The first thing I noticed about The World’s Strongest is how similar its opening is to Dead Zone. Like in Dead Zone, Piccolo is training alone, in so far off part of the world. This time it’s the frozen Tsumisumbri Mountains, not a wasteland. Meanwhile, the villain, Dr. Kochin manages to summon Shenron. I found it interesting that in both movies the main villain can get his wish. Regardless, Gohan and Oolong are on a quest to find those Dragon Balls. After failing, they approach Dr. Wheelo’s lab. They’re attacked by Bio-Men. These Bio-Men are like blue Saibamen that make short work of Gohan.
The search for the world’s strongest
Piccolo intervenes, rescuing Gohan and Oolong. Much like Dead Zone, Piccolo is overwhelmed by three minions of Dr. Kochin. Eventually, Kochin arrives to kidnap Master Roshi. Mistakingly thinking that Master Roshi is the strongest man of the world he uses Bulma as leverage to get Roshi to obey. Oolong rushes to Goku’s house to tell him. Meanwhile, Dr. Kochin tests Roshi’s skills against Kishime, Ebifurya, and Misokatsun. Despite putting up a good fight he’s defeated. Bulma informs them that Goku is the strongest warrior on Earth. Dr. Kochin reveals that his plan is to implant Dr. Wheelo’s brain into the body of “the world’s strongest.” He hopes to seek revenge against all those that doubted his mind.
Goku arrives quickly destroying the traps inside. His encounter with Miskatsun is over quickly when Goku uses his Kaio-ken. When he battles Kishime and Ebifurya he becomes incase in ice. Gohan and Krillin arrive just in time. However, they are easily defeated. Goku uses his Kaio-ken once again. He quickly defeats Kishime and Ebifurya. Now inside Wheelo’s lab, Goku fights against a brainwashed Piccolo. Angered at Piccolo being brainwashed, Gohan releases his power. The wave of energy causes the brain control mechanism to break.
Dr. Wheelo verses Goku
Dr. Wheelo breaks free from the wall. Dr. Kochin is killed by an accident. Dr. Wheelo defeats Master Roshi, Piccolo, and Krillin. The Power-Pole makes a return in this movie, serving Goku as he’s able to trip Dr. Wheelo. Goku fights against Wheelo alone. He continues to increase his Kaio-ken up to 4 times. In combination with his Kamehameha wave, he’s able to send Dr. Wheelo into orbit. With Dr. Wheelo deciding to destroy the Earth, he has no choice but to use the Spirit Bomb, defeating Dr. Wheelo. The World’s Strongest is a good but basic Dragon Ball Z movie. This movie takes a lot of its cues from the previous one.
Growing up I was always a Goku fanboy, but now that I have grown the fact that Goku was always the savior annoys me. In Dead Zone, Goku and Piccolo team up against Garlic Jr. This movie marks the point in which Goku started to separate himself from the other in terms of power. That said it was nostalgic to see Goku using the Kamehameha wave, Spirit Bomb, and the Kaio-ken. Despite Goku’s inevitable victory, it still felt like he had to work for it. Finally, it was cool to see Master Roshi fight again.
While I think this film ultimately gets surpassed by most of the others I did think it was a very enjoyable movie on its own. It’s always nostalgic to look at these days before everyone was blowing up planets and such
It’s seems that the average power level of many characters are too high. I did notice that series like My Hero Academia have more reasonable power scales.
Agreed, by the end of DBZ/Super it’s a little too lopsided so most characters are just completely useless. In Hero he’s done a great job of keeping them pretty balanced so hopefully that continues.