Anime / Dragon Ball Super: Broly

Spoilers for Dragon Ball Super, as well as all Dragon Ball works preceding this one, will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

"The Greatest Enemy, a Saiyan."

"We've had our fair share of enemies, trust me. But, I don't think that you're one of them. For some reason, I can just tell."

— Goku, talking to Broly

Dragon Ball Super: Broly is the 20th Dragon Ball movie, and the first under the Dragon Ball Super banner. It was released in Japan on December 14, 2018, with a North American release courtesy of Funimation reaching theaters in January of 2019.

The Tournament of Power has passed, and Goku and Vegeta have returned to their ordinary lives. Unfortunately, their erstwhile ally Frieza has returned to his own life as well, and his soldiers have stolen Earth's Dragon Balls. This won't just be another Dragon Ball hunt, though: Frieza himself is coming to Earth to collect his prize, and he's bringing with him a secret weapon... in the form of a Saiyan. A Saiyan who was long stranded on a distant planet. A Saiyan who hides an apocalyptic and nightmarish power.

A Saiyan named BROLY.

The movie marks the first time since 1992 where Tadayoshi Yamamuro is not involved in any way regarding the film's animation direction, with Naohiro Shintani taking over, introducing a smoother, less detailed art style, similar to the early arcs of Z. Much like Battle of Gods and Resurrection ‘F’, series author Akira Toriyama is heavily involved in the film.

It is the fourth highest-grossing anime film ever in North America.

The next anime movie, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, was released in 2022.

This movie marks Aya Hisakawa's debut as the new voice of Bulma after the death of Hiromi Tsuru, Vic Mignogna's last performance as Broly after he was fired from Funimation, following multiple allegations of sexual harassment that surfaced shortly after the movie's release, and Chris Ayres’s last performance as Frieza before his death in 2021.

Production Credits:

• Original Author: Akira Toriyama
• Script: Akira Toriyama
• Character Design: Akira Toriyama
• Art Director: Kazuo Ogura
• Animation Supervisor: Naohiro Shintani
• Director: Tatsuya Nagamine
• Music: Norihito Sumitomo
• Color Design: Rumiko Nagai
• Special Effects: Nao Ota
• CG Director: Kai Makino
• Production Manager: Tetsuo Inagaki

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Go tropes go go! Go tropes go go!

