Line #37 Anime/DragonBallZDeadZone


1	[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dead_zone.png]]
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3	''Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone'' (simply known as ''Dragon Ball Z'' and later as ''Dragon Ball Z: Return My Gohan!!'' in Japan) is the fourth ''Franchise/DragonBall'' movie and the first under the ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' banner. It was released between episodes 11 and 12, with it premiering at the 1989 Toei Cartoon Festival (along with three other movies from the ''Akuma-kun'', ''Manga/HimitsuNoAkkoChan'', and ''Series/KidouKeijiJiban'' series). It was released in 1989 by Creator/ToeiAnimation, originally titled simply ''Dragon Ball Z: The Movie'' during its theatrical release. It was then dubbed into English by the Canadian company Creator/TheOceanGroup in 1997 for the American company Creator/FUNimation Entertainment, the title being changed to ''Dead Zone''. It was then re-dubbed by [=FUNimation=] itself in 2005.
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5	The story sees a demonic being named Garlic Jr. take over the Lookout Point as revenge against Kami for being chosen over his father for the position of God of Earth, who in turn tried to take it by force, was defeated and cast into the Dead Zone as punishment. Goku gets in on the action when Garlic's lackeys kidnap Gohan for the Four Star Dragon Ball on his hat, joined shortly by Krillin and Piccolo as they try to stop Garlic from making his wish and taking over the world.
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7	Curiously, it proved popular enough that Toei revisited it in a anime-only sequel arc in the ''Dragon Ball Z'' anime, the [[Recap/DragonBallZGarlicJrArc Garlic Jr Arc]], set between the [[Recap/DragonBallZNamekArc Namek arc]] and [[Recap/DragonBallZAndroidArc Android arc]].
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10	!!This film provides examples of the following:
11	* AliensAreBastards: Garlic Jr. The name of his race wouldn't be confirmed just yet, but he's a prick none the less.
12	* AndIMustScream: After becoming immortal, Garlic Jr. gets sealed away inside the Dead Zone for all eternity.
13	* AsYouKnow: Kami acts as MrExposition by telling Garlic Jr. the backstory of his father's evil acts and banishment to the Dead Zone.
14	%%* AxCrazy: When Garlic Jr. is in a really bad mood.
15	* BadassCape: Garlic Jr. wears one with a hood.
16	* BadlyBatteredBabysitter: Nicky was in charge of watching Gohan while the young Saiyan was being kept prisoner. It... didn't end up well for him.
17	* BaldOfEvil: Garlic Jr. has no hair and is an evil bastard. Same for his minions Ginger and Sansho.
18	* BigDamnHeroes: Krillin does this for Goku, intercepting blasts from Sansho and Nicky with one of his own.
19	* {{Bowdlerize}}: The Funimation dub avoids mentioning that the fruit Gohan eats will get him drunk. Instead, it notes that it will "make him feel weird". Even the more accurate Pioneer/Ocean Group dub has Nicky note that Gohan will just "see things".
20	* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Zigzagged. Nicki, Ginger, and Sansho are shown to be strong enough that they could beat Goku or Piccolo if all three of them ganged one of them at once, and are much less of a threat when faced individually. Played straight with Garlic Jr., who is much more of a threat than the three of them.
21	* CombinedEnergyAttack: Nicky, Ginger, and Sansho can fire Energy Waves at the opponent. Used against Piccolo, which hit him, and later against Goku (minus Ginger, he was knocked out by Goku) but it was deflected by Krillin.
22	* CompleteImmortality: Garlic Jr. is the only one to have this wish successfully given to him by Shenron (until ''Super'', anyway), as well as the only one to actually have absolute immortality (although some characters were implied to be immortal, such as Master Roshi and the Androids, it seems to be limited to natural causes).
23	* DeadHandShot: After he and Nicky are killed by Goku's Kamehameha, we see Ginger's twitching hand sticking up from the rubble before falling limp.
24	* DidntThinkThisThrough:
25	** Garlic Jr. is immortal, and rather than just fighting Goku and Piccolo until he inevitably wins, since he can't die and still had plenty of strength left, he summons the Dead Zone, the one thing that can defeat him.
26	** Garlic Jr. has his minions track down and attempt to kill Piccolo before he wishes for immortality, even though this will kill Kami and, in turn, deactivate the Dragon Balls.
