I've reviewed the first three Dragonball films already. Now, it's time for the fourth and final film before they moved onto Dragonball Z, Saikyou e no Michi. It was released by Toei in '96, seven years after the Dragonball series had ended and the same year Dragonball Z saw its finale. Which seems like odd timing. Like, the non-canon GT had started airing when this came out. In any case, let's take a look and see what they had in store for us. Story: We open with Goku meeting Bulma for the first time. Yay, another re-telling like the first film. So, they meet Oolong and Yamchaand then things surprisingly get switched up and they encounter the Red Ribbon Army. So, instead of a straight up re-telling, it's more an alternative scenario where the group encounters the Red Ribbon Army while first hunting for the dragonballs instead of Pilaf and his minions.
The biggest issue with the narrative is that some parts of it are overly predictable. Like, the big climax is very much of the "everything is obvious before it happens" variety. Of course, this isn't a franchise that's known for its surprising twists. It's known for its big, over the top action sequences. But it's usually not quite this obvious with every single beat being super telegraphed. The film also repeats some of the gags from the series verbatim and they just don't have the same impact. It doesn't help that they aren't even close to the funniest gags from the series.
On the positive side, changing things around so that the group's first major conflict is with Red Ribbon, does change things up enough to give the film a sense of uniqueness, in spite of being an alternative re-telling. Which is something of a rarity. It also does mostly capture the sense of fun of the series proper pretty well.
Characters:
Chances are, most of you are familiar with the major Dragonball characters like Goku, Bulma and Roshi. You also get more minor supporting characters like Oolong & Pu'ar. There's also Yamcha for the one person out there who likes Yamcha. Fortunately for the rest of us, he pretty much just follows the group and gets used as a butt monkey. The somewhat surprising character is Cyborg Eight, or Hat-chan if you prefer. He gets used quite extensively in this one. It's a fun cast, not all that deep but well suited for the film's aesthetic.
Art:
Mostly, the artwork is pretty well done. There are some cool action moments. The character models look good. Bulma has purple hair instead of her usual teal for some reason and Goku wears a blue gi instead of his usual orange. Probably because the non-canon GT had just come out and he wore blue in that. The only real issue with the art is that they really overdo the shadow effects and there are points where it just looks a bit rubbish.
Sound:
The acting is well done. They got the usual cast with Nozawa Masako, Tsuru Hiromi, Tatsuta Naoki, Iizuka Shouzou and the others. So, it's a group who know the characters they're voicing really well and are good at them. The music is typical for the franchise. Which isn't a bad thing. Dragonball consistently has some pretty strong music.
Areas of Improvement:
1. A little surprise to the climax. Yes, this is a formulaic franchise but they could still put in something a bit unpredictable to make things more interesting.
2. Rework the gags a little. There's a reason Spamalot doesn't use the exact same jokes as Quest for the Holy Grail. Gags are funnier when they're fresh. If you know the punchline, they just don't work as well.
3. Stop Putting shadows over everything.
Final Thoughts:
Saikyou e no Michi is a solid Dragonball film, in spite of its late release and fans of the franchise will probably enjoy it once they stop complaining about Goku's wardrobe change and Bulma's hair dye. For myself, the climax was far too obvious and the recycled gags didn't land particularly well, but I still thought it was a solid film. In the end, I'll give it a 7/10.
