Anime Series Reviews - DBZ Movie 5

An Otaku's Guide to Anime & Manga

Anime Series Review:
DBZ: Battle of the Strongest vs. the Strongest

Titles

English: Cooler's Revenge
Japanese: Battle of the Strongest vs. the Strongest

Rating

Total Number of Episodes

1 Movie

Episodes Seen

1 Movie

Version

Japanese subtitled and English dubbed.

Voice Acting

The Japanese voice cast is talented and they fit their roles nicely. Koola has the same seiyuu as Furiiza, so of course I'm happy with him. ^^ The English cast is somewhat mediocre. Koola (Cooler =P)'s voice is one that I did like, however. He actually sounded male, which surprised me, given Furiiza and King Kold's English voices.

Music

The music in this movie is largely up to the usual standards for DBZ. Decent BGM, and upbeat ending theme.

Animation

The animation is up to standard for the series. It is in Toriyama-sensei's traditional style, which people seem to either love or hate. It is a bit simplistic compared to other anime styles, but I like it just fine. Not too dated, but not overly new-looking, either.

Plot Summary
(May contain spoilers. You've been warned!)

The movie opens by showing the final moments of Bardock's showdown with Furiiza. As Vegeta-sei explodes, the scene shifts to the inside of a ship. Several soldiers watch as a single space capsule shoots away from the doomed planet. They start to shoot it down, but a voice stops them. A creature resembling Furiiza enters the scene, telling them that it is Furiiza's problem. We learn that his name is Koola, who we later learn is Furiiza's brother. They comply, and the ship leaves the area.

Later, we see Goku training at Kamesennin's and Gohan doing homework. When Goku returns home, he and Gohan head out on a camping trip with Kuririn and Oolong, much to ChiChi's dismay.

Later, as Koola learns of his brother's death, he heads for Earth.

Meanwhile, as Kuririn and Gohan prepare dinner, they are attacked by Koola's men. Goku soon returns from fishing to intervene, taking the men on himself. Their fight is stopped when Koola arrives. As Goku stands stunned, Gohan approaches from the air. Seeing him, Koola fires a ki blast at him. Goku rushes to protect Gohan from the blast, using his own body as a shield, and firing a ki blast back at Koola. He falls from the sky, and over a waterfall when he is hit. Koola quickly assaults the water below with a large blast. He then orders his men to find them...now!

Later, as Kuririn recovers, Gohan drags Goku into a cave, shielding him from view. Meanwhile, Koola's men are bombarding the surrounding area with ki blasts. As they gloat about killing the Saiya-jins, Koola tells them that the two aren't dead, and orders the men to find them.

Later that night, Kuririn and Oolong locate Gohan and Goku, who are now buried under rocks. After accidentally using his ki, Kuririn tells Gohan to hurry to Karin-sama's Tower and bring back some Senzu beans. Gohan then hops on Haiya Dragon and the two get going.

They arrive about daybreak, and Gohan quickly climbs to the top of the Tower, starting about half-way up. When he asks Karin-sama for some Senzu, the cat tells him that he cheated by climbing only half-way. Gohan starts to argue, but then heads back down. Before he can go, Yajirobe throws him a bag of Senzu. Karin-sama and Yajirobe fight for a moment. Gohan thanks them, and quickly leaves.

Once more riding Haiya Dragon, he hurries back to where he left his father. As Haiya Dragon begins to tire, Gohan feeds him a Senzu. Unfortunately, the increase in the animal's strength was enough to set off the scouters worn by Koola's men.

They quickly shoot the animal down and engage Gohan. One of the men, Dore, holds Gohan up by the head, trying to get the bag of Senzu away from him. When he fails, he begins to crush the child's skull. Before he can kill him, he is shot from behind. When the man turns to see his attacker, we see that Piccolo has arrived. He engages the men and tells Gohan to take the Senzu to Goku. As he rushes off, Dore chases after him. Piccolo quickly kills him with a ki blast. One of the men engulfs Piccolo in his ki, while the other goes after Gohan. Piccolo soon retaliates, killing one and engaging the other. Before he can kill him, Piccolo is hit through the chest by a small ki blast. As he falls to the ground, we see that it was Koola who fired it.

Meanwhile, Gohan arrives at the cave where Kuririn is hiding with Goku. He tells them what happened and gives Kuririn the Senzu. before Kuririn can take the bag, it is hit with a ki blast, causing it to burn. We see Koola's last surviving henchman, who had fired the blast. Furious, Kuririn attacks him. As they fight, Gohan remembers that he had tucked a single Senzu into his belt. He quickly feeds it to his father. As the man defeats Kuririn, Gohan goes out to face him, but is taken down quickly. As the man approaches the cave, he suddenly gets a reading so high that his scouter breaks.

Suddenly, Goku emerges from the cave. As he prepares to engage the man, Koola arrives, carrying a wounded Piccolo. He drops the Namek-sei-jin, then fires a ki blast at him as he falls. Furious, Goku yells at Koola and attacks him.

They fight for a moment, then Koola informs Goku that he is able to transform one more time than his brother. He then transforms into this fifth form and proceeds to beat Goku to a pulp. He eventually decides to blow up the planet. Hearing this, Goku begins to think about Kuririn, Piccolo, and Gohan, all of whom had been injured or seemingly killed because of him. These thoughts give him the anger he needs to transform into a Super Saiya-jin. The two fight for a moment more, until Koola realizes why his brother lost to Goku. He then distracts Goku, and quickly forms a large Deathball. He throws it at Goku, who struggles with it.

Back to the ground, Goku unleashes an incredible burst of power, which knocks the Deathball back at Koola. Caught behind it, Koola is pushed out into space, and into the surface of the sun. As he struggles, he remembers having given an order not to shoot down that stray Saiya-jin space capsule...the one containing baby Son Goku...He realizes that he had had the chance to kill him...the Deathball hits the sun, crushing Koola and causing a huge explosion. The world goes dark for a moment, then the light returns.

Meanwhile, Goku lies exhausted, as Gohan and Kuririn find him. They hear someone climbing out from under the rubble around them and go to help, thinking it is Piccolo. However, they are shocked to see that Koola's third henchman has survived. Before he can attack them, he is killed by a ki blast shot from far in front of him. The group turns to face that direction, looking for Piccolo. They see nothing.

Meanwhile, Piccolo is drinking at a small waterfall...

Objectionable Material

Violence - Typical DBZ level...nothing too bad
Nudity - None
Sexual Situations - None
Profanity - Very little
Mature Ideas/Issues - None

Kat's Rating

I like Movie 5. It's not the best thing I've ever seen, but I think it's pretty good.

Dub vs. Sub

See my review.

Manga vs. Anime

As far as I know, there is no manga equivalent of this movie.