Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound (known in Japan as Doragon Bōru Zetto: Ginga Giri-Giri!! Butchigiri no Sugoi Yatsu; lit. "Dragon Ball Z: Galaxy at the Brink!! The Super Incredible Guy") is the ninth Dragon Ball Z movie. It was released in Japan on July 10, 1993, between episodes 196 and 197. The English version was dubbed by Funimation Entertainment in August 17, 2004, and it was digitally remastered and re-released on February 10, 2009.
The Z Fighters compete in a martial arts tournament advertised as "intergalactic," but it's really a birthday gift for a rich kid who wants to meet aliens.
His parents and Mr. Satan plan for a group of actors to show up as "aliens," but when the tournament is taken over by Bojack, an evil scourge from Planet Hera who escaped the imprisonment placed upon him by the four Kais when King Kai's planet was destroyed, and his fellow Heraian space pirates the Galaxy Soldiers, Gohan and his friends must work together to stop Bojack and his minions.
This work contains examples of:
- 11th-Hour Superpower: Super Saiyan 2 isn't brought out until the climax of the film.
- Affably Evil: According to the pre-battle comments in the video games, Zangya is very polite, well-spoken, cool, and somewhat sarcastic.
- Alas, Poor Villain: At the end of the movie, Zangya, who has been consistently being portrayed as loyal to her boss, is betrayed and killed by Bojack when he shoots through her in an attempt to catch Gohan by surprise.
- Aliens Are Bastards: Bojack is an alien Space Pirate.
- Artificial Outdoors Display: When Gohan is fighting Bojack and his henchmen in the abandoned city, Piccolo comes through a hole in the cloudy sky, revealing that the city is inside a dome on the Battle Island with the interior painted to look like a sky.
- Badass Bookworm: Gohan has been established as this in the anime/manga, but this movie really drives this down. At the beginning of the film, it is said that he had been studying so much that even Chi-Chi became worried, which is why she let him participate in the tournament, and after going Super Saiyan 2 in the climax he gives Bojack a run for Cell's money.
- Badass Longcoat: Bojack sports one, until he powers up.
- Bad Boss: Bojack, as his beautiful henchwoman Zangya finds out the hard way.
- Beauty Is Bad: Zangya. And Krillin certainly agrees.
- Big Damn Heroes: Vegeta and Piccolo arrive to assist the heroes as usual for the movies; the former hands Future Trunks his sword and the latter saves Gohan from another fatal attack again. The standout, however, is Goku. He defies the laws of Other World to save Gohan from being crushed to death in a bear hug from Bojack and inspire him to tap into his inner strength and defeat Bojack.
- Blood Knight: All of the Galaxy Soldiers, especially Bojack.
- Breakout Villain: Zangya is very popular among fans, and is the only consistent Galaxy soldier that appears along Bojack in videogames (outside of Xenoverse 2, but then again, Bojack was a DLC character).
- The Bus Came Back: Meta example, the anthropomorphic population returned as background characters after being absent in the franchise since the Saiyan saga.
- Call-Back: Piccolo and Krillin's match during the tournament loosely references the anime version of their fight in the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament at the end of Dragon Ball. Krillin running into Piccolo's cape and losing his bearings is a more comedic version of how their battle went in the Dragon Ball anime where Piccolo used his cape to confuse Krillin and dodge his attacks.
- Car Fu: Mr. Satan actually saves Gohan by accident when his vehicle goes out of control and almost crashes into the bad guys, distracting them from their attempted finishing blow.
- Continuity Snarl: Mostly averted. This film fits into the Post-Cell Games timeline pretty neatly aside from a couple minor issues:
- Vegeta swore to never fight again after the death of Goku, which he adheres to at first, before coming out of retirement to attack Bojack. Trunks actually lampshades this after his father helps him.
- While it was anime filler, Goku and King Kai didn't stay in the ruins of King Kai's planet for long before going off to see other parts of Other World.
- Covers Always Lie: Goku is advertised on the films' poster performing a Kamehameha but in the movie he performs no such technique. His screen time in the film is also minimal, due to the film taking place after he died in the Cell Games, but very significant.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Most of the tournament is Gohan, Piccolo, Trunks, Tien, and Krillin steamrolling through the competition thanks to their absurd power compared to everyone else. Yamcha would have joined in if he didn't give up once he heard the other Z-Fighters were participating.
