Superhero Media: Dragon Ball Z - Bojack Unbound

Back on the subject of the nebulous nature of canon in Dragon Ball Z, and with the "Movies" especially, Bojack Unbound is ignored, despite having one of the best cases for being canon. Why? Because there isn't much Goku or Vegeta, of course. Taking place at a martial arts tournament after the Cell Games, Gohan, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien and Piccolo have all turned out to compete, as well as Future Trunks, who, we're told through exposition, has returned after defeating the Androids and Cell in his timeline. Goku is observing from Snake Way with King Kai as the event is set to include alien fighters (most people on DB Earth don't know about Sayains and Namekians) and is taking place on a massive artificial island. As difficult to pin down as time is in DBZ, I'd say no more than a year has past since the defeat of Cell when Bojack Unbound takes place, as Goten is yet to be born and Trunks is still a baby. 

After the opening rounds, Gohan, Trunks, Krillin and a disposable fighter wearing a band-aid are left to take on the guest Alien fighters, only to find that the Bojack Gang have killed the other Aliens are are here to fight Goku. Just who Bojack and his team are is only briefly covered in Bojack Unbound, but other sources list them as the last of the "Hera" race, and a team of pirates and/or raiders who want to destroy planets for unspecified reasons. Despite their lack of personality, the Bojack gang are one of those classic Akira Toyriama designs that means they at least look really cool whilst battling the Z Fighters. Zangya, the sole female member of the gang fights almost exclusively with her legs and feet, hair trailing behind her, which makes he move like no other character I can recall in the entire DB franchise. The fight takes place in a very European looking cityscape, giving the whole enterprise a vague Miyazaki feel as our heroes are beaten up until Gohan gets a pep talk from Dad and goes Ascended Super Sayian again to beat face. 

As much as I prefer Gohan as a protagonist, Bojack Unbound is not a great film, with the few good ideas it has not getting time to breathe. Had this been a short arc in the main DBZ series between the Cell Games and the Celestial Tournament Sagas, it could have been much more interesting, with a new status quo not having yet settled and Gohan deciding what his destiny was to be. on a personal note, I always prefer Gohan in the purple "Piccolo" Gi, as the colour contrast makes him stand out more as his own character. There's really nothing in Bojack Unbound that renders it non-canoncial (Trunks could have got a new sword pretty easily, it has been broken and repaired before), but it will never be accepted as such because, again, it centres Gohan, sidelines Goku and Vegeta and doesn't feature characters that the core fanboys really care about. Still, there are a lot of good ideas in Bojack Unbound, and writing it off feels like a waste, I know if I ever run a DB themed game, there will be some of this in there for sure.