Ranking EVERY Dragon Ball Movie (Tier List)

it is time to make some enemies a little while ago a small channel on youtube called giggup maybe you've heard of him made a tier list of every shonen anime it was a good video and a bold move and seeing as depending on who's talking i either know a lot or nothing about dragon ball a video where i rank every single dragon ball movie could be interesting if nothing else quality content for context i've been a fan of dragon ball since i was 8 years old and i've been covering it professionally for about 6 years however i didn't watch these films when i was a child and so as a result these films were all digested around a similar point in time except for one or two obvious exceptions which we will definitely be getting into if you don't know how this works for some reason s tier is the best of the best and the lower the film is in the tier list the worse the film is in my opinion and just so we're clear these opinions are all objective measures of your beloved childhood favorites and any difference between this list and your own should be seen as a personal attack against both you and your family with that said let's dive in dragon ball curse of the blood rubies 1986. first up in the chopping block is curse of the blood rubies or the legend of shenlong if you're looking at the subbed version and while it doesn't even approach how awful some of these later films are it's still not really a good watch because most of these early films were engineered to be shown off at anime fairs and festivals to demonstrate the underlying themes and story beats of the anime and manga many of the films we discussed today will have the task of translating themes and story beats as i mentioned from the series into story form or movie form and this one wasn't a good adaptation this one pretty much just recaps the peel off saga with minor changes to the villain at the end and generally had production values that were about on par with the existing tv show at the time it feels rushed haphazardly cramming plot points into a short run time all the while telling us the story we all know and love in much worse fashion i'm gonna put this one tentatively in the d category it's not quite good enough to be a c we're starting at the bottom with a d because dragon ball always gets that thing next one up dragon ball sleeping princess in devil's castle 1987 sleeping princess in devil's castle is my editor's favorite dragon ball movie say hi editor stan wonderful and to be honest i can see the appeal here sleeping princess is a massive improvement over the first film released only a year prior and while there are subtle elements taken from the original story like the set of being roshi sending krillin and goku in search of hot babes for training the rest of the narrative is entirely new with interesting looking villains and the simple but effective story of goku and the gang we all know and love saving the princess in the devil's castle oh and also the humor in this as charming as ever with bulma's reaction to that creepy looking old person still cracking me up all these years later if you're a fan of classic dragon ball and haven't seen this one you should give it a go all in all i think i'd give this one a c but a strong scene next up is dragon ball mystical adventure from 1988. this is the final of the three original dragon ball films released and in my prior reviews of these films i never formally reviewed this one for some reason so i'm gonna do it now because wow this one really impressed me and once again it was a massive step up from the previous film i think naturally as mentioned previously these films are required to act as advertisements for the ongoing show and manga and what makes this film interesting is the difficult situation it was in you see the prior two films between them covered about what in a bit arcs of the manga and at the point of this film's release the anime was already dealing with the demon king piccolo stuff which meant that this movie had to in the story take elements from goku and krillin's training the tenkaichi budokai the red ribbon army saga tenshinal and chaotsu's portion of the story as well as introduce and incorporate characters such as pai pai and many others and by the way all within a short 46 minute run time and it knocks it out of the damn park instead of trying to cram all of these disconnected plot elements together haphazardly like blood rubies did or going off and telling its own story without covering the anime material like princess and devil's castle did mystical adventure somehow manages to do the impossible and finds a happy medium between these two philosophies instead creating their own unique story utilizing all of these aforementioned plot elements in natural and creative ways to propel the story forward this is an utterly staggering effort to say the least in mystical adventure chatsu is the emperor who has lost his love suru senen is a corrupt advisor there's a tournament in the area and its opening credits take care of the one major plot point i really didn't know how they would incorporate the training with roshi i wasn't looking forward to revisiting this film and out of every movie on this list this one surprised me the most based entirely on how impressed i was with what i was able to achieve given its circumstances i'm gonna give this film a b it's the best movie so far now onwards to dragon ball z's first film dead zone 1989. i'm gonna try to pick up the pace here because we've got like 12 dragon ball z movies to get through and i don't expect you to sit and watch me moan about buy our broadly for two hours so let's do this dead zone is a weird movie i'm happy to see that a lot of the principles behind what made prior films work are present in this one also focusing on adapting the themes and plot elements of the initial writer's encounter garlic jr steps in for reddits kidnaps go on and ultimately fights the then unlikely team of goku and piccolo presented in an entirely new story to boot which i appreciated the designs of the characters are sinister and fun with some wonderful artwork that might look familiar to those that enjoyed the english op of the series back in the day 90s kids however while this film has all of that working in its favor it unfortunately kind of sucks in its execution in trying these elements together garlic jr wants the dragon balls but instead of taking the dragon ball away from gohan they just take gohan a completely irrational decision that obviously will lead to hijinks that propels the plot forward totally unbelievable and one that occurs so that the story itself can move forward it just feels kinda lazy and with a plot that doesn't have a lot of elements to tie together in the first place this is emphasized all the more in my opinion it has all the makings of a great film with some terrific action and characterization but failed in its execution placing it firmly in the sea tier next up is dragon ball z the world's strongest from 1990. as mentioned earlier in the video i pointed out that the dragon ball films weren't covering enough material per film to remain consistent and up to date with the series at large and so therefore from this point until the end of dragon ball z apparently toy animation would be releasing two films per year starting with dragon ball z's the world's strongest where dead zone covered the first half of the saiyan saga this one covers the second half and while vegeta and napa aren't present a lot of the action and story beats in that section are perhaps to a point where it's somewhat distracting a lot of the final battles take elements and set pieces from goku's battle with vegeta with some of them even being shot for shot recreations however the artwork and animation here is as iconic as early dragon ball gets with a host of animation cuts that you'll no doubt remember if you watched the series's old intro back on cartoon network in the late 90s and early 2000s the film's strongest moments are in the first half for me when roshi and bulma are kidnapped and goku has to find his way into the base to make the save there's a tremendous amount of character in this film that really speaks to the writer's involvement and understanding of these characters i just would have liked that the final battle did feel as derivative as it ultimately ends up being this movie is one hour long and i think it might have been worthy of a higher rank if they had shaved down some of the exposition and created a run time of about 40 minutes all in all right now for me it's a c could have been a b but yeah it's a c next up dragon ball z the tree of might from 1990. finally we get to the vegeta stand in for the film universe or so to speak turlos is effectively goku black with a gardening obsession well okay okay the film itself is quite solid with some brilliant animation though the first 15 minutes or so are quite slow with king kai chiming in every 10 minutes to spew exposition but other than that the rest of the film is very enjoyable with a conclusion that ties in nicely with the villain of the story's mission the tree of might sucking the life force from the earth only for the earth's very life energy being used to overcome the enemy is fitting if not poetic turles himself is a fun villain and as i mentioned the animation is some of the best early dragon ball has to offer once again this is a unique story and covers the themes of the saiyan arc nicely and what's more is that this one also has a nice environmental message unique to itself not bad for 1990 it's not really exceptional enough to get into the a tier but it's a strong contender in the b category be tier for this one [Music] today's video is brought to you by our longtime partners over at manscape.com they've been great supporters of this channel for a while now and i've spoken at length about their performance package bundle in the past it really is the best head-to-toe grooming kit i've encountered and their lawnmower 4.0 is the star of the package with its wonderful led light and skin safe tech the crop preserver ball deodorant is also a pretty great part of the package particularly in these hot months where keeping cool and smelling great all day is pretty damn important but what's also essential is the follow through manscape have released the new collection of their anti-chafing high-performance boxer briefs these bad boys feature a fancy new dual pouch design a good old bit of roomy space for your dangly bits to breathe thanks to the perforated performance fabric they're also now in more than six colors combined there's a simple all black pack or the classy grey or pinstripe design heck there's even this gold nugget craziness if you want to go all out it's entirely up to you i mean i'm not your mom whatever you choose manscape offers the option to select single units or save money with their three pack options they're great and if you go to manscape.com today and use coupon code not mark 20 at checkout you'll get 20 off plus free international shipping that's not mark 20 at manscape.com your balls will thank you [Music] [Music] next up the slug movie dragon ball z lord slug 1991 ah yes the film that revealed the super saiyan form to the world sort of much the same way the other films did this one adapts material from the mangas specifically the namic portion from the ginyu fight with goku showing up all the way to the eventual reveal of the super saiyan form itself only it didn't exactly work out the way they wanted it to release just 10 days before the reveal of super saiyan in the manga this film was basically working off design instructions from toriyama himself that he would later further change for practical reasons apparently he had already decided on the hair going up but had yet to decide on removing the black from the hair whether you like the way this looks or not it's kind of interesting to see that super saiyan could have looked like this had toriyama decided to keep it consistent with kaioken just with a golden aura and a different hair shape however despite this film having some cool action sequences with goku fighting an oversized lord slug the film kinda sucks there isn't any emotional resonance in this film and the only discernible narrative connective tissue comes by way of gohan's super annoying whistling facilitating the defeat of lord slug himself it's not very interesting for me this is honestly a d