- During the preliminary rounds, Tien goes up against Trunks and... actually does pretty well. Once Trunks goes Super Saiyan, however, the fight is over in 5 seconds flat.
- Zangya wastes Krillin in record time. Even though he was a bit "distracted."
- Tien and Yamcha both attempt to fight Bojack's minions, but they also get wasted in record time.
- Super Saiyan 2 Gohan versus anyone. After getting curb stomped himself for a good portion of the movie, Gohan manages to kill two of the Galaxy Soldiers in a single hit, then proceed to impale Bojack with a single punch.
- Decoy Protagonist: Goku is advertised on the films' poster performing a Kamehameha but in the movie he performs no such technique. His screen time in the film is also minimal, due to the film taking place after he died in the Cell Games, but very significant.
- Demoted to Extra: One of the few Dragon Ball movies where Goku isn't the protagonist, on account of taking place after he died in the Cell Games.
- Dub Name Change: Gokua, the Galaxy Soldier with the sword, was renamed Kogu in the English version because his name was too similar to "Goku" and might cause confusion. Possibly as a Casting Gag, the Latin American Spanish dub actually gave him the same voice actor as Goku.
- Evil Redhead: The Galaxy Soldiers all sport orange-red hair.
- Expy: The Galaxy Pirates appear to be this for the Saiyans. Being spacefaring pirates who have transformations that change their coloring and increase their strength.
- Flanderization: Master Roshi's Dirty Old Man tendencies are at their worst here. While he would have some degree of interest in tournaments in the main anime, here he spends most of his screentime stalking women or sleeping, and he flat-out states that he doesn't care about the tournament at all since he knows Gohan or Trunks would win anyway. Even Oolong calls him out for this, who's also had a history of perverted tendencies.
- Flat Character: All of the Galaxy Soldiers. It doesn't help that they don't have enough dialogue to get some sort of personality or motivation for their acts.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: While Bojack has some sort of backstory, he and his crew are pretty much this. They don't have a clear backstory or motivation other than mindless destruction and proving they are superior. While King Kai said they were trapped in a star by all the Kaiosamas, how he became that powerful that the Kaiosamas had to intervene or any information about Bojack's crew is left untouched. All we know is that they are really powerful Space Pirates, and that's it.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Averted. Future Trunks says “What the hell are you” to one of Bojack’s men in the Funimation dub.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Two of the Galaxy Soldiers end up getting ripped in half in one blow from Gohan. For added insult, Bido gets this via Offhand Backhand.
- The Hero Doesn't Kill the Villainess: Bojack, Bujin, and Bido are killed by Gohan, while Kogu is killed by Trunks. Zangya, the only female villain in the movie, is killed by Bojack when he uses her as a shield in his battle against Gohan.
- Humanoid Alien: Bojack's race are similar to humans, except that they have green skin and orange hair.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: What Gohan eventually did to Bojack after transforming into a Super Saiyan 2, although unlike Super Android 13 or Broly (kind of), this didn't quite finish him. The beam attacks sure did, however.
- Inexplicably Awesome: Exactly what Bojack and his crew are is never explained, yet he is more powerful than a Super Saiyan.
- Kick the Dog: When Bojack mercilessly bearhugs Gohan, nearly killing him. Gets another when kills his own henchwomen Zangya.
- Lethal Lava Land: The arena where Krillin fights Zangya.
- Meaningful Echo: Early in the movie, Chichi tells Bulma that Gohan is his father's son. At the climax of the movie, Gohan reminds Bojack that he is his father's son.
- Meaningful Name: Bojack's name comes from the Japanese word bōjakubujin, which means "arrogance" or "audacity". Bujin's name comes from the same source. Kogunote and Bido's names come from gokuakuhidō, meaning "heinous injustice". Zangya comes from zangyaku, meaning "cruelty" or "brutality".
- Muscles Are Meaningless: Zangya is at least stronger than Frieza, but she is even thinner than 18.
- Non-Serial Movie: The film is set sometime after the Cell games. The only thing that prevents it from completely fitting in the timeline is Future Trunks being present, but in the anime Future Trunks explicitly mentions paying the past one final visit to tell them of how he freed the future (he is interrupted by his timeline's Cell, and the last seen of Future Trunks in Z is him taking care of that Cell), so there's that.