Tropes #-D

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: There are various elements of the film that are obviously CGI, such as Goku's Saiyan pod as it arrives on Earth, Frieza's ship, various collateral damage, and Goku, Vegeta, and Broly are sometimes rendered this way during their fight. With the characters, they're at least rendered in a cel-shaded style similar to Dragon Ball Fighter Z, and some shots are overlaid with traditional animation, to keep them from sticking out too much.
• Adaptation Amalgamation: While the film is a reboot of Broly's introduction (featuring Broly's backstory and Paragus), the fight being set on Earth is taken from the sequel, Second Coming, with Goku and Vegeta's fight with Broly even borrowing certain scenes from that film. The final battle, which features Gogeta, also features elements from Fusion Reborn.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Played With in terms of relative power, The original Broly was a behemoth that always required a Combined Energy Attack to defeat, which came across as a Deus ex Machina after Broly had been beating them so bad. But Broly was a major threat in the Cell Saga era whereas this is much later in the chronology, the Power Creep makes any fighters in this movie at their weakest leagues more powerful than the original Broly. The rebooted Broly instead has never actually fought another person before (he sparred with his much weaker father) and thus his power relative to Goku and Vegeta's starts off as lackluster. But it becomes played straight as Broly increases his power to absurd levels, even obtaining a unique transformation said to be the Great Ape in human form, which allows him to fight equally with a Super Saiyan Blue. Then he turns Super Saiyan, which forces Goku and Vegeta to fuse into Gogeta. Goku later suggests that Broly may have the potential to face Beerus.
  • Zigzagged in the case of Bardock. While the canon story removes the onscreen depiction of his one-man charge into space, fighting his way through grunts to reach Frieza himself as depicted in the original Toei OVA, it is heavily implied that the one-man charge still happened judging by his damaged battle armor and being surrounded by all of Frieza's goons as he attempts to stop the tyrant from destroying his home planet, and on top of that Bardock here manages to desperately resist, and his blast actually manages to slow the Supernova down before it ultimately engulfs him.
  • In the original movie where Broly made his first debut, Vegeta greatly feared Broly for his power and being the legendary Super Saiyan and by the time Vegeta regained his courage to face Broly, Broly still demolished Vegeta in one move. In this movie, Vegeta has no such fear of Broly, mostly has the upper hand in their one-on-one fight, and Broly is the one who has to play catch up (granted he got there very quickly) to get up to Vegeta's level and beyond.
• Adaptation Distillation:
  • The first act adapts Dragon Ball Minus and partially Bardock: The Father of Goku, but removes a few scenes (such as Bardock and Leek fighting some aliens) from the former, while keeping Bardock's final act of defiance from the latter.
  • The film is a retake on Broly's introduction, but cuts a few elements from the first Broly movie, namely the supposed new Planet Vegeta, search for the Legendary Super Saiyan, and makes the fight simply between Goku and Vegeta against Broly, bringing Broly to Earth instead. Broly being the Legendary Super Saiyan was also cut in favor of making him a mutant among the Saiyan race, likely to keep things simple (although the idea is briefly alluded to).
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Frieza's colors in his first form have been changed to follow the manga closely during flashbacks.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • Not with Broly, but with his transformation. In the original movie, the "legendary Super Saiyan" transformation was supposed to be what said legend was like, but this was shot down for the reboot. Instead, Broly is described as a mutant to the Saiyan race, and his transformations have more in common with a "giant ape in human form" than any sort of legend. The idea was explored in Dragon Ball GT with SSJ4.
  • The film also serves as an adaptation of Dragon Ball Minus, but with more elements, this time: Frieza conquering Planet Vegeta, Vegeta's time as a kid, and Broly's past, to make a parallel between the three Saiyans.
  • The movie spends a lot of time exploring all the events that surrounded Frieza destroying the Planet Vegeta, giving a lot more detail on how Broly and Paragus escaped and what they had been doing in all that time.
• Adaptational Heroism: In contrast to his original counterpart, who traveled the universe with Paragus and destroyed many worlds and likely billions of sentient beings, this Broly has been stranded in exile most of his life on planetoid Vampa, and it's implied Cheelai and Lemo are the first sentient beings besides Paragus that Broly encounters since his exile. His Japanese VA, Bin Shimada revealed that this version of Broly is definitely not as "evil" as the original one. After his rampage ends, he actually pulls a Heel–Face Turn and ends the film with a total sentient body-count of zero. Goku even visits him afterwards and expresses compassion and admiration for his power, implying a Defeat Means Friendship for future stories.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • While still an awful person, Paragus is much less cruel than in the first Broly movie. Paragus only wants Vegeta dead as opposed to him enslaving a race of aliens and unleashing Broly on the South Galaxy like in his debut. In addition, Paragus intended on abandoning Broly and leaving him for dead when he could no longer control him, while here, he outright begs Frieza to save Broly when it looks like he's going to die against Goku. This goes further with Dub Personality Change, with most dubs and even subs making him care for Broly with phrases like "My poor Broly", something he doesn't have in the source material (where he is more of a Dirty Coward).
  • King Vegeta in that rather than trying to execute Broly, he instead opted only to banish him to Vampa. It's stated that his intentions is not just to ensure his son would be the next rising star among the Saiyans, but also because Broly is a danger to the universe. It was also indicated that he placed Broly in an environment where he could potentially through trial and error learn to control his power by isolating him and thus leaving few people in danger. He also did not stop Paragus from trying to save Broly, whereas before he blasted Paragus for attempting to protest.
• Adaptational Wimp: Played with. As both the director and Toriyama decided to make Super Saiyan Blue the primary form used by the heroes in the latter half of the movie per Toriyama's original outline, neither Goku nor Vegeta are outright stated to have access to the forms (Super Saiyan Blue Evolution, Ultra Instinct) or techniques (Super Saiyan Blue Kaioken) from the series that greatly exceed standard Blue in power.
• Adaptive Ability: Along with his exceptional power, this is what makes Broly dangerous. Rather than being a brawler with almost unlimited energy like his original incarnation - though he still seems to have elements of that - Broly seems to learn abilities almost the second he sees them, from flash-stepping directly after seeing it once, to using God Bind on Goku while Goku is doing it to him. It also seems to affect his body as well, as each time he takes a few hits, he can quickly start to No-Sell attacks of the same amount of force a few seconds later, implying his body gets tougher against stronger opponents as time goes on.
  • This itself may be a nod to Saiyans in general, or at least gifted ones. Goku is recognized as a genius fighter for his ability to learn the basics of techniques almost the moment he sees them (he learned the Kamehameha, for instance, after only seeing Master Roshi use it once, albeit much weaker at first); Vegeta learned to read Ki after just one confrontation with earthlings, without any training despite no prior knowledge that it'd even existed; Future Trunks managed to learn the Evil Containment Wave within a few minutes just after seeing it done, if possibly with rage helping him out there. Broly, being a "mutant" Saiyan, likely takes this quality up a notch.
• Advertised Extra:
  • Despite being among the first characters shown in magazines, promoted in posters and appearing in the trailers, both Beerus and Piccolo only have small roles in the film.
  • In a way, Golden Frieza. Despite the promise of Broly fighting with Frieza in the trailers, the actual "fight" between them is a one-hour Curb-Stomp Battle that we see three minutes of, shown through cut scenes between Goku and Vegeta's fusing attempts.
  • Broly's Super Saiyan Full Power form, the one with the most resemblance to the famous Legendary Super Saiyan form, is only in the film for around 3 minutes, in the fight with Gogeta. It doesn't even get a significant introduction scene and just happens. According to the director, it wasn't in the script to begin with but was added by his own request.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Paragus' end. As he sees Goku and Broly fight, Paragus realizes that King Vegeta was right, Broly's power is too much to control and he is a danger to the universe. And his grudge is going to cost him his son, as Broly's loss of sense means he will die against Goku. Frieza however recalls Goku turning Super Saiyan at the sight of Krillin's death and kills Paragus, lies about the death being from a stray energy blast, causing Broly to turn Super Saiyan.
• Alien Sky: The planetoid Vampa has a gigantic moon, which is likely a companion planetoid, as with Pluto and Charon in our solar system. Whatever its status, it is able to trigger the Great Ape transformation in Saiyans.
• All Gravity Is the Same: The writers seem to have forgotten that Dragon Ball Z established that the planet Vegeta had 10 times Earth's gravity as characters with no combat prowess such as, Lemo and Berryblue can stand and walk normally.
• Antagonist Title: Averted, while the movie is simply titled Broly, he isn’t actually the antagonist, as the movie centers around Broly adjusting to his surroundings and meeting new people. It is instead Frieza and Paragus who are the real antagonists.
• Animal Motifs: Broly is associated with dogs. Specifically, he has a lot in common with certain large dog breeds like Rottweilers or pit bulls, which are inherently peaceful but are trained for combat due to their rough appearances. He also wears a collar that Paragus uses to control him, he sniffs at the candy bar Cheelai offers him much like a dog would, and as a child he formed a friendship with Bah (a dog-like creature) whose pelt he still wears around his waist.
• Anti-Climax: Subverted. Broly provides little challenge against Gogeta when they both go all-out, but the visuals and choreography as well as the environment make it a fantastic spectacle that doesn't repeat the same cliché as the previous films did. Gogeta not only dominates the entire fight, but delivers many phenomenal looking attacks, which Broly tanks for a pretty long time before being unable to take any more. The Curb-Stomp Battle actually allows the viewers to sympathize with Broly more, which was what the movie was likely aiming for, since Cheelai uses the Dragon Balls to save him from Gogeta, which is actually a satisfying conclusion, given that he doesn't deserve to be killed for being forced to fight against his will. It also helps that Gogeta lasts the entirety of the fight instead of de-fusing.
