Dragon Ball Z: The World’s Strongest – They Almost Had Me

Coming off the heels of Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone is the second movie in the non-canon DBZ movie series, Dragon Ball Z: The World’s Strongest. This is one that I can admit I hadn’t seen and knew very little about. I was familiar with the character of Dr. Wheelo, but I don’t have many memories, if any at all, of watching this movie when I was younger. However, I wish I would have because this is a fantastic movie. Let’s get into it.

Dragon Ball Z: The World’s Strongest follows the evil scientist, Dr. Wheelo, and his assistant, Dr. Kochin, as they attempt world domination. To achieve that, they plan to swap Dr. Wheelo’s mind with the strongest fighter in the world so he can have the ultimate body – strong in mind and body. After they kidnap Master Roshi, thinking he’d still be the world’s strongest fighter after 50 years, they collide directly with Goku, who shows them exactly who the world’s strongest is.

The usual cast shows up this time around—Goku, Chi-Chi, Gohan, Piccolo, Krillin, Bulma, Master Roshi, and Oolong. The only character who seemed like they had no purpose for being there, as they literally contributed nothing to the story, in my opinion, is Chi-Chi. It was her usual spiel about Gohan needing to study and grow to be a great scholar. However, other than Chi-Chi, every character has some moment that ties into the story and helps it progress.

Going from Dead Zone to The World’s Strongest, it’s great to see how the movie quality doesn’t go down. Both movies have had the events flow together seamlessly, and the tone is definitely “early 90s DBZ.” Both movies are stellar in their rights, but you’d be surprised by how similar they are. Of course, the events aren’t a one-to-one match, but it all marches to the same beat.

I’ll give you an example at the very beginning of the movie. Dead Zone starts with Piccolo training and getting taken out by Garlic’s henchmen. The World’s Strongest begins with Piccolo training himself, and he gets taken out by Dr. Wheelo’s henchmen after saving Gohan and Oolong. As stated earlier, the events don’t exactly mirror each other, but they are similar enough. And that’s not the only instance either. Goku has a moment after he makes it to Dr. Wheelo’s base, where he takes on Dr. Wheelo’s Bio-Warriors, three powerful villains. Goku struggles briefly but becomes highly disrespectful and takes them out without another thought.

About 65% of the movie went in the same direction as Dead Zone. The villain successfully got their wish granted. One of Goku’s loved ones was kidnapped by the villain. Goku goes to rescue them and is joined by Krillin. Piccolo shows up, and Goku and Piccolo fight. Gohan becomes extremely angry due to the pain that Dr. Wheelo is causing Goku and Piccolo and lets out a tremendous roar with some powerful shockwaves that go straight toward Dr. Wheelo and Dr. Kochin.

That’s where I became exasperated because it felt like they were going to repeat Dead Zone with Gohan taking out the big bad and saving the day. Thankfully, they didn’t go that route. An epic final battle ensues, and Goku comes through with a Spirit Bomb. Keep in mind, this is the Saiyan Saga Spirit Bomb, so it’s not some big grandiose thing like the Spirit Bomb against Kid Buu or, admittedly, Omega Shenron.

The World’s Strongest is meant to be set shortly after the Saiyan Saga. Multiple things point to this being true. Gohan is a bit more brave. Piccolo is no longer evil. Goku uses Kaioken more than once. Goku uses the Spirit Bomb. It makes you wonder how they had time to do this before going to Namek because Goku was in the hospital for a good minute, and it was a very short while before he went to Namek.

I enjoyed the fights that were shown. Master Roshi held his own against the Bio-Warriors for a good minute, Piccolo gave Goku a good challenge in their battle, and Goku destroyed all his fights. It’s just amazing seeing Goku progress as he does. In every movie, he gets better and better.

There weren’t really any complaints I had besides feeling too similar to Dead Zone. It was a great Dragon Ball Z movie, and after only dealing with Dr. Wheelo in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3, it was nice to understand the story. Next up is Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might. Let’s see if the movies can sustain this momentum.