Dragon Ball: The Return of Son Goku and Friends!

Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!
Directed by	Yoshihiro Ueda
Written by	Akira Toriyama (story) Takao Koyama (screenplay)
Starring	Masako Nozawa Ryō Horikawa Tōru Furuya Mayumi Tanaka Toshio Furukawa Hiromi Tsuru Naoki Tatsuta Naoko Watanabe Takeshi Kusao Hiroshi Masuoka Yūko Minaguchi Daisuke Gōri Miki Itō Masakazu Morita Kumiko Nishihara Yūsuke Numata Kazunari Tanaka Yasunori Masutani Jōji Yanami
Music by	Shunsuke Kikuchi
Cinematography	Akio Ōnuki
Editing by	Shinichi Fukumitsu
Release date(s)	JPN September 21, 2008
Running time	35 minutes
Language(s)	Japanese

Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!! (ドラゴンボール オッス！帰ってきた孫悟空と仲間たち！！, Doragon Bōru Ossu! Kaette Kita Son Gokū to Nakama-tachi!!) is a 2008 film, the first film adaption of Dragon Ball Z since 1995's Wrath of the Dragon (though the 1996 retelling The Path to Power was the last film installment of the series overall prior to the film's release). It also features the first Dragon Ball animations in nearly a decade, following a short story arc in the the remade Dr. Slump anime series crossing over Kid Goku and the Red Ribbon Army in 1999.

Plot

It has been two years since Majin Buu was defeated and Satan has become a hero for defeating him. However, Videl remembers the truth of those events, and seems to be embarrassed about her father. A gigantic hotel is being built in Satan’s honor. Upon completion, Satan decides to throw a party for Goku and the others who fought with him. Meanwhile, Goku, Chi Chi, Goten, and Gohan have been making their living growing radishes. Videl soon arrives and asks Gohan to bring his family to the party. At first Goku doesn’t want to go, but he changes his mind once he hears there will be rare foods there.

Roshi, Android 18, Krillin, etc, take off for the hotel and give Goku’s family a lift. Piccolo decides to not ride along, but rather flies after them on his own. The group from Capsule Corp. arrives at the hotel first, and when Vegeta and Goku see each other, they begin to fight. Goku realizes the party is starting, and heads off to the assembly hall. Apart from Goku’s family, Vegeta’s family, and Roshi's group, the crowd includes Dende, Mr. Popo, Korin, Yajirobe, Yamcha, Oolong, Puar, Launch, Ox-King, King Kai, Bubbles, Gregory, Kibito Kai, and Elder Kai.

Despite the fact that there’s supposed to be no media coverage of the party, members of the press appear and ask Satan questions about Buu’s defeat. While the “Z Senshi” are eating, two Saiya-jin style spaceships land on Earth. Piccolo and Gohan are the first to notice, then No. 18, and eventually everyone stops eating and the atmosphere becomes tense.

A sharp-eyed Saiya-jin and a small alien emerge from the two spaceships. Using his scouter to detect higher battle powers, the Saiya-jin soon arrives at the party. Upon seeing Vegeta, the Saiyan calls him "big brother." The Z-Fighters are all shocked by this sudden event. The Saiya-jin introduces himself as Tarble, along with his wife, Gure. Vegeta says that Tarble had been sent off to a remote planet because he had no talent for battle. Tarble begs our heroes to defeat Abo and Cado, who have ravished his planet and pursued him to Earth.

Goku says that if they’re strong, he’ll fight them, and Gohan wants to help as well. Goten and Trunks think it sounds interesting, Krillin and Yamcha say they want to try as well, and eventually even Kame-sennin wants to fight. Tarble measures their battle powers with his scouter, and says that they’ll be of no help since their battle powers are so low. Vegeta scolds Tarble for relying on his scouter, and as an example, Goku begins to gather ki. The battle power reading on the scouter steadily increases. It soon breaks as Goku goes Super Saiyan and then Super Saiyan 2, and Tarble is amazed by Goku’s power. Goku thinks it will be unfair to if everybody fights the weaker guys, and suggests they select a single representative to fight.

Goku teleports Gohan, Goten, Trunks, Piccolo, Yamcha, Krillin, Kame-sennin, Videl, Chi Chi, Bulma, Tarble, and Gure to Mount Paozu (this whole time, Satan, Fat Buu, Kai-shin, and Elder Kai have been ignoring Tarble and just go on drinking). Goku suggests that they each draw a radish, and the person who draws the longest radish will be the representative. Goten draws out a very long radish, and it seems he will be the one to fight. This makes Vegeta jealous, and he tells Trunks to pull out an even bigger radish. Pressured by Vegeta, Trunks pulls out a very thin but incredibly long radish, and becomes the representative.

