Dragon Ball Z Movie 12: Fukkatsu no Fusion!! Gokuu to Vegeta

After a janitorial mishap, an unsuspecting custodian transforms into Janemba, a fat, yellow demon who wreaks havoc throughout the afterlife. Gokuu Son has been competing in martial arts tournaments for the undead since his heroic death in the battle against Cell. Soon, Janemba's chaos draws Gokuu and fellow combatant Pikkon toward him, forcing the pair to figure out a way to defeat the giant monster.

After a bout with him, Gokuu witnesses Janemba undergo another transformation: the demon sheds his fat and changes color, turning into a sword-wielding enemy more powerful than anyone Gokuu has faced thus far. With the aid of his similarly deceased rival Vegeta, Gokuu must stop the terrifying Janemba from disrupting the very fabric of the universe.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Episode 1

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Dragon Ball Z

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Characters & Voice Actors

Son, Gokuu

Main

Nozawa, Masako
Japanese

Vegeta

Main

Horikawa, Ryo
Japanese

Gogeta

Main

Nozawa, Masako
Japanese

Janemba

Main

Genda, Tesshou
Japanese

Son, Gohan

Supporting

Nozawa, Masako
Japanese

Freeza

Supporting

Nakao, Ryusei
Japanese

Trunks

Supporting

Kusao, Takeshi
Japanese

Bulma

Supporting

Tsuru, Hiromi
Japanese

Son, Goten

Supporting

Nozawa, Masako
Japanese

Videl

Supporting

Minaguchi, Yuko
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Cook, Justin

Producer

Watson, Barry

Producer

Yamauchi, Shigeyasu

Director, Storyboard

Koyama, Takao

Script

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Opening Theme

"We Gotta Power" by Hironobu Kageyama

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Ending Theme

"Saikyou no Fusion" by Hironobu Kageyama

Reviews

Oct 14, 2022

WhatAGoodShow

Recommended

Dragon Ball Z Movie 12: Fukkatsu no Fusion!! Gokuu to Vegeta aka. Fusion Reborn is a movie where the death return to life after an accident happened in hell creating a monster known as Janemba. It is up to Goku, Vegeta and Paikuhan (or Pikkon in American) to stop Janemba from destroying the balance of the circle of life pretty much.

The movie does a good job in showing the chaos Janemba's existence has to both the afterlife and the living world as the viewers will be able to see both what is going on in these different locations.
While Goku, Paikuhan and Vegeta deal with Janemba ... while Gohan, Goten, Trunks and Videl do their best to deal with the revived villains amounts which is Frieza. The movie also uses two artstyles for the serious and non serious moments but not necessary for comedic scenes. There are references to famous movies or historical events that get parodied which some countries won't be able to see because of censorships like the infamous dictator scene being removed from the German dub.
Speaking of artstyle, the visuals and animations are even holding up today and are the best looking Dragon Ball visuals up to date. Animators took full advantage of the tools they had making Janemba's abilities especially the teleportation a visual spectacle. It is alongside Wrath the Dragon and Path to Power without the doubt the best looking Dragon Ball film.
There is a good reason why this alongside Wrath of the Dragon are the only Dragon Ball movies from the original run that had a worldwide theatrical release.

As the name of the movie suggests, the selling point is Goku and Vegeta fusing to Gogeta being the first time these two merge to stop a common enemy. And the build up to that moment was done beautifully.
We see more about Vegeta's inferiority complex and the hate of the idea to fuse with his rival. And it might even rival Vegeta's development throughout the Boo Saga.
While on the topic of Boo Saga, this movie can't fit to the main story timeline and can be seen as a sidestory where the good guys defeated Boo with Goku and Vegeta remaining death.

Janemba is a villain that resembles Boo a lot but is created out of pure evil. He starts off as a fatso and later becomes a muscular demonic lizard thingy after one of the creepiest transformation scenes ever. His abilities are also very unique to him but it feels like there are also too much powers of Boo added for no reason like arm extension. But the main appeal obviously is altering objects and teleportation. Not only can he teleport himself but can also create teleportation portals which he cleverly uses to attack opponents without physically appearing or sending back attacks aimed at him. Meaning he can use his abilities as offensive and defensive tools.
But personality wise he is inferior to Kid Boo after he turned evil. Since he can't speak, most of his emotions are expressed by emoting with his body. He is also the only character in the series that uses a physical weapon after the Frieza Saga and makes it being dangerous believable as something like a Sword for Future Trunks didn't enhance his fighting abilities and was just visually pleasing.

