Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone

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Dragon Ball Z the Movie: Dead Zone
Japanese poster art
Japanese	ドラゴンボールZ (original title) ドラゴンボールZ オラの悟飯をかえせッ!!
Hepburn	Doragon Bōru Zetto (original title) Doragon Bōru Zetto Ora no Gohan o Kaese!!
Directed by	Daisuke Nishio
Screenplay by	Takao Koyama
Based on	Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama
Starring	see below
Cinematography	Motoaki Ikegami
Edited by	Shinichi Fukumitsu
Music by	Shunsuke Kikuchi
Production company	Toei Animation
Distributed by	Toei Company
Release date	July 15, 1989 (1989-07-15) (Japan)
Running time	42 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Box office	¥2 billion (est.)

Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone, originally released theatrically in Japan as simply Dragon Ball Z and later as Dragon Ball Z: Return My Gohan!! (Japanese: ドラゴンボールZ オラの悟飯をかえせッ!!, Hepburn: Doragon Bōru Zetto Ora no Gohan o Kaese!!) for its Japanese VHS and Laserdisc release, is a 1989 Japanese anime fantasy martial arts film, the fourth installment in the Dragon Ball film series, and the first under the Dragon Ball Z moniker. It was originally released in Japan on July 15 at the "Toei Manga Matsuri" film festival along with the 1989 film version of Himitsu no Akko-chan, the first Akuma-kun movie, and the film version of Kidou Keiji Jiban.

Despite continuity inconsistencies, Dead Zone acts as a prelude to the Dragon Ball Z television series and is the only film to get a follow-up within the series, that being the Garlic Jr. arc which takes place between the main Frieza and Cell arcs. The canonicity of this arc is debated as it does not appear in the original manga and is largely considered to be filler.

Plot[]

Following his defeat by Goku at the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, Piccolo trains alone when he is caught in an ambush by a group of mysterious warriors. Chi-Chi along with her father and son, Gohan, are attacked by the same group while Goku is away fishing. He senses the danger his family faces and returns to find that his son has been abducted.

The impish Garlic Jr. is responsible and commenced the attack in order for him to retrieve the four-star Dragon Ball that was attached to Gohan's hat. Garlic Jr. senses an immense power within Gohan, and decides to make him his pupil rather than kill him. After gathering the remaining six magical Dragon Balls, Garlic Jr. summons the eternal dragon Shenron and he wishes for immortality. Goku prepares to rescue his son when Kami, Earth's guardian, arrives and explains that centuries prior, he and Garlic Jr.'s father, Garlic, competed for the position of Guardian of the Earth and Kami was victorious. In revenge, Garlic unleashed a demonic horde onto the Earth until Kami defeated him and ended the invasion. Goku proceeds to search for Gohan when he is attacked by the villain's henchmen while Kami faces Garlic Jr.

Krillin and Piccolo arrive with the latter defeating henchman Sansho while Goku manages to defeat the other two henchmen, Ginger and Nicky. Meanwhile, Kami is bested by Garlic Jr. until Goku and Piccolo rescue him. With Garlic Jr.'s newly obtained immortality and a new, muscular form, the rivals Goku and Piccolo are forced to work together and are able to eventually defeat him. Still possessing disdain for one another and mistakenly believing Garlic Jr. to be dead, Goku and Piccolo prepare to fight when Garlic Jr. opens up a portal into another dimension; a void of darkness known as the Dead Zone. Gohan becomes enraged as he witnesses his father and friends in danger and releases his latent power, hurdling Garlic Jr. into his own vortex to be trapped for all eternity. Unable to recall the events, Gohan believes that his father defeated Garlic Jr. while Goku realizes his son has amazing hidden potential. Piccolo vows to defeat Goku while watching him and his friends depart.

Cast[]

A fourth English dub released in Malaysia by Speedy Video features an unknown cast.

Notes[]

^* Furukawa's voice from the original Japanese version is retained in the AB Groupe dub at the beginning of this film, when Piccolo screams and destroys a large rock formation.

^** In the Funimation English dub's credits, Christopher R. Sabat is miscredited as playing the Ox King, a mistake carried over into the Funimation dub of The World's Strongest.

Music[]

• OP (Opening Theme):
  • "Cha-La Head-Cha-La"
    • Lyrics by Yukinojō Mori
    • Music by Chiho Kiyooka
    • Arranged by Kenji Yamamoto
    • Performed by Hironobu Kageyama
• IN (Insert Song):
  • Tenka'ichi Gohan (天下一ゴハン, "The World's Greatest Gohan")
    • Lyrics by Sakiko Iwamuro
    • Music by  ^[ja]
    • Arranged by Kenji Yamamoto
    • Performed by Masako Nozawa
• ED (Ending Theme):
  • Detekoi Tobikiri Zenkai Pawā! (でてこいとびきりZENKAIパワー!, "Come Out, Incredible Zenkai Power!")
    • Lyrics by Naruhisa Arakawa
    • Music by  ^[ja]
    • Arranged by Kenji Yamamoto
    • Performed by Manna

English dub soundtracks[]

The 1997 Pioneer release kept the original Japanese music.

The score for the 2005 English dub's composed by Mark Menza. The Double Feature release contains an alternate audio track containing the English dub with original Japanese background music by Shunsuke Kikuchi and an ending theme of Detekoi Tobikiri Zenkai Pawā!.

Reception[]

Box office[]

At the Japanese box office, the film sold 2.2 million tickets and earned a net distribution rental income of ¥800 million,^[2][3] equivalent to estimated gross receipts of approximately ¥2 billion^[4] ($14 million).^[5]

Releases[]

The film was licensed in North America by Funimation and the home video rights were sub-licensed to Pioneer Home Entertainment. Pioneer's dub used the same voice cast as the TV series did at the time, and was dubbed by Ocean Productions. They released the film as Dead Zone, and later retitled it Dead Zone Vortex for its television airings. As a bonus feature on the Pioneer DVD, deleted scenes from the original episodes 1 and 9 are shown in Japanese with English subtitles, as these two episodes were yet to be dubbed in full at the time. In North America, Pioneer's dub was released on VHS, LaserDisc and DVD on December 17, 1997.^[6] Since then, Funimation released the edited movie dub of Rock the Dragon Edition set with Ocean dub on DVD on August 13, 2013, it has 53 edited episodes of the TV series, plus two edited movies of The World's Strongest and The Tree of Might as they aired on Toonami.

Once their sub-license expired, Funimation released the movie to DVD in "Ultimate Uncut Edition" on May 31, 2005, with a completely new dub done by Funimation's voice cast.^[7] There's also re-released the movie on November 14, 2006 as part of a movie set subtitled "First Strike", also containing The World's Strongest (1990) and The Tree of Might (1990). It was later released in Double Feature set along with The World's Strongest (1990) for Blu-ray and DVD on May 27, 2008, both feature full 1080p format in HD remastered 16:9 aspect ratio and an enhanced 5.1 surround mix. The film was re-released to DVD in remastered thinpak collection on November 1, 2011, containing the first 5 Dragon Ball Z Movies.^[8]

AB Groupe, a French company that holds the license to the Dragon Ball franchise in most of Europe, licensed and dubbed the movie, which they re-titled In Pursuit of Garlic.^[9] This dub featured a voice cast that was unknown for years, but it is now believed that English-speaking voice actors in France were involved with this dub.^[10] In Pursuit of Garlic aired on TV in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, and was sold on DVD in the Netherlands by Bridge Entertainment Group. Speedy Video, a Malaysian-based company, released the film on Video CD, here subtitled The Vengeance of the Demon King. Speedy also released the Pioneer English adaptation on VCD. Both the AB Groupe and Speedy dubs are notoriously known for inaccurate translations (e.g. Piccolo was called "Big Green" in the AB Groupe dub) and dialogue that did not fit the mouth flaps.^{[citation needed]}

References[]

External links[]

• Official anime website of Toei Animation
• Dead Zone at IMDb
• Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia