Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon

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, Dragon Ball Z Ryū-Ken Bakuhatsu!! Gokū ga Yaraneba Dare ga Yaru) or by Toei's own English title Dragon Ball Z: Explosion of Dragon Punch, is a 1995 Japanese animated science fantasy martial arts film and the thirteenth Dragon Ball Z feature movie. It was originally released in Japan on July 15 at the Toei Anime Fair. It was later dubbed into English by Funimation in 2006, just like most of the other Dragon Ball films. It was also released on VCD in Malaysia by Speedy Video with the subtitle Explosion of Dragon Punch.

Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon
Japanese box art
Directed byMitsuo Hashimoto
Written byTakao Koyama
Based onDragon Ball
by Akira Toriyama
StarringSee below
Music byShunsuke Kikuchi
CinematographyMasao Shimizu
Edited byShinichi Fukumitsu
Production
company
Distributed byToei Company
Release date
  • July 15, 1995 (1995-07-15) (Japan)
Running time
52 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese
Box office¥2.3 billion (est.)

Set after the events of the final battle with Kid Buu, the film focuses on the efforts of an evil magician, Hoi, to release the deadly monster Hirudegarn onto the Earth, forcing Goku and his friends to enlist the aid of a warrior named Tapion, who may be the only one capable of defeating the monster. Series creator Akira Toriyama designed the Tapion and Minotia characters.[1]

Plot

On a distant planet, a young alien boy frantically searches his surroundings, sword at the ready. Before he can even react, he is crushed to death by the foot of a gigantic creature (which only appears to have a lower-half). The creature disappears and an unseen person laughs and announces that his next stop is Earth.

On Earth, Gohan and Videl (as the Great Saiyaman and Great Saiyaman 2, respectively) are summoned to the city to stop an old, alien-like man from committing suicide by jumping off a tower. 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 immediate 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. Hirudegarn has an intangible body, but Gohan figures out that it becomes solid while attacking and can only be damaged in counterattacks. The two struggle in battle 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 grabs 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 Corporation compound. While there, he explains his story to Bulma: a thousand years ago, an evil race of alien magicians, the Kashvaar, 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 Minotia 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 Minotia, magically seal them inside music boxes and send them to opposite ends of the universe until the Kashvaar were brought to justice. Hoi, who is the last surviving Kashvaar, has already killed Minotia (as seen in the prologue), and now seeks out Tapion in order to complete Hirudegarn's revival 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's revival is completed. A fierce battle between the Z-Fighters and Hirudegarn ensues, with none of the fighters being able to keep up with the monster's strength and speed. Vegeta shows up to help Goku and the Z-Fighters, but is ultimately knocked out by Hirudegarn. Trunks and Goten fuse into Super Saiyan 3 Gotenks and bombard Hirudegarn with energy blasts, apparently burning him to death, but Hirudegarn transforms into a much faster and 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, he is stepped on and crushed to death (the same way Minotia 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 provoking Hirudegarn to attack him, since he cannot be damaged whole not attacking. As Goku and Hirudegarn battle, Trunks intervenes and cuts Hirudegarn's tail off with Tapion's sword, weakening it substantially. Goku takes the force of a punch from Hirudegarn, making the latter completely solid. With Hirudegarn vulnerable, Goku uses his Dragon Fist attack to pierce through the monster, obliterating Hirudegarn and ending his terror once and for all.

In the aftermath, Tapion uses Bulma's time machine to return to Konats, while 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 a sword similar to the one Tapion gave him.

New characters

Tapion

Tapion (タピオン, Tapion) is 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 Kashvaar performed an ancient ritual that revived the ruthless and enormous monster Hirudegarn. With no sense of reason, Hirudegarn used his incredible power to lay waste to 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 half 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 opposite ends of the universe. Minotia was sent to an unknown planet, while Tapion was sent to Earth. Unfortunately, a Kashvaar 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, and Trunks) and Shenron, Hoi managed to free Tapion from the music box (Hoi had not revealed his true intentions to the Z-Fighters). A furious Tapion 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 ocarina 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 hang out with him. Tapion and Trunks then formed a friendship, and Tapion was eventually invited to stay at Capsule Corporation. Tapion explained his whole backstory to Bulma, and she announced that she would try to recreate the broken music box so that Tapion could finally rest, much to Tapion's delight. After Hirudegarn was let loose and revived, 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 Super Saiyan 3 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 gave his sword to Trunks and went one thousand years back in time to his home, never to be seen or mentioned again.