Comedy in this movie is also great as jokes some which had build up in this movie or from the show being viewed. It would be hard to explain some of them without spoiling it. But they aren't the only ones.

The environment is another thing notable for the movie as viewers of the anime have had seen hell, but now that Janemba appeared viewers can witness how Janemba's existence altered it. Combining the flying multi-colored giant jelly beans created by Janemba and the unusual color scheme of hell creates one of the most surreal landscapes in the franchise. Simply put, changing an already explored location into a brand knew one.

Like always there are some criticism. Of all the villains from the show that returned, only one fights and gets defeated in an underwhelming way. I think you can guess who is it. Someone who just won't stop returning. Pretty much wasting the potential of old villains getting a second chance to get what they want and taking advantage of the secondary cast better like Piccolo, Yamcha, Tien, Chaotzu and Krilllin to beat someone like Bojack, Turles or Lord Slug. Instead most of the living world scenes are wasted for historical jokes and Goten and Trunks.
As with most DBZ movie villains who are similar to the current story arc villain that came out around the time, Janemba is basically similar to Boo. While he has some unique abilities and a killer design, he just feels like a watered down version of the last DBZ villain. Both start out fat and at the runtime of the Boo Saga the latest form when this movie came out was Super Boo and Janemba's final form has a similar body structure. And as a character, he is shallow after his transformation who had a childlike innocent personality. And there is the question why he is as strong as he is. Another problem is the transformation from big to small is that in regards to Boo who is made out of magic and bubble gum substance, Janemba's transformation that happens in a similar matter seems unrealistic because it doesn't have a believable excuse like Boo. It also makes it less believable that Janemba can extend his arms, an ability it didn't even need. One other issue is neglect of Paikuhan as a character. While he did appear to help out, most of the time he was just trying to free Enma or King Yama, only appearing to buy time for the fusion briefly. So he was wasted as a character for most of the film.

Overall Fusion Reborn is a good movie still well remembered and the movie that made Gogeta the character everyone loves. This movie has the debut of Super Saiyan 3 and might be the best use of the transformation in the franchise. Even the transformation scene of Super Saiyan 3 surpasses the one in the Boo Saga version from the anime version taking advantage of how the environment shifts as well as the tone from the battle from fun to serious. So if you like more development for Vegeta, love fusion especially Gogeta and wants some good Super Saiyan 3 action, you owe yourself to watch Fusion Reborn.

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Oct 22, 2023

Jolt9515

Mixed Feelings

Let’s get straight to the point, this is without a doubt the most overrated original DBZ movie by a long shot. Even on my 4th watch, I fail to understand why people consider this the greatest Dragon Ball anything when it's just another boring story with admittedly good looking animation (at points). The only reason anyone likes this movie is because of one scene at the very end that barely lasts 3 minutes of screen time.

STORY
Fusion Reborn has a pretty strong setup and introduction (as most of these Z movies tend to have). After the defeat of Majin Buu (presumably in a timeline where Goku ... was not brought back to life by the Elder Kaioshin) a second Otherworld Tournament is taking place. Now I really enjoy the Otherworld, I think it’s Toriyama’s most visually striking and creative locations, (certainly more so than rocky wastelands or grassy plains!), and I find Paikuhan to be a pretty well done anime original character. As the fight between Goku and Paikuhan gets underway, we get an ominous voiceover telling of a great danger that will soon arise at the Otherworld Check-In station, followed by the 2nd Z opening We Gotta Power (a welcome addition, it is a great OP)

After the short break, we are reintroduced to Lord Enma and the primary function of the Otherworld, to sort the good and evil spirits who pass through. If you watched DBZ, you should be familiar with how Otherworld works, but for those who don’t, what you really need to know for this story is that all evil souls are sent to Hell, where their souls are cleansed and reincarnated into the living world. In Hell we see this soul cleaner in action, holding a glass tank for all the “evil ki” to be dumped into (basically nuclear waste). A teenage demon operating as the tank clerk isn’t paying attention when suddenly the tank housing all of this evil ki clogs the machine and causes not just it, but all the other tanks to burst, releasing all the stored evil into Otherworld. The demon begins to transmogrify into a being called Janemba, which I guess is supposed to be a conglomeration of all the evil ki in Otherworld.