Meanwhile, two other spaceships land on Earth, containing Abo and Cado. Pursuing Tarble, they arrive at Satan Hotel, and a panic erupts. Goku and the others soon return, and things clam down. It turns out Abo and Cado are remnants of Frieza’s army, who have taken control of Frieza’s planets now that he is gone. Vegeta also knows of them, and says that they were supposed to rival the Ginyu Force. Tarble says that the two have become much stronger, and that not even Frieza could beat them now.

Goku loses his enthusiasm when he hears that they’re “only” at Frieza’s level, and decides that it’s alright for Trunks to fight them. With some difficulty, he gets Vegeta’s permission to let Goten fight as well. At first Abo and Cado underestimate their child opponents, and they get clobbered and knocked into some boulders. They decide to get serious, and they each split into three people.

Trunks and Goten are completely unable to counterattack now that Abo and Cado have become six people. Vegeta advices them to sense their ki and locate the real Abo and Cado, but they can’t. Gohan offers to help, but they turn him down. They settle on having Gohan merely tell them where the real Abo and Cado are. With Gohan’s accurate advice, Goten and Trunks drive Abo and Cado to the wall.

Cornered, Abo and Cado merge to become even stronger, forming merged Abo Cado. Put on the defensive by Abo Cado’s attacks, Goten and Trunks use their secret weapon, Fusion. However, since it’s been so long since they’ve used it, they fail and become fat Gotenks. They eventually succeed on their second try, and Gotenks overwhelms Abo Cado, using Yamcha’s Rouga Fuu-Fuu Ken, Tenshinhan’s Haikyuuken, and to finish him off they use Satan’s “Miracle Special Ultra Super Megaton Punch”, going Super Saiya-jin the moment they punch Abo Cado. Abo Cado crashes into a lake and it looks like the fight is over, but…

Abo Cado rises out of the lake and is enraged. He lets out a giant energy wave, firing it from both hands and his mouth. It hits Gotenks and causes the Satan Hotel to collapse. Abo Cado then starts shooting energy bullets, damaging each part of the hotel one after the other (this technique is called the “Wahaha no Ha/Wahaha Wave”).

In order to protect his friends, Piccolo deflects each energy bullet with a Makankosappo. Krillin uses a Kienzan to save No. 18 and Marron as they’re about to be crushed by rubble. Yamcha protects Bulma from the falling rubble by using the Sokidan, Yajirobe saves some people by slicing rubble in half, and Kame-sennin also protects a beautiful woman from the rubble.

Goku and Vegeta decide to finish off Abo Cado. They argue over which one of them should defeat him, when Goku points and asks “What’s that?!”, causing Vegeta to look away. With Vegeta distracted, Goku takes off towards Abo Cado, while Vegeta objects that that was dirty trick by Goku. Abo Cado fires a Super Wahaha no Ha and Goku counters with a Kamehameha, then nails Abo Cado with a punch with all his heart and soul behind it.

Abo Cado is finally defeated and the battle is over. Videl tells her father that having his hotel smashed was a punishment from God, but brightens his spirits by saying she’ll help rebuild it. Goku also encourages him, saying that it can be rebuilt, and the party starts again amid the hotel rubble. As the party continues, Goku eats Vegeta’s sushi, who eats Goku’s Char Siu in return. Angry, the two finally turn Super Saiya-jin and begin fighting, as everyone else watches in amazement.

Cast

Character name	Voice actor
Goku	Masako Nozawa
Gohan	Masako Nozawa
Goten	Masako Nozawa
Vegeta	Ryō Horikawa
Yamcha	Tōru Furuya
Krillin	Mayumi Tanaka
Piccolo	Toshio Furukawa
Bulma	Hiromi Tsuru
Oolong	Naoki Tatsuta
Chi-Chi	Naoko Watanabe
Trunks	Takeshi Kusao
Master Roshi	Hiroshi Masuoka
Videl	Yūko Minaguchi
Mr. Satan	Daisuke Gōri
Android 18	Miki Itō
Tarble	Masakazu Morita
Gure	Kumiko Nishihara
Abo	Yūsuke Numata
Cado	Kazunari Tanaka
Abo Cado	Yasunori Masutani
Narration	Jōji Yanami

Notes

Tarble's name is a pun on "Vegetable", and Abo and Cado are a pun on "Avocado".

This special has a few plotholes for the place it's supposed to take place in. Namely:

People interviewing Mr. Satan in regards to the defeat of Majin Buu (as it's hinted that it was two years after the defeat), when they shouldn't even know that Majin Buu existed a year and a half prior to the episode (much less the "fact" that Satan "defeated" Buu).

Vegeta still seems to have a short-fused, jealous bloodfeud with Goku in regards to strength, but if it does, indeed, take place after Kid Buu was defeated, Vegeta was supposed to have made peace with Goku, and actually consider him a friend, and if there was any rivalry between them, it was a friendly rivalry.

External links

• Shonen Jump Super Anime Tour - free stream of Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!! released November 24, 2008 through January 31, 2009