Dragon Ball: The Path to Power

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dragon Ball: The Path to Power
Japanese box art
Directed by	Shigeyasu Yamauchi
Produced by	Tan Takaiwa Yoshio Anzai (Shueisha) Tsutomu Tomari
Written by	Aya Matsui (screenplay) Akira Toriyama (story)
Starring	Masako Nozawa (Son Gokū) Hiromi Tsuru (Bulma) Naoki Tatsuta (Oolong) Toru Furuya (Yamcha) Naoko Watanabe (Pu'er) Daisuke Ghori (Umigame) Kin'ya Aikawa (Kame-sen'nin) Masaharu Satou (Adjudant Black) Bin Shimada (General Blue) Hirohiko Kakegawa (General White) Hisao Egawa (Mettalic) Shozo Iizuka (Jinzō'ningen #8) Kenji Utsumi (Commander Red / Shenlong) Joji Yanami (Narration)
Music by	Akito Tokunaga
Release date(s)	March 4, 1996
Running time	80 minutes
Language	Japanese

Dragon Ball: The Path to Power, known in Japan as Dragon Ball: Saikyō e no Michi (ドラゴンボール最強への道, Doragon Bōru Saikyō e no Michi^?, lit. "Dragon Ball: The Path to Ultimate Strength"), is the fourth Dragon Ball movie. Originally released in Japan on March 4, 1996, between episodes 4 and 5 of DBGT. This movie was made to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Dragon Ball, during the time DBGT was airing, and even uses the same animation as DBGT.

1 Plot summary
2 Trivia
3 Cast list
4 Music

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The Path to Ultimate Strength is a retelling of the Dragon Ball story. Son Gokū is a kid living all alone on Mount Paozu. One day, after he catches a fish to eat, a girl in a car (being Bulma) almost hits him. He mistakes the car for a yōkai and throws it onto its side, and gets shot by Bulma in return. He thinks she's some kind of demon, but she ends up convincing him she's human, even though she doesn't have a tail. He invites her into his house since his dead grandpa always told him to be nice to girls, and there she goes straight for his only keepsake. When they go in the house Goku shows Bulma an orange glowing ball that he thinks is his Grandpa. All of a sudden Bulma comes to life and asks if she can have the ball. When Goku protests, she brings out two more "grandpas", and explains to him the legend of the Dragon Balls and Shenlong. She offers to let him feel her up to get him to come along, but when that doesn't work, she tells him it'll help him get stronger. He agrees, and off they go.

Later, in the forest, they are forced to stop because of a bull/ox in the road, who demands the girl. Gokū ends up fighting the creature, which turns into a robot, and then a bat. Unfortunately, by then, his five minutes are up, and he turns back into Oolong, the pig. There's no time for apologies though, because Yamcha attacks! He demands all the capsules and money they have, but not before Pu'er recognizes Oolong and yells at him for his perverted antics at Shapeshifting School. Yamcha fights Gokū, and appears to have the upper hand, until Bulma wakes up. This puts him into a state of shock and he is forced to retreat with the help of Pu'er.

Bulma, Oolong, and Gokū are driving northward towards the next Dragon Ball, only to discover a huge metal tower in the distance. (Yamcha and Pu'er, who have been following them, stay in a cave nearby to keep warm.) Soldiers come out and "welcome" them to Muscle Tower, and Gokū takes them all head on. He manages to enter the tower, only to face Sergeant Metallic. He finishes him off quickly though, and discovers (to his shock) that Metallic was a robot.

White orders the remaining forces toward Gokū, but he plows through them all, up into General White's room. White then activates the tower's deadliest creation -- Jinzō'ningen #8! #8 nearly strangles Gokū, but refuses to kill him when ordered. As a result, White threatens to kill the Jinzō'ningen, but Gokū intervenes and saves him. The two make quick friends, with #8 explaining that he doesn't believe in fighting or killing. Gokū complains that his name is weird, so he calls him "Hatchan" (8-chan) for short. This ends in a snowball fight between the two while the tied-up forces (including White) look on.

Some time later, while driving in Oolong's house-wagon, they almost run over (and then almost fall off a cliff because of) a Umigame. He explains that he is quite lost, and needs help getting back to the sea. After they bring him there, he says he has a reward which he will bring back with him the next day. So, Oolong, Gokū, and Bulma spend the night on the beach. Gokū wakes up early in the morning and tries to sleep in Bulma's lap, but freaks out when he removes her panties and discovers her lack of the male genitalia. That morning, the Umigame comes back bearing his "reward" -- Muten Rōshi, the Kame-Sen'nin! He first tries to summon the Immortal Phoenix for them, but when that fails (it apparently died), he calls forth Kinto'un (dub: Flying Nimbus), the somersault cloud. Gokū is the only one of the bunch who can ride it, so it becomes his.

