Dragon Ball Z Movie 13: Ryuuken Bakuhatsu!! Gokuu ga Yaraneba Dare ga Yaru

I have been having a DBZ movie marathon and out of all of them so far this would be one of my favorites. If you want to see some hard core super saiyan leveling than this is your movie, along with the 12th movie. I would say both were epic and worth watching.

I have done many anime reviews and this will be my first anime movie review, I have been busy making a couple of anime reviews on youtube so writing one takes a little more time and effort but without further ado I give you my opinion on DBZ Wrath of the Dragon!

Story- Now not gonna lie but some of the DBZ movies have sucked the big one. Others were just very forgettable and average and yet some had brilliance. This one is one of the two I believe were the best. Wrath of the Dragon puts such an emphasis on a finally super battle. For ... those of you who don’t like GT and have not seen Battle of the Gods, Wrath of the Dragon occurs right after the Buu saga is concluded and it is really something special. The idea of the villain was pretty genius just like the casting of a new protagonist. Is there continuity issues? A little bit but if I explained than there would spoilers and I like to keep my reviews spoiler free. It could drag on in some parts but for the majority of the movie it’s everything you wanna see, the Z fighters fighting against a huge overpowered monster with an awesome finishing technique. Solid 9 out of 10.

Art- The art was just as amazing in this movie as it is in the original DBZ. Every color and attack is crisp and bursting with beauty. I mean funimation knows what they are doing when it comes to making sure the art style is flawless. Obv. It is not the best but it is certainly amazing to gaze upon.

Sound- Same sound from DBZ, original soundtracks and same voice actors. My opinion is the DB(Z)(GT) subs suck and the dub is incredible but all the voice actors are the same for both sub and dub so no worries for those out there who haven’t seen it and want to know if the same voices they are accustomed to are in the movie.

Character- Well, there are the same characters in this as there are in DBZ so there is not too much I can say. The new protagonist added a huge emotional effect that sometimes could be lacking and the new villains were very much like Babidi and Buu with their type of controlling relationship. Other than that nothing more I could say without repeating myself from my DBZ review.

Overall this is probably a tie for the best DBZ movie. It has a lot of heart and great fighting sequences. The art is great along with the original soundtracks, it is a no brainer, if you are a DBZ fan and you haven’t seen this do yourself a favor and watch it, you will not be disappointed. This is the epitome of a fun action anime movie that you can over and over again and never get bored, final score… OVER 9000! (very overused line haha)

Time to take a look at the last DBZ movie to have an English dub, that is until Battle of the Gods is dubbed. While on a personal level, I hold this as the greatest DBZ film ever, let's look at it objectively.

Story: The story is your standard DBZ plot. Giant alien comes to Earth in hopes of destroying the planet and the Super Saiyans have to destroy it. However, quite a bit of time is spent developing the newer characters, such as Hoi and Tapion, and Tapion's relationship to Trunks. Granted, this isn't the first DBZ film to put a lot of focus on ... character development, the first Broly movie did the same, this one seems to put the story over the action, which can be either good or bad depending on how you look at it. Personally, I loved it because it helped make Tapion more relateable and thus making him a better character. By the time the movie is finished, it does tie itself into the main series by giving an explanation to a minor thing that fans may not have needed an explanation for, but it's great that they did anyway.

Art: Surprisingly, the art is actually more detailed than previous films. All of the previous DBZ films that I've seen used the same art style as the main show without much more put in. Villains were also either bland looking or based of already established characters (Cooler looking like Frieza, but with a few minor differences and Broly pretty much being Goku on about 50 lbs. of steroids). The design of Hirudegarn, while bland at first with a few shades of brown and white, drastically changes into one of the best designs of the series once it sheds its skin. Watching the way it moves is just amazing. However, a lot of the other art is just sharpened, which isn't bad, but it's not adding a whole lot more to what we had before.

Sound: Aside from the usual characters, Tapion and Hoi sound great. There were a few moments where Tapion's voice seemed to drain any emotion the actor put in, but it didn't bother me too much. The only disappointment I had with voices was Hirudegarn's roar. It's just a generic monster roar. This is a completely different monster from anything else shown in the show, yet it sounds just like everything else. As for the music, the most you'll get is the song that Tapion plays every now and again in order to keep Hirudegarn sealed away. While the first few times sound the same, which I don't mind, the song is beautiful, it's the very last time that Tapion plays the song that truly shows how amazing it is. Everything surrounding this moment along with the added instruments to the song make it one of the most memorable songs in any DBZ movie. Yeah, it's not another rock song like other ones, but this one didn't need to be. It's great all on its own.

