Dragon Ball Z Movie 02: Kono Yo de Ichiban Tsuyoi Yatsu

This movie was better than the last movie. First off, the fights where more epic than the last, and they featured more characters in this one. What i really like is this pretty much the last time Master Roshi is seen fighting. This movie takes place somewhere between the Saiyan saga, and Frieza saga. Like all the DBZ movies, it contains plot inconsitencies. Like how piccolo is some how alive even though he was killed by Nappa. All and all this was a pretty good movie. What I really enjoyed was when Master Roshi, Krillin, and Goku used a Kamehameha wave all at the same ... time against Wheelo.

Firstly if you dont like the DBZ brand then you wont like this movie.This is definately for the fans and those who want a quick action fix with no strings attached.The plot is fairly straightforward,Gohan and oolong were playing with the dragon radar one day and then realize that all seven dragon balls were being gathered in one place.They then become alarmed and take the radar and venture out to see who was gathering them.Their search lead them to an artic wilderness where it is said that the ice is so dense that not even the sun can melt it and it stays frozen all ... year round.

The man who is behind the dragon ball collecting is Dr koshin, an evil scientist and partner to Dr wheelo.The two of them had planned to take over the world fifety years ago useing their terrible biotechnology but fate intervened causeing an avalanche which trapped Dr wheelo beneath the frozen wilderness.Now after fifety years Dr kochin has used the dragonballs to release the evil of Dr wheelo upon the earth again.The situation is even more dire as Dr wheelo's body was destroyed in the accident and he seeks a vessel for his brilliant mind,he seeks the world strongest and goku's gonna give it to him.After Master roshi was kidnapped by Dr koshin who believes him to be the world strongest fighter as he was fifty years ago,they try to use him but they are unaware of the earth new saviour Goku who must rescue master roshi,oolong and gohan while at the same time stop Dr wheelo from taking over his body and the world.

What i love about this movie is the awesome fight scene,it uses swift kicks and punches in real choreograph martial arts and energy attacks that comes out beatufully.Dr koshin evil henchmen all have their own specail ability and the fights with them and goku is great although short.The animation and sound are typical dbz material but the blu-ray version looks awesome.A thoroughly entertaininging short movie and a must watch for any dbz fan.

This film is your typical story of our main gang teaming up to fight evil and the outcome is predictable of course, but the film was still enjoyable. I really liked the pacing in particular. The dialogue doesn't go on for too long and the balance between the fight scenes and the slower scenes is just right to progress the story to where it needs to go. I tend to view the DBZ films as standalone films within the franchise because trying to make sense of them timeline wise kind of ruins how much I enjoy the films as a whole (because it doesn't make ... sense otherwise).

Overall I thought the film was good. The pacing and the art stood out for me.

This movie is clearly superior over the first one. I was actually impressed by the Animation and Colorization, it looks splendid. The snowy scenery helped to built a good atmosphere and even inside the building they did a very good job imo.

Also it was a smart decision to implement 2 main villains (Willow is the main guy sure, but Dr. Kochin served a good part of it too). Willow remained the mystery guy for a long time until he gets revealed, which adds another layer of tension in the movie as you want to see who this person is.

Even the secondary cyborg henchmen were all ... nicely designed and had interesting short fights. The climax fight in the end was also really diverse and entertaining and Goku used all of his famous attacks at this point (around Ep 40 of the DBZ series). I even see some character resemblance between Dr. Willow and the later Dr. Gero of the main series.

Also it felt really fresh to see Muten Roshi fight which happens rarely in the DBZ series.

I would clearly recommend this movie for DBZ Fans who haven't watched it so far.

Like it's predecessor, I didn't have the highest of expectations going into World's Strongest, but I must admit they were a bit higher after being surprisingly happy with how solid The Dead Zone was. In the end, I feel whilst World's Strongest is an enjoyable, fun romp, it has more notable weaknesses then it's predecessors in the form of a weaker villain and plot, and the obvious issues that come with a non-canon film.

The film deals with the emergence of a mad scientist, now only a brain in a jar, and his attempts to take over the body of 'The World's Strongest'., and Goku and ... co's attempts to defeat him. The plot isn't particularly interesting at all, and the set-up doesn't really make any sense when you really think about it (How did Wheelo put himself in a jar, and build the bio-weapons if he was trapped?) if I'm being honest. The only real appeal for this film are the fights are the general art direction. The design of his bio-weapons, at least the unique ones, are all right at best, having a couple of fun abilities across them. I'm aslo grateful for the fact that the villain actually backs up how dangerous they really are to the heroes - the power of the bio-weapons are potent, and seeing the results of Wheelo testing his weapons on an entire town is a pretty surprising display of carnage in a Dragon Ball property. He's not the most memorable villain I've ever seen, but his entire persona and power-up are enough to make him pretty entertaining to watch. Also, even if it's absoloutly non-canon, there is no way to reconicle the plot of this with the main storyline of Dragon Ball - with what we know what has already happened, it just can't make sense, which I thought was more funny then anything else.

