| Dragon Ball Z: Wrath Of The Dragon | |
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Japanese box art |
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| Directed by | Mitsuo Hashimoto |
| Screenplay by | Takao Koyama |
| Based on | Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama |
| Music by | Shunsuke Kikuchi |
| Cinematography | Masao Shimizu |
| Editing by | Shinichi Fukumitsu |
| Studio | Toei Animation |
| Distributed by | Toei Company |
| Release date(s) | July 15, 1995 |
| Running time | 51 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon, known in Japan as ドラゴンボールZ 龍拳爆発!!悟空がやらねば誰がやる (Doragon Bōru Zetto Ryū-Ken Bakuhatsu!! Gokū ga Yaraneba Dare ga Yaru, lit. "Dragon Ball Z: Dragon Fist Explosion!! If Gokū Can't Do It, Who Will"), is the thirteenth Dragon Ball Z feature movie. It was originally released in Japan on July 15, 1995 at Toei Anime Fair, where it was shown along with the Slam Dunk movie Hoero Basukettoman Tamashii!! Hanamichi to Rukawa no Atsuki Natsu and the movie version of Ninku. A later English adaptation was produced by FUNimation and released on home video in the United States on September 12, 2006. Funimation re-released the film to DVD and Blu-ray on May 19, 2009. The movie focus primarily on Trunks and his brotherly relationship with the protagonist, Tapion.
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The movie begins with a young boy on a distant planet frantically searching his current area, sword at the ready. Suddenly a loud noise alerts him that the thing he was searching for is behind him. However, it is too late to react as the young boy is smashed under the foot of a giant creature. Off in the distance, a villainous laugh can be heard.
The movie then cuts to Earth as a bank robbery is happening. The bank robbers are getting away when Great Saiyaman, Gohan's superhero alter ego, stops the car with his foot and smashes the front end flinging the felons out the car to confront Great Saiyaman II, Videl's superhero alias (she is called the Great Saiyawoman in the English dub). They apprehend the felons and turn them in to the police, all the while being spied on by some strange old man in the shadows. A short while later, they are summoned again from their school to rescue an old man who wants to commit suicide. When Gohan and Videl arrive on the scene, they discover that he is the same man who had been spying on them. After rescuing him, the old man introduces himself as Hoi and tells the two about the legendary warrior Tapion and that he needs their help in releasing him from the music box he is being held in, as the Earth would be endangered if he were not released. Gohan tries to open the box with his massive strength but to no avail. The old man tells them he knows of the Dragon Balls, and advises the couple to use them to open the box. They agree to bring the box to Bulma's home first to see if there was another way to open the mysterious box, not knowing that Hoi had other plans on his mind.
They arrive at Bulma's house with Goku, Goten, and Krillin. After analyzing the box, Goku tries his hand at opening the box but he cannot open it either. So it is decided to gather the Dragon Balls and summon Shenron to see if he can open it. After summoning Shenron, Tapion is released and the music box shatters into pieces. Angry at the fact that he was released, Tapion demands that he be resealed in the box, impossible due to the damage done by his emergence. A furious Tapion storms off, determined to stay alone in order to hide the fact he was holding the upper half of the creature called the Hirudegarn in his body. He isolates himself in a dilapidated building. The warrior is visited regularly by Trunks, who has taken a liking to him and brings him food, but Tapion refuses to eat and rebuffs Trunks' attempts to bond with him. Trunks only becomes more determined to crack the loner's icy exterior, as he sees in Tapion what Goten has in Gohan, something he never had (and presumably lost when Gohan started dating Videl): an older brother.
Shortly after Tapion is released, Hirudegarn's lower half starts to wreck West City. Gohan and Videl arrive at the scene to investigate, but shortly after they arrive, they are almost swept away by the monster's tail. They execute their Great Saiyaman poses, however Hirudegarn's legs are not impressed; he throws the two heroes to opposite sides of the street. Gohan, with Videl's support, immediately counter-attacks. After the short battle, Videl thinks Gohan has won, but Gohan says it isn't over yet. Tapion comes to aid Gohan and Videl by playing a magical tune on his ocarina, weakening Hirudegarn's bottom half, causing it to vanish. Leaving the battlefield, Tapion comes to believe that Hoy has already killed Minosha, Tapion's younger brother.
Later on, while Trunks is again visiting Tapion, Hoy attempts to steal the ocarina from Tapion. Hoy is confronted by Trunks. The devious Hoy tells Trunks that Tapion is the true monster. The young Saiyan doesn't believe him, and instead gives the instrument back to Tapion. Tapion then befriends Trunks, and asks him to dine with him. Tapion is invited by Trunks to stay at Capsule Corporation. While there, Tapion explains the whole story to Bulma.
