Dragon Ball (All Series)

[Spark Of Spirit]

I can't imagine Funimation hasn't approached them already. There must be some sort of loophole or unexplained issue at play.

[LumRanmaYasha]

FUNi still has two simulcasts left to reveal, so I wouldn't count it out yet. There's probably some contractual things they are still working out before they can start streaming it. This isn't the first time a simulcast was announced late or didn't begin on the same day as a series' premiere.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I re-watched Battle of Gods on DVD recently and got to watch the whole English dub. Personally I prefer it dubbed as the humor works a lot better in this version, IMO.

At any rate, this is a good fan-service movie. Which is to say that on its own, it'd make for a poor stand-alone piece, but as a tribute to fans, it just has so much crammed into it for you to appreciate. From what I've seen of released footage of ROF, that seems to be pretty much the same deal.

I just hope that Super could somehow manage to capture the entertainment value of a full story arc in its later episodes. Dragon Ball was more than just good humor and gags. It was comedy combined with memorable adventure story-lines.

[gunswordfist]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adybnxTLbf4

[Lord Dalek]

[Spark Of Spirit]

Are you serious? 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'll be seeing this movie tomorrow after all, at 7:00 PM. I'll try my best to get a review up by the next day, but if I don't, you don't need to wait for me if you want to post an official review up on the blog, CX. More than likely I'll just summarize my brief thoughts on the movie.

From what I've heard, though, it's about on par with Battle of Gods, seeing as how people either say that they liked it a bit better or a bit less, but still enjoyed it, and the people who complain about it being lackluster or boring also seem to note that they didn't care for BOG either.

Personally, nostalgia aside, BOG was an OK movie, so I expect to feel roughly the same about this one, which is to say that it should be entertaining for me as a hardcore DB fan, but probably nothing too memorable in its own right.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Heh, the showtime I'm going to is at 7pm as well.  I'll pm you after I get back to check if you still plan to review it or not.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Did you buy your ticket through Fathom Events as well?

Anyways, I think that I will do a review after all. After finally coming to the realization that I'll be seeing a Dragon Ball Z movie in theaters for the very first time (I didn't go to see BOG in theaters), I'm suddenly super excited for it. Even if the movie itself is only decent, it'll probably feel like a huge deal to me just being in the same auditorium as other hardcore DBZ fans watching a brand new DBZ production on the big screen.

To hell with my work. I can afford to give myself a little bit of time to enjoy something like this. That said, I might not have a review up until tomorrow morning since I need to go to a local place with Wi-Fi in order to upload it. In such a case, you can feel free to not wait for me and PM your review to Foggle like you normally do in order to have it uploaded onto the blog.

[Spark Of Spirit]

It wouldn't hurt to have all three of you review it. The more opinions, the better.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Also, let's all be a bit weary of spoilers for these reviews. Obviously we should be able to refer to certain scenes from the film,  but not their overall context within the film, or any big moments or surprises that might happen closer to the end.

[LumRanmaYasha]

The experience of seeing an anime film with other anime fans is a great one. It was a large part of the fun in seeing BOG on the big screen last year, as well as when I saw the second T&B movie and Madoka Magica 3.

I wouldn't have a review ready tonight anyway, and I still have to finish writing this week's After the Jump as it is. I'll decide to write one depending on how fast I can finish that and whether or not I have a different perspective than yours.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

And I literally just got done watching the movie. I'm using a cell-phone hear so I'll keep my thoughts brief and post up my full review tomorrow.

First of all, though, I just want to say that it was really fun to watch an anime film in theaters, which I honestly haven't done since the Digimon movie (which shouldn't even count). The auditorium was pretty big and about three-quarters full by my estimation, which surprised me because I wasn't sure that there would be that many fans in one area.

Anyways, as for the movie itself, here are my spoiler-free thoughts on it:

I really genuinely enjoyed watching it. Now, keep in mind that I viewed this as a DB fan, not as a critic. Also, expectations are everything. This movie was written by Toriyama to be a light-hearted follow-up to Freeza's story-line from the original series, and the opening scene perfectly sets the tone for this movie. It has a great sense of humor combined with some really well-animated action (the CG was just as bad as in BOG, though, but thankfully not too prevalent).