• Arrogant God vs. Raging Monster: This happens to Goku with Broly. Goku has trained for years, becoming one of the most powerful beings in the universe, testing his mettle against gods and other mighty mortals. Meanwhile, Broly's power comes naturally (in a sense given how he's basically an unusually strong saiyan, a mutant of sorts) and when he powers up, it's done in a similar fashion through the Oozaru, so he becomes overwhelmed by emotions and rage. So at the time of confronting each other, the skilled and powerful Goku can't completely believe how Broly is giving him such a beating so easily. It takes Goku and Vegeta fusing to become Gogeta and going to Super Saiyan Blue to beat Broly hard enought to calm him down. Goku gives Broly nicer living conditions for him and his friends and has developed a bond enough to call himself Kakarot to Broly.
• Art Evolution: The art direction of the film does not involve series veteran Tadayoshi Yamamuro in any way, unlike all the other movies. This is reflected in the art style of Goku first seen in the initial animated teaser, where he is drawn with fewer details and highlights, making for more fluid animation.
• Artistic License – Biology: The ecosystem of the planetoid Vampa seems to consist of no vegetation and two animal species (the bugs and the dog-worms), which feed on each other. Since digestion isn't perfectly efficient, this should result in the numbers of both gradually dwindling over time.
• As You Know: The dialogue of this movie can be described as the characters info-dumping details they already know in some places.
  • One particular example comes from the beginning of the movie establishing that the Saiyans were ruled by King Cold for a long time, but then Bardock feels the need to tell Leeks than, yes, Saiyans were ruled by Cold before Frieza.
  • Even though all of them know what happened, Goku and Vegeta recap the events of the Tournament of Power to Bulma. Likewise, Beerus and Whis once again asks Goku if he is searching for the job of a destroyer, which he denies.
• Asshole Victim: Frieza kills Paragus simply to make Broly stronger. While undeniably tragic for Broly, Paragus was still an abusive father who wouldn't hesitate to electrocute his son if he steps out of line.
• Asteroid Thicket: Lemo easily steers his ship through one on the way to Vampa.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Vegeta and Goku pull this off with their signature moves, before tagging Frieza into the fight.
• Battle of the Bands: Much of the battle has an auditory component where the characters various Leitmotifs duel with Broly's overpowering those of Goku and Vegeta until they combine into Gogeta.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: This seems to be Frieza's motivation at the end of the movie for why he wants to recruit Broly and decides to leave him, Cheelai and Lemo alone for now. At this point Frieza has figured out that, no matter how he improves, Goku and Vegeta will eventually get stronger and beat him. As such he wants a Super Saiyan of his own to eventually use to kill his Arch Enemies. However, he knows that he still lacks the strength to effectively corral Broly, so he plans on getting in a few more years of training anyway first.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Broly is naturally a somewhat shy, soft-spoken man (likely due to having only his father as company for roughly 40 years.) However, when provoked, he's almost unstoppable.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Frieza and Paragus. Broly is a pure being who is being manipulated for the tyrant's own ends, not to mention his father's desire for vengeance. At the end of the movie, Broly turns on Frieza as the latter is unwittingly forced to buy time for Goku and Vegeta to fuse, having lost control of the Saiyan.
• Big Damn Heroes: Cheelai wishing for Broly's safety is the only thing that saves him from being obliterated by Gogeta.
• Big Entrance: As Frieza's ship enters the atmosphere, he lets a tiny ball of energy fall from his hand - which creates an enormous, cloud-parting explosion beneath them.
  Goku: Well, here he comes. He always likes a big entrance.
• Brick Joke: English Dub: When Frieza first arrives on Earth, Goku interrupts his dramatic monologue to ask him what "repugnant" means. Frieza begrudgingly explains. At the end of the movie, having appeared on Vampa, Goku explains he's brought Broly and his friends supplies because he "heard this place was repugnant".
• Broad Strokes: How the movie approaches its homage to Bardock: The Father of Goku — since the movie adapts Dragon Ball Minus, Bardock was on Planet Vegeta once he figured out what Frieza's true intent was. Even with this in mind, Bardock's Last Stand against Frieza as depicted in The Father of Goku (and the manga) is canon, with it being implied that him plowing through Frieza's entire army to get to the villain happened offscreen.
• Bookends: The movie starts with Broly arriving to Planetoid Vampa and Gine screaming to Kakarot's name while he leaves Planet Vegeta. The movie ends with Broly on Planetoid Vampa after being sent there by Shenron and Goku introducing himself as Kakarot to him.
• Call-Back:
  • Frieza wants the Dragon Balls in order to make himself taller, the same intended wish of Commander Red way back in the Red Ribbon arc of Dragon Ball. While explaining this, he also holds out his hand with fingers outstretched to indicate 5, as he did for the infamous 5 minutes in the Namek Saga.
  • When practicing the Fusion Dance, Goku and Vegeta mess up first their finger alignment and then their body angles, resulting in a fat and then skinny Gogeta, the same that happened with Gotenks in the Buu Saga.
  • Frieza kills Paragus in the exact same method he used to kill Vegeta in the Namek Saga.
• The Cameo:
  • The Ginyu Force, Zarbon, Dodoria and King Cold appear in the Dragon Ball Minus segments.
  • A blink-it-and-you-miss-it cameo, but Bardock's squad from Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku can be seen very briefly on a Minus scene.
  • There is a brief flashback involving some the Tournament of Power fighters and some of the gods. Ribrianne, Kefla, Iwne, Mosco, Champa, Ag, Jiren, Top, Dispo, and Vermoud all appear in it.
  • Scenes of all major villains in the past, from King Piccolo, the Saiyans, Frieza, Cell, Majin Buu in all their forms appear briefly during Goku's fight with Broly. The only exception is Zamasu and Goku Black.
  • One of the Saiyan guards is voiced by musician Jon Bellion, who Christopher Sabat (the voice of Vegeta and Piccolo and voice director) worked with when he voiced Piccolo on Bellion's song "Adult Swim".
• Canon Discontinuity:
  • This is the first Super era story that adapts the events of Dragon Ball Minus, discarding Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku. That said, it is heavily implied that most of the events depicted in the special still happened, judging by Bardock's last stand itself happening while he's damaged and surrounded by Frieza's goons.
  • The three Broly movies are ignored in favor of giving Broly a new backstory and officially bringing him into the main timeline.
  • Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn is completely ignored, with this film becoming the introduction to Gogeta in the main timeline.
• Canon Immigrant:
  • After twenty-five years, this movie officially brings Broly into the main Dragon Ball timeline, although reinvented from Takao Koyama's character. His father Paragus joins him too.
  • On a lesser note, Bardock's squadron from the non-canon special Bardock: The Father of Goku all make cameos here, thus bringing them into canon as well.
  • For power-ups, Vegeta uses Super Saiyan God, a form that he only used in the manga version of Super's Future Trunks Arc.
  • Gogeta makes his first canonical appearance here, after appearing in the non-serial movie Fusion Reborn and in Dragon Ball GT, with his techniques from the movie.
  • Broly's unique powers and Battle Aura is said to be the result of tapping into the powers of the Great Ape without transforming. This is functionally the origin of Super Saiyan 4 from GT.
• Can't Catch Up:
  • Played With. Broly is overall stronger then Goku and Vegeta, but he isn't invincible, and the movie makes it clear his various forms have a power ceiling that forces him to either power up more, or adapt. In his base form, Vegeta is able to match him, then overpower him in God form. At which point Broly enters his enraged form, where he is able to overpower God Goku and Vegeta, only for Super Saiyan Blue Goku to turn the fight around and begin winning. Then he becomes a Super Saiyan, where he overpowers Blue Goku, Vegeta, and Golden Frieza, and is on par with Super Saiyan Gogeta. Then he unleashes his full power, where he is defeated by Gogeta Blue.
  • Lampshaded by Piccolo (the only supporting Z Fighter to appear in this movie aside from a brief cameo from Goten and Trunks) in his telepathic chat with Goku: he admits he'd like to help but feels that he'd be useless against someone as powerful as Broly (not to mention Frieza, who is also present).
• Central Theme: The legacy of the past. The first act delves with the fathers of Goku, Vegeta, Frieza and Broly, and how their behavior influenced the actions of their offspring in present. Production-wise, this also extends to the production of the movie as a whole that has multiple call backs to the past of the original series, some may argue unneeded.
• Character Development: Impressively enough, it happens to Goku at such a late point in the franchise: Goku finally introducing himself as "Kakarot" to Broly is such a big a deal that there's even a theme tune to put emphasis to this event. Goku absolutely denied his Saiyan name before; he just accepted Vegeta calling him as such as time went on, but Goku himself never accepted the name until this movie happened. The name Kakarot now carries the good legacy of his parents Bardock and Gine, not of a bloodthirsty race anymore.
• Clothing Damage:
  • When Bardock gets hit by Frieza's Earth-Shattering Kaboom while trying in vain to stop it, his armor disintegrates shortly before he does.
  • The fighters' clothing takes quite a beating over the fight. Broly loses his chest armor, Goku loses his shirt and, impressively, Vegeta straight up loses his armor entirely.
• Cold Equation: The first sign of Paragus' impending villainy comes when he and Beets discover that their spaceship's propulsion system is damaged and they can't leave Vampa. Beets says that they only have enough food and water for 10 days; Paragus replies that there's one way to ensure it lasts as long as possible, then shoots Beets through the heart.
• Composite Character: Broly's Legendary Super Saiyan form, greatly enlarged muscles with green hair and green Battle Aura, is said to be the result of tapping into the power of the Saiyan Great Ape form without transforming. This is essentially blending Broly's unique powers with the origin of Super Saiyan 4 from GT.