While Gokū's off on Kinto'un, Bulma discovers that the old man has a Dragon Ball. He offers to let go of it only if she shows him her underwear. She agrees, not knowing she doesn't have any on, and both Muten Rōshi and Oolong are pleasantly surprised. She is horrified after she goes in to change and finds her underwear still inside. There is no time for an explanation though, because General Blue attacks with the entire Red Ribbon Fleet. When the situation seems just about hopeless, Muten Rōshi decides to do something about it: he's going to use his legendary Kamehameha (Yamcha is amazed that he'll actually get to see it). He decimates the fleet, but the forces keep on attacking. So Gokū does the same! But just as their situation is looking up, Gokū is knocked out by a missile, Blue washes up on shore, and Bulma, Yamcha, Oolong, Pu'er, and Muten Rōshi are all captured!

The five are carted off to prison near Red Ribbon Headquarters. The next morning, Gokū awakens to the bleeping of the Dragon Radar. Finding himself alone, he sets out in search of the other six Dragon Balls (Blue, having missed the one on Gokū's person, is executed for his failure). Gokū fights through legions upon legions of Red Ribbon soldiers, while in the meantime, the others try to make their escape (Oolong tries to turn into a key, and repeatedly fails; nobody thinks to ask Pu'er, who actually graduated shapeshifting school).

Eventually, the others make it out, to discover Gokū (carrying a pile of tanks) there to greet them. As Gokū fights his way into Red Ribbon HQ, Red and Black retreat with their six Dragon Balls to their last refuge. But when Black hears about Red's true wish -- to become taller, Black shoots him and swears to make the Black Ribbon Army ruler of the world. He brings out the Army's greatest weapon, a giant robot! The robot's beam weapon destroys a huge swath of territory in its path, and nearly kills Gokū, until he manages to knock it on its stomach and detonate the cannon. Black and his robot aren't out yet though, and Gokū is eventually knocked out. Luckily, none other than Ha-chan comes to the rescue! He puts everything he has into keeping the robot from killing the boy, but it's pretty clear that he's no match. Parts start to fly off of him, and he lands in a crumpled heap, next to Gokū.

Gokū comes to, only to see the jinzō'ningen die. Saddened and enraged by #8's sacrifice, a new world of power suddenly awakens within him, as the ground shakes with his tortured screams. Black makes the mistake of egging him on, and Gokū finishes him off with a gigantic Kamehameha. After the dust settles, the dragon, Shenlong, is summoned forth, but Bulma and Yamcha realize they don't need their wishes anymore. Gokū offers his own wish instead: to revive #8 and remove the bomb inside him.

[edit] Trivia

Goku's outfit is made somewhat inconsistent for the first few moments of the film, switching between his Beginning of Dragon Ball outfit to his DBGT outfit, however, before he leaves his house, he changes clothes to his GT outfit, and it remains like that for the rest of the movie.
Bulma's hair is purple in this movie, this is the color of her hair in the original manga
Most of the Red Ribbon army members appearing in this movie were redesigned slightly.

[edit] Cast list

Character Name	Voice Actor (Japanese)	Voice Actor (English)
Son Gokū	Masako Nozawa	Stephanie Nadolny
Bulma	Hiromi Tsuru	Tiffany Vollmer
Oolong	Naoki Tatsuta	Bradford Jackson
Yamcha	Toru Furuya	Christopher Sabat
Pu'er	Naoko Watanabe	Monika Antonelli
Umigame	Daisuke Ghori	Christopher Sabat
Kame-Sen'nin	Kin'ya Aikawa	Mike McFarland
Commander Red	Kenji Utsumi	Josh Martin
Adjudant Black	Masaharu Satou	Christopher Sabat
General Blue	Bin Shimada	Sonny Strait
General White	Hirohiko Kakegawa	Kyle Hebert
Sergeant Metallic	Hisao Egawa	Chris Rager
Artificial Human #8 (8-chan)	Shouzou Iizuka	Mike McFarland
Shenron	Kenji Utsumi	Christopher Sabat
Narration	Joji Yanami	Brice Armstrong

[edit] Music

Ending Theme: "DAN DAN 心かれれてく" / "DAN DAN Kokoro Hikarete ’ku" / "DAN DAN, You’re Charming My Heart" (DAN DAN=Step by Step); Lyrics: Izumi Sakai; Music: Tetsurō Oda; Arrangement: Takeshi Hayama; Performance: FIELD OF VIEW; Song Lyrics