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OtapediaDead Zone Movie - Dragon Ball

Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone is a 1989 Japanese fantasy and martial arts anime film that was originally shown at the Toei Manga Matsuri Film Festival and later released on VHS and Laserdisc. It was directed by Daisuke Nishio and composed by Shunsuke Kikuchi while cinematography and editing were handled by Motoaki Ikegami and Shinichi Fukumitsu respectively.

Summary

Years after the 23rd World Martial Arts tournament with the battle with Piccolo Jr., Goku lives peacefully married his childhood sweetheart, Chi-Chi. They bore a son, who was given the name Gohan, which was derived from Goku’s adoptive grandpa.

Piccolo trains himself on a wasteland and gets ambushed and nearly slaughtered by a shadow-like group of fighters. The group attacks Chi-Chi, Ox-King (Chi-Chi's father) and Gohan while Goku was on a fishing trip. He senses danger and runs toward his family to find that Gohan has been abducted.

The group who took Gohan are subordinates of Garlic Junior. Garlic Junior is a demon-like creature that later reveals that the real reason for kidnapping Gohan was to get the Four-Star Dragon Ball on his hat, but rather than killing him after obtaining it, Garlic Junior decides to take Gohan as his pupil.

Once the Dragon Balls are gathered, Garlic Junior summons Shenron and requests for immortality. Shenron fulfills the wish, noting that it has never granted such a demand before.

An enraged Goku tries to retrieve his kidnapped son, but quickly learns of Garlic's immortality. Kami also appears, which shocks Garlic Jr. He meets with Goku and tells the history of his father, Garlic.

Centuries ago, both Garlic and Kami fought for the position of Guardian of the Earth. Kami attained the rank instead of Garlic. Garlic, in an outrage, fights Kami, where Kami wins once again. After this, Goku and Kami find Gohan and encounter Garlic Jr.

While fighting, both Piccolo and Krillin arrive to help. Piccolo takes this chance to take revenge on Garlic Junior's subordinate, Sansho. Goku faces two henchmen, Nicky and Ginger. In the meantime, Kami is at a heavy disadvantage when facing Garlic Jr. because of his immortality and new muscular secondary form.

Goku and Piccolo are left with no choice but to work together and defeat Garlic Jr. The duo does quite well, though Garlic Jr. becomes angered because of his defeat and begins charging an ultimate attack that opens up the Dead Zone. The Dead Zone is void of darkness created by his father Garlic to swallow his enemies.

Gohan gets enraged due to his family and friends being in danger and releases his dormant energy to blast Garlic Jr. into the void. Through these events, Goku learns that his son Gohan has quite the potential for fighting. Later, Piccolo leaves, vowing to defeat Goku.

Cast

  • Goku and Gohan are both dubbed by Japanese voice actress Masako Nozawa. In the English dub, Goku is voiced by Peter Kelamis (1997 Ocean/Pioneer/Funimation), David Gasman (2003 AB Group), and Sean Schemmel (2005 Funimation). Gohan was voiced by Saffron Henderson (1997 Ocean/Pioneer/Funimation), Jodi Forrest (2003 AB Group), and Stephanie Nadolny (2005 Funimation).

  • Piccolo's Japanese voice actor is Toshio Furukawa, the English voice actor for the Pioneer/Funimation/Ocean Studios dub is Scott McNeil, while the 2003 AB Group dub is performed by David Gasman. The 2005 Funimation dub of Piccolo is done by Christopher Sabat.

  • Garlic Jr’s Japanese voice is done by Akira Kamiya. The 1997 English dub is done by Terry Klassen while the 2003 dub is by Doug Rand. The 2005 Funimation dub is performed by Charles Cody Huber.

Music

The opening theme, “Cha-La Head-Cha La", is performed by Hironobu Kageyama with lyrics written by Yukinojo Mori, an arrangement by Kenji Yamamoto, and music by Chiho Kiyooka. Kenji Yamamoto also arranged the insert song titled "Tenka'ichi Gohan", which was performed by Masako Nozawa. The lyrics for the insert song were written by Sakiko Iwamuro while the music was composed by Takeshi Ike.

Lastly, the ending theme song, titled "Detekoi Tobikiri Zankai Pawa!" was performed by Manna and arranged by Kenji Yamamoto. Lyrics for the song were written by Naruhisa Arakawa and music was composed by Takeshi Ike.

Releases

North America's Funimation Production holds the license of the Dragon Ball series and the Dead Zone film. They have renamed Dead Zone to “Dead Zone Vortex” on television airings. The Pioneer DVD features bonus removed scenes from the first handful of episodes from the Japanese TV series. These scenes were still dubbed in Japanese, but feature English subtitles. This release launched on December 17th, 1997 for VHS, DVD, and Laserdisc.

After the original license expired, Funimation re-released the movie with a new dub cast on DVD on May 31st, 2005.

On November 14th, 2006, the movie was released in a box set called "First Strike", which included both "The World's Strongest” and “The Tree of Might".

On May 27, 2008, a digitally remastered version of the film was released as a double feature set along with "The World's Strongest" for Blu-ray and DVD. Once again, another remastered DVD box set released on November 13, 2013. It features the Ocean dub and contains a total of 53 episodes and two movies ("The World's Strongest" and "The Tree of Might").

In European countries, the AB Group holds the license for the Dragon Ball franchise. This dub of the movie changes the film’s name to "Pursuit of Garlic." “Pursuit of Garlic” was broadcasted in Netherlands, Ireland, and United Kingdom TV. It was sold on DVD by Netherlands' Bridge Entertainment Group.

A Malaysian company called Speedy released the film on VCD (Video CD) under the title "Vengeance of Demon King". Speedy also released Pioneer’s English adaptation on VCD as well. Unfortunately, both AB Group and Speedy have a reputation for inaccurate translations.

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