Tapion starts his story beginning thousands of years ago. On Konack, a planet in the southern galaxy of the universe, a group of black magicians, the Kash-phar, use a spell on a statue to bring the monster it depicted to life. The monster, Hirudegarn, goes on a rampage and kills everyone who tries to get in his way, devastating the planet. Two young heroes, Tapion and his brother Minosha, manage to freeze the monster in his tracks by each playing their divine ocarina, giving a priest the opportunity to cut the monster in half with a divine sword. Since Hirudegarn can't be killed at the time, his upper-half is sealed in Tapion and the other half in Minosha. However, fearing that the monster might reappear someday, the brothers are separated, each sealed in a music box, and shot into opposite ends of the galaxy. The music box holding Tapion lands on Earth. Soon after, Hoy, one of the Kash-phar, becomes determined to resurrect the monster to rule the universe. He releases Hirudegarn's lower half on a distant planet and easily disposes of Minosha, with the monster crushed the young warrior underfoot. Now on Earth, Hoy plans to unite the Hirudegarn's body and release the creature on Earth.
After hearing Tapion's story, Bulma decides to create a room based on the broken music box design and the music the ocarina produces so that Tapion can finally rest.
Tapion tries sleeping inside the new chamber, but he has a terrible nightmare that causes him to destroy the chamber. At the same time, Hirudegarn's lower half is once again wreaking havoc, as he draws many men and women into his tail to devour their life energy. The next morning Goku, Gohan, Goten, and Videl arrive at Bulma's house to inspect the destroyed chamber. Tapion appears suddenly, warning everyone the lower half of the creature is on the loose. To stop the creature from uniting its body he asks the group to kill him, in turn killing the creature's upper half. Then however Hoy and the lower half of the Hirudegarn appear to stop anyone from killing Tapion. When Tapion is about to play the tone from the ocarina, the power of the lower half being so close to Tapion causes the upper half in Tapion's body to react and release itself. Hoy succeeds in his plans, and with the monster back together, he believes nothing can stop him. A battle begins. Goten transforms into his Super Saiyan form, Goku transforms into his Super Saiyan 2 form, and Gohan powers up to his Ultimate Gohan form to do battle. They launch their counterattack, but are quickly beaten since the monster can easily dodge by teleporting and countering their attacks. Gohan is grabbed and just before he is about to be squeezed into a pulp by Hirudegarn, Vegeta saves him by firing a ki blast at Hirudegarn's arm and proceeds to fight. He transforms into a Super Saiyan 2. After a brief fight Vegeta is thrown into a nearby building but is knocked out after he saves the people in the building from Hirudegarn's flame attack by using all his powers to create a barrier strong enough to withstand the attack. Goku comes in to help but still is unable to beat the monster and is knocked out. Goten and Trunks become Gotenks with the Fusion Dance. Gotenks, now a Super Saiyan 3, seems to be enough to fight the monster and fires his Die Die Missile Barrage attack at the monster. Hirudegarn is believed to be dead or at least neutralized but the attack only causes him to evolve into his second, more powerful form. Now in his new insect-like form, Hirudegarn mows Gotenks down to the ground and splits Gotenks back into Goten and Trunks. Gohan and Videl are then thrown into a building and Goku into some rubble. However, Goku isn't out and keeps on fighting with all his might.
Just then, Tapion plays the ocarina again and manages to seal Hirudegarn inside himself. He then asks Trunks to kill him with his own sword, which will destroy the trapped monster. Trunks hesitates at first, but is about to do as requested when Hirudegarn breaks free. His ocarina is destroyed in the process. Hoy (who's been watching the whole fight) mocks Tapion for being so foolish, but is killed as Hirudegarn steps on and crushes him. Just then Goku reappears in his powerful Super Saiyan 3 form and a battle begins between Goku and the Hirudegarn. Nevertheless, Trunks tries to fight Hirudegarn too with Tapion's sword and manages to cut off the monster's tail, but Goku stops Trunks. Gohan yells at Goku about Hirudegarn's weakness which Goku has already seen and uses his Dragon Fist to pierce through Hirudegarn, obliterating the monster.
With the monster gone for good, Tapion uses Bulma's time machine to go back to his own planet, after giving his sword to Trunks.
