Dragon Ball Movie 4: Saikyou e no Michi

Ah, the only good Dragon Ball movie of the 4!
This one follows the same format as the last 3, but the execution is done better in every way. Covering the Red Ribbon Army saga in it's 80 minute runtime, this movie is far more focused and concise in it's direction- resulting in an actual movie. It still goes through introducing us to the characters again, but this time in a much more natural way. It doesn't overstay it's welcome, and does a better job than the first movie. Dialogue and scene structure got a huge buff, and I love the GT-style art! The action scenes ... are done really well, and all the battles are fantastically animated. Eighter tagging along was a great choice, as he serves as the emotional crux.

This is a definite reccomended if you're a fan of the OG Dragon Ball, and also a satisfying watch as an entry into the series.

Story:
This is a super condensed version of the first 2/3 of Dragon Ball so it feels rushed. I loved the original story so this paled in comparison. A lot of the comedy was lost in favor of DBZ style action. They did manage to keep one of my favourite scenes where Roshi gives Bulma his dragon ball but the non-canon writing was lackluster. Trying to fit such a rich story into 74 mins robbed a lot of the characters of a good backstory (particularly Red and Black). A lot of great characters were left out and some like Yamcha and Oolong really had no reason ... to be in the story.

Art:
Absolutely amazing. More along the angular lines of DBZ than the chubby round originals. It makes me wish the redid the original story like they did DB Kai.

Characters: Not as fleshed out as the manga or anime unfortunatley.

Enjoyment: It wasn't nearly as bad as any of the other DB movies.

Overall: Watch this if you're a fan of DBZ and wish DB could've had more action and better visuals. I would recommend watching DB Recut (A fan edit with a lot less filler) instead!

To preface: I watched the Funimation Dub.

Story:
For starters, Sikyou e no Michi is noncanon and sorta mashes the first bits of Dragon Ball with the Red Ribbon arc. It spends a lot of time on the former and not so much on the latter, ending with an awkward blend of disted scenes that aren't all that engaging or interesting. Now, that last comment is extremely relative, I understand that. How engaged someone is depends on, quite literally, their knowledge of the source material. I couldn't find myself enjoying it all that much because the source material was being butchered in favor of telling an alternate ... world Dragon Ball. However, the aspects within this film are just other-worldly enough to make someone keep going back and forth between what we already know about Dragon Ball and what this film is translating.

For instance, the first time Goku uses a Kamehame wave he ends up using far more power than he initially would. In the manga it's big but not DBZ Super Saiyan tier. In this, Goku seems to already be able to make a big enough wave that a fleet of ships are destroyed. It's really strange and sort of off-sets the film especially in the last bit where Goku has some trouble during the last fight. But, things get way out of hand during this scene when almost becomes Super Saiyan? It's weird. It makes the whole thing memorable for all the wrong reasons.


Art:
With story aside, it's a shame to realize that the animation here is pretty solid. I found some set-pieces to be really beautiful and certain combat sequences to be well animated despite their lack of depth or martial arts. That said, I can't say the film doesn't LOOK GOOD.


Sound:
Forgettable music. Can't a single song used during the film, neither any prominent sound effects that humbled me, something that should regularly happen when people are shooting lasers from their fingertips or punching the tar out of each other. I want to be wowed by what's going on not just with visuals but with audio. I didn't get this at all.

VA work was good, though.


Character:
Again, not that great. Since Goku's character is spent laughing too much (to the point of utter annoyance) or being horribly unrealistic within the world of Dragon Ball, we're left with the ing cast being nothing but basic type-casts that don't get very much to go on. Granted, it's not until later on in Dragon Ball when the characters begin to really develop beyond caricatures but it'd still be nice to get some development. I can't tell you one thing about each character when I exclude what I already know from the manga. It's disappointing.


Enjoyment:
Unenjoyable. For me, at least. The fanservice didn't help. I know early Dragon Ball has a couple scenes here and there but some of the additional stuff in this film was a little stupid. Some camera angles were so stupid, like... really stupid.


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