Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler

Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler
Funimation DVD cover
Directed by	Daisuke Nishio
Produced by	Chiaki Imada Rikizô Kayano
Written by	Story: Akira Toriyama Screenplay: Takao Koyama
Starring	See Cast
Music by	Shunsuke Kikuchi
Distributed by	Toei Company
Release dates	March 7, 1992
Running time	46 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Cantonese, English and Japanese
Box office	¥2.48 billion (US$19.2 million)

Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler, known in Japan as Dragon Ball Z: Clash!! The Power of 10 Billion Warriors (Japanese: ドラゴンボールZ 激突!!100億パワーの戦士たち, Hepburn: Doragon Bōru Zetto Gekitotsu!! Hyaku-Oku Pawā no Senshi-tachi), is the sixth Dragon Ball Z movie, originally released in Japan on March 7, 1992 at the Toei Anime Fair along with the second Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibōken and the third Magical Tarurūto-kun movie. It was released on DVD in the United States on August 13, 2002. It also had a special theater presentation as part of a double-feature with Fusion Reborn on March 17, 2006. These movies are the first Dragon Ball-related movies to receive a theatrical release in the United States. This film, alongside Cooler's Revenge, was re-released to DVD and Blu-ray in a double feature on November 11, 2008. It was later re-released to DVD again on December 6, 2011 in a remastered 4-pack with the next three films in the series.^[1]

Plot

A few years prior, the tyrant Frieza destroyed the Planet Namek during his battle with the newly transformed Super Saiyan Goku. The peaceful Namekians found themselves without a home for months. Eventually they had a new planet created for them with the help of the Dragon Balls. For three years or so they lived in peace on their new planet. One day however, a strange metal planet began to absorb New Namek. The silver planet wrapped around New Namek, absorbing its energy. Dende, who is now the Earth's guardian, senses the plight of his people and calls Goku to ask for help.

Goku, Gohan, Krillin, Piccolo, Oolong, Yajirobe and Master Roshi arrive and encounter an army of strange, large, silent robots. They soon learn, to their horror, that the mastermind behind the invasion is Cooler, Frieza's older brother, who Goku was thought to have killed a few years earlier and who now plans to use the Namekians as biological fuel for his ship, the Big Gete Star. Goku fights Cooler alone, while the other Z-Fighters battle Cooler's robots.

At first the Z-Warriors have trouble penetrating the robots' armor, but Piccolo instructs them to concentrate their energy to one point, and doing so allows them to destroy a few of the robots. However, there are far too many to handle and all the warriors, except Piccolo, are captured along with a village of Namekians. Piccolo is left behind, and destroys all the robots. He then makes his way to rescue those who were captured.

Elsewhere, it becomes apparent that Goku is no match for Cooler's new metallic form which gives him the ability to regenerate himself. Cooler also reveals his ability to use the Instantaneous Movement technique, which Goku also uses. Goku continues to struggle even after becoming a Super Saiyan. Cooler reveals that the Big Gete Star constantly monitors his body, and fixes any damage it might incur, in this case Cooler's arm being torn off by Goku.

Just before Goku is choked to death by Cooler, Vegeta, who had arrived in a separate pod, shows up just in time to help Goku. The two Super Saiyans attack Cooler and they soon are able to kill him. However, the Big Gete Star now recreates not just one, but a thousand physical manifestations of Cooler's consciousness, tipping the balance of power decisively against the Saiyans. Outnumbered and exhausted, Goku and Vegeta are captured and transported to the spaceship's core to be used as energy.

As Cooler is leeching their Saiyan strength via strange wires, he snidely explains his manner of survival: not long after his defeat at Goku's hands, a nearby computer chip floated among a debris of spacecraft until it gained sentience and absorbed everything in its proximity and formed a spaceship. At one point, Cooler's remains, including pieces of his brain, were fused with the main computer allowing him to subsequently take control, effectively becoming one with the Big Gete Star. Goku and Vegeta regain consciousness and release all their Super Saiyan energy to the wires, overloading the system. They then come face to face with the supercomputer's core, the true Cooler. Cooler attempts to crush Goku, but his hand is severed by Vegeta, giving Goku enough time to blast him with the last of his energy, causing the android's ultimate demise. Meanwhile, Piccolo arrives in the fortress, and meets up with a clone of Cooler, which explodes. Eventually, all the other clones of Cooler and every other robot explode. Piccolo and the rest escape before the Big Gete Star leaves New Namek's orbit and explodes.

Goku and Vegeta fall from the sky near the rest of the Z-Fighters, and everyone rejoices. Vegeta is nowhere to be found, but Goku still compliments him for his role in defeating Cooler. Vegeta is shown in his spacepod holding the computer chip that created the Big Gete Star. He then crushes it, ensuring that it will never create another monstrosity like Meta-Cooler ever again.

Cast

A fourth English dub released in Malaysia by Speedy Video features an unknown cast.

Music

• OP (Opening Theme):
  • "CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA"
    • Lyrics by Yukinojō Mori
    • Music by Chiho Kiyooka
    • Arranged by Kenji Yamamoto
    • Performed by Hironobu Kageyama
• ED (Ending Theme):
  • HERO (Kimi ga Hīrō) (HERO(キミがヒーロー)^?, "Hero (You’re The Hero)")
    • Lyrics by Dai Satō
    • Music by Chiho Kiyooka
    • Arranged by Kenji Yamamoto
    • Performed by Hironobu Kageyama and Yuka

English dub soundtracks

The score for the Funimation English language version was composed by Mark Menza. The remastered release contains an alternate audio track containing the English dialogue and Japanese background music.

References

External links

• Official anime website of Toei Animation
• Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler at the Internet Movie Database
• Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia