Hogan Reviews

Dragon Ball’s second theatrical feature sort of picks up from where the last one left off, in that the previous film adapted the first 13 or so episodes of the show / story arc of the manga and this one riffs on the next one, where Goku meets Krillin and they train under Master Roshi… well, then it sort of stops to tell a mostly original story, though adding in a few missed beats from the previous film and of course favourite side-character Lunch, who gets a much different introduction here! Let’s take a look…

The first little chunk of the film follows the start of the whole Master Roshi training story, from Goku arriving on the island catching Roshi watching ladies do exercises on TV to Krillin arriving by boat only to end up falling head-first into the sand. The key difference though is instead of giving instruction to only whoever brings an attractive women to live with him Roshi instead gives them the task of retrieving the “Sleeping Princess” in the infamous Devil’s Castle, with the one who manages the task getting teaching. On the way to the “Devil’s Hand” region (not a lot of subtly here…) Goku and Krillin try and impede each other’s journey but by the time they make it to the right place they start to work together, more due to Krillin’s cowardice than anything else. Meanwhile Bulma, Yamcha, Puar and Oolong arrive at Roshi’s to visit Goku only to find out about his current journey so head off in the same direction, while Lunch, currently in her crazy villain persona, hears of a massive jewel in Devil’s Castle and heads there as well.

Krillin sees a glimpse into his canon future and is thankful to be in a spin-off timeline.

Bulma’s craft is brought down by ogres and we’re soon introduced to the film’s lead antagonist: a fun Dracula parody called Lucifer, complete with classic parody of Igor the servant called… Igor. Lucifer tries to drain her blood using a cartoonishly over-the-top syringe but the ceremony is interrupted by both Yamcha and his shapeshifters as well as Goku and Krillin, who soon crash through the room themselves while battling a large red ogre called Ghastel. Goku and Krillin defeat it and find out that the Sleeping Princess is actually a massive jewel just in time for Lunch to appear on a motorcycle and drive off with it, at least until her hair tickles her nose causing her to sneeze and turn into her nice personality. At this point Yamcha and co. are captured by the ogre army while Goku is forced to give up the Sleeping Princess when Lucifer threatens Krillin’s life and gets a beating for his trouble (much to the distress of Krillin). Soon the entire cast is encased in a giant rock wall while Lucifer prepares to use the Sleeping Princess to focus the beams of his giant laser gun so he can destroy the sun, allowing him and his kind the ability to walk during all times of the day… or I guess plunge the Earth into eternal night, more accurately.

Ghastel is all over the promotional posters for the film but barely makes a mark in the actual story… What’s that? Who cares?! …. Good point.

It’s a fun light-hearted little plot, again taking bits of the manga but adding new elements around it, though this time there’s more new elements than returning ones but still keeps the early Dragon Ball humour at the forefront.

Overall Thoughts:

Where’s Lucifer’s fighting game appearances?! …. Oh yeah, right.

Sleeping Princess in Devil’s Castle is another fun story, one with more original elements than the previous one (and the next two, to be fair) though much like the last one there isn’t much in the way of a final battle, which is a shame because Lucifer is more hands-on than the overweight antagonist seen in Blood Rubies. Still though, at just 40 minutes it’s a fun little distraction I just didn’t enjoy it as much as the previous one, probably because it showed a bit more promise before giving me a similar finale.

Goku looks up at the full moon and turns into an Oozaru, breaking the rock wall and freeing everyone but also then chasing them in a crazed rage until Puar cuts his tail by changing into a giant part of scissors. Goku shrugs off the whole no tail thing and puts on Oolong overalls, so basically adapting the final piece of the first story arc the previous film missed off (I knew I remembered it somewhere!)

Always fun to see the Oozaru transformation, especially given how important it ends up being in an arc far, far from here… (and then stops being relevant again.)

Just as Lucifer is preparing to enact his evil scheme Goku and Krillin arrive to stop him while Yamcha kills Igor and frees Bulma. Goku Kamehameha’s the laser canon causing it to fall onto Lucifer and causing the whole castle to collapse, everyone just making it out in time. Everyone goes their own ways with Goku and Krillin taking Lunch back to Master Roshi and pleasing the master enough to take both on as students, just in time for her to sneeze and become psychopathic again… Classic.