27	** Furthermore, they just needed the Dragon Ball attached to Gohan's hat. Had they just taken the hat and left Gohan, Goku wouldn’t have quite as [[PapaWolf pressing a reason]] to locate Garlic Jr.'s lair and stop his plans.
28	** Kami tries engaging Garlic Jr. in close combat, knowing the imp had already gained immortality and thus could withstand any offense. Kami was already established as knowing the Mafuba, so he could have saved himself the trouble if he'd just remembered to bring a container with a sealing incantation.
29	* DualWielding: Nicky and Ginger can summon two katanas for each of them by pulling them. Out of their skin.
30	* DrunkenGlow: Gohan gets drunk from eating an apple. Aside from the half-opened dizzy eyes and hyperactive behavior, he gets a red streak over his face.
31	* EdibleThemeNaming: Garlic Jr. and his minions are all named after spices/condiments.
32	* EliteMooks: Nicky, Ginger, and Sansho.
33	* EnemyMine: Piccolo opts to help Goku, since he has a score to settle with Garlic Jr.'s mooks.
34	* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Or "Papas" in Garlic's case. Garlic Jr.'s main reason for attacking Kami in the movie was to avenge his fallen father. In the series, he solemnly vows to use the Dragon Balls to bring him back, and when he thought Piccolo died and the Dragon Balls lost, he lamented the loss but remained steadfast in finding another way.
35	* {{Expy}}: Garlic Jr. looks like a more serious and threatening version of ''Manga/DragonBall'' BigBad Emperor Pilaf, to the point that they share the same voice actor. Both are voiced by Chuck Huber in the Creator/FUNimation Dub, Don Brown in the Ocean Group Dub, as well as Shigeru Chiba in the Japanese version (Shigeru only voiced Garlic Jr. in the anime, not the movie, who is voiced by Creator/AkiraKamiya).
36	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Unlike his enemies, Garlic Jr. literally cannot die. The first half of the movie was him basically moving to make that the case. Yet somehow he gets the [[SarcasmMode brilliant idea]] of opening a void to eternal darkness -- this '''can''' backfire, and thus become worse torture for him than for anyone else ever because, again, he literally cannot die.
37	* ImmortalityHurts: Garlic Jr.'s eventually trapped in the Dead Zone, [[FateWorseThanDeath literally forever as he'll never die]].
38	* IronButtMonkey: This movie starts the trend of Krillin serving as the PluckyComicRelief who gets hurt every ''Z'' movie with comedic results. Here, he gets hit in the head by falling debris weighing many tons and only gets knocked out.
39	* KickTheDog: When Garlic Jr. mercilessly beats Kami while he's defenseless.
40	* LargeAndInCharge: Garlic Jr. is an inversion, he's downright tiny and all of his minions are much bigger than him. Played straight with his OneWingedAngel form.
41	* LighterAndSofter: Compared to the anime at this point, as [[BloodlessCarnage there is no blood on-screen]] and Garlic Jr.'s minions are more comedic than Raditz, Nappa, or Vegeta.
42	* MamaBear: Chi-Chi tries to defend Gohan, but she gets incapacitated by Ginger.
43	* MisterBig: Garlic Jr. is no taller than a four-year-old, at least until he transforms.
44	* MoodWhiplash: Garlic Jr.'s hammy MotiveRant is suddenly interrupted by Gohan crying and demanding to go home.
45	* MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: The second Chi-Chi is felled by Ginger, Goku senses something is wrong and immediately runs back home.
46	* MythologyGag: The entire fight with Garlic Jr.'s second form is a much less one-sided version of Goku and Piccolo's fight against Raditz, right down to the two taking off their weighted clothing and Gohan delivering a critical blow.
47	* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Thanks to Garlic Jr.'s minions kidnapping Gohan, he intervenes in the climax when Garlic Jr. opens up a portal to the Dead Zone and sends him into it. If they had just left him, their boss would have won.