• Continuity Nod:
  • After being informed of the destruction of Planet Vegeta, Nappa asks Vegeta whatever happened to his younger brother, with Vegeta stating he doesn't care.
  • Before Vegeta blocks the first punch from Broly, Vegeta and Goku are both in the poses they took before their first fight, and the very end of the Universe Survival saga. Doubles as a Freeze-Frame Bonus for the trailer.
  • Super Saiyan God Goku uses a technique very similar to Hit's Time Lag in the manga, complete with the same hand motion and visual effect; it also slows down Broly's movements to a choppy crawl, though like Jiren, Broly soon proves strong enough to break out of it with sheer strength.
  • When Whis asks Goku why the latter is seeking out more strength than before, Goku replies that the Tournament of Power opened his eyes with an accompanying flashback to the most powerful fighters present: Jiren, the Gods of Destruction, Toppo, Kefla, Dyspo, and Ribrianne.
  • When Goku was trying to calm Broly down by saying that they like to live in peace and harmony on Earth, Goku admits that it's not always safe on Earth while flashing back to some of the villains fought during the series: King Piccolo, Raditz, Nappa, Vegeta, Frieza, Cell, and Majin Buu.
  • When Gogeta appears, Whis comments about Goku and Vegeta actually being able to work together, something he's been trying to convince them to do.
  • Frieza has Kikono write down a list of conditions how to awaken and use the Dragon Balls. He's learned his lesson from Namek, it seems.
  • When Paragus first encounters Broly on planet Vampa, he grabs Broly's tail to knock him out, the tail being the Saiyans' weakness which incapacitated Goku in the past
• Chromatic Arrangement: The dominant colors of all three Saiyans follow this format: Goku (Red/Orange) Vegeta (Blue), and Broly (Green).
• Continuity Reboot: For the Broly movies and Broly as a character. Likewise for Fusion Reborn and Gogeta.
• Continuity Snarl:
  • Downplayed. The movie adapts the Dragon Ball Minus plot points in an attempt to make a more solid background of the Saiyans, but several minor details are different from how they were previously depicted.
  • When Gogeta appears, Frieza is puzzled, and Gogeta explains that due to Frieza being dead for so long, he never saw what a fusion is. Except Frieza did know about it in the anime version of Dragon Ball Super, since in the Super retelling of Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F', Gotenks defuses right in front of him, and he later sees Kale and Caulifla fusing into Kefla during the Tournament of Power in both versions. This is because the word Gogeta used was the English word for "Fusion" rendered in katakana (フュージョン/fuujon), rather than the actual Japanese word that means "fusion" (合体/gattai). Within the Dragon Ball franchise, the English "Fusion" specifically refers to the dance fusion, while "gattai" refers more generally to the concept and is always used when Potara is being referenced.
  • Just like in the last movie, Shenron's number of wishes is incorrect. He only grants one, when he should be able to grant three. Though this could be handwaved as the last time we saw Shenron in Episode 68 of Super, he was only able to grant two wishes before time ran out and he had to disperse, as far as we know a year had yet to pass so it's possible this was just the leftover wish from then.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Broly can match if not exceed Gogeta when they're in their respective Super Saiyan forms, with Gogeta's fighting skill evening the odds. But when they both go full power (Broly with LSS and Gogeta with SSB), Gogeta crushes Broly, beating him to the point where Broly tries to run away and is left simply staring in fear when that's not an option. If not for Cheelai teleporting him out of harm's way in time, he would've been disintegrated.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Frieza fights a losing battle against Broly, but nonetheless manages to last a very long time against him as a Super Saiyan, arguably doing better than either Goku or Vegeta individually did against that form. He's also still maintaining Golden when Gogeta arrives, despite his injuries. It's not much, considering Broly still delivers a brutal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to him, but it's a much better performance than his last fights (where Toppo and Jiren respectively knocked him down to base in seconds while holding back).
• The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: Paragus' obsession with training Broly to become the perfect weapon was so intense that his hatred of the Vegeta dynasty and desire for vengeance consumed the love he had for his son and his concern for his happiness and well being. To his credit, however, he finally remembers how much he loved his little boy when he thinks he's going to lose him, enough to beg Frieza to protect him from Goku and Vegeta.
• Death World: Planetoid Vampa, Broly's adopted homeworld, is considered to be this to Saiyan standards. It's inhabited by two vicious species; massive dog-like beasts larger than a spaceship, and giant spider-like beasts, whose ecology is a vicious cycle of the bugs feeding on the dog-beasts' blood whilst being devoured by the dog-beasts in turn. Either one of these is powerful enough to threaten Paragus, an adult Saiyan on the same level as Nappa, into calling Broly for help. In addition, the environment is toxic and if Broly's experience on Frieza's ship is anything to go by, the planet does not even have water, one of the most basic needs for most living beings.
• Decoy Antagonist: The film's title, trailers, and opening (detailing the backstory of the titular character) all heavily point to Broly being the Big Bad, in line with the last three films starring the character. It turns out that he's peaceful by nature, and the true villains are Paragus and Frieza. After Paragus dies, Frieza is driven off, and Broly calms down (partly thanks to a beating), Broly simply leaves to live in peace without further struggle.
• Decoy Protagonist: Goku and Vegeta are this. While they were involved in much of the advertisement of the movie, it's pretty obvious that Broly is the true protagonist of this film since this movie is not about Goku and Vegeta fighting Broly, but about Broly adjusting to his new circumstances.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Yes, Son Goku does it again. Three days after the fight's conclusion, with Gogeta having Broly scared for his life combined with Cheelai making her wish on the Dragon Balls being the only things that saved Broly from being disintegrated by a God Kamehameha, Goku goes to visit Broly on Planet Vampa with food and house capsules for Broly and friends to survive, wanting the super-strong Saiyan as a sparring partner — and even telling Broly to call him Kakarot. Broly, and even Cheelai, come to smile at this development.
• Deus Exit Machina: Beerus stays behind out of laziness and is saddled with babysitting duty for good measure to prevent him from disintegrating Broly and Frieza on sight. The ending does imply he would have stepped in had things gotten out of hand.
• Deuteragonist: Played with. You would think Goku is the protagonist, Vegeta the deuteragonist and Broly the tritagonist. In reality, Broly is the protagonist, Goku the deuteragonist, with Vegeta not having any development in the story.
• Didn't See That Coming: Being marooned on a Death World means that Paragus and Broly did not know about what has changed since they left Planet Vegeta. In particular, Paragus didn't know that the Super Saiyan transformation is possible, and was considerably less confident on Broly's chances to win as soon as Vegeta turned Super Saiyan God.
• Didn't Think This Through: Frieza kills Paragus and lies to Broly about the cause to force him to go Super Saiyan and give him the power to beat Goku, recalling that his killing Krillin in front of Goku provoked a similar reaction. As a result, Frieza eventually finds himself facing an incredibly furious Super Saiyan, whose father he just killed. Can you say "oops"?
• Digital Destruction: Funimation's North American home media release has a green tint due to their footage being damaged during post-production.
• Disappointed by the Motive: The reason that Frieza was headed to Earth to get their dragon balls was because he wanted to wish for a five-centimeter increase in height. So he'll be taller, but people will think it's just because he's still growing. Kikono is incredulous that Frieza would waste a wish on that, but is too afraid of Frieza to voice his concerns.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Frieza has killed people who mocked him over his low height.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • The moment Frieza lands on Planet Vegeta for the first time in a flashback, he proceeds to call all the Saiyans "monkeys" and flaunt his superiority over them.
  • Frieza's wish to be exactly five centimeters taller due to it not being enough that it's obvious he had something done is heavily reminiscent of plastic surgery. The film frames it alongside Bulma's wish to be 5 years younger for the sake of vanity, with them even giving the exact same reason why they're stopping at 5 years/centimeters.
  • A more dramatic and tragic example would be Broly's relationship with his father, Paragus. His father only raised and trained him to be a weapon to get revenge on King Vegeta. In order to make Broly as ruthless as possible, Paragus not only cut off Broly from his Only Friend, Bah, one of the many snake dog creatures on Planetoid Vampa, by shooting off Bah's ear in order to scare Bah away permanently, but he also put a Shock Collar on Broly to control him. This is very reminiscent of an Abusive Education Papa who forces his dreams on his son and punishes him whenever he would disobey his wishes.
• Doing In the Wizard: Originally, Broly was the Legendary Super Saiyan held in myth (essentially, the Jesus figure of the Warrior Race). Here, he's a mutant Saiyan who, due to those mutations, has a Super Form that's basically a Great Ape in human form.
• Dramatic Irony: Paragus is genuinely surprised to see Vegeta turn Super Saiyan, still believing the transformation to be a myth. This is in spite of the fact that Super Saiyan had been subject to Uniqueness Decay for decades both in- and out-of-universe.
• Dub Name Change:
  • An unusual inversion. The Japanese versions often romanized Broly's name as "Broli". Here, the Japanese title itself uses his English dub name.
  • The Funimation dub also makes an inversion: Power Level has been the official English name related to characters' ki levels since before Funimation even started handling the dub themselves. Noticeably, Freeza and members of his force refer to power levels by the original Japanese name, Battle Power.
  • The Latin American Spanish trailer changes the name of the Tournament of Power. Instead of "Torneo del poder", which would be the direct translation, it is called "Torneo de la fuerza" (Tournament of Might).^note It should be noted that the dub of the Universe Survival Saga had yet to be released in the region at the time of the release of the dubbed trailer, and the "Torneo de la fuerza" name was subsequently used in the dub of the Universe Survival Saga.

