Superhero Media: Dragon Ball Z - Wrath of the Dragon

In this adaptation of the popular video game franchise, Dragon Quest, the great hero Tapion must use his magical sword and enchanted ocarina to defeat the evil wizard Hoi and his terrible monster Hirudegarn. To aid him in his quest, he has Trunks, Gohan, Videl and Goku who help fight Hirudegarn and protect the people of Earth. Wait a minute, this is a Dragon Ball Z film? Holy hell it is! It's the one where Kid Trunks gets the sword that Future Trunks has. Look, Wrath of the Dragon is pretty decent, all told, but the whole elements with Tapion, his history and the magical music box feel like they're from a different series, or at least Dragon Ball rather than DBZ. The film is really about Trunks making a friend, which is actually quite nice, as Tapion gains closure on his grief from the bond as well. Though what I personally enjoyed most about Wrath of the Dragon was getting to see the Z Fighters take on a Kaiju! 

Despite the huge variety of characters and stories that can be told in the superhero genre, it's actually pretty rare to see human-sized characters with powers take on giant foes all that often; off the top of my head, it's mostly a Silver Age Superman bit. Also there's Doctor Demonicus, but I'm pretty sure only I actually remember that character. I mean, it really seems like an obvious premise, take your super-strong people who can fly and shoot energy and have them fight a big monster who wants to trash cities, preferably Tokyo. Sure, as a concept, it could have diminishing returns, but that's a hell of a bit for Avengers 9 or whatever. As much as I like the Legendary Pictures Godzilla franchise, I don't expect it to run too long, as it's not doing anything great at the box office, why not have Disney get the rights on a contract to have The King of The Monsters fight Earth's Mightiest Heroes? I'd watch the hell out of that. 

Aside from the relationship between Trunks and Tapion, there isn't too much to Wrath of the Dragon other than some really good fights, not that that's an issue in a DBZ film or anything, just an observation. The city scenes are some of the best in the history of the franchise, and getting to see more of Videl as the Great Sayiawoman is always welcome. Whilst I may still be waiting for my comprehensive range of DBZ miniatures for superhero games, I can at least eye off a
Hirudegarn to go with my Kaiju games, once I find an action figure in my price range. As much as I enjoyed it, I don't think that Wrath of the Dragon will be making it into high DBZ rotation for me, the presence of Tapion and his magical accouterments break the immersion for me just a little, really seeming like abandoned designs for Dragon Quest than something that was intended to go along with late-stage DBZ Goku and friends.