48	* NonSerialMovie: The film ''would'' actually avert this, since most of the details point to it taking place near the end of the gap between the original ''Manga/DragonBall'' and ''Z''[[note]]Gohan being around the age he was at near the start of ''Z'', Piccolo only working with Goku in an EnemyMine, Krillin not having met Gohan yet[[/note]]...were it not for the fact that 1), Krillin meets Gohan before the Raditz Arc, but doesn't recognize him in the TV series (while this could be explained away on Krillin's part by him hitting his head or something and wiping the memories of the movie away, Gohan doesn't recognize Krillin when they meet in the TV series), and 2), Goku and Piccolo have their talk about weighted clothes in this movie. It's worth noting that the original ''Z'' seems to imply that this movie does happen (or at the very least, the movie is BroadStrokes), due to the [[FillerArc Garlic Jr Arc]] having the villain of this movie come back for revenge. In ''Kai'', on the other hand, the movie's continuity is ''very'' ambiguous - at best, it's BroadStrokes, at worse, it's this trope played straight due to the lack of the Garlic Jr arc. If we ignore the anime filler, it's possible the film was originally meant to be set ''after'' Goku and Piccolo fought Raditz in a hypothetical timeline where Goku wasn't killed.
49	* OhCrap:
50	** Nicky's horrified reaction before being blown away by Goku's Kamehameha along with Ginger.
51	** Sansho when he discovers that Piccolo is more than he can handle alone.
52	** Krillin when Piccolo arrives on the scene.
53	** After learning who Gohan's father is, Nicky and Sansho exchange worried glances. Ginger is also clearly sweating a bit.
54	* OneWingedAngel: Nicky, Ginger and Sansho all bulk up and increase their powers by shouting weird things related to their names.
55	* OurDemonsAreDifferent: Garlic Jr. and his father are functionally evil counterparts to Kami (and eviler counterparts to Piccolo Jr. and Emperor Pilaf), much like Demon King Piccolo before them. They even have minions too.
56	* PapaWolf: Goku rushes into action the second he knows where Gohan's being held.
57	-->'''Gohan:''' My dad is Goku, and he's the strongest fighter in the world! And when he gets here, he's gonna teach you a lesson!
58	* PinkElephants: Gohan eats some fruit that makes him drunk and see random walking animals around him.
59	* SinisterScimitar: Played straight by Nicky and Ginger; the swords they pull out of their limbs are curved enough to be considered scimitars, and they're evil.
60	* PersonOfHolding: Goku battles Nicky and Ginger, who both rip swords out of their bodies.
61	* PowerOfTheVoid: The Dead Zone.
62	* QuirkyMinibossSquad: Nicky, Ginger, and Sansho.
63	* RageBreakingPoint: Gohan hits this when he sees his father being sucked into the Dead Zone.
64	%%* {{Sadist}}: Garlic Jr.
65	* ShutUpHannibal: After Garlic Jr.'s MotiveRant:
66	-->'''Goku:''' I didn't come here to listen to your life story! ''Where's Gohan?!''
67	* TheSociopath: Garlic Jr. is known for being totally ruthless and insane.
68	* StupidEvil: Garlic Jr.'s minions are sent out to steal Dragon Balls, and they also kidnap Gohan when they could've just taken the Dragon Ball from his hat. Granted, Goku would have likely come to stop them anyways, but still...
69	* SuperMode: Garlic Jr. and his minions, Nicky, Ginger and Sansho, all have this.
70	* TemporaryBulkChange: Garlic Jr. grows from a being about Gohan's size to taller than Goku and Piccolo as well as gaining the mass to be on par with Ox King during his Super Mode.
71	* TerribleTrio: Nicky, Ginger and Sansho.
72	* VictoryGuidedAmnesia: After blasting Garlic Jr. into the Dead Zone, Gohan is unable to remember doing it, instead believing that his father did it.
73	* VillainBall: Again, as stated above, Garlic Jr. tries to kill Piccolo ''before'' he is ready to make his wish for immortality.
74	* TheWorfEffect: Subverted, it looks like the movie is trying to hype up the villains by having them start the movie by defeating Piccolo, the final and most powerful villain seen in the original series. The truth turns out to be that they only got the better of him because of surprise, numbers, and their boss being involved. None of the bad guys aside from [[BigBad Garlic Junior]] himself is even remotely a threat to Piccolo. (And from all indications, Garlic needs to be transformed to be able to overcome Piccolo.) When Piccolo separates one member of the QuirkyMiniBossSquad from the rest later in the movie, Piccolo wins the fight with almost embarrassing ease.
75	* YouAreTooLate: Goku twice over. He doesn't get back to the house until just after Gohan is grabbed, and he doesn't get to Garlic Jr.'s base until after the immortality wish is granted.

Context Anime / DragonBallZDeadZone