Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon

Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon

Japanese box art
Directed by Mitsuo Hashimoto
Screenplay by Takao Koyama
Based on Dragon Ball 
by Akira Toriyama
Music by Shunsuke Kikuchi
Cinematography Masao Shimizu
Edited by Shinichi Fukumitsu
Production
company
Distributed by Toei Company
Release dates
  • July 15, 1995
Running time
 51 minutes
Country Japan
Language Japanese
Box office ¥1.10 billion ($12.2 million)

Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon, known in Japan as Dragon Ball Z: Dragon Fist Explosion!! If Goku Can't Do It, Who Will? (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), is the thirteenth Dragon Ball Z feature movie. It was originally released in Japan on July 15, 1995 at the Toei Anime Fair, and later dubbed into English by FUNimation in 2006.

Set after the events of the final battle with Majin Buu, the film focuses on the efforts of an evil magician, Hoi, to release the deadly monster Hirudegarn onto the Earth, forcing Goku and the Z Fighters to enlist the aid of a warrior named Tapion, who may be the only one capable of defeating the monster.

Plot

On a distant planet, a young alien boy frantically searches his surroundings, sword at the ready, but before he can react, he is crushed by a giant foot while someone laughs maniacally in the background.

On Earth, Gohan and Videl (as the Great Saiyaman I and II) are summoned to the city to rescue an old, alien-like man trying to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge. Once they rescue him and take him elsewhere, the man introduces himself as Hoi and presents them with a music box, inside which he claims a hero named Tapion is trapped, and may be the Earth's last chance against an approaching evil. When even Goku fails to open the music box, the Z Fighters gather the Dragon Balls and ask Shenron to open it for them. Tapion is released, but expresses anger at Hoi and Goku for freeing him, explaining that inside him is the essence of half of the ferocious monster, Hirudegarn, before fleeing into isolation. Trunks, however, takes an instant liking to Tapion, and frequently sneaks off to his location to bring him food, despite Tapion angrily telling him to leave him alone.

Shortly afterwards, the lower half of Hirudegarn appears and begins attacking the city. Gohan and Videl rush to the city's aid, but are unable to deal any damage until Tapion appears, playing a mysterious tune on an ocarina which weakens Hirudegarn and causes him to vanish. Later on, however, while Trunks is bringing Tapion some food, Hoi suddenly appears and tries to steal Tapion's ocarina. Hoi claims that Tapion himself is the evil threat to the Earth and that the ocarina must be destroyed for them to stop Tapion. In the ensuing scuffle, Trunks gets hold of the ocarina, but chooses to believe Tapion and returns it to him, while Hoi flees. Tapion accepts Trunks as a friend and is invited to the Capsule Corp. compound. While there, he explains his story to Bulma: a thousand years ago, an evil race of alien magicians, the Kashvaar, who at sometime proclaimed themselves as the superior race and set out to destroy all life different from their own in the universe by awakening an ancient monster known as Hirudegarn. Their conquest eventually brought them to the planet Konats, Tapion's homeworld. During the ensuing battle, a Konatsian priest discovered a magic sword and two ocarinas capable of stopping Hirudegarn. Tapion and his younger brother Minosha kept Hirudegarn at bay with the ocarinas while the priest cleaved the monster in half with the sword. In the aftermath, in order to ensure Hirudegarn would never again be released, the Konatsian War Council decided to seal Hirudegarn's two halves away inside Tapion and Minosha, magically seal them inside music boxes, and send them to the opposite sides of the universe until the Kashvaar were brought to justice. Hoi, who is the last of the Kashvaar, has already killed Minosha (as seen in the prologue), and now seeks out Tapion in order to complete Hirudegarn and conquer the universe. Bulma offers to build Tapion a bedroom using the components of the music box so that Tapion can sleep without Hirudegarn escaping from him.

However, while sleeping, a nightmare causes Tapion to accidentally destroy the bedroom. Hirudegarn's lower half reappears and starts attacking. In desperation, Tapion begs Goku and the others to kill him in order to destroy Hirudegarn's upper half, but it is too late and the monster is released. A fierce battle between the Z Fighters and Hirudegarn erupts, with none of the fighters able to keep up with the monster's strength and speed. Trunks and Goten fuse in to Super Saiyan 3 Gotenks and bombard Hirudegarn with energy blasts, apparently burning him to death, but Hirudegarn transforms into a much faster and more powerful form and makes quick work of Gotenks (defusing him in the process) and the rest of the Z Fighters. Tapion appears and seals Hirudegarn inside himself again by playing the ocarina, and asks Trunks to slay him and destroy Hirudegarn forever. Trunks hesitates, and Hirudegarn escapes again, destroying the ocarina. As Hoi watches and gloats over his apparent victory, In an Ironic twist, Hoi is stepped on and is crushed (the same way Minosha was killed) by the monster he believed would destroy all life different than his own. By now, the only fighter left standing is Goku, who refuses to surrender. In desperation, Goku transforms into a Super Saiyan 3 and starts taunting Hirudegarn, angering the monster further. As Goku and Hirudegarn battle, Trunks intervenes and cuts Hirudegarn's tail off with Tapion's sword, Goku soon realizes that intense emotions drain Hirudgarn's energy. So he angers the monster up to a point his defensive armor is useless. With Hirudegarn temporarily weakened, Goku uses his Dragon Fist attack to pierce through the monster, obliterating Hirudegarn once and for all.

In the aftermath, Tapion uses Bulma's time machine to return to Konats. Bulma promises to revive all of Hirudegarn's victims with the Dragon Balls. Before leaving, Tapion presents Trunks with his sword as a farewell gift. In the ending credits, Future Trunks is shown slaying Frieza, King Cold and their men with his own sword, almost identical to Tapion's.

