Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn (known in Japan as Doragon Bōru Zetto: Fukkatsu no Fusion!! Gokū to Vegeta; lit. "Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn!! Gokū and Vegeta") is the twelfth movie based on the Dragon Ball Z anime. It was originally released in Japan on March 4, 1995, between episodes 258 and 259. It was again released to select theaters in the United States on March 17, 2006, making it the first Dragon Ball movie to be released theatrically there, with Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler following.
When a worker at King Yemma's spiritual check-in station is accidentally covered in spiritual waste, he is transformed into a powerful monster named Janemba, who destroys the barrier between the real world and Other World, allowing the dead to walk the Earth. As the living Z Fighters fend off the dead, it is up to Goku, Pikkon, and Vegeta to stop Janemba.
Not to be confused with Resurrection F, which stands for a completely different ‘F’.
This work contains examples of:
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: South Kai and West Kai's relationship with King Kai seems to have been exchanged between both of them. While in the anime King Kai and West Kai had a personal rivalry, in the movie the latter is neutral to him (Not like he has a lot of dialogue anyway). By the other hand, South Kai was most neutral to King Kai in the anime, but in the movie he was his rival.
- Adolf Hitlarious: The Dictator was never taken seriously for even one second.
- Advertised Extra: The movie is incredibly guilty in regards to this trope. As seen in the
poster
, characters such as Cooler, Nappa, Raditz and Lord Slug are advertised but don't appear in the movie. And the villains that do appear on the poster and in the movie don't get any dialogue apart from Freeza. And even Freeza doesn't get that much screentime before Gohan one-shots him. One also has to wonder, where the hell is Cell when this is all happening? - A Nazi by Any Other Name: Do we really need to address how the Dictator fits into the trope?
- Art Shift: Goten and Trunks' subplot has them in a thick outline animation after the Dictator and his army showed up in the city.
- Back from the Dead: The deceased characters who make cameo appearances in this film include Freeza, Zarbon, Cui, Jeice, Burter, Recoome, Ginyu (who, amusingly enough, is still a frog), Sauza, all the members of Turles' Crusher Corps, Paragus, Bojack and Zangya.
- Blood Knight: Really debatable with Janmeba's first form, definitely the case with the second; as he laughs manically seeing his sword crumble due to Vegeta's power.
- Big Red Devil: Janemba's true form is not all that big, especially compared to his original form. But it is still very tall.
- Bishōnen Line: When Janemba transforms into his Super Mode, he becomes much leaner and smaller - but also more muscular, focused and sadistic.
- Bittersweet Ending: Janemba is defeated with no lasting damage, but Vegeta loses his temporary body and returns to whatever afterlife (possibly Hell itself) he was experiencing prior.
- Bowdlerise: When the movie was reaired on Nicktoons during the Kai hype, the scenes involving the Hitler expy were removed.
- The Bus Came Back: Happens in epic style for Vegeta, who in this movie continuity is returning after his sacrifice against Buu, ignoring his proper return against Super Buu.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Gohan vs Freeza
- Super Janemba takes down SS2 Vegeta with one hit. Pikkon lasts a tiny bit longer.
- Also, Gogeta vs Janemba. It's glorious.
- Gohan vs Freeza
- Curb Stomp Cushion: SS3 Goku is clearly overpowered by Super Janemba (fitting his status as a blatant expy of base Super Buu, who Goku also admitted he'd lose to), but manages to put up a decent fight at first and even gets the better of Super Janemba briefly thanks to the sheer difference in their combat skill before the demon starts using his Reality Warper powers.
- Death Seeker: Vegeta gives off these vibes when he fights Janemba. He hates "life" in Hell and tells Goku point-blank that he has nothing to lose; as far as he's concerned, anything, even Cessation of Existence, is preferable.
- Deader than Dead: Gogeta completely destroys Janemba, allowing the ogre he possessed to be reformed/freed.
- Dub-Induced Plotline Change: A downplayed example. At the end of the film, Goten and Trunks tell Gohan they know how all the dead were sent back to Other World (that being Goku and Vegeta), but they won't tell him. In the Funimation dub, the two tease Gohan after they previously caught him making out with Videl off-screen.
- Endearingly Dorky: Videl is very charmed by Gohan's Saiyaman antics.
- Episode of the Dead: The movie features the denizens of Hell escaping into the world of the living, with many of them with the appearance of zombies and skeletons, including a zombie Hitler and his undead army.
- Evil Army: What the Dictator has under his control.