Character: Like stated earlier, a lot of time is spent developing Tapion and Hoi, so for the movie to work, the characters have to be likable, which they are. While Hoi is just your average villain that wants to do anything to take over the universe like every other DBZ villain, Tapion is quite interesting. He starts off as this loner that doesn't want anyone around, but by the time his backstory is fully explained, it's understandable why he always wants to be left alone. Yeah, he does eventually warm up to everyone else, but it never feels rushed. It's all natural, which is hard to pull off sometimes.

Enjoyment: As stated at the beginning, this is my favorite DBZ film out of the ones I've seen. For the longest time, this was the last DBZ film with no other one in sight and I was proud that the series went out this way. Then Battle of the Gods came, so it didn't end here. Having not yet seen Battle of the Gods, I have no room to judge the movie on how it shows off the DBZ characters and there's supposed to be more movies after that one, so the series is still going. No matter what, though, this will be my favorite of the series. I hope I've shown you why, and if not, well at least I tried.

Anyone who's watched a few DBZ movies knows that the quality can vary from horrible to pretty awesome. This is more or less on the higher end of the scale.

___The Story:
A mysterious old man asks Gohan and the others to summon Shenron in order to free a warrior named Tapion from an enchanted music box. Upon doing so the group unknowingly puts the Earth in danger as another being is released from the seal.

To be honest, the writing was a little weak. This is mostly because the backstory for the new characters is very generic. So let's move on to characters.

___The Characters:
I know there's the ... expression "there are no new ideas," but honestly the writers could have tried a little harder. The bad guy seems to have no real reason to be evil...he just is. His whole species just likes to wipe out other lifeforms (convenient instant enemy). I won't judge this too harshly though, I mean, this is DBZ we're talking about.

In terms of the good guy (Tapion), he has a generic tragic hero past. However, he's pretty likable, especially in his interactions with Trunks. In fact I enjoyed Tapion and Trunks' character development about as much as the final fight.

Also, this is a side note, but Bulma got a chance to shine a bit, too. She lent a listening ear when Tapion needed it, and showed how intelligent she is as well, which was nice to see. Anyway...

___The Fights:
Don't let the synopsis at the top of the page fool you; Goku doesn't spend time practicing/"perfecting" a new technique; he just does the attack once in the final fight. Granted he looks cool doing it, but it's hard not to make a Super Saiyan look cool. The fights were ok, and I think most people watching will enjoy them. Just don't go into the movie expecting Goku vs Frieze level epicness.

___Overall:
Overall I liked it! There were some decent fights and some good dialogue all the way through. I think you kind of know what to expect when watching a DBZ movie, and this doesn't deviate too much from the format that we're used to.

There is something that happens at the very end which confused me a little in terms of the future timeline, but that could just be me and not an error in continuity. I'm not going to post a spoile,r though.

It's less than an hour long so I encourage you to check it out if you have a free moment!

That was a good shit to watch , so usually I don't review a movie of an anime that already in my top 10 animes of all the time , like I'll rather go review the the show than the movies or ova otherwise the main reason that made review this movie was simple just because I liked so much it was hella enjoyable for me and I genuinely found myself satisfied about the time I spent on it

the story itself was unique what made the movie looks like a different show however we saw some main stuff of DBZ so yeah it's ... not totally something different, and the story here focused on trunks we saw a little bit of change after he takes most of the plot and I really love trunks as a main protagonist what comes to my mind that trunk future arc was one of the best arcs for me so now basically we now how the hell trunks got the sword and for some reasons that sword and the movie gave me Zelda vibes lol anyways if you are a fan of a dragon ball just give all the DBZ movies a shot they worth ur time

Dragon Ball Z Movie 13 Wrath of the Dragon is a story focusing on Tapion, a legendary warrior from the past who was said to defeat Hildegard. We also see some of that in a flashback.
He was sealed in a magical box that can't be opened by force but only through special means which the Dragon Balls found use in this film.
We would find out the reason why Tapion was sealed and his connection to Hildegard, a giant Kaiju sized monster that is even stronger than Ultimate Gohan.
The objective is to defeat it obviously, but that isn't where the movie shines.
It is also one of ... the few Dragon Ball Z movies that can fit into the main timeline, about after the defeat of Majin Boo.

