just how different this one is to its predecessor. It's not just a copy cat version of the original (which is a trap that remakes can easily fall into) - it came up with a completely different storyline that achieves the same aim and is by no means inferior to the old one.

It's better than Curse of the Blood Rubies. I would never say this is worth watching over the actual series. Nor would I even really recommend watching it unless you were just curious. As a retelling, it really adds nothing to Dragon Ball. As far as a retelling goes this one is decent.

The art and sound are more or less Dragon Ball. The animation feels a lot cleaner. Music sounds slightly better, but they did a good job of not straying too much in this aspect. Unlike Curse of the Blood Rubies you have the proper English voice actors too.

The story is a weird mixture ... of the Pilaf arc and the Red Ribbon Arc. Sadly it cuts some of the best parts like the Tournament, Korin's Tower, and Pilaf himself. What you get isn't terrible. It's just a highly rushed mash up of what you got in the anime series.

Do you need to see this movie? No. Is it worth your time? No. Is it the worst thing ever? No. So if you love Dragon Ball and are curious/bored then give it a shot.