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

I've talked about Toriyama Akira's Dragonball and I've talked about the Dragonball Z: Battle of Gods movie. Now it's time to delve into the franchise once more with a look at the twelfth Dragonball Z movie, Fusion Reborn. Will it be on the level of the fourteenth movie or is this one of the weak Dragonball Z films?

Story:

Our story opens after the Buu saga with an afterlife tournament where Goku faces off against Paikuhan, in spite of the fact that Goku was resurrected by the old Kaio during the Buu saga and the fact that the grand Kaio decided that the prize for the afterlife ... tournament needed to be withheld for a while so he could get back in shape. Unsurprisingly, this is a Dragonball Z movie that doesn't fit in with the continuity, which is an issue with a lot of them. Moving on, King Yama is busy judging souls while the oni in charge of monitoring the soul cleansing equipment goofs off. This results in an accident which causes the evil to burst out and transform the young oni into Janemba, a being of pure evil that seals Yama's palace, enabling the souls of the dead to break free and roam around on Earth. The tournament is postponed so that Goku and Paikuhan can investigate.

To be fair, the concept behind this isn't a bad one. The idea of the dead wreaking havoc could have been very interesting. But this is DBZ so it's used as an excuse for action sequences and that's pretty much it. To be fair, that's pretty much to be expected from the franchise and it's what people are going to be watching the film for. That's why the biggest problem is the final fight itself. It is really anti-climactic. You get some good buildup for it, but the fight itself ends in about thirty seconds. Mr. Satan fought Cell longer than Gogeta fights Janemba. On the positive side, the film does have some funny moments and some stupidly awesome bits, including Trunks and Goten fighting undead nazis.

Characters:

The film focuses primarily on the saiyajin and half saiyajin characters. Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks and Goten. Videl also plays a somewhat significant role. None of them really develop in any substantial way over the course of the film, but you do get a good sense of their personalities, which is fair enough given that the film isn't even an hour long. Then we have our villain, Janemba. He's basically like Majin Buu right down to starting as an obese man-child and transforming into a meaner, more heavily muscled form. It's like the Frieza and Cooler thing where a film just makes a weaker copy of a villain from the main series.

Art:

The artwork and animation are pretty decent. The biggest issue is that the action sequences are kind of weak in this one. Given how much the franchise relies on those, that's pretty bad. I will give the film credit for having some really interesting backgrounds during its tour of hell.

Sound:

The entire vocal cast delivers decent performances. There's some exaggeration, but no more than the usual given the franchise's tendency to have dudes screaming to get stronger. The music is pretty good.

Ho-yay:

There isn't any homo-eroticism in this movie.

Final Thoughts:

Dragonball Z: Fusion Reborn is an action movie with some good ideas and funny moments, but that suffers from weak action and a boring antagonist. It isn't a bad movie, nor is it one of the worst DBZ films for what it is, but there are a lot of better Dragonball Z films out there. This one is just kind of dull. My final rating for it is going to be a 5/10. Tomorrow I'll take a look at Spirited Away.

The Dragon Ball Z movies had become the living definition of money grabbers after the 7th movie. Many non fans would actually argue even before that. The movies were severely lacking in creativity and imagination, to where the writers found themselves either resorting to gimmicks or just playing copy and paste with stories. Therefore, I remember coming into this expecting the same thing, which was why I put it off for way over a year after its US release date. When I finally gave it a look; I was surprised with the solid effort as it did manage to work well with its key elements; ... the action, plot, and even the comedy held my attention to actually consider this a good movie.

The plot follows the same pattern as any DBZ movie; a threat shows up that could destroy the world or even the entire universe, and Goku must face this threat. This time around the culprit of mischief is a mutated being by the name of Janemba whom is completely responsible for the living and dead to collide. Goku engages him in battle which leads to quickly being pushed to his limits. I guess this movie will only be about as great or bad to you all depending on how well DBZ comedy and action jells with you.

The movie constantly flips between Goku's battle and his sons battle with the undead. The latter is completely comedy motivated all the way down to the visuals and it does work at times. I actually laughed during Frieza's return, plus the parody on Hitler down to some of his dialog, where he even admits that he should be recruiting these super strong blond guys. It's rare to find a DBZ movie where the comedy can make you do something other than groan. However, it's the serious fighting that will grab everyone's attention. It contains the usual Super Saiyan gimmicks plus Vegeta makes a very predictable appearance. The fighting is fun to watch, but again, the comedy has moments where it shines here as well concerning the Fusion technique.

Although I enjoyed the movie; I will admit that some of the scenes drag and I doubt this is due to multiple watches. I always felt this way about this movie, and even at 48 minutes I wanted it to end. The villain Janemba is the living definition of cookie-cutter, completely lacking any type of personality which is something that had been plaguing the DBZ movies for a very long time, probably after the Return of Cooler. All he does is just grunt and laugh, and that really isn't cool.

The visuals are much better here than in the TV series. The animation is a lot more crisp and vibrant. Although there is a heavy re-use of cels during some combat, there are moments of sharp blows and some type of action choreography. I liked the backgrounds this time too. The Other World where Goku and Janemba battle in has some pretty cool details, such as a rectangular shaped blood pond just floating in mid-air, and a forest made from sharp metallic needles. There are other elements indicating they are fighting in a different world, which is a good change of pace from the usual mountain and vegetation like areas. There is also a second, more manga like style during the comedic living and dead conflict. The designs at times are more cartoony with a darker outline here. I thought it was fine for the most part, but I probably wouldn't have been able to tolerate that had the movie been longer.

The voice acting for the English dub which is the only one I can tolerate, is fine for the most part except at times the dialog can feel awkward, as if the cast are just creating plot holes or something. It just sometimes feels strange. In any case, the usual Funimation suspects show up for the party, with Chris Sabat delivering a solid performance as usual playing Vegeta. Plus I will always admire Kara Edwards range playing both Goten and Videl. I would have never noticed it was the same person if not for the credits. The BGM rock score works well with the action, but don't come into this expecting Cooler's Revenge or Broly: Legendary Super Saiyan.

Fusion Reborn is among the better DBZ titles. It actually tries to be a better movie and succeeds. Plus it can probably rope in new fans despite it not really fitting into main continuity. It appears to be taking place at some point during the Fusion Saga, but this is hard to buy into. In any case, if you're a fan of DBZ than check this out. If you're new and heavily interested in DBZ, I recommend starting with the TV series first season, then the Dead Zone movie only if possible. Others with no interest or knowledge, there is far better anime out there to invest your time in.

Highs: Clean visuals, action and comedy that has good moments

Lows: Has its weaker moments too, plus a cookie-cutter baddie

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.

The opening is brief and enjoyable enough. The concept of how the villain comes about is interesting, but ultimately it's not a very interesting character outside of the design. The best part of the movie is the environment the character creates, and the weird otherworldly powers. The fighting is okay, and it's good to see SS3 actually be used for a while.

There's not much to the villain as a character, and at some point toward the end some of the comedy felt forced and went on too long, it would've been better without it. I also think the bit with hitler went on too long ... and wasn't very interesting to begin with. If they needed filler fights on the side, there were much more interesting things they could've done that would've made more sense than infinite tanks. The end of the fight is anticlimactic, but the end of the movie is good. Overall I'd say it's okay, with some high points. It's worth giving a try.