A bit of a sideways entry in my ongoing ‘Dragonball Z movie’ marathon. ‘The History of Trunks’ is a TV special made shortly after ‘Dragonball Z’ concluded that shows the ‘alternate’ timeline thatlead into the ‘Android Saga’. Essentially the reality that Future Trunks came back in time to warn Goku and the gang about in the anime series.

In this reality, Noone came back to give Goku the antidote for his heart virus, he dies and the androids are released 12 months later, the ‘Z’ fighters try to tackle them, but all of them barring Gohan and Trunks are defeated. Forcing Master Roshi and the surviving members of the gang to go deep into hiding and Bulma to go ‘underground’ to try and develop a way to defeat the androids.

For 13 years the androids tear across the planet doing what they want and destroying large swathes of the population, while Gohan tries to catch up with them for intermittent bouts to try and put an end to them. At which point a now teenage Trunks decides he needs to act to try and save the future, and turns to Gohan for mentorship.

I actually really quite liked the idea of this one, though I felt the execution of it was a little bit messy. the alternate ‘Androids destroy everything’ timeline is a particularly bleak narrative in the ‘Dragonball Z’ anime, and there are genuinely captivatingly awful moments here that make you realise just how much of a threat the original Androids really were.

However; where I think this special kind of botches is a bit is nowhere NEAR enough time is put into setting the androids up as a credible threat in this reality up front. In fact, rather frustratingly; they rush through Gokus death, the androids being activated and all the ‘Z’fighters dying largely using recycled footage from the anime in the opening 2-5 minutes of the special. with almost the entirity of the rest of the special being set 13 years after everyone died and Trunks trying to train with Gohan.

The issue for me is, because they rush all of that critical character building narrative, and worse still they do it with recycled footage, it makes the stakes feel woefully low. The Sadist in me wanted to see the ‘Z’ fighters have a good go of taking on the androids, to feel the weight of their deaths a bit more, to see that, these Androids were VERY much different from their anime counterparts and that the risks were significantly higher…but they gloss it over so that we can see 17 and 18 destroy an amusement park or try on clothes. it makes the sudden darker shifts in the 3rd act when Gohan and Trunks try an ‘all or nothing’ attack on the androids feel actually quite out of place when compared the relatively calm sparring the rest of the special has. Which is a shame as some of the most emotional moments in the entire franchise happen in this special, but they’re undercut seemingly to save money.

Id say the pacings a bit rushed, the tones a bit uneven, but the story itself is solidly told, gives a good idea of what ‘Future Trunks’ had on his mind ahead of his trip into the past, and closes the loop on the Android arc. Though part of me does wonder if the alternate reality Trunks described in the anime was better left to the imagination.

Visually, its about in line with the anime, a handful of VERY striking shots in the finale help just tip this over the edge into something a bit more than just the level of the series at this time. But otherwise it is kind of by the numbers.

If you’ve watched all of ‘Dragonball Z’ this is a pretty nice epilogue piece to sandwhich inbetween the ‘Cell Games’ arc and the start of the ‘Buu’ arc. But is it essential? No. No I wouldnt say it was. Its one of the better Dragonball Z movies/Specials. But I cannot stress enough how dissapointing it is that they didnt just chuck a bit more cash at this one, make it an hour total and give us a firmer opening act, rather than the clip show treatment.

I’ll almost certainly include this in future rewatches of ‘Z’ because It does give the series. a bit more weight, but I dont think I could say hand on heart this was one you absolutely needed to see.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/dragon-ball-z-the-history-of-trunks/