Hirudegarn

Hirudegarn (ヒルデガーン, Hirudegān) is an enormous monster, and the main antagonist of 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 was turned to stone after hearing the notes of an ocarina. Since Hirudegarn couldn't be killed at the time, his upper half was sealed inside Tapion and the other half inside Minotia. However, fearing that the Kashvaar would try to revive the monster again someday, the brothers were separated, each sealed in a music box by the wizard, and were then sent to opposite ends of the universe, 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 Kashvaar were brought to justice, and it is assumed that the Kashvaar were hunted down over time. A thousand years later in the present, the last of the Kashvaar, Hoi, had vowed to resurrect the monster to cleanse the universe of all who were not Kashvaars. 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 own 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 he is fully revived by Hoi, but he is killed by Goku's Dragon Fist after the latter transforms into a 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 maniacal laugh can be heard during Minotia's death. After his arrival on Earth, Hoi tries to jump off a building while knowing that Gohan and Videl (as the Great Saiyaman and Great Saiyawoman, respectively) would come to his rescue. He then 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 thus 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 attempting to stop its devastating rampage. However, Gohan and Videl are only able to cause minor damage to the lower half of Hirudegarn and it is only through Tapion that the monster's lower half is forced 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 ocarina (to destroy it and 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 ocarina back to Tapion. Later that night, Tapion tells Bulma about Hoi's history: about being a member of the Kashvaar, their belief in their supremacy in the universe, their systematic attempts to exterminate all races different from their own (believing them to be inferior and unworthy) and their attempted genocide of the people of Konats (Tapion saying that Hoi, along with the other Kashvaar, was responsible for the slaughter of half of his entire race, using Hirudegarn as a weapon of mass destruction). After Hirudegarn was defeated by being horizontally cleaved in two, the two halves were confined inside the two brothers, who were further placed within a pair of music boxes which were then sealed and sent to the opposite ends of the universe. Bulma expresses anger at Hoi's actions, including his involvement in the 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 until 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 reviving 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 Kashvaar 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 scolds 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 final request, Hoi leaps into action to prevent this. However, Trunks' distress at the prospect of having to kill a friend causes him to hesitate long enough to allow Hirudegarn 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 "massacre 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 Kashvaars. Hirudegarn is slain by Super Saiyan 3 Goku shortly afterwards, bringing a permanent end to the threat that Hoi and his race started in the first place.

Cast
Character name Japanese voice actor English voice actor
GokuMasako NozawaSean Schemmel
GohanKyle Hebert
GotenKara Edwards
TapionHiro YuukiJason Liebrecht
VegetaRyou HorikawaChristopher R. Sabat
TrunksTakeshi KusaoLaura Bailey
BulmaHiromi TsuruTiffany Vollmer
KrillinMayumi TanakaSonny Strait
VidelYuko MinaguchiKara Edwards
Master RoshiMasaharu SatōMike McFarland
MinotiaSachi MatsumotoAaron Dismuke
HirudegarnShin AomoriRobert Howard McCollum
ShenronMasaharu SatōChris Sabat
HoiShigeharu MatsudaTripp Fontaine
GotenksMasako Nozawa
Takeshi Kusao		Kara Edwards
Laura Bailey
OolongNaoki TatsutaBradford Jackson
NarratorJōji YanamiKyle Hebert

A second English dub produced and released exclusively in Malaysia by Speedy Video features an unknown voice cast.

Music
  • IN (Insert Song):
    • Yūsha no Fue ~Tapion no Tēma~ (勇者の笛～タピオンのテーマ～, "Whistle of the Brave ~Tapion's Theme~")
      • Lyrics by Yukinojō Mori
      • Music by Tetsuji Hayashi
      • Arranged by Osamu Totsuka
      • Performed by Susumu Ōya
  • ED (Ending Theme):

Funimation dub soundtrack

The score for the English language version by Funimation was composed by Nathan M. Johnson. He learned to play the ocarina for Tapion's theme. The remastered release contains an alternate audio track containing the English dub with original Japanese background music by Shunsuke Kikuchi.

Releases

Box office

At the Japanese box office, the film sold 2.4 million tickets and earned a net distribution rental income of ¥1 billion,[2] equivalent to estimated gross receipts of approximately ¥2.3 billion[3] ($24 million).[4]

Home media

It was released on DVD in North America on September 12, 2006, It was later digitally remastered and released in a final Double Feature set with Fusion Reborn on Blu-ray and DVD on May 19, 2009. The film was re-released to DVD on January 3, 2012 in a remastered box set containing the final four Dragon Ball Z movies.

In the United States, the DVD release has grossed $4,770,466 in sales, as of 2014.[5]

References
  1. DRAGON BALL 大全集 6: MOVIES & TV SPECIALS (in Japanese). Shueisha. 1995. pp. 212–216. ISBN 4-08-782756-9.
  2. "予約特典・ドラゴンボール最強への道・劇場版ご近所物語A5サイズ前売特典冊子". Dragon Ball: The Path to Power brochure (in Japanese). Toei Animation. 1996.
  3. "Statistics of Film Industry in Japan". Eiren. Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan. 1995. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  4. "Official exchange rate (LCU per US$, period average) - Japan". World Bank. 1995. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  5. "Dragon Ball Z - Movie 13: Wrath of the Dragon (2006) - Financial Information". The Numbers. Archived from the original on 2014-11-14. Retrieved 2014-05-01.
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