Dragon Ball Z : L'Histoire de Trunks

The "History of Trunks," was the greatest DBZ movie that i have seen. It had more drama than the normal movie, and that was what made it so great.

Basically it reveals the future in which everyone except Gohan and Trunks have been killed by the Androids, and the two Z-fighters train hard to win the future...

This is a great television special for Dragonball Z (especially for Trunks fans). It goes like this: Two devilish creations of Dr. Gero, (Artificial Humans #'s 18 and 19) begin to cause destruction about the globe. All of the Z senshi step fourth to kill them, but Gohan is the only one who survives. 13 years later, Trunks, the son of Vegeta and Bulma, has had enough, and asks Gohan to train him. I don't want to spoil it, so go get the DVD to find out what happens! I give it 10 stars out of ten!

Well, I have to say that I was impressed by FUNimation's translation of the Trunks Special. The VAs performed quite well, and the script was fairly decent.

The dubbed special features a variety of musical acts, although the most disappointing music, by far, was the title sequence by Andy Baylor. The obnoxious techno track did not match the opening animation at all, and actually had me longing for "Rock the Dragon".

I would recommend waiting for the bilingual DVD to come out, so that you may enjoy the special in its "true" form, but if you can't wait, then the VHS version of "The History of Trunks" should keep you happy for now.

Trunks has lived his whole life in fear and chaos as 2 Androids have been killing off the world's population and destroying all major cities. After witnessing so many innocent lives, he must find a way to bring back everything that was lost and irreplaceable.

This is the full story on what Trunk's life was like during the Armegeda of the androids. As it was very little said during the Trunks/Android/Cell Sagas. You see a lot of brief cameos of your favorite characters as well as Gohan who plays a part in this TV special.

Since this takes place in an alternate future, all that you'll see in this TV special won't affect the current time line. Well those who have seen the all the android episodes would know what I mean.

So those who really wanted to know what alternate future of the DBZ world is like can be able to see this on DVD.

As far as entries in the Dragon Ball universe go, this one is kind of unique. Taking place in the alternate future of Trunks, a world torn apart by the merciless Artificial Humans, where almost all the warriors are gone, along with the Dragon Balls, and nearly all hope. Only two warriors remain, Gohan, now a grown man, continuing the legacy of his father, and Trunks, the teenage son of Vegeta and Bulma, who is training in hopes of becoming a Super Saiya-jin.

What makes this movie truly unique in terms of the Dragon Ball franchise, is that death has a lot more meaning here. The majority of the time in the series, when a character dies, it's kind of hard to get emotional about it, because you know as long as the Dragon Balls are around, they will likely be all right in the end. This fantastic TV special shows us what would happen without them. There is also no Goku, save for a small scene of him dying from a heart virus at the start.

With a run time of only about 50 minutes, there is not a whole lot of time to go into too much depth, but it definitely tells you the story that it intends in that time, fitting a fair amount of story into it. We get several of most intense fight scenes of the whole series, which probably owes to the short length, since they wasted no time on time filling power up scenes, as the main series often did.

As usual the voice acting (Japanese) is of a high quality, with Nozawa's voice give adult Gohan a newfound maturity, and Takeshi Kusao plays Trunks well. As far as villains go, Artificial Humans #17 and #18 are brilliantly malicious and evil, treating humans as mere toys for their enjoyment. Being a TV Special, the animation is pretty much at the same standard set by the series, not bad in any sense, but far from groundbreaking.

In the end, the special definitely has a lot to offer, and fans of the series should definitely love it. There is plenty of intensity and emotion, and many memorable scenes. The special portrays Gohan in a new light, very different from his usual timid nature, which has seemed to annoy some fans. Despite being a TV special, it remains one of my favourite parts of the series, which is rare for material that hasn't come from Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. I'd call this one Toei Animation's greatest achievements in the Dragon Ball franchise.