New characters

Tapion

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, Goten, Videl, 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. As Trunks was about to kill Tapion, Hirudegarn awakened one last time, ultimately being destroyed by Goku. After his fight was over, 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 one thousand years back in time to his home, never to be seen or mentioned again.

Tapion is voiced by 優希 比呂 in the Japanese dub and Jason Liebrecht in the FUNimation dub.

Hirudegarn

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 wreaks 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 to Super Saiyan 3.

Hoi

Hoi searched far and wide to find the enchanted music boxes that contained Tapion and Minotia. The evil mage manages to find Minotia on a distant planet and frees him, after which Hirudegarn's lower half materializes and kills the boy by crushing him under one of its feet. Off in the distance, Hoi's villainous laugh can be heard during Minotia's death. After his arrival on Earth, Hoi tries to jump out of a building while knowing that Gohan and Videl (as the two Great Saiyamen) would come to his rescue. Then, he proceeds to tell them about Tapion as well as a "crisis that threatens Earth", the "crisis" caused by an "evil" that "will ravage earth [...] consuming all" (Hirudegarn). With this information, he was able to trick the Z Fighters into helping him release Tapion (and Hirudegarn's top half). After failed attempts by Bulma's technical expertise and Goku's sheer strength, the Z Fighters locate the Dragon Balls, and they use them at Capsule Corporation to summon Shenron and release Tapion from his confinement. Even after Tapion is released (showing the truth behind his claims of Tapion's existence), both Gohan and Videl (Videl in particular, who never trusted Hoi to begin with) feel that Hoi is still hiding something from them.

That night, Hoi unleashes the bottom half of Hirudegarn on Satan City (even while not being the whole monster, it was causing massive devastation), with armed forces and eventually Gohan and Videl (as the two Great Saiyamen) attempting to stop its devastating rampage. However, Gohan and Videl are only able to cause minor damage to lower half of Hirudegarn and it is only Tapion who is able to cause the monster's lower half to retreat. Gohan and Videl do catch a glimpse of Hoi as he heads to Tapion's location. Later, while Trunks was visiting Tapion, Hoi attempts to steal the Hero's Flute (to destroy it, to prevent Tapion from keeping Hirudegarn sealed away) and tells Trunks that Tapion is the true monster, but Trunks does not believe him and instead gives the flute back to Tapion. Even later that night, Tapion tells Bulma about Hoi's history: about being a member of the Kashvar, their belief in their supremacy in the universe, their systematic attempts to exterminate all races different from their own (believing them inferior and unworthy) and their attempted genocide of the people of Konats (Tapion saying that Hoi along with the other Kashvar), was responsible for the slaughter of half of his entire race, using Hirudegarn as a weapon of extermination). After Hirudegarn was defeated by being horizontally cleaved in two, the two halfs were confined inside the two brothers, who were further placed within a pair of music boxes which were sealed and sent to the opposite ends of the farthest galaxies. Bulma expresses anger at Hoi's actions, including his involvement in the possible murder of Minotia. Tapion explains that as long as he stays awake, Hoi cannot free the upper half of Hirudegarn (which is why he had little to no sleep between being freed till this point in time). Bulma tells Tapion that she will build him a chamber that functions the same as the music box, to allow him to sleep while also keeping Hirudegarn's top half contained, preventing Hoi from assembling the complete monster (only asking in return that he spend time with Trunks, something Tapion is happy to do, having grown fond of the boy). The next night, Hoi unleashes Hirudegarn's lower half on West City once again. This time, the evil wizard allows Hirudegarn to consume humans around the city by absorbing them through his tail. He expresses his contempt for humanity and his intention to bring the universe under his control. He later attempts to free the upper half, but Tapion is able to keep it from escaping. Hoi then brings the lower half to Tapion's location. As Tapion explains, the closer the two halves are to each other, the more powerful each becomes and the stronger the attraction between them (the harder the effort to prevent them from rejoining at close proximity).

After finally reassembling the complete Hirudegarn, Hoi orders the monster to extinguish all human life on Earth. It is at this point that he reveals that he is the last Kashvar alive. When Tapion plays his ocarina to weaken Hirudegarn, Hoi mocks his efforts and claims that it will not save him any more than it did Minotia, revealing that Minotia is indeed dead by his hand. After the efforts of Super Saiyan 2 Vegeta, Ultimate Gohan, Super Saiyan 3 Gotenks and Super Saiyan 2 Goku seem to be unable to destroy Hirudegarn and put an end to its ruinous rampage, Hoi begins laughing madly, commanding Hirudegarn to continue destroying the inhabitants of Earth. However, Tapion makes a last ditch effort to stop the monster and begins playing his ocarina to weaken it. Hoi scorns Tapion, but becomes shocked when not only is Hirudegarn unable to harm Tapion but is weakened enough to be temporarily sealed within Tapion in entirety. Tapion then asks Trunks to strike his heart with his sword, willing to sacrifice his own life to ensure Hirudegarn's demise. When Trunks seems as though he is going to carry out Tapion's tragic request, Hoi leaps in to action to prevent this. However, Trunks' distraught at the prospect of having to kill a friend, causes him to hesitate enough to allow Hirudegarn time to escape. Hoi arrogantly states that he is solely entitled to control Hirudegarn along with all "inferior creatures" that "pollute" the universe which belongs to him. He then orders Hirudegarn to "slaughter them all". Unfortunately for him, Hoi is killed by Hirudegarn when the monster inadvertently crushes him under his foot, thus killing the last of the Kashvars. Hirudegarn is slain by Goku shortly afterwards, bringing a permanent end to the threat that Hoi and his race started in the first place.

Music

ED

The score for the English-language version was composed by Nathan Johnson; however the remastered release contains an alternate audio track containing the English dialogue and Japanese background music.

External links

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References