Double Anime Review Dragon Ball Z Bio-Broly and Fusion Reborn

Disclaimer

This is a review intended to be as unbiased as possible. Any personal feelings towards these movies, or their original anime series or manga series will be ignored as much as possible in favor of looking to the strength of the plot, characters, emotional pull, scene and animation quality, and creativity. How well done or how poor the original source material is or was will be ignored and the only times references will be made is to prove a certain point or explain a concept from the media itself. Thank you for reading.

WARNING possible spoilers WARNING

So in the contexts of plot, Bio-Broly probably has the better plot out of both movies. Bio Broly starts off with 18 wanting money from Hercule, as she has thrown a fighting match to get said money, which happens in the original anime. They all end up on an island with Goten and Trunks, and someone from Hercule's past is trying to prove he is a fraud. 18 and the boys fight for him, until a clone of Broly shows up and loses control. Turns out the idiot priest from the previous movie, Broly the Second Coming. The clone degrades into a slimy mess, and then you have Bio Broly. After some fighting, and rescuing, Bio Broly is defeated.

Fusion Reborn actually has a pretty decent plot as well. In the afterlife, all the negative energy built up explodes, and there is a lot of it. It possesses an ogre working for King Yemma. The new creature then mixes up the entire afterlife world and allows the dead to walk again. Goku and Vegeta are tasked with defeating the creature, now known as Janemba. Luckily to help Goku, Vegeta returns despite being dead.

Both stories are really interesting takes on the Dragon Ball Z mythos and both are strong plots.

The only character not really worth noting in Bio Broly, is Bio Broly. Unlike Broly who is intelligent, Bio Broly is just an insane husk. Powerful, but not much else. Trunks and Goten have proven that they are more mature since the last time they met Broly, and you get to see more of 18's character which is interesting as she is a former villain and still somewhat demanding to poor Krillin in this movie. She clearly cares about Trunks and Goten though so that is a plus. Hercule is as silly as ever even though this plot is as much about him and it shows that for a normal human he is strong, even though he is also a coward. Great characters but a lacking villain.

Janemba is... weird. He has personality but he is so strange. The main characters to look for though, are Janemba and Vegeta as Vegeta has to stomach releasing his pride to fight the beast off with Goku. There are a ton of awesome characters, Frieza returns, Bojack is back, even a "dictator" which is suppose to be Hitler. So many characters, and they are all highly underused. Frieza talks to Gohan, is blown up by Gohan, and everyone flees. "Hitler" is just silly with Goten and Trunks fighting him and mostly making fun of him through the movie. The things happening with the dead coming back to life seemed more like an after thought and a waste. Vegeta's arc though really saves the day for this category.

Now it is time for all the action junkies to see which movie better suits them. The action in Bio Broly is just okay. It isn't bad, but it isn't really all that great either. It is watchable, but Bio Broly just beats up two kids and 18. The fight ends when Trunks uses a gel to dissolve Bio Broly, then water to solidify him into stone then blow him up. There isn't an intense scene in the mix, just Bio Broly beating up people for a while. If that is your thing great but it lowers the quality in the movie.

Fusion Reborn is the winner here. While Gohan only fights Frieza (and it only lasts a second being one sided) the fight with Janemba is pretty awesome after Janemba ditches his fat yellow form and fights more seriously. The fight with Janemba is a desperate struggle against the monster and Vegeta's pride as only a fusion will work, and while Janemba is weird, fighting him is just as weird when the fusion fails and a fat version of Goku and Vegeta fight. The fight with Goten and Trunks vs. the dictator is the low point and is overly silly. The line about Trunks and Goten spying on Videl and Gohan making out is funny though. While there are lower points, this action and some of the humor is worth getting too.

The animation for Bio Broly is pretty great. Only one scene is semi pointless. It may seem like the scene with him turning giant and going into water, but that complaint went into the last section. This complaint is about where Broly turns giant and comes up to Trunks, only to fall as he wasn't even on anything in the first place. Pretty pointless there. Small scene though, the rest of the animation and character placement was pretty good.

Fusion Reborn had less animation quality especially when Trunks and Goten are battling the dictator. That animation is just as silly as the fight is. The rest is animated nicely though, especially when things get weird with Janemba's odd personality. Character placement is important here and it works really well through the movie. Janemba's teleporting in his final form is particularly impressive.

The clone of Broly idea is pretty decent, but the design of the creature looks more like a Goosebumps villain. His design is a little lack luster much like his character, and the bio warriors aren't much better. The island has a great setting though so points there, and the idea is pretty creative, but it isn't executed as well as it could have been.

Fusion Rebron has an insanely creative idea, and while Janemba's first form is weird, it is certainly designed well enough to go along with the sheer insanity of the creature and the things he does. The setting is great since Janemba created it and it is in hell, and his second form is just a great design overall, especially counting his sword. Even if having former villains on Earth wasn't executed well, it was still a good idea too.

Both movies have good plots with Bio Broly having the slightly better plot. Bio Broly also has far better characterization and has better scene quality, but Fusion Reborn is better with the action and creative elements, and still has a good story and animation to boot. Both movies are pretty short however if you were tempted on buying them.

If you are a fan of Dragon Ball Z or Broly these movies aren't half bad. If you like the idea of Vegeta fusing with Goku Fusion Reborn is for you. Neither of these movies are bad, but there are better Dragon Ball Z movies out there too. If you don't mind a lack of characterization though, Fusion Reborn is pretty awesome though it does have its problems the creative design, animation for the most part, and action will make up for most short comings, and Bio Broly has great characterization and plot to help it along as well.