YMMV / Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Despite Goku's claims that Janemba was only pretending to be goofy, consider that he also all but begged to fight the big lug. Janemba's tactics are more akin to a child playing with their toys than any fighting style, and he seems to be having a great time. In fact, the chaos on Earth is a side effect of his antics in Other World. It's only after Goku seriously hurts him - thus ruining the game - that he does anything directly malevolent. Are we sure this guy's really Made of Evil?
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • Frieza, who is defeated by Gohan without much effort.
  • Although Janemba gives Goku and Vegeta a hard time, Gogeta makes quick work of him.
• Ass Pull: How did Pikkon figure out that Janemba's body can be broken by insults? Yeah, the crystals who sealed King Yenma's palace can be broken by that method, but there's no way to know that insults can harm Janemba's body too.
• Awesome Moments: During Goku's SSJ3 transformation, Masako Nozawa has moments where she stops but Sean Schemmel in the dub? He screams at the top of his lungs for the whole 48 seconds straight without stopping! Talk about dedication!
• Crazy Is Cool: Janemba, who releases all the denizens of Hell at one point, while turning the Afterlife into a jelly bean dimension, creating a clone of Goku to counter the Kamehameha technique, a bunch of clones and control of inter dimensional portals to launch attacks. After going One-Winged Angel, he enhances his dimensional portals to teleportation, beats a Super Saiyan 3 Goku, a feat that the aforementioned Kid Buu couldn't pull off and has a sword that cuts through dimensions from the swipes of the sword.
• Common Knowledge: Janemba was completely obliterated by the Soul Punisher because he's Made of Evil, right? Well no, at least not explicitly; there's nothing that outright states that the Soul Punisher's power is dependent on how evil the target is. This misconception seems to originate from a line from Gogeta in the English dub ("Your own bad energy will be your undoing!").
• Contested Sequel: While the fanbase in general has a positive view on the flick due to the outstanding animation and is unanimously agreed to be a Surprisingly Improved Sequel compared to the previous movie, it also has its detractors for being a long-padded plot-less film that only exists to sell Goku and Vegeta's fusion as a promotional gimmick.
• Evil Is Cool: Janemba proved one of the most popular movie villains thanks to his unique powers.
• Funny Moments:
  • When Goku attempts to convince Vegeta to do the Fusion Dance as the former is just newly revived and the latter is dead and both are fighting a very powerful demon who's kicking both of their asses...
    Vegeta: I'd rather die than fuse with you!
    Goku: But, Vegeta! YOU'RE ALREADY DEAD! You've got no choice!
    [Vegeta realizes the logic and pouts]
  • The literal translation can be considered even funnier:
    Vegeta: Fuse with you?! Hmph, I'd rather die!
    Goku: [gives an exasperated sigh and replies in a completely deadpan, matter-of-fact manner] But, Vegeta, You Are Already Dead.
  • Their first attempt of fusing into Gogeta backfires when Vegeta forgets to extend his finger, causing a fat fusion known as Veku to form instead. Despite his boasts of being "The ultimate warrior combo platter", he essentially spends the entire 30 minutes trying to not die from Janemba, a feat he only manages to pull off because he utilized a mix of surprising durability, accidental Confusion Fu and farting on Janemba during the fight. Given how strong Janemba is, the fact that Veku survived for that long arguably doubles as an awesome moment.
    Veku: You're asking for it! You give me no choice but to use my Rabbit Feet Technique! *Runs away, causing a WTF expression from Janemba*
  • When Gohan punches Frieza and kills him in 2 seconds, the remaining warriors that tried to kill him decide to run like hell, jumping off the building Videl was on.
  • When the group summons Shenron to return all the souls to the other world, however he explains that he can't as there are no barriers between the worlds to keep them there. The group seems to ignore Shenron for the rest of the movie, and at the end...
    Shenron: Uh... Don't you people have any more wishes?
  • The best part of that, nobody bothered letting Shenron leave so he's still stuck waiting for somebody ask for a wish at the end of the movie.
    Shenron: Is someone going to make a wish or what?
  • Pikkon figures out that Super Janemba's armour is made out of the same material as the crystals, and manages to buy Vegeta and Goku some time by calling Janemba a 'disgusting freak'; Janemba looks genuinely hurt by that insult, in more ways than one!
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The whole "villains being brought back from the dead" and "villains escaping hell" gimmicks, alongside the Gogeta fusion, were recycled by none other than Dragon Ball GT. As far as to whether the movie or GT handled the gimmick better is up to the fans.
  • Also, the fact that Frieza is brought back to life and takes on the Z-Fighters again is the premise for the 2015 movie Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F'. This time, however, he's much stronger, as opposed to how hilariously weak he was here.
  • Hilariously, Kaioshin points out the gods could kill Frieza with one punch. Exactly what Gohan does here.
  • Related to Resurrection "F"; In this movie, Gohan defeats Frieza with a single punch. In that movie, Frieza repays the favour. Albeit, not lethally in the latter's case since Gohan survives, unlike Frieza.
  • Gohan, as his superhero alter ego, defeats Frieza with One Punch.
• It Was His Sled: Goku and Vegeta fuse together to form the extremely powerful Gogeta. This may have been meant to be a twist at some point, but all the merchandise and advertisements to this film made it clear that it would happen.
• One-Scene Wonder: Gogeta, who shows up for less than two minutes and kicks Janemba's ass in even less time. Enforced Trope, as the whole film was made to promote his existence.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: While its direct predecessor set a pretty low bar, Fusion Reborn was an improvement, so much so that some fans consider this one of the best Z movies.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The main criticism that gets thrown against this movie is that the idea of resurrecting all the series' old villains wasn't handled very well and is more of an advertising gimmick in the long run. And to a lesser extent, Gogeta's fight with Janemba, which is satisfying, but... short.
    • The scarcity of Gohan fighting the other villains wouldn't feel quite so bad if not for the film constantly cutting back to Goten and Trunks' uneventful fight with The Dictator.
  • Another criticism is that Cell isn't revived at all, with some fans believing that the film wasted the opportunity to have him, and not Frieza, seek out and fight Gohan for revenge.
  • Still another criticism is that many of the villains are from previous movies, yet they amount to glorified cameos. Imagine seeing all the previous movie villains (with the exception of Garlic Jr. since his defeat was non-fatal) working together to attack the world, or even better, a war between villains, since all of the main villains are egocentric characters who would hardly accept orders from others (specially from someone like Frieza who is weaker than every main movie villain since Lord Slug movie, the latter according to King Kai).
  • Janemba is shown to have the same weakness as his barrier - childish insults. Pikkon uses it on him all of once. While it might have been too much of a Weaksauce Weakness to defeat a villain with, it becomes puzzling why they included it at all.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: One of the best, if not, the best animated DBZ movie. Awesome art, incredible effects, and just visually stunning scenes. Just witness Goku's Super Saiyan 3 transformation and his subsequent fight against Janemba, Gohan's "fight" against Frieza, or the birth of Gogeta to get an idea.
• Woolseyism: Among the many liberties the Funimation dub takes with the original dialogue is the Dictator's remark on Goten and Trunks's Super Saiyan forms. In the Japanese dub, he simply writes them off as delinquents with dyed hair. Funimation changes that into an Aryan joke with him noting their blonde hair and blue(-green) eyes and that he should be recruiting them.