Janemba’s distortion of the living world and the Otherworld is the primary conflict of the movie, and unfortunately this is where the interesting part ends. From here we get the typical Dragon Ball Z action that many know and love. Later in the film we see Freeza, as well as many of the movie villains, begin to attack Earth, and Gohan (as the Great Saiyaman) goes to stop them. This could’ve been a pretty interesting rematch, but unlike in DBS, Freeza was not able to train, and gets one shot by a Super Saiyan Gohan. There’s a lot of other weird antics we get to see on Earth, like Goten and Trunks fighting Hitler, but as outlandish and absurd as it is I can’t say I’m a fan.

CHARACTERS
Alright, starting off with the man of the hour Goku. Goku is Goku. There’s not really much to add, he’s pretty much the same as he’s always been. Goku trying to figure out how to fight fat Janemba was pretty fun to watch. That’s all I really have to say

Paikuhan: Earlier I praised Paikuhan as a well done anime original character, but unfortunately he doesn’t do much in this movie. I suppose he does figure out the primary weakness of the evil ki barriers (I just call them the jellybeans) floating around, as well as Janemba itself, being…shouting insults at it? It’s a silly concept that could really only fit in the world of Dragon Ball. At the end of the movie Pikkon tells Goku and Vegeta that he’ll hold off Janemba while they undergo fusion, but then proceeds to get absolutely washed by Janemba IMMEDIATELY, so that was pretty funny I guess.

Vegeta: Oh boy Vegeta. Where to begin? I said at the beginning that this movie presumably takes place AFTER the Buu Saga ended. Why is this important? At the end of the Buu Saga, Vegeta has arguably his biggest character moment in the series in admitting that Goku is indeed number one, and from there we can assume that he starts to push his ego aside when it comes to a threat like Janemba. Well for those of you who think Super regressed Vegeta’s character, I point you to this movie. Vegeta is so goddamn insufferable it's honestly surprising. He insists that HE and HE ALONE will be the one to defeat that weakling Janemba WITHOUT the help of that clown Kakarrot, and outright REFUSES to do Fusion (even though he agreed to use the Potara before this movie happened). When he gets taken out by one of Janemba’s attacks, he whines that “even in the Next World I’m still inferior to Kakarrot.” This is honestly the worst depiction of Vegeta in the series to me, arguably worse than in the Tournament of Power.

Janemba: Conceptually, Janemba isn’t bad at all. I’m one of the few people who doesn’t absolutely hate the Buu Saga, so I’m all for this force of nature kind of villain. He has a shit ton of cool abilities and tricks up his sleeve that keep the fight scenes pretty engaging, one of the few things I liked about this movie.

The other characters don’t really have enough screen time for me to make any meaningful comments on them. Moving on to…

ANIMATION
I have to admit, this movie has some really good animation, especially Super Saiyan 3 Goku vs Janemba. There’s a reason that clip is one of the 2 things people post to tell you how good this movie is!! Seriously though, not just Fusion Reborn, but all the Z movies have moments that are really well animated. No complaints from me.

SOUND
Not bad at all, typical of what you would expect from Dragon Ball performances. The soundtrack was pretty good but nothing super memorable.

CONCLUSION
Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn is a film with a strong premise and terrible execution. It relies on its good animation and cool moments to make up for an otherwise underwhelming story. Not the worst of the Z movies, but it’s certainly not the masterpiece that fans will try to say it is.

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Jan 1, 2023

redwaifu

Not Recommended

This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I wanted to watch this after seeing the goku vs janemba clip on YouTube. I thought the whole movie would be like that but no, this movie is unfunny, stupid and childish. I love dbz, I love some of the movies. But this was terrible. It feels like the target audience is 3 year old. I'm genuinely surprised most dbz fans love this movie because to me it was insultingly stupid. But then again anime fans aren't exactly known for liking high quality. This and bio broly are offensively bad and if you care ...

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