tier movie dragon ball z coolers revenge 1991 this movie definitely has interesting ideas okay it does okay taking elements from the cat and mouse games with the namek saga with gohan and krillin needing to hide their power levels this film sees these very characters buy time for goku who's in critical condition once again in this film another aspect taken from dynamic material unfortunately the action is also pretty great my favorite part has to be this section where piccolo dukes it out with one of the henchmen of cooler in the forest sporting some really nice animation unfortunately however the main villain itself isn't very interesting at all in cooler where i loved frieza cooler i found to be excessively boring by comparison with the eventual fight that takes place between goku and cooler filled to the brim with shots and sequences taken straight out of that very fight with frieza not helping the comparisons themselves i'm also not the biggest fan of goku's characterization in this movie he's depicted as this sort of paragon of hope and life in the world literally resurrecting a bird from the dead he's like this ethereal almost divine-like figure at times in this movie particularly towards the end overall the film has its upsides for sure but not enough to make me want to come back to this anytime soon all in all i'd put this one firmly in the sea tier next up dragon ball z the return of cooler 1992. this is where i think i'm going to potentially start making some enemies i didn't think cooler was interesting before and certainly that sentiment did not change in this film for the vast majority of the runtime the secondary cast feels utterly pointless vegeta's showing up out of nowhere is cool but it makes virtually no sense whatsoever and i don't like the climax to this film really at all but with that said this scene where goku and vegeta fend off the army of coolers is one of the best shots out of any of these films for me it's such a cool visual and what i am sure toyotaro took inspiration from when he was drawing this climax to the end of the black arc in the dragon ball super manga if you're a fan of goku and vegeta's banter with a heavy emphasis on mindless action this is the film for you but i do like to have a little bit more of a story behind it so this one just feels too flimsy for me if it wasn't for my love for that team up scene with vegeta and goku i'd give this one a firm d but it sits nicely towards the end of the c tier for now next up dragon ball z super android 13. 1992 i don't like this movie is what i would say okay just kidding i really do hate this movie it also doesn't help that this film is about as formulaic as it gets it's got a cold open with the gang doing random things and suddenly bad guys show up they fight for almost the entire run time before goku pulls a win out of his butt miraculously at the end i think my favorite part of this film is the reanimated segments of the actual manga material a la android 17 killing dr gero towards the beginning and now look people watch dragon ball for a host of different reasons and i could very well imagine a world where one person goes into this movie and loves it while another won't for me i really enjoy when a good story is told and unfortunately this film just doesn't do that whatsoever it has virtually nothing to say beyond a few screams and a whole lot of punching in the dick the flaws with this approach become clear as day 2 at the end when due to the lack of any emotional resonance in the story the film's climax comes out of nowhere in an unceremonious and in my opinion deeply unsatisfying and cliche way with that taken into consideration super android 13 is a solid d tier entry for me and i wonder if the next one will be just like that dragon ball z broly the legendary super saiyan from 1993 believe it or not because i never watched these films growing up broly the legendary super saiyan was first introduced to me through the wonderful and endlessly talented team four star abridged version and i loved that so i figured i would hate the original seeing as everyone online back in the day would consistently moan about how much of a meme the broly movies had become but to be honest when i first saw this i was pleasantly surprised although not without its issues broly the legendary super saiyan is full of personality and character at least when it comes to a few main characters when it came to broly and somewhat with paragus i felt as though their personalities were secondary and their motivations totally unimportant if not pathetic it's been said a million times over but goku crying in the nursery is a lame motivation for them to fight with all of that said the action was awesome with some wonderful designs courtesy of tadayoshi yamamuro who would go on to lead the way with dragon ball super with ironically enough dragon ball super broly of all films being the first major project he wasn't involved with this film isn't revolutionary by any means or anything approaching that but i can see why some people love it it's got some strong dudes with big numbers and i think it does that pretty well it nicely fits at the end of b-tier for me next up dragon ball z bojack unbound okay look i know this film is popular with those of you that like gohan and to be honest i too like seeing gohan at this 8th game to kick some ass but this film stands as a monument on how not to write gohan as a character for me anyway and i think that's the movie's biggest weakness form going into this the first time i watched i thought it was going to be a gohan movie and it is kinda krillin takes up a surprisingly large part of the beginning bojack doesn't show up until halfway through the feature and his characterization and backstory aren't shown to us but instead exposition dumped onto us through king kai rambling on and on and on for all of dragon ball up until this point gohan was a passive character that sort of let the plot happen to him he would be reacting to things he's reactionary this is fine if the story is built around that but this movie wasn't and it felt like gohan was just sort of tagged in at the end to facilitate an ending with the big fight which was fun and had some cool environments to