- Expy: Janemba is one for Majin Buu. They're basically demons that start out fat, dimwitted and comical. They become a lean, far more menacing and powerful new being with the simplest English translation being to add Super before the name, and are overwhelmed by a fusion of Goku and Vegeta.
- Fusion Dance: What Goku and Vegeta resort to doing to defeat Janemba. The first attempt is hilariously botched as Vegeta didn't bend his fingers. The second time it worked flawlessly.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: Janemba. His initial form is only Obliviously Evil, much like Fat Buu only even dumber, but his second form is clearly evil. But he still has no dialogue or any kind of characterization, he just causes destruction because.
- Ghostapo: The Dictator is a zombie Nazi.
- Godzilla Threshold: Janemba's Super Mode is this to Vegeta and Goku, getting them to agree to fuse.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: Mr. Satan contributes by defeating a rush of skeletons and zombies, then complains that nobody witnessed it.
- Harmless Villain:
- The Dictator is really kind of an idiot. He only keeps Trunks and Goten busy due to the sheer number of his zombie troops.
- Freeza too. See Curb-Stomp Battle.
- Kaiju: Janemba's first form.
- The Last Dance: With the movie taking place after Vegeta had performed a Heroic Sacrifice in the Anime, his arc in this movie is framed in a way to be Vegeta's last big hurrah. It went differently in the main continuity.
- Laughably Evil: Janemba in his first form. He's the embodiment of evil and is very dangerous, but extremely jolly and playful. His second form throws out the Laughably part, replacing it with Laughing Mad.
- Lighter and Softer: Far more lighthearted than the two previous Broly films. This shows when Goten and Trunks has more darker outlines while fighting the Dictator's army, Gohan posing after having defeated Freeza, and Shenron getting impatient.
- Loves the Sound of Screaming: South Kai seems to enjoy King Kai's distress, even if the cause involves a being that could endanger the whole universe and the Other World.
- Made of Evil: Janemba is literally the embodiment of all the evil in Hell condensed within one person. When Gogeta hits him with the sparkly, light-based "Soul Punisher" attack, he dissolves into nothingness.
- Manly Tears: Vegeta breaks down crying over the fact that the gap in strength between him and Goku has only grown wider.
- Meaningful Name: Janemba's name appears (though has never been confirmed) to be a combination of janen ("wicked thought") and shōnenba (a situation that reveals one's true character). His true character is a mass of pure evil from all the souls that have passed through the washing machine.
- Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: An ogre named the Saike Demon was irresponsibly careless while operating the Soul Cleansing Machine, causing it to overflow and explode. Being exposed to all of the evil energy that escaped transformed the Saike Demon into our reality-warping Big Bad, Janemba.
- Mind Screw: Even for Dragon Ball, this movie is weird. An evil essence tank overloads and turns into a giant, demon, man-baby that warps reality for both the dead and living world. He traps King Yemma and the spirit world in giant, multi-colored orbs and the only way to free Yemma is to curse like crazy which, in turn, causes the orbs to crack. Meanwhile, Goten and Trunks are fighting Hitler.
- The Napoleon: The Dictator is treated as this-he's just as short as Goten and Trunks and even they can't take him seriously.
- No Name Given: "Dictator" is just his name in the credits.
- Non-Serial Movie: Like most of the other films. Gohan doesn't have his Ultimate form and Vegeta and Goku are still dead, but the presence of Gotenks would seem to indicate that this movie takes place 2 days before Gohan had his potential unlocked and became Ultimate Gohan, the main problem is the complete absence of Buu, but the presence of the Kamikaze Ghost Attack.
- No Swastikas: The symbols on the Dictator and his army are just big "X's".
- Obliviously Evil: In his first form, Janemba doesn't seem to grasp the havoc that he's causing both in the afterlife and on Earth.
- One-Winged Angel: Janemba goes from fat and jolly to full Cerebus Syndrome.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Once again, Vegeta's motive for saving Goku when the newly transformed Janemba has him cornered.
- Our Zombies Are Different: All of the risen dead in Fusion Reborn are undead of some sort (mostly zombies and skeletons, but some ghosts). The Dictator is apparently also a zombie, but inexplicably well-preserved.
- Outside-Genre Foe: Janemba is a super demon with Reality Warper powers. His threat comes less from physical strength and more from his ability to play hell with the world around him. While Goku and Vegeta alone can't compete, Gogeta's so strong and so fast that he can just power through all of Janemba's tricks.
- Putting on the Reich: Again, The Dictator. It's obvious he's based on Hitler.
- Pokémon Speak: Janemba talks like this in his first form.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Janemba in his first form.
- Razor Wind: Janemba doesn't cut things with his sword. He cuts things with the draft from swinging it.
- Reality Warper: Janemba notably turned Hell into a jelly-bean covered playground, and revived all the deceased villains.
- The Power of Creation: Hints of this. After all, the "jelly beans" seems to come from nowhere but the air itself, and in one instance during his fight with Goku, he counters his Kamehameha by creating a miniature Goku doing the same technique with just as much power. Even he seemed impressed by that.
- Rubber Man: Janemba gains this ability in his Super Mode.
- Series Continuity Error: Several, as this is a Non-Serial Movie.
- For starters, Vegeta is dead (exists as a soul, so without a body) while Goku is active (dead, with a proper body in the Otherworld), so this movie would have to be set during the midway part of the Majin Buu saga. During this period Super Buu was still rampaging about and no-one had any real time on their hands.
- Goku states to Janemba that he is using SS 3 for the second time, the first being Majin Buu. This means, with a charitable interpretation, that this movie takes place after the threat was dealt with, in another timeline where the younger generation SOMEHOW managed to get rid of Majin Buu on their own, and peace came back... With both Goku and Vegeta dead for good.
- Despite supposedly happening in that period, Goku is fighting against Pikkon in what is supposed to be another edition of the Other World Tournament, but by then, he would have found Gohan in the Sacred World of the Kai upon returning to the Otherworld.
- Shout-Out: The Dictator is a big fat parody of, you guessed, Adolf Hitler.
- His ultimate demise and that of his army is somewhat similar to Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- His logo (an "X") is also a reference to Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator.
- So Last Season: Pretty much every villain before Majin Buu has become old hat and are literally no threat whatsoever in the movie. Gohan's "fight" against Freeza takes this to the logical extreme. And once Freeza bites the dust, literally every other villain runs away scared for their life.
- Story-Breaker Power:
- Janemba can alter reality in every form possible. From physically altering, deconstructing and reconstructing the mass of objects, to cutting holes through dimensions and creating and travelling though portals. His power over dimensions is capable of transforming the entire universe into his image, including the Other World. He possesses great matter manipulation powers as well since he was easily able to pick up a club and alter its molecular structure, turning it into a sword.
- Gogeta is able to make quick work of Janemba and create stardust energy strong enough to tear apart his evil. As a specific example, Gogeta is able to attack Janemba with such speed and force that neither the audience or the villain can keep up. One minute, the fusion warrior is a great distance away and the next Janemba is being pummeled by blows while it looks like Gogeta is still approaching.
- Super Mode: Janemba's second form, although it appears to be permanent.
- Sword Beam: Janemba's sword can produce beams strong enough to cut through dimensions.
- Thinking Up Portals: While in his first form, Janemba attacked Goku by punching into small portals big enough for his fists. By doing this, Janemba was able to hit Goku with a series of punches from a distance away.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Hercule actually gets to face supernatural entities he can beat for a change, namely a horde of zombies.
- In canon, Gotenks always ends up losing due to his immaturity and overconfidence. Here, he destroys an entire army.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Janemba is strongly implied to have serious issues with this, especially in his first form, as at times he seemed perplexed by the extent of his own powers, and Goku gave him a good run for a good portion of their fight before he turned Super Saiyan 3 and forced a transformation to fix this.
- It's the case in his second form as well. He is at least moderately more powerful than Goku in terms of pure durability and energy output, shrugging off several hits from Goku with just some pain, while Goku is practically crippled by the first two hits Janemba lands (a small Hand Blast followed by a quick Mouth Blast). However, he has no hand-to-hand combat skills at all. Goku actually holds his own pretty well despite the difference in power, at least until Janemba resorts to his weirder abilities.
- Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Since no-one in their right mind would let him improve while dead, Freeza is so outdated Gohan can one-shot him. Again, this is not to be confused with Fukkatsu no ‘F’, where the reverse ironically happens.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- Despite all the villains appearing in the movie, Cell was the only one not among them. Which is odd, considering he was the one who instigated and led the attempted break-out in the anime.
- Broly is nowhere to be seen, despite the fact that the last film ended with a scene that established that Broly was in hell and even though his father Paragus can be seen with the villains.
- Words Can Break My Bones: As a powerful as Janemba is, he's still like a sensitive child and can be literally hurt or have his hold over a realm broken… by childish insults.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Dictator orders his troops to fire on Goten and Trunks as soon as he sees them while assuming they are just civilians.
- Zerg Rush: It's how The Dictator runs rampant over the city, and how he and his soldiers end up destroyed by Gotenks' ghosts.
