Superhero Media: Dragon Ball Z - Broly Second Coming

How do you follow up one of the most successful, but not really all that good, Dragon Ball Z films of all time, in Broly The Legendary Super Sayian? By not doing anything the same other than having the same antagonist. I was a little shocked how much I enjoyed Broly Second Coming, especially as Broly himself doesn't get any better, just quieter, but the change of focus to Gohan and the extended Dragon Ball-esque sequence with Trunks, Goten and Videl hunting the Dragon Balls really charmed me and the whole thing was pretty enjoyable. You could remake the entire film with an entirely new villain instead of Broly and it wouldn't lose a thing, but having Kid Trunks pee on Broly's face is almost a meta-criticism on the antagonism of the DBZ fandom for any story that doesn't centre Goku and fighting. It's probably not that, but in my head there may be no better metaphor in the entire series, other than perhaps Vegeta fighting Arale, for Toriyama just wanting to write fun fight manga and the fans being way too into a shirtless man punching other shirtless men. 

Probably my favourite part of Broly Second Coming is that Gohan has to beat Broly by outsmarting him, rather than matching strength. And yes, Gohan does beat Broly pretty soundly, by dropping him into lava; it's not Gohan's fault Broly has ascended fan-fiction OC powers that let him magically survive molten rock. The tableau of Gohan, Goten and Goku combining Kamehamema beams at the end to defeat Broly is pretty nice, however, even if I would have preferred Gohan's much-lauded brains getting to be useful for once. In the wake of Dragon Ball Super, this era of DBZ film is pretty interesting to watch, as it represents only a handful of episodes where we see the characters in-between the defeat of Cell and the coming of Buu, it's almost a different programme in many ways, with the focus more on adventure and comedy, like classic Dragon Ball but with fewer fantasy elements. If there was one Saga I could get more of with a Dragon Ball wish, it would probably be The Great Sayiaman Saga, as it reads like Toriyama trying to branch out into something new and different. 

I've run out of things to say about Broly Second Coming, so I'm going to use this space for something else. Does it bother anyone but me that Gohan is set up as being, by far, the most intelligent member of the Z Fighters, but it's never a factor except for two brief moments in DBS? Gohan is a Professor in DBS, meaning he's undertaken at least a decade of post-secondary study, and whilst it doesn't seem to have been in Military Theory or Martial Arts Anthropology, surely his critical thinking skills must be of some use? Hell, after considering the trajectory of his own life critically, Gohan elects to go back to training for the benefit of those he cares about. Man, Gohan is just such a more interesting character than Goku, what with having an actual personality and complex wants and needs, rather than just wanting to be stronger because. Ok, only one more Broly film to get through before I get to a DBZ film I really enjoy.