Hey there folks!
And welcome back for another year,
Of DBcember!
I'm KaiserNeko!
I'm Lanipator.
And I'm Takahata101
We hope you're ready for another December, dedicated entirely to Dragonball.
Like last year, we'll be counting down every day until Christmas
and this year, it'll be the top twenty-four movies and specials!
And at the very end on Christmas day, you'll get a special premier on TeamfourStar.com
that will go up a couple days later on YouTube.
Honestly, it's thanks to the release of Resurection "F"
Availablenowonblu-ray&dvdrightnow,Imeanit.
That we uhh...even have twenty four movies and specials to choose from.
Wait, so doesn't that mean less "top 24" and more "worst to best"?
Nope! Because it actually still edged out the GT special.
Which again means...
No GT!
We're so mean...
The criteria for where these are placed on the list isn't exactly "airtight",
but the primary qualities we're looking for are how close the characters feel to the portrayal in the manga,
the way the movies and specials expand on the universe,
and the uniqueness of the stories within them.
Not to mention overall production quality,
some of these have decent stories, and feel uniquely "Dragonball",
but are marred by lackluster animation and direction.
On the flipside, some of the plots might be lacking or retreading old stories,
but they look so striking and iconic that they help make up for it.
Lastly, there's how much we enjoyed these movies overall, witch plays a BIG factor.
Before we jump into this, a quick reminder:
These lists are entirely subjective,
if you take issue with the placement of any of these movies,
feel free to let us know exactly how you feel in the comments below,
but we kindly,
Politely,
Civilly,
Ask that you do it In a kind, polite, and civil manner.
Or just call us a bunch of
Co!@#$#$^Fu(*&Nut^%$at%^#idiots
It's whatever.
And with that, let's get started!
With our top twenty-four...
Movies and Specials.
HA! You thought it was gonna be Bio-Brolly!
Nope! This is Episode of Bardock
What?! My man Bardock is down on the bottom?
Taka, buddy this isn't your man Bardock, in fact, far from it.
Yeah, while some people might argue the qualities of this special in terms of it's crisp, modern animation,
the story it has to tell is completely nonsensical first, and an utter gutting of Bardock's character second.
See in this special we start with Bardock being defeated by Freeza, just like at the end of his previous special.
They also add in terribly forced foreshadowing about how Freeza took action largely because he fears the
legendary Super-Saiyan.
But how is that foreshadowing? Bardock doesn't actually go Super-Saiyan in this, he dies to the death ball.
But in fact he does not! Die, I mean... he totally goes Super-Saiyan.
See, the death ball sends him reeling back in time to the era before Saiyans even inhabited planet Vegeta.
And then he is pitted against the evil ancestor of Freeza,
Lord...Chilled...
What follows is a complete alteration in character for Bardock that basically just exists to help service the plot
He starts off as an abrasive warrior we knew from his previous special,
Just long enough for him to build a connection with the natives so as to give him extra incentive to become the
LEGENDARY SUPRER Saiyuh...god this is freakin' dumb!
This list is meant to be a celebration of Dragonball,
and Episode of Bardock is a complete failure of everything Dragonball stands for,
taking Bardock and imbuing him with a sense of grandeur and importance that only serves to make him
less profound.
Hay, Hey, hey! and to sell trading cards and video games!
It's a cheap cash-grab, a derailment of an iconic character, and ultimately serves to
hurt the overall story more than help.
But here's the REAL question,
Is it better than Dragonball Minus?
Dammit Toriyama...
Jeez, I almost forgot this thing existed! I'm surprised it's not dead last.
Well it definitely tries, this special based of an old choose-your-own-adventure game for the Playdia,
witch was based off an even older game for the Famicom...
Is about an evil Tuffle scientist who has created an unstoppable killing machine
in order to gain revenge for his race, felled by the Saiyans.
That sounds...oddly...familiar...
NO GT!
What unfolds is a short adventure involving the return of four previous villains,
Freeza, Cooler, Turles, and Lord Slug.
In order to subdue the main cast before they can make it to stop Dr. Raichi's evil destron gas emitters,
Destroying the earth!...oh god!...
This whole special was essentially created to help push the Playdia system back in the day,
It's by no means heinous, but there's no substance to it.
The idea of these ghost warriors is completely shallow and everything about the plot sounds top to bottom,
like fan fiction.
Especially when you consider the villains brought back are from movies 3 through 5,
with Freeza thrown in due to him being the most recent from the series.
It's just... not a good story and ultimately adds nothing to the series,
although I still personally kind of enjoy it...
Not to even get started on the original Playdia version, witch is an even longer, more sordid mess witch stems
from the fact that it was a choose-your-own-adventure game made into an OVA.
It's nothing but fan winkery with some decently animated fight scenes
The best part about it is it's original villain Dr. Raichi, but Hatchiyack is a boring muscle head...
Kinda like...uh...
We'll get to him.
all in all, it's a forgettable reunion of villains that amounts to nothing
Yeah but, after this we've got no where to go but up!
Oh...
Ha! You expected Bio-Broly to come first...
Shame on you.
But no, seriously, this is worse. This is ACTUALLY worse.
We'll get into how and why Bio-Broly is actually a better movie when we get to it, but for now,
Let's talk about THIS movie. So Broly's space pod,
don't ask how or when he got in there, lands on earth and he ends up frozen.