- Not Just a Tournament: The Intergalactic World Tournament is a tournament that was featured in the movie that was sponsored by the millionaire X.S. Cash as a birthday present for his only son Monty. The tournament was supposed to feature fighters representing the four corners of the galaxy; in reality, the four fighters were actually pupils of Mr. Satan, made-up to look like aliens. The winner of said tournament would win a prize of 100,000,000 Zeni and gone on to fight Mr. Satan.
- Not So Stoic: Zangya is The Stoic for most of the movie, but she is very scared once she sees Gohan transformed into SSJ 2. Understandable, considering she just watched him tear her two comrades apart with one attack each.
- Off Hand Backhand: Gohan kills Bido by performing one to him that rips him in half.
- Papa Wolf: Goku teleports to Earth to free his son from Bojack's crushing grip. Vegeta arrives within enough time to set himself up to throw Trunks' sword (and its scabbard) to save him from impalement with a fraction of a second to spare.
- Pirate Girl: Zangya.
- Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Bojack and his crew are supposedly pirates, and they aren't seen doing anything pirate related, just causing random destruction.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: In the Funimation dub, Gohan gives one to Bojack and the Galaxy Soldiers moments after he turns Super Saiyan 2:Gohan: [to Bojack] I know your kind. You think you can waltz in and just take our planet. But you forgot one thing: I'm my father's SON!
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Goku temporarily disobeys the rules of being dead to save his son from being killed by Bojack.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Inside a star, even, for the Galaxy Soldiers.
- Serial Escalation: Previous World Martial Arts Tournaments and even the Cell Games usually had everyone fight one-on-one on a simple small square arena. Here, the tournament takes place on a private island extensively modified by X.S. Cash.
- The tournament starts off as a free-for-all on a series of moving platforms and towers over the ocean. This lasts until there are eight contestants left. The fights then switch to one-on-ones until there are four left.
- The fights then move to the private island, where the final four contestants have to fight Mr. Satan's disguised students in four arenas built underneath the island. They have to ride special pods going through tunnels to get their assigned arenas, which are brought to life via virtual reality.
- The first arena is in a lava-filled cavern. This is where Krillin fights Zangya.
- The second arena is a large flowery meadow, complete with a lake. This is where Future Trunks fights Kogu.
- The third arena is a surreal world filled with children's toys. This is where Gohan fights Bujin.
- The fourth arena is a desert. A random contestant is killed by Bido here.
- The final arena is a set of ancient ruins, which is where Mr. Satan would presumably be fought in.
- Inexplicably, there is another arena large enough to hold a Victorian-era style city. While its official purpose is unknown, this is where the final fight against Bojack takes place.
- Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Bojack is about as strong as Perfect Cell. Unfortunately for him, he came after Gohan had unlocked a form that ultimately made that a cake walk, and predictably doesn't last long once Gohan actually brings it out.
- Space Pirates: Bojack and his Galaxy Soldiers.
- The Stoic: Virtually nothing else about Zangya's personality shows for most of the movie save her brief moment of panic right before Bojack kills her to try and get Gohan.
- Super Mode: The race of Hera can do something similar to Saiyans turning Super Saiyan.
- Theme Naming: See Meaningful Name above. The Galaxy Soldiers' names are all based on qualities of evil.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Vegeta blocks an attack that would have impaled Trunks by throwing Trunk's sword.
- Tournament Arc: The film takes place as a tournament, which leads to some friendly matches between the heroes early into the movie.
- Underground City: The final arena where Bojack is fought is an expansive Victorian-era city built underneath the island where the tournament takes place.
- Wealth's in a Name: The Cash family. The father is named X.S (excess cash), his wife is named Lotta (lot of cash), and their son is Monty (sounds like "money"). The Japanese version is more blatant, where their family is named "Money" of all things, and Monty's given name is Dollar (Dollar Money is his actual name).
- The Worf Effect: Vegeta and Piccolo's only actual fights have them curb-stomped badly by Bojack, and this is after they make dramatic appearances.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Galaxy Soldiers had no problem attacking Gohan.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Bojack blasts through his female minion Zangya just to get at Gohan.
