Dragon Ball Super: Part 2 is the next installment of the Dragon Ball Super Saga which you might have seen before in some part and just like Dragon Ball Super: Part 1, it’s because we are being given a retread of one of the amazing Dragon Ball movies. This time around we get an extended and changed for TV version of the Dragon Ball: Resurrection of F movie that came out in 2015. Is it all worth a watch or do you wait out for Dragon Ball Super: Part 3? (And yes, I’ll be referring to Dragon Ball Super Part 2 as Resurrection of F since that’s where the main story came from. Sorry for any confusion.)
Title: Dragon Ball Super Part 2
Genre: Text
Details: 13 episodes
Release Date: December 6, 2017 (Australia)
Languages: English 5.1, Japanese 2.0
Subtitles: English subtitles
Number of Discs: 2 (DVD)(BluRay)
Runtime: 325.0 mins (23mins per episode)
Distributor: Madman Entertainment (DVD)(BluRay)
Special Features: Watching Dragon Ball Super: with Jason Douglas & Ian Sinclair, Textless Opening Songs, Textless Closing Songs & Trailers
Rating: M: Animated violence
The remnants of Frieza’s army, led by an alien named Sorbet, head to Earth where they convince Pilaf, Mai, and Shu, who have collected the Dragon Balls, to summon the wish-granting dragon Shenron. Sorbet makes a wish to revive Frieza, but Shenron can only bring him back to life in the form of the pieces that Future Trunks cut up, which Sorbet’s minions reassemble using their advanced technology over the following two months. Once restored, Frieza plans revenge against the Super Saiyans, but upon learning that Goku has gotten stronger to the point of defeating Majin Buu, he postpones the invasion so he can train himself for the first time in his life.
Jaco the Galactic Patrolman travels to Earth to warn Bulma that Frieza is approaching, and she gathers five of the Z fighters. With Goku and Vegeta training with Whis on the planet that houses Beerus, the God of Destruction, unaware that Frieza has been revived, Gohan, Piccolo, Krillin, Master Roshi, Tien Shinhan and Jaco fight off Frieza’s soldiers. But the five Z warriors are unable to beat Frieza, even with Gohan as a Super Saiyan.
Bulma is finally able to reach Whis; Goku and Vegeta return to Earth to face Frieza. Whis and Beerus join them in order to eat a strawberry sundae Bulma has prepared for them; neither of the two care about the outcome of the battle. Despite powering up to Final Form, Frieza is unable to defeat Goku, but the latter deduces that he is holding back. The two then agree to fight at full power, with Goku transforming into a glowing-blue aura form called Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan, and Frieza evolving into his new gold-plated form “Golden Frieza”. Although Frieza is finally able to gain the upper hand, Goku and Vegeta soon realize Frieza’s greatest weakness: that his golden form drains his powers quickly.
Goku turns the tables, beating down Frieza. He gives him the chance to leave, but is shot in the chest by Sorbet’s ray gun. Frieza stands over the incapacitated Goku and offers Vegeta a chance to kill Goku and to command his future army, but Vegeta refuses, transforming into his own Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan form. When Krillin attempts to revive Goku with a Senzu bean, Frieza attacks him but Vegeta deflects the shot, which kills Sorbet. Vegeta is about to kill the weakened Frieza, but Frieza shoots a blast into the Earth, destroying it and Vegeta. Goku, Whis, Beerus and the Z fighters are left in a small piece of rock in space where they lament the loss of the planet; Goku regrets not killing Frieza when he had the chance. Whis remarks he can turn back time up to three minutes and, after doing so, Goku destroys Frieza with a Kamehameha, much to Vegeta’s anger.
In the aftermath, as the characters say their goodbyes to Beerus and Whis, Goku and Vegeta discuss the assertion by Whis that, if the two of them were to team up, opponents like Frieza would not have a chance to knock them out. Vegeta replies he would rather die than go through that again. Goku agrees and laughs as Vegeta smiles and remarks that it is about time they finally agree on something. Frieza returns to Hell, and to his dismay is welcomed back.
Goku: Voiced By Masako Nozawa (Japanese) & Sean Schemmel (English)
When we catch up with Goku in Resurrection of F, he is beginning his training with Whis, the watcher/teacher of Beerus. While a lot of the time in Resurrection of F is spent around other characters, Goku is the usual hero who comes in at the last minute and wins the day for all. After experiencing the power of a Super Saiyan God in Battle of Gods/Dragon Ball Super Part 1, he has been able to tap into that same level of power and use it to create a new form: Super Saiyan Blue aka Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan. using this new power he is able to match and defeat the new Golden Frieza form.
Gohan: Voiced By Masako Nozawa (Japanese) & Kyle Hebert (English)
Gohan is more peaceful during his time after Dragon Ball Z, he is married to Videl and has a daughter by the name of Pan. This means that Gohan has let his training go to the wayside during the peaceful time. He does lead the defense against Frieza and his forces when they arrive on Earth as Piccolo thinks it might reawaken Gohan’s fighting spirit. Unfortunately this doesn’t work and Gohan is taken out by Frieza himself since he is the only Super Saiyan on Earth at the time. After these events Gohan admits that his training is lacking and reaffirms himself to getting back into fighting shape if mainly to protect the world that contains his wife and daughter.