It has humor and some horror elements because of what kind of creature Hildegard is.

The thing that makes the movie great is Tapion's character, his backstory and him trying to cope with his issues. On the surface he appears like an angsty teenager, but doing so is excused with his relationship with the villain.

Hildegard himself is not a character, but just a monster that destroys. A phantasm created of all evil of Tapion's planet and magic. It consumes live forms to power itself up when it takes a break from destroying shit like monsters are. How it consumes others is scary as shit.

Trunks really profits in this movie. Dragon Ball Z anime, Dragon Ball manga, Dragon Ball Super manga, Dragon Ball Super anime, Dragon Ball Super movies and all the previous Dragon Ball Z movies he started him he was pretty much a filler character played for gags. This is the first time he is treated like a real character. His interactions with Tapion feel believable and showed a part of him that isn't just Goten's friend that makes Gotenks. He also managed to get through Tapion and make him feel more comfortable around him. So this is the only place besides Dragon Ball GT where you can see present Trunks feel like an actual character.

Bulma is also pretty good in this movie and gets some very good interactions with Tapion where they talk about Tapion's issues and she works to help him. Bulma doesn't get a lot of good moments in Dragon Ball besides being a plot device, fan service or comic relief, so that is a welcome change of pace for once.

Hui is an interesting antagonist. He seems like another Babidi on the surface but he is more involved directly, isn't scared off others and is far more manipulative without the need of magic.

I do have some Criticism. Shenron grants only 1 wish instead of 3 but this can be overlooked for the sake of movie runtime.
Normally I would praise characters with different shapes and sizes, but the fight against Hildegard just isn't interesting. Mostly because every character can fly and this leads to a boring choreographed fight where a certain character just charges at a body part and Hildegards response is usually to slap him/her away.
The only exception may be when Gohan first fought part of Hildegard where it used its tail in an interesting way to get up and Gohan low kicked him.
Nowhere as fun as watching the fight against Lord Slug, Oozaru Vegeta or Oozaru Baby.
The use of other characters was also meh. The Dragon Ball hunt was fun to watch and seeing Gohan and Videl work as Saiyaman and Saiyawoman, but many characters who fought against Hildegard just didn't feel like they needed to be there.
Goten was a waste in this movie and only existed to power up Trunks. Vegeta exist for fan service too.
The way ending of Hildegard also feels questionable with something that was never foreshadowed and can come off as an asspull.

Overall I enjoyed this movie a lot. Tapion is a fan favorite and despite not getting a fight he is demanded by fans for any Dragon Ball fighting game. Goku uses the Dragon Fist in this movie for the first time, a fan favourite move, and sparingly used in Dragon Ball GT in the most epic ways. The animation and soundtrack is top tier. Even without amazing fights, the great storytelling and the great use of tone is where the movie shines.
It is highly recommended to watch this movie

-Plot: (7/10)
A shady allien old scientist shows up in the earth and asks the z fighters to unseal a weird thing, they gather the dragon balls they remove the seal and a hero named tapion gets out of it and a weird monster starts appearing (i dont want to spoil much but its not what you are probably thinking)

-Animation/Fights: (8/10)
DBZ animation and great fight scenes go hand to hand and this movie is no different

-Characters (8/10)
Tapion and Trunks are the MVP of the movie

-Overall: (8/10)
Even if you arent a Dragon Ball fan i suggest you should watch this movie, the only problem it has is ... that Goku always has to be the one saving the day

While this Dragon Ball movie acts as the "series finale epilogue" to Dragon Ball Z, with an amped up budget and a way more character-centric plotline, it ultimately falls a short of greatness. The story is thankfully not Goku-centric at all (up until the finale where Goku saves the day as he is contractually obliged to), and the new character Tapion is super compelling. However, the story beats are haphazardly laid out and the added Plot Heftiness doesn't pan out like they were hoping. It prob ably needed another thirty minutes, or needed to be a full TV show story arc. It's only pretty good, ... in the end.

Since they just recently redid the Broly movie into a new "canon" storyline, how about they redo the Tapion story into another movie or TV arc? I assume they'll do more in the near future, especially after the Broly movie made bank around the world, so Tapion would be a really good choice for a character to expand on. He's a character with really good potential, even if it wasn't fully reached here.

In terms of continuity? It fits! It takes place after the end of the series and has no contradictions with anything in the show; unless there's something in all the new movies and in Super (none of which I've seen), then it works! Yay!