fight in but i think for me this film just did go on a massive disservice i think the animation looks great but i'm just not a big fan of this one guys particularly the ending where goku literally comes back from the dead through the sheer will of wanting to or deus ex machina if you're so bold to make the save on gohan it's not as bad as some of the others but it's definitely not a good film in my estimation i think i'll be giving this one a strong c dragon ball z broly second coming oh boy here we go broly's second coming has the single worst opening i've ever seen in any film and with these films that's saying something so in order for this film to happen a series of utterly insane coincidences have to occur firstly broly having been punched by goku is now flying through space and lands coincidentally on earth of all places covered in ice or crystal that for some reason doesn't strip him of the air he needs to survive also by coincidence goten trunks and videl find themselves standing right above broly at this moment in time and during that brief period goten utters the only noise he would need to wake up him in the first place that my friends is the level of coincidence we're talking about and it's absolutely ridiculous and then videl decides to dodge one of broly's attacks apparently she can do that however those that love this film do not care about all of that and likely will only remember this awesome fight sequence with gohan and the eventual family kamehameha which you know they're great moments and to be fair are the best parts of this movie however when you compare to the first one you can tell that the writing and care for the story aspects of this one have waned considerably i mean the shenanigans with the dragon helping goku out at the end to just show up is one of the dumbest and most convenient things i've ever seen committed to the pages of any dragon ball script but all in all this movie is dumb and to be honest either belongs on the border between d tier and c tier uh i don't know editor sign flip a coin and you can put it wherever you want this next one though i'm putting this one firmly in the d category and i'm telling you that right on the outside this is dragon ball z biobroly i was very mean towards biobroly in my review of it a few years ago so let's start out with some of the pros of this film unlike 99 of the other films in this video the focus isn't on goku and vegeta which depending on your preference could be seen as a positive and instead focuses on the trio of goten trunks and surprisingly you know android 18 that's great furthermore the plot is linked nicely to a canon event in the story wherein android 18 is collecting the money from mr satan for throwing the tournament during the buu saga it's got some relatively strong artwork and what else um positives it's only 46 minutes long so you don't have to wait long i don't know okay look the movie is about as bad as its reputation suggests unfortunately despite the minor upsides that i mentioned broly ambling around like a dung-covered sasquatch the atrocious pacing the lack of any meaningful story and the fact that it's just so damn boring stands as an unstoppable force in the face of those small upsides i pointed out earlier there's not really much else to say other than that the definition of a dpr movie is this film unfortunately this next one though not so much dragon ball z fusion reborn 1995. i think fusion reborn is often cited as the best of the original dragon ball movies or at least that's the impression i got from the community around that time a few years ago which is hilarious when i consider that this is the film where goten and trunks fight hitler resurrected from the dead while goku and vegeta fix the plumbing in otherworld and to tell you the truth this is easily the most rewatchable for me it's not super long has a very simple plot with a setup and a resolution would you believe and has some of the best animation in the early dragon ball films and arguably much of the series genema's design is cool and while taking inspiration from majin buu has a moveset unique to himself that remains as iconic part of the franchise to this day with super dragon ball heroes even making use of him from time to time these days with that said he's got no personality at all and that would matter if not for the fact that i thoroughly enjoyed the banter between goku and vegeta in this film it's easily the highlight for me there's not really much else to this film and for that i can't really give it an s-tier ranking but i'm comfortable to give it an a-tier it's never disappointed me and its action is as breathtaking in 2022 as it was in 1995. this next one though i think has a better story dragon ball z wrath of the dragon this was the single most disappointing film i've seen in this long list of films and not because i didn't like it i loved the movie not just for its breathtaking visuals not just for the incredible score but for its emotionally rich and uniquely dark narrative beats the relationship tapian shares with trunks as a stoic hero from another land dealing with an eager to please young talent is a story that's absolutely worth telling and absolutely engaging and this film does an incredible job of interweaving plot elements from within this film and even hints to other stories with the use of tapion's blade being handed down to trunks the movie is almost perfect it has everything going for it up until the last moment where goku literally comes out of nowhere to totally extinguish the emotional weight of the film for me at the end he had literally nothing to do with this story and in the end is the one to take the victory what is the significance of that decision i ask you after having delivered such a competent and engaging story for it to only fumble the balls so spectacularly at the finale causes a level of frustration and disappointment unrivaled by any other film in this franchise this would be an easy s tier but with this terrible ending i'm tempted to put it into b tier but i'll acquiesce and settle for an a-tier ranking it's very frustrating that does it for the dragon ball z films and on to the next one which is technically a gt film but it has nothing