Tropes E-M

• Easily Forgiven: At the beginning of the film, Goku reasons that Frieza is their friend now, because he helped them in the last stretch of the fight against Jiren, indirectly saving all the universes including theirs. Vegeta calls him an idiot for thinking this. At the end of the movie, Gogeta even lets Frieza go with no strings attached, despite him having just tried to kill everyone and destroy the Earth for the third time.
• Edible Theme Naming: The new characters Cheelai, Lemo, and Kikono are presumably named after lychee, lemon and mushroom. And then, there's Broly who's named after "broccoli" and his father Paragus, who's named after asparagus.
• "Eureka!" Moment: During the prologue, Bardock already felt like something was up when Frieza recalled all of the Saiyans to Planet Vegeta. He pokes holes in the logic by asking why Frieza didn't just use scouters if he wanted to send a message, or why he's waiting in his ship off-world. Once Bardock gets down to the surface, he learns from his fellow Saiyans that Frieza's men were asking about the legend of the Super Saiyan. Once he hears that, Bardock figures out that Frieza's real goal is to wipe the Saiyans out.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Astoundingly, even a short tempered Bad Boss like Frieza cannot bring himself to even raise his voice, much less vaporize his lady in attendant Berryblue, for warmly teasing him about his height, but instead affectionately confides his insecurities to her with absolute sinerity. Since she is shown in the prologues to have being by his side since childhood (before he overtook Planet Vegeta, in fact), Berryblue is all but implied to be Frieza's childhood nanny. As the closest thing he has to a mother, it's only natural that she would be the one person that he would genuinely love, and dare to be sincere and vulnerable to.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: While Paragus isn't a good father, Broly still loves him and his death triggers his transformation into his Super Saiyan form out of grief-fueled rage.
  • And as shown by his practically warm and affectionate relationship with his nanny Berryblue, even a tyrant like Frieza has a "mother" who loves and cares for him.
• Even Evil Has Standards: While the evil part is downplayed or rather ambiguous. You know that Paragus is a bad father when Lemo thinks he might be even worse than his own father after seeing him shock Broly.
• Evil Is Petty: Frieza releases his men upon the Earth, descending to seize the Dragon Balls, in order to... grow five centimeters. Five centimeters exactly. Because he wants to be taller enough to give a sort of presence but not so much that it's obvious he had something done, you see.
• Explosive Instrumentation:
  • At the beginning of the movie, the scouters of King Vegeta's men explode when they try to measure baby Broly's power level.
  • Later, it is subverted for once. When Broly's power flares, Cheelai and Lemo's scouters simply flatline. Somebody in the Frieza Force finally figured out circuit breakers.
• The Extremist Was Right: Played with. The events of the movie lend credence to King Vegeta's stated claims that Broly's power makes him a danger to the universe. However, Paragus' abusive upbringing did the kid no favors, making it something of a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy for him.
• Fictional Currency: When Frieza pays Lemo and Cheelai for bringing two new recruits (which include Broly) to him. They get paid with a handful of silver round bars.
• Fighting Across Time and Space: The climactic fight has the fighters shifting dimensions from sheer power.
• Filling the Silence: The English dub engages in a bit of this. For example:
  • While Goku tells Frieza to have fun fighting Broly while in the original he said nothing.
  • Another example is Gogeta exclaiming "What the..." upon landing in another dimension when fighting Broly while in the original again, he said nothing about the situation.
• Final Boss, New Dimension: In the climax of the fight, the energies clashing are so great that they create a rupture in space, and the combatants continue to fight among an Amazing Technicolor Battlefield before breaking back through to normal reality.
• Flawed Prototype: The prologue shows Frieza offering new scouters to the Saiyans, showing how versatile they are compared to the older models. The previous scouters are shown, which were handheld and clumsy to use.
• Foregone Conclusion: Whatever events occur in the movie will not directly impact the original series beyond exploring some backstory elements, since we know Goku and the Earth will survive in Dragon Ball Z.
• Foreshadowing: Cheelai starts the film talking on how she joined Frieza's army after stealing a ship from the Galactic Patrol. At the end of the film, she and Lemo leave the Frieza Force by stealing one of its ships.
• Forgot About His Powers: When Broly overpowers Super Saiyan Blue Goku and Vegeta, they bail out of the area instead of using powering up further to even the odds (Goku can use Kaioken in tandem with Blue while Vegeta has his new form from the Tournament of power).
• Fusion Dance: The actual Fusion Dance, no less. Thus leading into the canon appearance of Gogeta
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Lemo actually shows up in the movie much earlier than he initially appears. A younger more austere looking Lemo can be seen among the Frieza Force when they announce Frieza's ascension to the throne. He's even the one who gives Frieza the box of scouters. This of course means he lied to Cheelai when he said he only saw Frieza once from afar.
• A Glass in the Hand: In the beginning, King Vegeta gets pissed off by Frieza bossing him around and crushes his scouter.
• Godzilla Threshold: Broly's sheer power eventually forces Goku and Vegeta to work together, something the two of them have always been against. Which includes the idea of fusion when they have no other options.
• Gone Horribly Right: Frieza, recalling that his killing Krillin in front of Goku pushed Goku to his Rage Breaking Point and led him to going Super Saiyan, attempts to do the same to Broly by killing Paragus and claiming he was hit by a stray blast. It works... and eventually Frieza has an incredibly pissed off Super Saiyan who's stronger than SSB Goku and Vegeta combined out for his blood.
• Handshake Refusal: King Vegeta extends his hand towards King Cold when he exits his spaceship, but Cold ignores it, apparently considering it beneath him.
• Hero Antagonist: Goku and Vegeta, since while they are still technically the heroes that have to stop Broly's rampage, the focus of the movie is mostly on Broly and his relationships with Paragus, Cheelai, and Lemo.
• Honor Before Reason: After Frieza says he is no longer interested in wishing for immortality, due to admittedly pragmatic reasons, Kikono asks if he plans to wish for something else like never being able to take damage again. Frieza also rejects this idea, because then the "game" would be no fun.
• Hope Spot: During his round against Broly, Goku goes up to God and uses what appears to be his own variation of Master Roshi's paralysis technique using his divine ki to keep Broly ensnared, during which Goku tries to talk him down. He says that he can tell Broly's not like Paragus and Frieza, that he should stop letting them abuse him, and as shown in an earlier scene, Broly knows and understands this. Seriously considering Goku's words, he begins to visibly calm himself… but, as the aforementioned scene also showed, Broly's unshakably loyal to his father, and immediately throws himself back into a primal rage.
• Horrifying the Horror: Broly is horrified of Gogeta after the latter completely overwhelms him, to the point all Broly can do is stand and wait for Gogeta to finish him off with his final attack, which would have killed him if it wasn't for Cheelai's wish to teleport him back to Planetoid Vampa.
• I Am Legion: In the Funimation dub, "We are Gogeta."
• Idiot Ball: Despite being powerful enough to survive a full hour against Super Saiyan Broly, Frieza at no point entertains the idea of fighting alongside Broly (who even in his "rage" form was on par with Goku and Vegeta in Blue), which seeing how he now lacks a stamina flaw and their two-on-one advantage caused him to lose last time might actually have given him a chance to succeed. Instead he just sits back and not only lets Broly get more powerful and rage-possessed, he actively triggers him by killing Paragus, causing the Saiyan to turn against him.
• Informed Attribute: Movie example. Since this is our real introduction to Bardock, what we see of him as a "tough Saiyan warrior" falls into this as we are never shown him being a ruthless space pirate. Instead he just comes off as a brave and heroic man during his final moments. Due to Continuity Lock-Out and his introduction scene from Minus being taken out from the adaptation, his words of "wanting to protect something for once" falls heavily into this. invoked
• In Love with Your Carnage: Not as explicit as this trope can get but most definitely played on. From the beginning, Frieza can sense Broly's immense latent potential and means to see him grown into it, Paragus merely an accessory to his actual investment. During the battle against Goku and Vegeta, it's honestly more of an exhibition, with Frieza willing to call it quits but only as soon as he sees Broly's true ceiling. This backfires in the most cathartic and spectacular fashion, but even as Frieza lies helpless in the side of a cliff after being beaten senseless by Broly, he's come full circle from indignant rage and can only comment on how magnificent the monster before him is. At the end of the film, he actually doesn't want revenge. He wants to let Broly grow and master his power, so that he can make him his right-hand man.
• Internal Homage: Frieza isn't the first villain who wanted to use his wish on the Dragon Balls to get taller — Commander Red got shot dead by his second-in-command after revealing the exact same thing.
• Irony:
  • Frieza decided to exterminate the Saiyan race out of fear of the Super Saiyan legend capable of killing him. It happened anyway, and now to avenge this event, he's enlisted a mutant Saiyan.
  • It goes even deeper than this! Where once Frieza's undoing was his accidental creation of a Super Saiyan (Goku), he now deliberately acts to create yet another Super Saiyan (Broly) by murdering Paragus to enrage Broly. It also ends up not working out well for him.
  • Broly spends this entire movie being a lackey in his own revenge quest. Sure, being sent to a remote planet because King Vegeta feared his power was a cruel punishment worthy of some harsh retribution, but Broly himself doesn't give a damn about avenging this wrong — only Paragus does. Furthermore, Paragus only further entrenches Broly's isolation and manipulates him the entire time, showing that his motives are far less about his son's well-being than about an insult to his pride.
  • Speaking of Paragus, he weaponizes his powerful son as a tool for his own revenge and later agrees to work for Frieza to that end, not even caring enough about his home planet or the army he'd dutifully served to find out that it was Frieza's finger and not some meteor that destroyed them. In order to trigger and sharpen the same living weapon of mass destruction that Broly became under Paragus's control, Frieza kills Paragus without a second thought and then points Broly to his corpse.
  • Gine yells for Kakarot not to forget them before sending him off Planet Vegeta. Viewers who have watched the entire series know that not long after landing on Earth, Goku hit his head and forgot his past life.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • While it's clear King Vegeta sent Broly away mainly because he was offended that Paragus' son was stronger then his own, he makes a completely valid point to Paragus that Broly's power will make a threat to not just the Saiyans, but everything else in the galaxy as well. Before Frieza kills him, Paragus realizes King Vegeta was right; Broly's power makes him a danger to the galaxy.
  • When Cheelai calls out Paragus for his abusive actions towards Broly, Paragus responds that she has no idea what they went through on planet Vampa. As abusive as Paragus is, he isn't wrong that Cheelai has no clue just how awful Vampa was and what he needed to do to protect Broly and himself. Not only that, but Broly is literally uncontrollable without said extremes; it's cruel, but ultimately needed to protect them both.
• The Juggernaut: As in the original, Broly simply plows on no matter what is thrown at him. Though his inability to be stopped is now likened to that of a mindless Oozaru.
• Karma Houdini: Played with. Despite being the main Big Bad, responsible for killing Broly's father, and causing who knows how many tragedies, Gogeta lets Frieza go scot-free with his evil-doings. That said, it could be argued that Frieza paid up earlier in getting mollywhopped by Broly without pause for an entire hour.
• Karmic Death: Paragus is killed by Frieza through a shot to the heart, the same way he killed Beets on Planetoid Vampa.
• Kick the Dog:
  • At first, it appears Paragus formed a bond with Beets, a non-combatant Saiyan who tried to stop him from flying to Vampa, up and including telling Beets not to stare at the nearby satellite because he may transform into a Great Ape; if they find Broly, he can return to Planet Vegeta, and they find Broly together. However after their ship can't be repaired, Paragus murders him to save food.
  • Broly later explains to Cheelai that his short cape is the ear of Bah, a Vampa dog-beast that Broly befriended; Paragus shot off Bah's ear in order to scare him away so that Broly would only concentrate on getting stronger.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Frieza doesn't bother fighting Gogeta knowing he won't win, saying he'll come back later.
• Lava Adds Awesome: During Super Saiyan Blue Goku's fight against Wrathful Broly they both slam into the ground and fight inside lava and it looks awesome.
• Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid: As noted above when Goku and Broly fought inside lava, it looked a lot like water. There is no explanation how they fought inside of it, but it sure looked awesome as hell.
• Lighter and Softer: Than Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan. Broly's entire character was altered so as to be less extreme and intense. While the first film shows us an horrific backstory of Broly being stabbed and dumped when he was a baby, culminating in the 90s character being a sadistic sociopath without redeeming features, his backstory is much more toned down here and in turn he is a sensitive, non-malicious man who was manipulated by the true Big Bads of the film. The movie also has much more comic-relief in comparison with Broly — The Legendary Super Saiyan.
• Logo Joke: The Toei Company logo is set in darkness and glows green in trailers, replicating Broly's green Saiyan aura.
• Made of Iron: One of the most impressive facets of Frieza is his sheer, absurdly disproportionate durability. Back on Namek, he was beaten senseless, bisected at the waist, blasted into the planet and then was trapped in the explosion, only to not only survive but remain conscious. When restored by Sorbet, even in bite-sized chunks, he remained aware and alive long enough to have his pieces dropped into a healing tank. The reason for bringing this up here is that Goku and Vegeta decide to use this to their favor when it's clear they'll need a plan to deal with Broly, leading The Berserker Saiyan straight to Frieza whereupon the tyrant's infamous survival prowess makes him Broly's sandbag for roughly an hour.
• Male Gaze: Most scenes featuring Cheelai — who's wearing a skin-tight purple biketard underneath her armor — focus predominantly on her backside (read: buttocks). There's also one scene where she demonstrates to Broly and Paragus how flexible her battle-vest is when they receive their new uniforms; complete with a close-up of her breasts jiggling as she pulls and snaps it shut.
• Man Bites Man: During the second round of their battle, Goku bites Broly's hand.
• Manchild: Broly is well over 40 years old yet behaves like a kid, being passively deferential towards his father and showing total ignorance of basic daily activities and social interactions. Lemo has to show him how to open a bottle, and he's never even seen water. He's also very quiet.
  • Also justified in that Saiyans only reach "middle age" at about 80 or so. Like Goku and Vegeta, he's biologically more similar to a human in their mid-twenties.
• Metronomic Man Mashing: During his fight with Super Saiyan God Goku, Broly grabs Goku by the ankles and begins brutally slamming him into the earth over and over again, with so much force that Goku is left screaming in agony.
• Mundane Luxury: A canteen of plain water was absolutely delicious to Broly. Justified since, as Cheelai and Lemo learn, Broly basically subsisted, for decades, on "food" that would make the contents of a dumpster seem palatable in comparison.
• Mundane Wish: Bulma and Frieza's reasons for wanting the Dragon Balls. To become five years younger and five centimeters taller respectively. Any more and people would think Bulma had a facelift and Frieza's trying to bluff that he's still growing naturally.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Upon seeing Broly exceeding power, Paragus starts to realize that King Vegeta was correct about Broly being a threat to the universe. With that power having driven his son mad, Paragus realizes that his son will soon die because of his grudge.
• Mythology Gag:
  • King Vegeta refers to baby Broly as a "Freak", a term specifically used in the dub of the original movie.
  • In the original film's dub, Broly calls the Z-fighters "utter wastes of Saiyan blood". Here, Vegeta says to Broly "what a waste" when he tries to end him.
  • When summoning the Saiyans back to planet Vegeta so he can exterminate them, Frieza calls it a perfect "plan to get rid of the Saiyans".
  • Paragus looks to have a restraining device hooked up to Broly, much like he did in the Non-Serial Movie that introduced Broly, Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan. He even does the same pose while telling him to attack.
  • King Vegeta's palace is based on the one Paragus built for Vegeta in Broly's debut movie.
  • Broly uses a lot of his classic moves, both energy and physical. At one point he rams into Frieza and fires a blast from his chest pointblank like he did to Gohan in the original film.
  • Broly is covered in scars, but two of them, a scar on the upper-left part of his abs and a giant cross-shaped scar on his left pec, reference his defeat in the first movie where Goku struck him, and his death in the second movie where his heart exploded out his chest from the same location, respectively.
  • Broly's rage form having spiked-up black hair, yellow eyes and a fur pelt may be a reference to Super Saiyan 4.
    • Alternatively, to Goku's "False Super Saiyan" from Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug, as it's a precursor to his own Super Saiyan transformation.
    • Broly's full Legendary Super Saiyan form is Super Saiyan 4, at least in concept: he's a Great Ape that has gone Super Saiyan in a normal-sized body.
  • At one point, Broly drags Goku through a wall of ice headfirst, similar to how Broly dragged Gohan's head through a building in his original movie.
  • Broly's initial charge at Goku and Vegeta is framed almost exactly like a sequence where he did the same thing in Second Coming. On another note in his charge, as he roars, he takes on a pose not unlike his iconic arms up roar position used in most media that originated from the original poster of Second Coming.
  • Broly's initial Super Saiyan transformation features numerous color distortions on the environment around him, much like his first transformation into the Legendary Super Saiyan in his debut film. He also is shown charging up in a camera angle almost exactly like said transformation after becoming Super Saiyan Full Power.
  • The battle between Broly and Gogeta have a few moments that mirror the original Broly's first defeat, the two most notable being near the beginning when Broly throws a punch and misses, leaving him open to a devastating blow, with near identical camera angles and movements (In the original, it was the "Miracle Punch" that almost killed him; here, it is simply an elbow to the gut), and near the end when Gogeta paralyses him briefly, leaving him in a pose not unlike the original during his death throes.
  • A plea for Shenron saves life at the brink of death like Second Coming. In a surprise twist the person saved is Broly.
  • Paragus being worried that his son will kill him if the fight keeps up, which ironically happens to him in the original film, but in here Frieza kills him.
  • On Namek, Vegeta abandoned Goku to get beaten by Captain Ginyu with the words "Have fun, Kakarot!" Here, Goku and Vegeta abandon Frieza to get beaten by Broly, and Goku quips "Have fun, Frieza!"
  • Goku's parting words to Broly are a request to call him Kakarot, a reference to Broly's Say My Name tendency in the original films.
  • Frieza isn't the only short warlord villain with an army that wants to use the Dragon Balls to grow taller. The original Dragon Ball's Commander Red, who commands the Red Ribbon Army, did so as well. Like Red, Frieza will kill anyone who makes fun of his height.
  • Broly famously referred to himself as "The Devil" in his first appearance. Here, his power is so immense that his fighting with Goku and Vegeta transforms the Arctic environment into something that resembles the stereotypical version of Hell.
  • One of the music tracks that plays during the fight actually incorporates Broly's enraged "KAKAROT!!" scream from the original movie.
  • When Goku and Vegeta leave the battlefield to meet Piccolo to get help to use the Fusion Dance, Vegeta's chestplate is broken away and the sleeves get torn off, leaving him in a dark blue bodysuit that very much resembles his attire during the Buu saga, where the original Gogeta first appeared in Fusion Reborn.
  • Broly vs Gogeta was a match-up that often showed up in the openings to various fighting game adaptations of the Dragon Ball franchise.