Goten and Trunks, teamed with VIDEL, find him while searching for Dragonballs
which is something that happens a lot in these movies.
Also there's some completely useless subplot about a mountain village sacrificing virgin maidens to dinosaurs.
We get a bunch of actually well animated, but poorly paced fighting where Broly somehow manages not to kill
Goten, Trunks, or VIDEL and then Gohan shows up and the real fight begins.
Besides that the fact that the plot of the movie is utterly irrelevant, Broly is just pointless here.
He does nothing but grunt, scream,
and mutter-shout the name of the character who only gets thirty seconds of screen time in this movie.
It just feels like a total waste. Nothing is interesting, new, or fresh.
It's INEXCUSABLE sin is being boring, it's only saving grace is that imagery of the family Kamehameha.
But that's infuriating in its own right, there's just so little redeeming about this movie as so little actual effort
went into it beyond making it visually appealing
Which is why the next movie actually somehow found it's way above this.
Alright folks, here it is.
In all it's mutant, sludge-covered glory.
The points in favor of this movie are the inclusion of Mr. Satan and Android 18, two characters that are primed
for fantastic on screen hi-jinks and action respectively.
Unfortunately, while their inclusion is a huge plot point, they fall off pretty quickly.
See, the film is about THIS asshole right here trying to create "bio-warriors",
but requires the world's strongest man to test their might!
Wait I'm sorry, I just heard "bio-warriors" and "World's Strongest".
Da da ta! So of course, they mistakenly assume that Mr. Satan "the savior against Cell" is the perfect candidate
There's also a hilarious subplot about Android 18 shaking down Mr. Satan for the money he owes her,
which ties her into the meat of things.
Yeah and honestly, while the plot feels devoid of actual threat and urgency, It's not all that painful at the start
and offers some neat character interactions that the previous movies actually really missed out on,
BUT THEN BROLY SHOWS UP AND F#$% IT ALL TO HELL!
Goddammit!
That's right, One of the bio-warriors is Broly! Who's DNA was stolen by the guy who,
in a convenient thread to actually tie the movies together, was in "Second Coming".
And what does buck-neked-Broly do the moment he breaks out of his test tube?
He get's covered in a thick, toxic sludge that makes him look like Swamp-Thing f#$%ed a Muk.
Also, Goten and Trunks are there!
Goddammit!
Noticing a trend?
This movie isn't quite as heinously boring as the others,
but it's also just too obnoxious and childish to be considered enjoyable,
despite the fact that the production values were pretty damn high here.
So for all you Bio-Broly haters out there, your hate is justified, but it's not the worst of the movies.
Wow, can't wait till' we can stop having that be a POSITIVE...
Dude, this movie's boring as hell, how is it this high on the list?
Yeah, we had a lot of trouble finding a place to put this movie as a lot of people have many fond memories of it,
It's got a lot of classic Dragonball feel to it.
Unfortunately, it has trouble overcoming some serious issues on the production value side.
It's horror aesthetic is absolutely dreary, the film overall is poorly paced, the animation is incredibly up and down,
and the storyline, while very original in comparison to the rest of the entries on this list, just isn't captivating.
See, Bulma gets kidnapped by a vampiric lord named Lucifer,
who leads an army of poorly drawn and animated daemons,
Krillin and Goku show up to find the "Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle",
so they can bring her back to Master Roshi, so he'll train them.
Unfortunately, this interrupts Lucifer's plans of...
USING HIS DEVIL-CASTLE-CANNON TO BLOW UP THE SUN!
That last part sounds kind of cool.
I assure you it's not...
While we'll give it credit for trying to do something new with the material this being their second movie and all,
The visuals of this movie are just too rough around the edges and dreary for our tastes,
Despite it's numerous chuckle-worthy gags that do feel like it's ripped right from the manga.
I love the original Dragonball to DEATH...but yeah I have to agree, I found myself wanting here in a big way,
That both "Curse of the Blood Rubies" and "Mystical Adventure" delivered on, at least for me.
It's funny, quirky, and imaginative, but in the end it's a lot like a vampire wearing sunglasses:
humorous, but overall ineffective.
F#$% THIS MOVIE!
Yes Kaiser we know, this is DEFINATELY one of the uglier movies on the list.
The movie starts off with the enslavement of New Namek...
Man, they cannot just catch a break can they?
It seems that Cooler has returned from his previous instalment,
and he's acquired a new metal body with the help of the hilariously named "Big Gete Star".
Between allowing him to recuperate from an injury as well as duplicate himself en masse,
he's also in control of the giant Unicron-esqe planet eater.
He even has a robot army at his command that are quite formidable to the characters.
That is until they figure that they can beat them by just... hitting them really hard...
But honestly while the movie is a tad on the ugly side,
there are plenty of really interesting artistic choices made that help the movie stand out.
Meta-Cooler's design is pretty sleek, and the movie is rife with homages to better sci-fi films.
It's also the first time we see Vegeta and Goku team up, that being said,
It's still basically a rehash of Freeza despite it's somewhat unique premise.
That and the way they defeat Cooler while different, doesn't quite make that much sense.
It's also got more than it's fair share of plot holes,
then again these movies are literally walking plot holes to begin with so...
Definitely still give it a watch if you're a Dragonball fan, if not just to see Vegeta getting kicked in the dick.