As with it's predecessor, I was surprised how much I enjoyed the setting of World's Strongest - the futuristic fortress of Wheelo's base looks really fun, if utterly out of place in the Dragon Ball world. It's also nice to expand the world a little more - I don't think, at this point, we'd ever seen the cast in the Arctic areas of the planet before. Additionally, Wheelo's entire atmosphere, at least in the dub, is pretty unnerving, especially as he watched everything going on in the fortress via 2001 A Space Odyssey inspired cameras. Though I have to say, whilst Wheelo's brain coupled with his voice are somewhat intimidating - why the heck is his brain so big? It looks at least five times the size of a human brain, which is just kind of insane. The film also takes a little too long to get anywhere, since he have to suffer through the existence of Oolong and another one of Gohan's weird fantasises.

Easily the strongest aspect of the film, as it should be, are the fight scenes. We were still at a part in the power creep of the franchise where a lot of actual martial arts techniques are actually used. I got pretty excited to see Master Roshi dish out some pretty sick moves, and the fight against the bio-weapons are pretty tense, as the combos pulled out in Goku, Gohan and Krillin's fight against them are pretty brutal, which is sold by the pretty chilling screams from the cast. Though, the film does suffer from the Dragon Ball formula of an opponent being rapidly defeated after a sudden power-up, which whilst something I find really frustrating, makes sense due to the reduced runtime of the film making this equivalent of a three episode arc. The artstyle, still using the older look of early DBZ, looks wonderful adapted on the big screen once again, and is one of the best aspects of the film. For the most part, the animation looks great - fights are fluid, and even a lot of the comedic touches they blend into the fights look great just from how hilarious they look, like Goku on the ice.

It's good to see most the characters get a moment of two to shine in this film - even Master Roshi, which is always exciting to see dish out a few of his old man moves, even for a moment. Some of my major issues of this film really come down, though, to how badly they use some other characters - Bulma is little more then a chained up, screaming, damsel in distress, and Krillian doesn't do one useful thing in this film beside being a target for Wheelo's subordinate. Sure, they even point this out in the film, but it's really disappointing to see a legitemently great character be used little more then a joke. Honestly, when it comes to these films, Krillin is more Yamcha then Yamcha.

In the early days of Dragon Ball Z, Gohan's latent power is used frequently as a deus ex machina to quickly solve or ease a situation, but here I felt it was actually used well without utterly overpowering the enemy for no real reason. The way the film ends is satisfying enough, with everyone pitching in, but honestly I couldn't help but be a little disappointed that Goku's really the only one to pull the win from under Wheelo's feet, but I suppose you could argue the way Goku does it makes it a team effort. Honestly, it's kind of sad the most interesting techniques in the film come from the opponents, but it's still pretty exciting to see Goku whip out Kaioken in a time before Super Saiyan utterly outstripped it.

The World's Strongest is a perfect serviceable, non-canon entry in the Dragon Ball series. It has a mediocre, yet pretty impressive villain, and a really fun setting that sets it apart from other entires in the franchise. It's not something you'll be thinking about a week after you watched it, but for what it is, it's a solid hour long ride you should watch if you just want more Dragon Ball Z in your life, and if that's your desire, World's Strongest will that desire swimmingly.

Dragon Ball Z movie 2 The world's strongest is about an evil scientist Dr. Wheelo of whom only the brain is left wanting to transfer his mind on the body of the worlds strongest.

Like most Dragon Ball Z movies, this one can't fit into the main timeline but can be watched after finishing the Saiyan Saga. Like many others, it uses homages to recently used techniques of the most recent arc.
The appeal of the movie is also that this is the only time Master Roshi is involved in fighting in the Z era since he retired in the original Dragon Ball from fighting since the ... younger generation all surpassed him. But because the antagonist still believes that Roshi is the world strongest, he ended up being involved giving them a reality call when that turns out not to be the case.

The henchmen in this movie also possess unique powers and giving visually amazing fighting scenes where Goku has to use a move for different reasons to overcome these powers.

The main cast of characters behave as they do normally. Gohan struggles with his needs and wants meaning his studies or spending time with Piccolo. That being a trend in the movies continuities of Dragon Ball. Krillin would usually help him out in combat while Piccolo starting the tradition of coming to save Gohan from whatever.
Goku is his generic heroic self which is typical in DBZ movies.
Dr. Wheelo is very analytic and doesn't recklessly rush into action unlike his assistant Dr. Kochin who is a close friend who did a mistake that cost his life despite Wheelo's warning.

The movie struggles to stand on its own. While Dr. Wheelo has a unique goal, he is still a Dragon Ball Z villain who does what most Dragon Ball Z villains do when cornered. Another thing is that the movie doesn't have any grandiose moment in the final. The fights are good but nothing feels amazing enough to go back and rewatch it since most of the best scenes are homages. Even the Student-Mentor Kamehameha isn't remembered well by fans which is unique to this movie.
There is also the confusing part with timeline placement. While DBZ movies are considered their own story far removed from the main plot since they can't fit in, there are references made directly about stuff that happened in the anime which can confuse viewers.
Lastly how Wheelo is defeated is similar to how many other movie characters get defeated which can't be used against the movie since it is the first time it happens but doesn't make it any better.

Overall to get most out of this movie, you need to watch it before the movies that come after it since it will end up feeling repetitive. It is still a good movie and if you haven't you should give it a shot.