Fantastische Hure said:
Is the Captain going to review the Trunks TV-Special?
Guess I should.
Like the Bardock Special, this is a portion of the series capable of maintaining interest and standing out through focusing on a setting not ruled by the same plot conveniences as the main story, hence making consequences permanent and cementing it as a more solid story than the actual main series. It also surpasses the Bardock special in terms of character writing, as we get a lot more time to focus on Future Trunks and Gohan's friendship before the latter's death, making it far more impactful than those of Bardock's team. The Future Artificial Humans are also given enough time to flesh them out as being more than just carbon copies of their main timeline selves, which does a lot when comparing them to how the Bardock Special gave little in presenting new layers to it's villains.
It still has the problem of being a mere side story in which anyone going into the special knows the overall outcome of characters' fates if they'd watched DBZ beforehand. You could also argue that about Gohan's strength being far above what the manga presented him as, though that has no bearing on the actual film or the anime continuity, so such a point would be moot. However, in regards to Gohan's strength, it's a clear negative example of plot dictates power when comparing how weak he is compared to his post-Rosat self in the main timeline, since logically he should be even stronger due to the experiences he endured.
Still, the special's unique take on setting and storytelling gives it a lot of positives when compared to DBZ's main story, making it quite a good side story. As far as telling a story goes, it's also a lot better than it's manga counterpart.
Overall Score - 6/10. Easily the 2nd best out of all the movies/specials.
has movies that break continuity