Tropes N-Z

• The Napoleon: As opposed to eternal life, or any other stereotypical villain wish, Frieza wants the Dragon Balls to become five centimeters taller. He had realized the weaknesses of immortality regarding certain situations during his time in Hell, and thus changed his desired wish to something he could use easier.
• Neck Lift: When Daigen harasses Cheelai and attacks Lemo, Broly grabs him by the throat and lifts him up over his head intent on strangling him to death.
• Never Trust a Trailer:
  • This is mostly due to the first trailer portraying Broly as outright evil rather than the Tragic Villain Forced into Evil he actually is.
  • In the trailers, Broly appears in his "rage" form fighting Frieza and Whis. In the movie, he is a Super Saiyan when that happens.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Cheelai steals and destroys the controller to Broly's Shock Collar. When the fighting starts, this means Broly's rage can't be stopped.
  • Goku goes Super Saiyan God and seems to be talking Broly down from his rage... then he goes and presses Broly's Berserk Button by calling Paragus a bad guy. Cue Broly's fist in Goku's face.
• Non-Serial Movie: Averted. The movie is a continuation of the Super storyline that ended with the Tournament of Power.
• Novelization: Masatoshi Kusakabe penned the first Dragon Ball light novel based on the movie. There are two versions, one for children which uses simple words and one for adults. It overalls the same story, but it offers some small details about Broly, like him having his tail grow back countless times but every time he would cut it.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Goku has one in the SDCC 2018 trailer when Broly transforms into his Legendary form. Appropriate because it looks like Broly was already taking him to his limits while in Super Saiyan Blue.
  • Generally-speaking, pretty much the entire fight with Broly is continually this. Each time Goku (and especially Vegeta, early on) think they've got him beat, Broly bounces back with a tremendous boost in power. Vegeta's thoughts literally go from "this is a warmup" to "this is annoying" to "we're in trouble" to "he's about to kill us both."
  • Frieza gets this when Goku and Vegeta lead Broly to him, resulting in Frieza suffering a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Frieza allows Paragus to take Revenge by Proxy on Vegeta (son of King Vegeta who tried to get rid of his son Broly). But Frieza threatens that at no point should Broly kill Goku as that honor is for him alone. Surprisingly when Goku and Broly do fight, Frieza simply continues to spectate.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: You know Broly is a true threat when Goku and Vegeta were forced to do these kinds of things they normally wouldn't do:
  • Goku has an escape plan in using Piccolo as his teleportation point in case he couldn't defeat Broly. Piccolo even lampshades this and was very surprised that Goku even thought of that and the situation must be truly serious.
  • When the fight was much tougher than he thought it would be, Vegeta asks Goku for a senzu bean.
  • After Broly transforms into a Super Saiyan, Goku and Vegeta actually fight him together. In fact, Vegeta was the one who suggested it, with Goku reluctantly accepting.
  • And finally, Goku and Vegeta deciding to fuse together into Gogeta to defeat Broly.
• Pillar of Light: When Broly assumes his Super Saiyan form, he ruptures the ground and sends up a massive pillar of green light and crackling energy.
• Prequel: The movie is at once a prequel to Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z and a sequel to Dragon Ball Super. While the bulk of the movie is about Goku and Vegeta's clash with Broly, it starts with an extended prologue about the origins of Goku, Vegeta, Broly, Bardock, the Saiyans and their relationship with Frieza, setting the backdrop for where all the original elements would come from.
• Prolonged Prologue: The movie spends about a half hour showing the backstory of Frieza, the Saiyans, Paragus, Broly, Vegeta and Bardock before the title card shows up.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: Frieza predictably killed people after Goku and Vegeta let him go, but because they're people our protagonists don't know, the narrative treats this as a non-issue that doesn't need to be addressed.
• Raised by Wolves: As part of Broly's new backstory, Paragus raised him exclusively on a Death World where his only companionship was Paragus and occasionally some local creature he befriends. As a result, while he is capable of conversation he speaks in very terse phrases and lacks basic social skills.
• Retraux: The art style in this movie is closer to how Z looked during the Frieza arc, being more simplistic and less detailed than the later arcs and installments. It lends itself extremely well to the animation, since the animators can focus less on getting every exact detail right (which plagued Super's animation in the first 3 arcs due to the animators having a shortened timescale to work on the episodes, as well as less experience in the field) and focus on drawing action.
• Retcon: This movie adapts Dragon Ball Minus, so there are a few changes:
  • In the manga, Goku is stated (not shown) to have been found by Son Gohan as a baby, and this was later adapted in the anime of Z. In Minus and this movie, Goku was found as a 3-year-old toddler.
  • In Minus, only Kikono was with Frieza during the conversation about the destruction of Planet Vegeta. Broly adds Berriblue to the scene.
  • Bardock is not wearing his iconic bandana or his Father of Goku clothes during the destruction of Vegeta. His encounter with Frieza is less personal, meaning it's highly unlikely Frieza even noticed him compared with the manga.
  • In the original manga, Raditz explicitly states that there were only four survivors of his home planet's destruction, meaning Raditz, Nappa, Vegeta, and Goku. Turns out that not only did Broly and Paragus (who Raditz didn't know about) also survive, Raditz neglected to mention two other Saiyan survivors on his team (though that may be because they more than likely died off-screen).
  • Vegeta doesn't know what happened to his brother, nor he cares about it. Unless he discovered his fate off-screen at some point inDragon Ball Z, it does contradict Vegeta knowing what happened to Tarble in Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Paragus's obsession with avenging Broly's exile causes him to both manipulate Broly himself into a living weapon of mass destruction perfectly loyal to him as well as join forces with Lord Frieza, the emperor of evil who personally near-eradicated the Saiyan race, in order to target the Prince for the sins of the King. Predictably, for the sake of perfecting that same exact weapon, Frieza kills Paragus to trigger Broly's rage.
• Save the Villain: Gogeta saves Frieza from a berserk Super Saiyan Broly in his entrance and ultimately, despite being stopped from hitting him with a big ki blast, Gogeta doesn't seriously hurt Broly, smiles in a satisfied manner when Broly is transported offworld to a safe spot, and even stops Frieza from killing Cheelai and Lemo, who staged Broly's aforementioned escape with the Dragon Balls. Then he takes it a step further by sparing Frieza and simply telling him to scram and not try anything again. At the end of the film, Goku also brings house-capsules and food to help Broly survive on the Death World of planetoid Vampa.
• Secondary Color Nemesis: The Frieza Force returns, and aside from Broly retaining his green Super Saiyan form, he's wearing a purple suit, as with the rest of the Frieza Force, and wears a large, green fluffy ear around his waste. His friends Cheelai and Lemo have green and orange skin respectively. However, the three end up separating from the force by the end of the movie, although Cheelai claims that they're still enemies of Goku regardless of his hospitality.
• Sequel Escalation: Played with as it's fairly nebulous where Broly falls in terms of power relative to the final antagonist fought in Super prior to this movie's release, Universe 11's Jiren. At full power Jiren is repeatedly referred to as being more powerful than a God of Destruction, specifically, one stronger than Beerus. Goku refers to Broly as probably being stronger than Beerus but does that hint of ambiguity mean Broly is ultimately weaker than Jiren? Official sources released before the movie do unambiguously state that Broly is the strongest person they've fought, but Japanese promotional material frequently contains information not adapted into the primary medium (and the statement is wonky since Goku and Vegeta have both sparred with Whis, who is clearly more powerful than Broly). In terms of performance, Jiren at his restrained base level does seem much more dominant over Goku and Vegeta as Blues than Broly does as a Super Saiyan (tanking their strongest attacks without moving and KO'ing them with mere glares or the draft of swinging his arm in their direction, while Broly at least flinches when they hit him and generates a ki attack against their's instead of face-tanking it), not to mention Golden Frieza (who went down in one shot to held-back Jiren but lasts a full hour against SS Broly), but neither are at their full power during this. It's very uncertain just how powerful Full Power Broly is, as his opponent is so much stronger than him that this form's offensive abilities are not easily categorized. He's clearly notably superior to Super Saiyan Gogeta (who didn't bother using Super Saiyan 2 or God and jumped straight to Blue) but apart from that it's very much up for debate.
• Sequel Hook: The film ends with Frieza conquering a planet, wishing to still use Broly's power for his own, and Goku and Broly promising to see each other again.
• Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: In order to buy time to Teach and practice Fusion with Vegeta, Goku leads the blindly enraged Broly into Frieza and lets him get pounded for a while.
• Sherlock Scan: Bardock does this after being recalled to Planet Vegeta with the rest of the Saiyans. It wasn't sitting well with him in the first place that all of the Saiyans were recalled to Planet Vegeta. Bardock pokes holes in the logic in-universe — if Frieza wanted to send all of the Saiyans a message, why not just use their scouters? And for that matter, if Frieza wanted to talk to his troops, why is he just waiting in his ship above the planet? Once Bardock gets down to the surface, hearing that Frieza's men have been asking about the legend of the Super Saiyan convinces Bardock that something's up, and he figures out what Frieza is planning to do and why. Thus, Bardock convinces his wife Gine to send their son Kakarot away.
• Ship Tease: Very mildly between Broly and Cheelai. Broly takes a liking to her and Cheelai becomes very fond of Broly. He tries to protect her from some random soldier that won't take no for an answer and she in turn steals and destroys the shock collar remote that causes him so much pain. She goes out of her way to save his life and follows him to Vampa. While nothing romantic has happened yet, it's clear that they're fond of each other and have a strong bond.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: When the battle between the Saiyans starts to destroy the surrounding area, Frieza sends Chilai and Lemo, as well as his other soldiers, away from the battlefield so that no harm comes to Frieza's ship or the Dragon Balls.
• Shoot the Dog: Gogeta doesn't really want to kill Broly but the latter has become so utterly insane and destructive that he is forced to kill him to stop him from threatening the entire universe. Notably once Cheelai wished for Broly to teleport away, he smiles and doesn't do anything even though he could have used Instant Transmission to track him down and finish the Saiyan off.
• Shout-Out
  • Some of Vampa's rock formations look like those of LV-426. Some shots even look identical to those from Alien. ^note And its certainly not the first time Dragon Ball has referenced the franchise.
