Broly was created by Takao Koyama and was designed by series creator Akira Toriyama.[1] This film is the first of three titular films featuring the character, followed by Broly – Second Coming and Bio-Broly in 1994. The character also appeared in Dragon Ball Z: The Real 4-D at Super Tenkaichi Budokai, a cinematic attraction at Universal Studios Japan in 2017.
In 2018, a reboot film titled Dragon Ball Super: Broly was released and served as a retelling of Broly's origins and character arc, taking place after the conclusion of the Dragon Ball Super television series.
Plot
King Kai senses the destruction of the south galaxy by a Super Saiyan and realizes that the north galaxy will be targeted next. He telepathically contacts Goku who begins tracking the Super Saiyan's energy.
On Earth, a spaceship interrupts a picnic and army of humanoid alien soldiers greet Vegeta. Their leader is revealed to be a Saiyan named Paragus who claims that he has created a new Saiyan home planet called New Vegeta and wishes for Vegeta to assume throne. Vegeta agrees after Paragus tells him that the "Legendary Super Saiyan" is running rampant throughout the galaxy and must be stopped. Gohan, Future Trunks, Krillin, Master Roshi and Oolong accompany Vegeta onto the ship.
On New Vegeta, Vegeta meets Paragus' son, Broly, who joins him in tracking the Super Saiyan. Gohan, Trunks and Krillin explore New Vegeta and discover that it is uninhabited except for alien slaves who reveal that a Super Saiyan destroyed their civilization. The masters begin to abuse them, but are fended by Gohan and Krillin. Goku arrives and is greeted by Paragus, who invites them to dinner at the palace. Broly is agitated at the mere sight and presence of Goku, who later showed up unexpectedly. Paragus controls his son by using a device on his bracelet that syncs to Broly's headband. Despite this, Broly attacks Goku in the middle of the night, requiring Paragus to calm him. Goku suspects that Broly is the Super Saiyan and Paragus contemplates the mind-control device and suspects that it is malfunctioning due to Broly responding aggressively to Goku. Paragus theorizes that Broly's violent Saiyan instincts are awakening as a result of Goku's power, then remembers they were born on the same day in an attempt to explain their fated encounter after all these years.
Goku and the others confront Paragus upon learning the truth about Broly as his aggression toward Goku swells to the point of breaking free of the mind control device and he finally transforms into a rage filled destructive form - the Legendary Super Saiyan. Broly attacks Goku who is defended by Trunks and Gohan while a fearful Vegeta loses his will to fight. Paragus taunts Vegeta while revealing that Broly was born with a power level of 10,000 and was feared by King Vegeta who ordered Broly's execution. Paragus failed to persuade King Vegeta to spare Broly, who was pierced in the abdomen by a knife and left for dead with his father, while Frieza destroyed the planet that same day. Broly's survival instincts caused him to shield himself and Paragus and they soared off into space protected by Broly's power. Broly grew unstable and sadistic as he aged, and Paragus was forced to use a mind-control device to pacify his son, but planned to use him to exact his revenge on King Vegeta's bloodline, and convert the Earth into new Planet Vegeta. Paragus reveals that a comet is currently on approach toward New Vegeta, and will destroy it upon impact.
Goku, Gohan and Trunks are dominated by Broly until Piccolo arrives and heals them with Senzu beans. They engage Broly again, but continue to be severely outmatched. After being scolded by Piccolo, Vegeta's pride returns and he confronts Broly, but is quickly incapacitated. Paragus prepares to escape the doomed planet in a small space pod before he is confronted and killed by Broly. Despite Broly's power continuing to increase, Goku manages to challenge him yet again and he is mercilessly beaten as he asks his allies to lend him their energy. After much reluctance, Vegeta finally gives his energy to Goku who is able to use it to strike a piercing blow into Broly, causing the Legendary Super Saiyan's power to become unstable and he explodes.
Just as the comet strikes and destroys New Vegeta, Goku, his allies, and the slaves cheer as they manage to escape in Piccolo's spaceship.
The following songs were present in the Funimation dub of Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan:[3] The remaining pieces of background music were composed by Mark Menza.
Tendril - Eternal Sacrifice (Opening Theme of Film)
The Triple Feature release contains an alternate audio track containing the English dub with original Japanese background music by Shunsuke Kikuchi, an opening theme of "Cha-La Head-Cha-La", and an ending theme of "Burning Fight —A Close, Intense, Super-Fierce Battle—".
Box office
In Japan, the film sold 3.5 million tickets[4] and grossed ¥2.33 billion[5][6] ($21 million).[7]
On September 15 and 17, 2018, the film had a limited theatrical release by Fathom Events in the United States due to the upcoming release of Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018).[8] According to Box Office Mojo, as of September 19, 2018, it made a revenue of $658,982.[9] This adds up to a total gross of $21,658,982 in Japan and the United States.
Releases
In Japan, the home video release sold 40,000 units by 1996.[10]
It was released on DVD and VHS in North America on August 26, 2003. Plus, it was released it in a bundle along with Broly – Second Coming (1994) for Blu-ray on November 13, 2007, both feature full 1080p format in HDremastered16:9 aspect ratio and an enhanced 5.1 surround mix. It was later released in Triple Feature set with 2 Broly films and Bio-Broly (1994) for Blu-ray and DVD on March 31, 2009. The film was re-released to DVD in remastered thinpak collection on December 6, 2011, containing the second 4 Dragon Ball Z films.[11]
Notes
^Known in Japan as Dragon Ball Z: Burn!! Hot Battle - Fierce Battle - Super Fierce Battle (Japanese: ドラゴンボールZ 燃えつきろ!!熱戦・烈戦・超激戦, Hepburn: Doragon Bōru Zeddo Moetsukiro!! Nessen Ressen Chō-Gekisen) or by Toei's own English title Dragon Ball Z: The Burning Battles
References
^DRAGON BALL 大全集 6: MOVIES & TV SPECIALS (in Japanese). Shueisha. 1995. pp. 212–216. ISBN4-08-782756-9.
