Dragon Ball Super: Broly Review, from a Broly Hater

Dragon Ball is a franchise I've had a love hate relationship with, for every one thing they do right, they do another thing wrong. I personally fell out with the series during Super, which I found a worse show than Z. My problem is they bought Goku back after Z's Cell Arc instead of just letting his kid Gohan be the main protagionist. Also Super never felt like anything mattered even when a villain commits total genocide on humanity because "oh look at this alternate timeline we found where that didn't happen." For every moment they expand the shows mythos there's another moment where I'm reminded that nothing really matters in terms of character and universe.

But of all things I hated in Dragon Ball Broly was the worst, just a muscle bound brute who existed for Goku to punch, nothing more. He had no words except Kakarot (Goku's other name), hated Goku, and liked blowing up planets, that's it. At least Frieza was so regal that his sadism threw you off while guys like Zamasu were driven insane by their ideals, Broly had none of that he was brute and that's it. So I skipped the new DB movie when I learned that a new version of Broly would be the focus, but my friend David forced me to watch the Blu-Ray release. How did I like it? Well...

 Getting this out of the way, the film is beautiful, it is so well animated fluid and vibrant that it's worth a watch for the fighting alone. It moves with such a brutal grace where even a character screaming and powering up moves with such a force that it feels like the earth itself is shaken by the force exerted. It's like there's a camera moving with the characters as they fight even though it's animated so there is technically no camera. Which, when a animated flick can pull that off it's a treat to the eye and DB Super Broly does it magnificently.

And the soundtrack also blew me out of the water, a lot of chanting and intensity is bought out in a way that makes events like transformations and fighting feel like big events, things you should not turn your eyes from. Which, like I said, the fighting is pretty good so you shouldn't anyway but the OST really takes it above and beyond. It's like every character has their own hypeman and it's the most memorable work done since Bruce Falconer's work on the DBZ English dub.

Now where Dragon Ball has failed a lot is story so I was firmly set for disappointment, I was expecting the same Broly that we got in the first story, the setup is even the same. The King of Goku's alien species, the Sayians, notices that an infant named Broly has extreme power, rivaling that of his own son Vegeta, so the King tries to kill Broly but Broly's father, Paragus, saves him and goes into hiding and plots revenge.

That is identical for both the version that applies to mainline Dragon Ball in this movie and the non-canon Z movie. But it's where the similarities end and the differences begin and for the better in my opinion, as Broly in his original Z version (who I will call Z Broly) was an insane brute for no other reason than "Goku cried a lot as a kid." In Super, Broly (who I will call S Broly), is a man who desires peace and friendship but is molded and abused by his insane father into doing his bidding in order to get revenge on the man who wronged them.

I actually like this take a lot more because it gives Broly a personality, he's kind-hearted and naive but if pushed too far will go berserk. It's a bit archetypal but considering Z Broly was just an insane brute S Broly is a breath of fresh air and I found myself cringing at the extent of pain Broly suffers at the hands of his father. Also, the explanation for Broly's weird powers compared to Goku and Vegeta also works pretty well.

Broly's arc is helped with the addition of two new characters Cheelai and Lemo. Cheelai being a thief who helps convince Broly there's more to life than his father and Lemo being an old grump who aids Cheelai. Cheelai and Lemo are honestly the heart of this story and their attempt to reach out to Broly and break Paragus' indoctrination makes the story in this film really shine compared to recent Dragon Ball media.

What also caught me off guard is that Goku is back to how Z interpreted him. In Z, Goku always felt like he enjoyed a good fight but when it came to brass tacks would do what he knew was right and was a generally competent adult. It never felt like Goku enjoyed fighting for bloodlust but ecause he found it fun and would oppose those with a luist for blood. Best example is Goku in the Buu arc, where he tries to avoid fighting until it becomes inevitable due to the consequences of it. It also gives him a good contrast to Vegeta who, while a good person, also will just straight up kill if he feels the threat is big enough.

But in Super it was always just "hurr-durr Goku likes to fight no matter what." Villain wipes out humanity in the future? Let him retreat so he can get stronger. Patron God tells you not to go seek out Supreme God due to the possible outcome? Goes anyway. Honestly in Super when Beerus tried to kill Goku I was rooting for it, because Goku had clearly been reduced to a man-child and was a threat to everyone around him. Honestly it felt like Vegeta had become the real hero of the franchise, he just had his head on his shoulders better than Goku.

But when he has Broly on the ropes, Goku remarks that he can tell Broly isn't evil and that he doesn't have to fight for his father or Frieza anymore. It was a shock because, well Goku had been so childishly fight hungry for so long that I forgot what an actually competent Goku was like. And this is what I feel like the best version of Goku is; he enjoys fighting and sparring but has his limits and will either retreat, kill or reason if he feels the need. Simply put, Goku always came off like a naive and laid back but ultimately competent and well meaning adult. If they keep Goku like this, I may actually turn my opinion around on modern Dragon Ball.

Now so far I have said nothing but nice things about Super: Broly, is there anything I didn't like? Well there is one point in the film that could have been jettisoned and not much would have been lost, the rewrite of Goku's father Bardock. Not only do they re-write a I character who I liked for being an amoral mercenary into a man with a sense of guilt for his actions. But the whole sequence feels like could have been tossed out and just skip to Frieza killing the majority the Sayians. It's like 5 minutes that could have been taken out and nothing would have been lost.

But if 5 minutes of a movie feeling like dead weight is the only bad thing I can say about a Dragon Ball film? Then that speaks to just how fantastic Super Broly is, with great animation, music, and a new compelling rival, this is easily the best Dragon Ball film since Battle of Gods, maybe even better than that if I'm to be honest. It has helped revitalize Dragon Ball since the, at least in my opinion, abysmal Super TV run. If they continue like this, the series will have a strong future indeed.

(Added note: Bardock didn't have the bandana he had in his original appearance, which is some straight up heresy.)