  • During Goku's fight with Broly he uses a move that resembles the Rasengan twice, failing to connect while in God form but succeeding as SSB.
• Show, Don't Tell: Well the movie's dialogue can fall into the redundancy that is the As You Know, the movie direction allows the characters movements to tell the story without the need of words.
  • During the first act, we can see the Saiyans soldiers wrap their tails around their waist like a belt when on duty, but the moment they are shown to not be working they relax it and let it loose. The moment Bardock reaches his home and see his wife Gine (who clearly has her tail loose all the time) he lets his tail be loose around her.
  • Broly hardly speaks during the movie, having a total of 12 lines of dialogue (with 6 in the same scene), yet the movie allows him to emote to make sure the viewer knows what is going through his head, including a Slasher Smile at one point to indicate that he is enjoying the battle like a Saiyan.
• Sickly Green Glow: Broly retains his signature green aura.
• The Snack Is More Interesting: Kid Vegeta is first shown munching on fruit with little regard to the fact that his home planet just got destroyed.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Broly survives thanks to Chilai wishing him to safety while Gogeta is charging up an attack to finish Broly off. As this Broly is not mindlessly evil, Goku actually tracks him down and talks to him as a future ally.
• Stealth Pun: Broly transforming into a Super Saiyan induces a literal "blind rage", with him going on a nuclear-level breakdown due to grief, and attacking anyone in sight.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Bulma says she's planning to use the Dragon Balls to wish herself to be five years younger and says she won't wish for more years because people would notice something amiss and assume she had a plastic surgery. Frieza later says he wants to wish himself five centimeters taller and won't wish for more so people will assume it's a natural growth.
• Tagline: The movie received quite a bit of backlash for its taglines, since none of them reflect the movie themes at all.
  • "Earth has Goku" was used before the first trailer was released. Other than a moment of Goku telling Broly everyone at Earth lived at peace, Goku's status as a hero of the planet is really never brought upon in the movie.
  • "The Saiyan warrior race...What do you see...Beyond that strength". While the movie does involve the Saiyans, what any of the Saiyan protagonists seek beyond strength is never brought up in the movie. If anything, Broly as a character doesn't have a goal beyond serving his father, who only seek retribution against Vegeta; Goku's goal is that he wants to get stronger due to the fighters he met at the Tournament of Power, so quoting him in episode 122 of Super when Jiren asked him the same question, "he doesn't know."
  • "The greatest enemy, a Saiyan". Broly is an Anti-Villain at best, and doesn't leave an impact in the story unlike any of the previous enemies Goku had to face.
• Technology Marches On:
  • In-Universe The progression of time through the film can be seen in a more subtle way with the scanning technology. In the beginning Saiyans have handheld scanners about the size of a camcorder or pair of binoculars, only receiving the very first model of the familiar Scouter when Frieza takes over about five years before he destroys Planet Vegeta. Flash forward to the present, where the Frieza Force has a model of Scouter even newer than the ones seen in Resurrection 'F', which for the very first time averts Explosive Instrumentation (they just stop measuring once power levels get too high).
  • The movie also subtly hints that the Saiyans only learned how to do (Non-Oozaru) Ki attacks sometime during that period. When demonstrating the scouters, Frieza notes that they picked up weapons being trained on him by the Saiyan snipers, Paragus carries a laser pistol, and there are guns on the ship he commandeers to find Broly. Five years later, Bardock's ship has no guns on it (also note that the ship of Cheelai and Lemo, who need blasters, does have guns), and of course he can do Ki attacks.
• This Is Gonna Suck: The moment Goku and Vegeta try to evade Broly in his rampage, is when Goku tells Frieza (in the dub) "Have fun!". When Broly pops in front of him, Frieza's voice cracks to indicate, yes, it's gonna suck for him. For an hour.
• Too Dumb to Live: We're told that members of Frieza's army mocked his short stature. He killed them.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Frieza from his last appearance. Despite still being the heinous monster he is, he now isn't as much of a Bad Boss as before, even allowing his troops to leave the battle to not be caught in the fire. This backfires with Cheelai and Lemo using the Dragon Balls to wish Broly back to his home planet, but even then he decides to leave them be on Vampa after Gogeta stops him.
• Trauma Button: Both a literal and an emotional one at the same time. Paragus uses a shock collar on Broly that causes him intense pain whenever Broly goes out of control. Just the sight of the remote for the shock collar is enough to make Broly panic and pull at his collar.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Invoked by Frieza; remembering what pushed Goku over the edge to becoming a Super Saiyan, he kills Paragus so that the same will happen with Broly.
• Uniqueness Decay: Once again the commonality of the Super Saiyan transformation was acknowledged and lampshaded. This time by Frieza who originally feared the transformation and is surprised to hear from Paragus that Broly actually can't go Super Saiyan. Until Frieza gives Broly a little push in achieving it.
• Unskilled, but Strong: The key depiction of this version of Broly. He grew up on a Death World and was trained by his father so he knows how to fight, but has never faced an opponent one-on-one who could match him in raw power. As such despite being incredibly powerful, Vegeta and Goku handily keep him at bay individually. But the longer he fought the quicker he learned, and progressively unlocked even deeper power reserves, meaning he is quick to turn the tides against them. However, even with his Saiyan Power backing him up, Broly still lacks proper experience, meaning once Goku activates Super Saiyan Blue, he is able to effectively gain the upper hand due to being strong enough to fight him and skilled enough to counter anything Broly tries. And even when Broly finally transforms, due to his lack of skill, Goku and Vegeta despite being clearly no match for him can still hold him back for a few minutes as he is just throwing his superior power at them while they are mixing that power with their own experience. When GOGETA finally enters the field, due to having more than enough power to battle Broly and with the skill and experience of both Goku and Vegeta, even in his base form, he casually holds his own against Broly, and when they both start using transformations, be it in Super Saiyan or Super Saiyan Blue, Gogeta quickly dominates Broly, not necessarily by being much stronger (Wordof God clarifies that had Broly been more skilled, the fight would have been significantly more difficult, if not even loseable, for Gogeta), but by being so much more skilled that he can easily maneuver through Broly's wild attacks without being hit and deliver strong hits that quickly rattles him down.
• Unstoppable Rage: The hallmark that Broly's best known for, back in full force, and the primary reason he's even a "villain" of the feature. Once he gets that ball rolling, stopping it is a task nigh-impossible, and Broly's out to annihilate everything around him. His Wrathful form, although still a very unhappy camper, was actually quite restrained in that he still had some vestige of self-control, but when that Super Saiyan transformation rolls in after his father's death, THAT IS IT. BROLY GOES COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Cheelai meant well for Broly's sake, but stealing and destroying Paragus' remote meant there was nothing to stop Broly from getting enraged and powerful enough to escalate the fight further.
• Villain Decay: Downplayed with Frieza, who gets bumped down since Broly is the primary opponent of the film. Although Vegeta still takes him seriously and even feels the need to double down on his training in preparation of the now rampant Frieza, who is still the Big Bad of the film and played up as a future threat in The Stinger, Frieza himself doesn't even try to take on Goku and Vegeta in a straight fight anymore, knowing that he has no real chance at victory if they fight together or use one of several 11th-Hour Superpower options. His motivations, although not unexplained, also become less impressive, as he now wishes merely to be slightly taller instead of obtaining immortality; the character is overall Played for Laughs, especially the comical expressions he makes when Broly beats him down and the comedic juxtaposition of his wish with Bulma's. It's telling that he only survives because Gogeta deems him Not Worth Killing after dealing with Broly, and even Goku mistakenly believes Frieza to be "their friend" now, not taking him all that seriously.
• Villainous Underdog: Frieza is this, and he's aware of it. Having seen the power Goku and Vegeta have previously pulled out he knows that if he challenges them now, no matter what he's going to lose.
  • Broly is Unskilled, but Strong. His lack of experience in a real fight shows when his initially unable to land a single blow on Vegeta, despite being able to match him in speed and power. While he grows stronger by unlocking more of his power over the course of the movie he only lasts as long as he does because Goku and Vegeta don't kill him off the bat. Goku even gets the chance to kill Broly and doesn't take it because he tries to reason with him. While Broly eventually becomes too strong for Goku and Vegeta after turning Super Saiyan he is once again the underdog against Gogeta. Gogeta easily has the power to match Broly, whose uncontrolled power has reduced him to a mindless beast, so he's barely able to land a single hit on Gogeta. The fight eventually becomes a one sided beating on Gogeta's part with Broly not even getting a chance to fight back.
• Villainous Valor: Broly's Unstoppable Rage is subject to quite a lot of impressive reactions, even though he is blinded by that rage. Once Gogeta enters the fray, he ends up taking some of the most prolonged punishment of any Dragonball Z villain but refuses to back down. Goku even expresses admiration for that.
  • Frieza gets wailed on by Broly for an hour, but unlike his last movie appearance there is no scene of any Villainous Breakdown. Instead he admires his power.
• We Will Meet Again: At the end of the movie, Frieza is smart enough to cut his losses and leave - but not without a promise to return sooner or later.
• Wham Line: "It's Goku. But Broly... call me Kakarot."
• Wasteful Wishing: At the start of the movie, we find out that Bulma had been gathering the Dragon Balls because she wanted to make herself five years younger. Frieza had his minions steal the Dragon Balls…not so he could make himself immortal, but because he wants to be five centimeters taller. Subverted in that, while both Bulma and Frieza would gladly have made their wishes more substantial, they believe such dramatic gains would raise questions.
• Whatever Happened to the Mouse?:
  • The movie doesn't tell the fate of King Vegeta. According to the manga (ch. 296, Dragon Ball), Frieza fought against him and killed him without transforming.
  • Whatever happened to the two nameless Saiyans in Vegeta's squad? They died off-screen since they were never mentioned in the Saiyan saga, but how?
• What the Hell, Hero?: When Whis asks Vegeta for his reason for wanting to get stronger, he reveals that he's doing it to be ready against Frieza - and immediately after, rips Goku a new one for being the one who caused it all.

