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Mystical Adventure Movie - Dragon Ball

Dragon Ball: Mystical Adventure is a Japanese animated fantasy martial arts film that follows an alternate retelling of the Dragon Ball series that was originally written by Akira Toriyama. The film premiered in Japan on July 9, 1988, at the Toei Manga Matsuri Film Festival. It also stars Kamen Rider Black: Terrifying! The Phantom Mansion of Devil Pass , Bikkuriman 2: The Secret of the Muen Zone , and Tatakae!! Ramenman. This film adapts the story of the Red Ribbon Saga and the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament Saga from the original Dragon Ball manga . The film grossed approximately 1 billion yen at the box office ($7.8 million at the time).

Summary

Master Roshi 's young students, Goku and Krillin, are training diligently to prepare for the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament, which will be held in the country of Mifan. Chiaotzu , the emperor of Mifan, is searching for his missing doll named "Ran Ran." Master Shen (Minister Shen in the film) and Tao are actually the ones who took it, but they did it so that Chiaotzu would order his men to search for the Dragon Balls. The two claim they can use the wish to collect the artifacts to find Ran Ran, but they secretly plan to kill Chiaotzu and take over the country.

Meanwhile, General Blue announces that the doll is in Shen's room. Tao then kills Blue for foiling their plans. Bora and Upa, two of Goku's allies, manage to find the last Dragon Ball and attempt to use it as leverage to persuade Mifan to call their soldiers nearby. Corrine returns to Goku's tower. Tao tricks Bora into entering the tournament and is ultimately killed by Tao. Goku's other friends, Bulma , Launch, Oolong , and Puar , search for the other Dragon Balls. But when they find them, they accidentally fall to the bottom of the moat surrounding Chiaotzu's castle. Tien eventually returns Ran Ran to Chiaotzu and tells him that he had to hide it because of Minister Shen and Tao. After that, he brings down the Minister.

The story of Goku's encounter with Arale from the original manga is also included, but it has been slightly changed, as it is Goku and Tao who find her rather than Goku and General Blue. In the film, Goku manages to kill Tao with Arale's help. Once all the Dragon Balls are collected, Goku wishes to bring Bora back to life.

Main Voice Cast

Goku: Masako Nozawa
Arale: Mami Koyama
Yes, yes: Toru Furuya
Bulma: Hiromi Tsuru
Master Roshi: Kohei Miyauchi
Krillin: Mayumi Tanaka

Music

The film's opening theme song is called "Makafushigi Adventure" and features lyrics by Yuriko Mori, music by Takeshi Ike arranged by Kohei Tanaka, and vocals by Hiroko Takahashi. The ending theme song, "Dragon Ball Legend," features lyrics by Onikado Izumi, music by Takeshi Ike arranged by Seiichi Kyoda, and vocals by Hiroki Takahashi.

Press releases

In addition to the original Japanese version, an American company called Harmony Gold USA created a double feature with The Curse of the Blood Rubies that had its own original English dub. It aired primarily in Pennsylvania, but other test market stations also aired the films. They also reportedly had a home video release in the early 1990s, but it went largely unnoticed. The Harmony Gold dub features several changes from the original dub and includes elements such as new character names and censored scenes. That said, this dub is often considered more faithful to some of its other counterparts.

As with previous Dragon Ball movies, a Malaysian company named Speedy Video also released an English dub on VCD (Video CD).

Funimation then released another dub in 2000. The DVD version of this release includes both the original Japanese dub and their new English dub.

On March 14, 2004, Madman Entertainment released Mystical Adventure on DVD in Australia and New Zealand. This release included Funimation's 2000 English dub and the original Japanese audio, but also featured unique cuts. The original opening narration, Pilaf's appearance, and Goku and Krillin's opening training sequence were removed from this release. These cuts were replaced with the normal opening from the TV series. The end credits showing Bora resurrected were also replaced with the ending sequence from the TV series.

Later releases by Funimation use the original Japanese opening and ending sequences, but use multiple stills to remove all Japanese credits. A box set including Mystical Adventure , The Sleeping Princess in the Devil's Castle , and The Path to Power was also released by Funimation on December 6, 2005, and re-released on February 12, 2008, but has since been discontinued. Mystical Adventure was also part of a four-movie Dragon Ball box set released by Funimation on February 8, 2011. This release includes all previously cut footage from the original film, but does not have English credits.

Another English dub by an uncredited cast was released by a French company named AB Groupe in the early 2000s.