Vegeta: Voiced By Ryō Horikawa (Japanese) & Christopher Sabat (English)
Ever the challenger to Goku, Vegeta has been able to join Whis in training a whole 6 months ahead of his rival, but his ego and need to be the best keep holding him back from his true potential. Vegeta is also able to tap into the Super Saiyan God power and join Goku as a Super Saiyan Blue, revealing it to Frieza before kicking his ass into the dust. Vegeta is here more as a back up to Goku as the two use the fight against Frieza as training more than anything.
Piccolo: Voiced By Toshio Furukawa (Japanese) & Christopher Sabat (English)
Piccolo unfortunately has been reduced to a bit player during all this, the last of the Z Fighters to keep training during the peaceful times just in case evil returns. Most of the time he is the surrogate Uncle to Pan and spends time with her as a babysitter. Piccolo doesn’t get many moments in Resurrection of F except to tell Gohan that he is lacking in his training and ultimately dying at the hands of Frieza only to be resurrected again after the events of the saga.
Jaco: Voiced By Natsuki Hanae (Japanese) & Todd Haberkorn (English)
One of the newer characters added to the Dragon Ball canon, Jaco is a space policeman who happens to know the Briefs family through Bulma’s sister. In terms of the story, Jaco doesn’t really do much or is of any use. He’s more of a side comedy character, used mostly to gasp at how strong everyone involved directly in the fights is and nothing more.
Frieza: Voiced By Ryūsei Nakao (Japanese) & Chris Ayres (English)
After being destroyed by Future Trunks after his conversion into a cyborg back in Dragon Ball Z, Frieza has spent all his time in her version of Hell, a place where he is surrounded by peace, lovely little cute creatures and perfect calm nature. Unable to do anything about his position in Hell, or having anyone to fight, Frieza spent most of his time condemning Goku and plotting revenge. Thanks to one of his loyal followers gathering the Dragon Balls and wishing Frieza back to life, he returns to Earth to gain his revenge against all of the Z Fighters. In addition to wanting revenge, seeing Goku transform into a Super Saiyan, Frieza was inspired to push himself for the first time ever, achieving a new form too: Golden Frieza.
Captain Ginyu: Voiced By Katsuyuki Konishi (Japanese) & R Bruce Elliott (English)
Captain Ginyu, once the leader of the dreaded Ginyu Force was reduced to the form of a Namekian Frog creature thanks to some quick thinking of Vegeta all the way back in Dragon Ball Z. Listening in to random things during his time as a frog Ginyu learns of the return of Frieza through Jaco, and hops aboard Jaco’s spaceship to come to Earth and rejoin his master. Ginyu is able to body swap out of his frog body and into the body of Tamoga, once of Frieza’s training partners. He does try to get his revenge on Goku and Vegeta, but ultimately fails in his mission and is defeated.
What worked in this retelling of Resurrection of F is that they took out lot of boring characters and plot points in order to do some fun things. They kept Tagoma around for a majority of the film instead of killing him off, making him sort of the Nappa to Frieza’s Vegeta. Some issues with the plot are changed in order to make more sense, like Goku dropping back to base form and Sorbet taking advantage of that, making things seem more possible that in the film version. And last but not least, we get the return of the one of the most amazing characters that never got a finale in Dragon Ball Z… CAPTAIN GINYU! Yes, the frog returns to get his revenge on Goku and Vegeta only to fail as only Captain Ginyu can. These changes are more than welcome and break up the terrible pacing that was the film version.
Dragon Ball Super Part 2 is still a retelling of Resurrection of F, something that we have seen before. Outside the new additions like he return of Captain Ginyu, it’s still the same stuff that we have seen before. We know that Goku can go Super Saiyan Blue, we know Frieza goes into Golden mode without knowing the form properly, we know that Vegeta can go Super Saiyan Blue too; so all the big surprises from this saga we already know and it makes it too easy to skip over half of the story if you’ve already seen Resurrection of F, which a lot of people did or else Dragon Ball Super would not exist at all. While I do applaud all the things I outlined above, I still can’t shake the fact that I’ve had to watch the exact same story in two different styles… and I can never condone double dipping.
At the end of it all, Dragon Ball Super Part 2 is a decent use of the source material. Even though there was a few things added for fan-service and to connect this saga to the next one, the overall product does not seem too cluttered at all. If anything, I think that Dragon Ball Super Part 2 does a better job at telling Resurrection of F than the movie did as characters were introduced better and felt more natural to the story where the movie version just had a lot of stuff happen for the sake of being shocking and because it was a movie. Unlike my opinion of Battle of Gods being retold in Dragon Ball Super Part 1, there is enough here to warrant a rewatching of the content.
©BIRD STUDIO/SHUEISHA, TOEI ANIMATION
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Adaptation done better
Summary
Dragon Ball Super Part 2 is at it’s core a retelling of the movie Resurrection of F, but at the same time there is enough cuts and changes to the core plot to make it worthy of a second viewing. A much more fitting version of the story that returns not only Frieza to the Dragon Ball Super fold, but also brings back characters who shouldn’t have died in the first place as well as giving a finale to a fan favorite villain.
