Dragon Ball Z: L'invasione di Neo Namecc

Next up for Anime Month we're starting to look at the "Dragonball Z" movies. There might not have been as many of them as the "Pokémon" movies, but still a lot. This movie features the return of the villain from the previous movie, Cooler. It's great to see a villain with relatively large importance to the mythology make a return. I really do like his new appearance, given how shiny he is. I do wonder why he didn't model his robots after his most powerful form. Was that supposed to be his third form out of four? I guess he just chose the one he was the most well known for.

It's actually kind of a pity, because his final form was the coolest (hey, I made a joke!). This features Vegeta making his first movie appearance. I admit it doesn't make sense how Vegeta got there in the first place, but he's as awesome as ever. I found out how to pronounce Yajirobe's name! This is what I get for reading the manga first. I do love that little robot that talks about how everyone's going to die. We get some fairly good action in with a lot of the side characters too. It is however hard for me to love this given how short it is, but it still got its message across. ***

The original Japanese version of this movie was good. But with the new music, the dub is actually better in my opinion. The movie is pretty good with some top-notch animation for it's day. Goku and Vegeta make their first appearance TOGETHER in a movie and it's pretty cool. The storyline is somewhat different than most other Z movies. But it's still only alright, it's not a GREAT DBZ movie.

Cooler can't help but get compared to his more successful series brother. He isn't helping matters by doing a lot of the same stuff Frieza has already done. Starting with the negative, the explanation of how Cooler survived the events of the previous movie makes no sense. The explanation for the ending of this movie makes very little sense.

On the positive side, one of the best attributes Dragon Ball has had as a franchise is its characters, and this movie brings out a lot of them to play. It is strange to think that it takes 6 movies into the DBZ franchise before Vegeta finally shows up. Goku and Vegeta having to work together to fight off Cooler is the big selling point of the movie.

Sadly, the other "Z-Fighters" don't have much to do outside of fight faceless drones and maybe get captured. New Namek is a unique location for the movies, but there is little they can do there to make the fights interesting.

Another middle of the road review, for a middle of the road movie.

I loved this DBZ movie! It has hard hitting fast paced fighting and has a simple storyline. The animation is great. Kooler is back and a whole lot tougher than before in his new cyborg body. I love the way Metal Kooler is shiny all the time. The Japanese dialogue is also good. I just love Gokuh's voice. It also has Piccolo kicking some serious butt! Big DBZ or any anime fan will love this movie. If you are able to find the subtitled version of this movie, then I highly recommend that you get it!! I give it a 10 out of 10.

It's full of fantastic action with some very unique ideas and twists. Fight choreography is wonderful. I guess the only problem is that the final fight is underwhelming, but other than that this film is truly awesome.