to do with gt it's the gtr team reworking the original dragon ball story in dragon ball path to power 1996. now i'm aware that i'm about to give a tremendous amount of praise for a film that straight up condenses a sizable portion of early dragon ball into an 80 minute runtime but i am but a simple human that loves dragon ball and to see this early section of the story get the love and attention it deserves complete with spectacular animation and art direction it's enough to make my heart sing i love this movie and to be honest it's one of the only films on this list i've since watched over and over it captures wonderfully what those early dragon ball chapters and arcs were like for me with some outstanding visuals that grant life not just the outstanding action sequences but throughout the film even in its quieter or more subdued moments it's not a unique story in the slightest but it weaves these plot points together seamlessly and in my opinion deserves to be in the eight tier okay um we're gonna talk about another uh officially licensed dragon ball film um dragon ball evolution 2009 this is a film that is dragon ball in name only none of the characterization is correct none of the themes tackled are remotely connected or tied to the original story and the script of the film itself was panned so harshly online that the writer actually apologized to the online masses sighting that he was at that point in his career just in a place that he needed the money i'm making a new tier for this one below d i'm gonna call it tier e the e isn't for evolution it's for excretion because this film is utter [ __ ] and now we finally arrive at the modern dragon ball material and it's time to kick things off in style with 2013's battle of gods having just created a new rank for the worst dragon ball film ever made we make our way to arguably the best when the announcement came that dragon ball was coming back with a canonical addition to the story in this film my excitement went through the roof and when it came out i was not disappointed this feels like dragon ball in every sense of the word and more than anything else also had the benefit of toriyama's direct involvement it has some superb animation spectacular characterization introduces a host of new characters that become incredibly important moving forward in the story and expanded the scope of what was possible for dragon ball to never before seen heights it's funny it's charming it's action-packed and it's a wonderful ending it's everything i want in a dragon ball film battle of gods is an easy s-tier film for me i wish i could say the same for resurrection f in 2015. unlike battle of gods i had a lot of problems with this movie not the least of which was it feeling as though it was retreading over already done material in an effort to make a quick cash grab surprisingly the super anime does some brilliant stuff with frieza later in its run but this film not so much this film is also almost entirely fighting with the majority of said fighting boring me half to death couple that with the ending and you have for yourself a very unsatisfying film in hindsight it's way better than whatever the hell that adaptation in super was but it's still not nearly as good as battle of gods for me it's between c and b tier but i'll put it in b tier for now next up dragon ball super broly 2018. some people love this movie and others not so much there's a wide range of opinions on this film but for me i honestly really liked it i think it easily has the best soundtrack of any dragon ball film that i've seen it manages to characterize and humanize a character that was lacking in both of those departments desperately turning him into a truly interesting character the animation is quite literally the best dragon ball has ever seen and the story has some interesting moments throughout for me i love goku and vegeta's dynamic and frieza is brilliantly devious in this one too it's also a funny movie whilst not utilizing a lot of humor the pockets or moments it steals away to do something quirky or funny are always enjoyable i've gone on the record and said that i wasn't a fan of dragon ball minus but even that material in this film hits in a much more satisfying way than the comic did additionally this movie focuses a lot on action which depending on what you want or might be looking for is a good or a bad thing for me i think the action goes on a smidge too long and i think if they had developed or expanded more beyond the fight itself it could have made this movie much more enjoyable for me with that said i think those are small gripes and my enjoyment experience while watching this film cannot be understated i think out of all the dragon ball movies i've watched this one the most the highs are extremely high but it does have its flaws in my opinion i want to put this in s tier but it just falls short for me the animation and action is absolutely ester but overall i'm thinking of putting this movie maybe at the top of a tier and finally that brings us to 2022 with dragon ball super super hero my formal review of this film will eventually come out once the film is released digitally for all of us to see and so right now i can't make a formal decision on where i would rank it but i do have friends that have seen the film and so for the purposes of this review i have asked them to share with me their thoughts on the film with a rank and the overall rank reached by these guys was estier although one of them did make sure to point out that it wasn't as good as battle of gods with them having some minor issues with it however those issues couldn't have made that much of a difference as this film still comes away with the s-tier ranking and for that reason among many others i'm excited to review this film later this year and so that's the video everyone i hope you all had fun i think i might do something less controversial next week like ranking all the one piece acts or something but until then i've been totally not mark and thank you all so much for watching [Music] you

Channel: Totally Not Mark

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Length: 28min 32sec (1712 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 25 2022