The World's Strongest Movie - Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball Z: The World’s Strongest is a Japanese animated fantasy and martial arts movie based on the Dragon Ball franchise that was originally created by Akira Toriyama. It is the second feature film in the Dragon Ball Z series and was first released in Japan on March 10th, 1990 at the Toei Manga Matsuri film festival. The film was directed by Daisuke Nishio, produced by Chiaki Imada, and written by Takao Koyama.
Summary
After taking a quick look at the Dragon Radar, Oolong notices that many of the Dragon Balls have been gathered together. He and Gohan and up investigating the matter and end up traveling to the Tsurumai-Tsuburi Mountains, a location with impenetrable walls of ice that Piccolo also happens to be training at.
As they arrive, Dr. Kochin finishes gathering the Dragon Balls and summon Shenron. He wishes for the removal of the ice covering Dr. Wheelo’s laboratory. Shortly after, Oolong and Gohan are assaulted by Dr. Kochin’s “Biomen”. Meanwhile, Piccolo saves Gohan, allowing Gohan and Oolong to escape. Piccolo, however, is completely overwhelmed by the three mysterious fighters.
Dr. Kochin appears at [Master Roshi(/otapedia/anime/dragon_ball/master_roshi)’s house along with his Biomen and asks that he comes with them. Roshi manages to destroy the Biomen, but Bulma ends up being taken hostage, forcing Roshi to comply. Back at the laboratory, Roshi fights three more Biomen, but is no match for them. Bulma eventually learns that Dr. Wheelo, who is currently only a brain inside of a computer, is planning on finding the strongest warrior on Earth and taking over their body.
Oolong finds Goku and explains the situation. Goku then sets out to find Bulma and Master Roshi at Dr. Wheelo’s laboratory, where he is approached by the three fighters, whose names are Misokatsun, Ebifurya, and Kishime. Goku first defeats Misokatsun by using Kaio-ken, but is then caught off guard by Ebifurya, who covers him in ice. Gohan and Krillin struggle to fight off Kishime on their own, but fortunately, Goku manages to break out of the ice by using Kaio-ken again, after which he defeats the other two opponents.
A brainwashed Piccolo then joins the battle. Gohan attempts to snap Piccolo out of it, but is simply swatted away. Frustrated that he can’t stop Goku and Piccolo from fighting, Gohan’s power spikes in a fit of rage, causing the brainwashing device created by Dr. Wheelo to shatter, freeing Piccolo from the doctor’s control. Dr. Wheelo then decides to fight Goku himself. A giant robotic body breaks away from the wall. The resulting debris and shaking cause Dr. Kochin to fall into a death trap, much to everyone’s surprise. During the confusion, Krillin manages to free Bulma as well.
The battle between Dr. Wheelo continues and Goku, Krillin, and Master Roshi attempt to fire a combination Kamehameha at Dr. Wheelo to try and finish the fight, but it seemed to be rather ineffective. After this team attack, Goku and Piccolo are the only fighters remaining that are able to continue fighting.
Goku uses a combination of another Kamehameha powered up by Kaio-ken, though this only manages to launch Dr. Wheelo into space. To finish the battle for good, Goku begins charging a Spirit Bomb, but can’t get a good shot because of Dr. Wheelo’s energy blasts. The others in Goku’s group manage to gather enough strength to distract Dr. Wheelo long enough for Goku to launch the Spirit Bomb, destroying the doctor’s brain and saving the day.
New Characters
Dr. Wheelo: In The World’s Strongest, Dr. Wheelo acts as the main antagonist. Like many characters in the Dragon Ball franchise, his name is a food-related pun. Specifically, “Wheelo” is taken from the Japanese term “uiro”, which is a traditional Japanese cake made with rice flour and is similar to mochi. Dr. Wheelo himself is a genius scientist that was extensively studying biotechnology. His goal is to eventually modify humanity itself with his own biotechnology. However, before this dream became reality, his life came to an end. Despite this, however, his brain was placed into a bio-computer. Although he continued living on, his laboratory was eventually completely covered in ice, sealing Dr. Wheelo inside until Dr. Kochin used the Dragon Balls to break the ice.
Dr. Kochin: After 50 years, he managed to gather the Dragon Balls and gained access to Dr. Wheelo’s laboratory. After being sealed in his own lab for many decades, Dr. Wheelo desires to find the strongest warrior and take their body for his own and, to accomplish this goal, he sends his Biomen and Dr. Kochin to Master Roshi, as he was the strongest known human on Earth 50 years ago. Dr. Kochin quickly learns that this is no longer the case.
Releases
On May 26th, 1998, Pioneer Home Entertainment and Funimation produced the first release of the movie on VHS and DVD in North America. The English dub was performed by the Ocean Production voice cast.
On November 14th, 2006, Funimation released a DVD set called “First Strike”, which contained other Dragon Ball Z films like Dead Zone and The Tree of Might that was dubbed by Funimation’s voice cast. Later on, in May 2008, the movie would get a remastered re-released on Blu-ray and DVD as a double feature with Dead Zone.
On August 13th, 2013, another box set called “Rock the Dragon Edition” contained the Ocean dub of 53 episodes of Dragon Ball Z and its first two movies (Dead Zone and The Tree of Might).
Links
Dragon Ball Series
Dragon Ball Z Series
Dragon Ball Kai Series
Dragon Ball Super Series
Dragon Ball GT Series
Super Dragon Ball Heros
Akira Toriyama