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Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone
Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone
	Poster art
Japanese name
Kana	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!!
Revised Hepburn
Transcriptions
Revised 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 (Japan);
Running time	42 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Box office	¥1.36 billion (est.)

Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone^[a] 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 film, and the film version of Kidou Keiji Jiban. It was preceded by Dragon Ball: Mystical Adventure and followed by Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest.

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 Frieza and Android arcs. The canonicity of this arc is debated as it does not appear in the original manga.

Plot

Almost five years later after following his defeat by Goku at the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, Piccolo Jr. trains alone when he is caught in an ambush by a group of mysterious warriors. Chi-Chi, along with her father Ox King and son, Son Gohan, are attacked by the same group while her husband 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 for the attack so that he could 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 while Garlic Jr. tries to find way to escape desesperate from the Dead Zone.

Cast

Character name	Voice actor
	Japanese	English
	Japanese	Pioneer/Funimation/Ocean Studios (1997)	Chinkel Post-Production/AB Groupe (c. 2003)^[1]	Funimation (2005)
Goku	Masako Nozawa	Peter Kelamis	David Gasman	Sean Schemmel
Gohan	Masako Nozawa	Saffron Henderson	Jodi Forrest	Stephanie Nadolny
Piccolo	Toshio Furukawa	Scott McNeil	Big Green	Christopher Sabat
Piccolo	Toshio Furukawa	Scott McNeil	David Gasman^*
Kami	Takeshi Aono	Ward Perry	(Green) God
Kami	Takeshi Aono	Ward Perry	Ed Marcus
Kuririn	Mayumi Tanaka	Krillin	Clearin	Krillin
Kuririn	Mayumi Tanaka	Terry Klassen	Sharon Mann	Sonny Strait
Garlic Jr. (ガーリックJr., Gārikku Junia)	Akira Kamiya	Don Brown	Doug Rand	Chuck Huber
Ginger (ジンジャー, Jinjā)	Kōji Totani	Terry Klassen	Ed Marcus (some lines) David Gasman	Troy Baker
Nicky (ニッキー, Nikkī)	Shigeru Chiba	Paul Dobson	Ed Marcus	Doug Burks
Sansho (サンショ)	Yukitoshi Hori	Ward Perry	Doug Rand David Gasman (one line) Ed Marcus (one line)	Eric Dillow
Ox King	Daisuke Gōri	Dave Ward	David Gasman	Kyle Hebert^**
Chi-Chi	Mayumi Shō	Lisa Ann Beley	Sharon Mann	Cynthia Cranz
Shenlong	Kenji Utsumi	Shenron	Sacred Dragon	Shenron
Shenlong	Kenji Utsumi	Don Brown	Ed Marcus	Christopher Sabat
Bulma	Hiromi Tsuru	Lalainia Lindbjerg	Bloomer	Tiffany Vollmer
Bulma	Hiromi Tsuru	Lalainia Lindbjerg	Sharon Mann	Tiffany Vollmer
Kame-Sen'nin	Kōhei Miyauchi	Master Roshi	Ed Marcus	Master Roshi
Kame-Sen'nin	Kōhei Miyauchi	Don Brown	Ed Marcus	Mike McFarland
Narrator	Jōji Yanami	Doc Harris	—	Kyle Hebert

^* Toshio 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 Funimation's English credits, Christopher Sabat is miscredited as playing the Ox King, a mistake carried over to the 2006 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):
- "The World's Greatest Gohan" (天下一ゴハン, Tenka'ichi Gohan)
  - Lyrics by Sakiko Iwamuro
  - Music by Takeshi Ike^[ja]
  - Arranged by Kenji Yamamoto
  - Performed by Masako Nozawa
ED (Ending Theme):
- "Come Out, Incredible Zenkai Power!" (でてこいとびきりZENKAIパワー!, Detekoi Tobikiri Zenkai Pawā!)
  - Lyrics by Naruhisa Arakawa
  - Music by Takeshi Ike^[ja]
  - Arranged by Kenji Yamamoto
  - Performed by Manna

English dub soundtracks

The 1997 Pioneer release kept the original Japanese music.

There is a discrepancy that states the 2005 English dub score was composed by Mark Menza, which it was not. It was composed by Nathan Johnson. The Double Feature release that came out 3 years later in 2008 contains an alternate audio track containing the English dub with original Japanese background music by Shunsuke Kikuchi and an ending theme of "Come Out, Incredible Zenkai Power!".

Box office

At the Japanese box office, the film sold 2.2 million tickets and earned a net distribution rental income of ¥800 million.

International releases

North America

The film was licensed in North America by Funimation Entertainment and the home video rights were sub-licensed to Pioneer Entertainment. Pioneer was released on VHS, LaserDisc, and DVD on December 17, 1997. They 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. As a 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.^[2] Later, on August 13, 2013, Funimation released the Rock the Dragon Edition DVD set, which contained an edited version of the Ocean dub of this film, as well as The World's Strongest and The Tree of Might, as they aired on Toonami, along with the 53 edited episodes of the TV series.

Once their sub-license expired, Funimation released the film on DVD in the "Ultimate Uncut Edition" on May 31, 2005, with a completely new dub done by Funimation's voice cast and a feature film audio commentary.^[3] They also re-released the film on November 14, 2006, as part of a DVD set subtitled "First Strike", also containing The World's Strongest and The Tree of Might. It was later released in a double feature set along with The World's Strongest on Blu-ray and DVD on May 27, 2008, both featuring full 1080p format in HD remastered 16:9 aspect ratio and an enhanced 5.1 surround mix. The film was re-released on DVD in remastered thinpak collection on November 1, 2011, containing the first five Dragon Ball Z films.^[4]

Europe and Malaysia

AB Groupe, a French company that holds the license to the Dragon Ball franchise in most of Europe, licensed and dubbed the film, which they re-titled In Pursuit of Garlic.^[5] 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.^[6] 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 in 2003.^[7]

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.

Critical reception

GameFan magazine reviewed the DVD release in 1998 and gave it a B− rating.^[8]

Notes

^ 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

References

^ "Dragon Ball Z: Big Green Dub Cast". Behind The Voice Actors. Archived from the original on 2015-10-08. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
^ Nishio, Daisuke (1997-12-17), Dragon Ball Z - The Movie - Dead Zone, Geneon [Pioneer], ASIN 6304677022
^ Nishio, Daisuke (2005-05-31), Dragon Ball Z - The Movie - Dead Zone, Funimation Prod, archived from the original on 2016-11-30, retrieved 2016-04-14
^ Dragon Ball Z: Movie Pack Collection One, Funimation Prod, 2011-11-01, ASIN B005HVWW3K
^ "Kanzenshuu • View topic - Where to buy the "Big Green Dub" DVDs from?". www.kanzenshuu.com. Archived from the original on 2017-01-22. Retrieved 2016-04-14.
^ "Dragon Ball Z: Big Green Dub Cast - Behind The Voice Actors". www.behindthevoiceactors.com. Archived from the original on 2015-10-08. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
^ Back of DVD cover for In Pursuit of Garlic. Bridge Kids, 2003.
^ "Dragon Ball Z the Movie: Dead Zone DVD". GameFan. Vol. 6, no. 4. April 1998. p. 89.