Hogan Reviews

Time to kick off the “reviewing films/specials alongside a game after reviewing a chunk of the Z series” thing with the first movie… of fifteen, by my count (even if that last two are more well known as DB Super story arcs at this point…) which sounds crazy until you remember the first thirteen run under an hour and were just shown at summer festivals in Japan, rather than an actual big cinematic thing. Still though, they often offer fun mini-stories with good animation and some fun villains, so I’ve enjoyed them as the side-dish that they are. “Return my Gohan!”, or “Dead Zone” as it’s known in English speaking markets, is a fun one to start with as the characters are set at a pre-Z but post-Original DB state, making this rather unique. Let’s take a look!

So how these Z era movies work is that they take parts of the story that’s then-currently airing and re-do them but with new villains in place. In this film’s case its Raditz kidnapping Gohan leading to enemies Goku and Piccolo to have to team up to take him down. The film opens with Piccolo being taken out by mysterious foes and then similarly Gohan having to watch as his granddad Ox King (making a rare appearance!) and mother Chi Chi get taken out by the same odd warriors. They take Gohan with them because he has the four-star Dragon Ball on his hat and they’re collecting them, and when presenting the child to their leader, Garlic Jr., he senses Gohan’s great hidden power and decides to make him his underling instead. As Goku finds out what’s happened Garlic Jr.’s men find the rest of the Dragon Balls and Garlic makes his wish for immortality, so… no hanging around here, that’s the 45-minute runtime for you! After Gohan eats an alcoholic apple and dances around to the sound of a weird Japanese children’s song (yep…) Goku soon arrives.

This may be your only chance to see a drunk 4 year old hallucinating about riding on the back of a dragon…

As Goku prepares to take on his son’s kidnappers Kami arrives, who then fills Goku (and the viewers) in on the little bit of lore, that being that Garlic Jr.’s father, well, Garlic Sr. I guess, vied for the role of Earth’s guardian but when this Kami got the “job” instead he raised an army of demons to take the planet by force, only to be sealed away forever. With that out of the way Goku takes on all three of Garlic’s henchmen while Kami fights toe-to-toe with the man himself, once again showing us how closer in proximity this movie is to original DB, though I have to say that a scene where Garlic reveals he’s gained immortality almost immediately being followed by Kami trying to self-destruct himself to take Garlic out is among the most stupid things I’ve seen a character do, frankly. “What’s that? You can’t be killed? Well, I’ll kill you by killing myself!” … “Ummm?”

Krillin and later Piccolo arrive, and while Krillin gets literally pissed on by Gohan and then helps the kid escape Piccolo kills one henchman while Goku kills the other two, leading to the two of them confronting Garlic Jr. himself…

Garlic Jr. understandably laughs at Kami’s attempted suicide gambit, by which I mean just “suicide” because nothing else will clearly come from it!

I’ve always liked a weird gothic architecture and yellow/orange pallet the movie has, and honestly nearly all the Z films are visual treats animation-wise. I’ll also mention here that the first three films made up most of the original Saban Censored dub’s intro, giving something of a false impression for new viewers like myself (I just assumed that footage was from later story arcs…) This film skirts close to being able to fit into the timeline, it’s mainly Krillin meeting and knowing about Gohan before the Saiyan arc that mucks it up, making the Garlic Jr. filler arc in the Z anime all the more confusing…

Overall Thoughts:

Goku fights off some of Garlic’s men using the Nyoibo, because it’s still that close to the original Dragon Ball! (though it should really be back at the bottom of Kami’s Lookout, but hey-ho…)

“Dead Zone” is a lot of fun for a quick 45-minute burst of pre-Super Saiyan era Z action, but as with all these films don’t go into them expecting any real plot or obviously any character growth given their non-canon nature. Within the Z films though Garlic Jr. and his fellow condiment-named henchmen are good one-off villains and the look and action are good, making this one of the better efforts.

Goku and Piccolo’s combined strength prove too much for base Garlic Jr., so he transforms into a muscular body and gets the upper hand for a while, until once again getting beaten back. Rather than bide his time with his immortal body Garlic Jr. decides to open up a portal to “The Dead Zone”, an alternate dimension of Hellish proportions and tries to suck everyone into it.

Garlic Jr. initiates a plan that might rival Kami’s suicide attempt in short-sighted stupidity.

While everyone holds on for dear life Gohan wakes up and screams in fear and anger, causing a wave of Ki strong enough to knock Garlic. Jr into the portal, closing it shut behind him. Everyone soon leaves with Goku deciding not to say anything to Chi Chi about his son’s strength, while we see Garlic Jr. trapped in the Dead Zone, not able to die so just enduring torture forever… whoops! Bet you won’t make that mistake again, Garlic!