Vegeta: Because YOU!! You decided to bring back that devil, you dumbass!! Of all the people you could have returned back to life!!

• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Frieza's after the Dragon Balls on Earth for the first time, but he actually outright waves off the notion of immortality when asked if that's what he was seeking. After spending his time in Hell, he's grown a little too acquainted with the notion of the Time Abyss, and after further consideration he realizes that — such as in an instance wherein he might possibly be crippled, or some other such thing — he'd just be ''stuck'' that way forever without even death as a release.
• That's No Moon: When Paragus and Beets land on Planet Vampa, one of the first things they land is soft terrain, with Beets noting that the grass is unusual. They then see bugs sticking their proboscises into the ground, sucking something out. Once they feel the ground move below them, it's revealed that they were originally standing on a giant green dog-like beast.
• The Worf Effect:
  • After he unlocks his power during their battle, Wrathful Form Broly starts beating Super Saiyan God Vegeta. When Goku whips out Super Saiyan Blue and matches him, he transforms into his Super Saiyan state thanks to Frieza's interference. Super Saiyan Blue Goku and Vegeta together struggle to put up any kind of fight against him at that point; they get in a few good hits but eventually concede that they cannot win without fusion. When Gogeta shows up, it goes the other way, and he overpowers Broly with relative ease once going all out. In order for things to play out, Whis at one point also opts to "fight" Broly, by way of handily dodging his attacks.
  • Frieza doesn't fare much better than Goku and Vegeta as Super Saiyan Blue. Even an hour, Broly beats the absolute hell out of him in his Golden form even when Frieza decides to get serious.
• Writers Cannot Do Math: The 41 years that are supposed to pass between the beginning of the movie until the "present", seems to contradict certain ages of the characters.
• You Are Too Late: By the time Paragus confronts King Vegeta with the news of sending his son to Vampa, Broly is already well on his way. This forces Paragus to hijack a ship and chase after Broly.

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Cheelai: Hey, wait... what's your name?

Goku: It's Goku. But Broly... call me Kakarot.