I really liked seeing the supporting cast get some chance to shine, especially Krillin and Master Roshi, the latter of which the audience that I was with went nuts over when he took down a cluster of Freeza's minions (it was really cool to see him get a bad-ass moment for the first time in decades). There were also a number of slapstick gags that felt right out of classic Dragon Ball, including one scene where Piccolo casually tossed his weighted clothing at some soldiers and all of them collapsed under its weight, which had me laughing.

Additionally, I was really surprised by how much I liked Jaco. His spin-off comic was entertaining, but seeing him interact with the DB cast was really entertaining for me. I also like how they limited the cast, here, and focused on a smaller group of characters as opposed to shoehorning everyone in.

The star of the movie was really Freeza, though. I loved Chris Ayres reprising his role, and I still loved him as a villain. His minions, Sorbet and Tagoma, were pretty forgettable, though.

Having said all of that, this is still a far cry from a perfect movie. It has many of the same problems as BOG (though I liked this one a bit better, personally), and I'll get more into those in my full review, but while I loved the furthering of Goku and Vegeta's rivalry, I don't like how they seemed to learn nothing from the events of BOG in terms of hubris. I also did not like the ending of the film. It came out of nowhere and felt too rushed and too abrupt. I have numerous other issues, but lets just say that if I were to view this movie as a critic, my enjoyment of it would be greatly hampered.

Having said that, as a DBZ fan I still really ended up liking what I got, and I also love how this movie added to the series' lore, especially with Freeza being aware of Beerus and Whis (though, sadly, neither of them had much importance in this film outside of one scene that I won't spoil).

If you're a DBZ fan and liked BOG, I think that you'll have fun with this movie. This isn't as good as the actual Namek arc, obviously, nor is it a Ghibli or Chizu film in terms of quality, but as something for a niche fanbase, it's a really good time, IMO.

[LumRanmaYasha]

My specific thoughts don't seem too dissimilar from yours, but I really LOVED the movie. Toriyama said this was going to be gut-bustingly hilarious, and boy howdy, was it ever. The entire audience I was with was howling with laughter from beginning to end. Chris Ayres nailed Freeza in this film and every scene and bit of dialogue from him was just perfect. And I really did love seeing the supporting characters get a awesome fight scene all to themselves, especially Master Roshi, which especially made me happy since he hasn't had a chance to show his stuff since the King Piccolo arc (not counting filler/non-canon anime movies). Jaco was also a friggin' great addition to the cast and I hope that he gets to have more appearances in future DB movies/Super, if not have his manga adapted into a film itself. Sure, there wasn't much plot to the film, nor was there really any tension whatsoever to the fights with Freeza, but it gave me exactly what I was expecting from it - a light-hearted, fun comedic DB movie, and on that it delivered. That said, if they make more DBZ movies I'd rather them evolve the series more by having Goku and Vegeta fight opponents that actually challenge them and make them work as a team (the big lesson they intentionally don't learn at the end of this movie), but I would LOVE to see some new Dr. Slump movies helmed by Toriyama, because if nothing else, this movie showed that he still has the chops for great comedy.

I may or may not write a complementary review to E-K's if I have a different perspective to add, but I'm not sure if that'll be necessary. In any case, finishing this week's After the Jump and trying to resume Monthly Manga Roundups takes more priority for me, and I have much more important work that I still need to get done this week, so I'll only do one if there's something I really feel that's worth adding/discussing.

BTW, E-K, did your showing have that ridiculous Pre-Show from FUNimation at the beginning? Everyone in my theater was chuckling at how dumb the Q&A part of it was. 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I did really like the movie a lot, CX. Don't get the wrong idea.

I was simply stating that as a critic, the movie has problems. As a DBZ movie, it's total fan-service and a lot of fun, and as a fan I loved watching it as well. Think of it sort of like how I like The Avengers movies as an MCU fan, but admit that they aren't so great for non-fans, if that makes any sense.

But yes, I agree, I loved the humor, and unlike BOG this felt more natural and less forced, much like classic Toriyama humor, IMO. You can really tell that he personally wrote the script himself.

As for the pre-show, we actually didn't get that for whatever reason. Or maybe something happened while I went to the bathroom before the show officially started, but I doubt it.

But I was wondering what scenes got the largest reactions (pops, laughs, cheers, etc.) from the audience in your theater. Some that come to mind other than Master Roshi are Krillin's whole traffic officer shenanigans, Vegeta's comment on Goku basically being an idiot, the one million Zeni wish in the beginning, and of course both the opening scene and post-credits scene in "Hell." There were other moments as well, but those ones really got some big reactions in my theater.