Dragonball Z: Fusion Reborn
Animation Production: Toei
Released by: Funimation
Official Website: Dragonball-Z
Running Time: 55 Minutes
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

Anyone who has experienced Dragonball-Z first hand knows that throughout most of the series relies on a simple story pattern that almost always plays out in the same manner. This pattern can best be explained with the following simple formula:

Stage 1 - New powerful enemy appears
Stage 2 - Heroes take it on to no avail
Stage 3 - Lead hero finds a weakness in the enemy or develops a new power
Stage 4 - Hero/Heroes mount final offensive and use new attack/strategy
Stage 5 - The day is saved

Despite this repetitive nature of the narrative setup the show manages to make it entertaining and fun almost every time, which is saying something about the way Dragonball-Z is designed and executed onscreen.

In the case of the movies, this formula is put to good use once more, but this time the results far outshine those of the previous featurettes released by Funimation. Actually “Fusion Reborn” blows those other films completely out of the water. Let’s go right into it.

Story

"An industrial disaster in Other World has unleashed a gargantuan monster, and the Z fighters are taking action! Janemba's arrival has thrown the dimensions into turmoil, leaving the door between worlds gaping open and the dead are rising from their graves. To combat this juggernaut, Goku must power up to his race Super Saiyan 3 form, but shockingly the move is not enought. It's a battle on two fronts and teamwork is the key! As time runs out, Goku stumbles across a weary Vegeta and devises a risky plan that might be the universe's only hope...Fusion Reborn!"-- Back of DVD Box

Review

I’ll skip the usual story summary since the above description captures the plot quite well. As you can see from the story capsule, this film’s plot is a simple affair that is strictly designed to fill the screen with fun and explosion filled fight scenes as Goku and Co. take on a new all-powerful enemy and several smaller undead ones. As such there really isn’t anything surprising about it, but the way its handled definitely gives it a punch that the previous entries in the series were lacking.

Now, don’t take me the wrong way, I enjoyed the last two Dragonball-Z movies that have been released state-side, but as good as those were they absolutely lacked in the areas of excitement and exhilarating battles when compared to “Fusion Reborn”. Here instead of one single conflict you have 2-4 different ones that vary in scope and intensity from “tournament-oriented” to more serious “fight to save the universe” montages that give the onscreen happenings more meaning and power.

The two major conflicts here are Goku’s and Goten & Trunk’s melees, with the former being the highlight of the movie as Goku fuses with Vegeta to produce Gogeta, the most powerful warrior in the universe, the only power strong enough to stand up to and defeat the evil Janemba. This results in the best battle sequence of any of the last 3 Dragonball-Z films.

The Goten and Trunks scenes are meant to contrast Goku and Vegeta’s in tone and approach as the two young Saiyans take on Hitler and several of his minions in various fights. These scenes are all done in a more childish style that gives them a more comedic feel and stylized look than the rest of the movie with more pronounced lines and bright pastel colors, not to mention that the boys approach to fighting the enemy is decidedly more childish in both techniques and follow-through.

On the production front the animation here is slightly better than what was used in the TV series, featuring a smoother moving frame rate, more cinematic scenes/angles and an overall better presentation. The color palette is bright and colorful with some darker colors brought in closer to the end for good measure. Visual effects are limited to energy attacks and power up effects. There is also some limited use of animated backgrounds that still look pretty good by today’s standards.

On the music front this is classic Dragonball Z all the way with many nice instrumentals that remind one of older Toei shows like UFO Robo Grandizer or Mazinger-Z. The music does a great job at enhancing the on-screen action and really adds a unique flavor to the series, especially during the battle scenes. The voice acting, like the soundtrack, is right on with everyone in the cast turning in a great performance that brings these classic anime characters to life with ease.

On the DVD front this is another nice release from the folks at Funimation that features a terrific video and audio transfer of the movie. In the audio front the original Japanese soundtrack is included alongside two English dubbed tracks (one of which is encoded in 5.1 surround sound). There are no real extras included aside from previews for other Funimation releases and a small fold out brochure inside the DVD box with the company’s release schedule for the next couple of months and info on several of their properties.

Final Thoughts

If you follow and collect Dragonball-Z DVD’s to any degree “Fusion Reborn” is a must-see part of the saga and is certainly worthy of your anime dollars! Filled with creative battle scenes and some fun exchanges between characters like Goku and Vegeta, this is what Dragonball-Z boils down to at its best.

Highly recommended.

Jeffrey Couto