Tapion (タピオン Tapion) is the main protagonist of Wrath of the Dragon and the hero who fought Hirudegarn. He was from a planet called Konats and is famed for being a "Legendary Warrior" there. Thousands of years ago, Tapion and his younger brother Minotia were ordinary Konatsians, living on the peaceful planet of Konats. However, one day, a group of black magicians known as the Kashvar performed an ancient ritual that revived a statue, the ruthless and enormous monster Hirudegarn. With no sense of reason, Hirudegarn would eventually use his incredible power to destroy the planet Konats. During the battle between Hirudegarn and the Konatsians, Tapion and Minotia used their special ocarinas to hold Hirudegarn at bay. Given this opportunity, a wizard brandished an enchanted sword and used it to slice Hirudegarn in half. Tapion, Minotia and the wizard were then known as Great Heroes among the Konatsians. To ensure Hirudegarn's eternal imprisonment, Tapion and Minotia agreed to have their bodies guard each spirit of Hirudegarn (his top half went to Tapion and his bottom half to Minotia). They were then enclosed in mystical music boxes, and dispatched to the distant places of the galaxy. Minotia was sent to an unknown planet, while Tapion was sent to Earth. Unfortunately, a Kashvar named Hoi, would go off in search for Tapion and Minotia's music boxes in order to free them and unleash Hirudegarn once again. Hoi plotted to use Hirudegarn's destructive powers to take over the universe. With the help of the Z Fighters (Goku, Gohan, Videl, Krillin, Goten,Vegeta and Trunks) and Shenron, Hoi managed to free Tapion from the music box (Hoi had not revealed his true intentions to the Z Warriors). But Tapion, furious, stormed off, determined to stay alone in order to ensure the imprisonment of Hirudegarn's top half. He was visited regularly by Trunks, who had taken a liking to him and brought him food, but Tapion refused to eat and always shunned Trunks away. Later on, while Trunks was visiting Tapion, Hoi attempted to steal the flute from Tapion and tell Trunks that Tapion was the true monster, but Trunks didn't believe him, and instead gave the flute back to Tapion. Tapion then befriends Trunks, and asked him to dine with him. Tapion and Trunks then formed a friendship, and Tapion was invited to stay at Capsule Corporation, by Trunks. Tapion explained the whole story to Bulma, and she announced that she would try to re-create the broken music box so that Tapion could finally rest, much to Tapion's delight. After Hirudegarn was let loose and reformed, Tapion gave Trunks his sword and asked Trunks to kill him in order to kill Hirudegarn. However, Trunks could not kill Tapion, but was persuaded by Tapion to do so. To go home, Tapion used a Time Machine (similar to the one used by Future Trunks) to travel back to Konats. As a gift, Tapion gives his sword to Trunks, and went 1000 years back in time to his home, and never to be seen or mentioned again.
Hirudegarn (ヒルデガーン Hirudegān) is an enormous monster, and the major threat in the movie Wrath of the Dragon. He is a simple-minded monster that destroys everything and kills anyone in his path. The ancient and gigantic monster Hirudegarn existed thousands of years prior to the events of the series, on an Earth-like planet in the Southern Galaxy named Konats. He started the Hirudegarn War, killing many Konats, but is turned to stone after hearing the notes of an ocarina. Since Hirudegarn couldn't be killed at the time, his upper half was sealed in Tapion and the other half in Minotia and in this way the brothers became legends. However, fearing that the Kashvar would try to revive the monster again someday, the brothers were separated, each sealed in a music box by the wizard, and were then shot into opposite ends of the farthest galaxies, far away from each other by the Konats war council, with the music box holding Tapion landing on Earth. The wizard vowed to release the brothers once the Kashvar were brought to justice, and it is assumed that the Kashvar were hunted down over time. A thousand years later in the present, the last of the Kashvar, Hoi, had vowed to resurrect the monster to cleanse the universe of all who were not Kashvars. He released Hirudegarn's lower half on a distant planet and easily disposed of Minotia, who was crushed under the foot of the monster. Upon Minotia's death, Hoi sealed the lower half inside himself to summon at his leisure. On Earth however, he switched to a more tactical plan and spied on Gohan (as the Great Saiyaman) and Videl (as the Great Saiyawoman as they fought crime. Both were summoned from their school again to rescue Hoi, who was pretending to be suicidal to gain their trust and sympathy. Hoi then told the two about the legendary warrior, Tapion. Hirudegarn wrecks havoc in Satan City after his upper half and bottom half are accidentally sealed together, but he is killed by Goku's Dragon Fist after transforming multiple times.
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