Dragon Ball Movie 4: Saikyou e no Michi

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Alternative Titles

English: Dragon Ball Movie 4: The Path to Power

Synonyms: Dragon Ball 10th Anniversary Movie

Japanese: ドラゴンボール最強への道

Information

Type: Movie

Episodes: 1

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Mar 2, 1996

Producers: None found, add some

Licensors: FUNimation Entertainment

Studios: Toei Animation

Source: Manga

Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Shounen, Super Power

Duration: 1 hr. 14 min.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 7.32¹ (scored by 14,869 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score. Please note that 'Not yet aired' titles are excluded.

Ranked: #2231²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1814

Members: 26,944

Favorites: 21

7.32

Ranked #2231Popularity #1814Members 26,944

Episodes: /1

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Synopsis

A retelling of Dragon Ball's origin with a different take on the meeting of Goku, Bulma, and Kame-Sen'nin. It also retells the Red Ribbon Army story; but this time they find Goku rather than Goku finding them.

(Source: ANN)

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Related Anime

Alternative version:	Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Movie 1: Shen Long no Densetsu
Prequel:	Dragon Ball Movie 3: Makafushigi Daibouken

More characters
Characters & Voice Actors

Son, Gokuu

Main

Nozawa, Masako
Japanese

Bulma

Main

Tsuru, Hiromi
Japanese

Oolong

Main

Tatsuta, Naoki
Japanese

Muten-Roshi

Supporting

Aikawa, Kinya
Japanese

More staff
Staff

	Watson, Barry Producer
	Yamauchi, Shigeyasu Director
	Toriyama, Akira Original Creator
	Hosoda, Mamoru Key Animation

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"DAN DAN Kokoro Hikareteku" by FIELD OF VIEW

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WhyMeGodDammit

17 people found this review helpful

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Apr 17, 2013

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 10

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 read more

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kajia

15 people found this review helpful

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Apr 23, 2010

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 5

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. read more

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KlownArt

5 people found this review helpful

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Jul 13, 2016

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 6

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 read more

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	Poll: Dragon Ball Movie 4: Saikyou e no Michi Episode 1 Discussion Monkey_Professor - Nov 12, 2012	14 replies	by greensuede »» Jan 24, 10:23 AM
	Good for rewatching dragon ball? Shidoteki - Jul 25, 2016	0 replies	by Shidoteki »» Jul 25, 2016 1:48 PM

Dragon Ball Movie 4: Saikyou e no Michi

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Dragon Ball Movie 4: Saikyou e no Michi

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