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Lord Slug Movie - Dragon Ball

Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug (also known as Dragon Ball Z: Son Goku the Super Saiyan) is a Japanese animated martial arts and science fiction film. It is the fourth Dragon Ball Z feature film released in Japan in 1991 at the Toei Anime Film Fair. The film Lord Slug is directed by Mitsuo Hashimoto, produced by Chiaki Hamada and Rikizo Kayano, written by Takao Koyama and the music is composed by Shunsuke Kikuchi. Cinematography was by Masaru Sakanishi and Motoi Takahashi while editing was by Shin'ichi Fukumitsu.

Plot

Piccolo meditates near a waterfall. Gohan and his pet dragon Icarus approach as Gohan whistles a song he had recently learned. Piccolo feels excruciating pain when he hears the song, as Nameks have particularly sensitive hearing. He tells Gohan to stop, which leads Gohan to apologize, though they are interrupted after sensing something coming from space.

Back at Capsule Corporation, Bulma and her father discover a meteor heading towards Earth and calculate that it will destroy the Earth upon impact. As the public begins to panic, Goku and Krillin rush to intercept the meteor and attempt to deflect it using Kamehameha waves. Unfortunately, the attack was completely ineffective.

Instead of crashing to Earth, the meteorite flies right past it and explodes after this near-catastrophic event. When the dust settles, an unusual spaceship appears on Earth. An army of reinforced soldiers emerges from the ship, declaring that Earth is ruled by their leader, Lord Slug.

The soldiers terrorize the citizens who mock them, Gohan and Chi-Chi then appear to fight the soldiers, whom they discover are sensitive to light. Chi-Chi is quickly defeated and Gohan's hat with the Four-Star Dragon Ball is lost when Slug takes it from him. They reveal their mission to "Terra-freeze" the Earth and make it their star cruiser. Gohan is knocked down by Slug's henchmen and Slug, after reading Bulma's mind, learns of the Dragon Radar and decides to deploy his henchmen to search for the other Dragon Balls.

Lord Slug's soldiers manage to summon the other Dragon Balls and summon Shenron to grant Slug's wish. Old Slug wishes for eternal youth.

After Slug launches the Terra-Freezing device, dark clouds begin to cover the sky, blocking sunlight to make the place suitable for Slug and his soldiers, though the lack of sunlight makes it dangerous for Earth.

Meanwhile, Goku is exhausted after an encounter with the meteorite and Yajirobe finds him, Yajirobe provides Senzu Beans to Goku and Krillin.

Gohan goes to fight Slug's men once again at Slug's base. Although he is able to defeat some of Slug's men, Gohan is injured in the process, forcing Piccolo to intervene and save Gohan from death. Slug's best soldiers then appear: Angila, Wings, and Medamatcha. The group begins to fight Piccolo, and while Piccolo is able to kill Wings, Gohan is drained of energy by small clones created by Medamatcha. Piccolo defends Gohan by throwing himself in front of Gohan and taking what would have been the final blow. The two are then nearly killed by Medamatcha and Angila until Goku and Krillin arrive just in time. The duo kills the other elite henchmen, forcing Slug to intervene himself.

Slug punches Krillin and throws him aside to begin his fight with Goku. Goku becomes enraged by the damage and destruction Slug causes, allowing Goku to partially access his Super Saiyan (this form is often referred to as a pseudo Super Saiyan). The power boost gives Goku a reasonable advantage in the fight, allowing him to break Slug's arm. Slug, however, is able to regenerate his arm. After doing so, he removes his helmet and reveals that he is a Namekian.

As Slug begins to grow into a Super Giant, King Kai contacts Goku and tells him that Slug is the last Super Namekian (a division of the Namekians) and that he developed an obsession with power and was banished as a young child.

The fight continues with Slug's added strength and Goku's incredible speed, resulting in a draw. Eventually, Slug grabs Goku and begins to crush him, though Piccolo intervenes by shooting Slug's antennae, a known weakness. This causes Slug to let go of Goku and focus on Piccolo instead.

Piccolo recalls that Gohan's hiss had caused him intense pain earlier that day. Believing Slug to have the same weakness, Piccolo rips off his ears and lets Gohan hiss once more. This weakens Slug, even in his Super Giant form. To help Goku deliver the final blow, Piccolo transfers his power to Goku.

Slug blasts Gohan and destroys his ship during the fight while Goku manages to use Kaio-ken to fly directly through Slug's stomach, defeating him. He then flies into the sky to prepare a Spirit Bomb to destroy the Terra-Freezing Device and Slug tries to chase after him.

Goku then immediately fires his Spirit Bomb at Slug, which propels him directly into the Terra-Freezing device, which explodes him. Slug is defeated and the dark clouds begin to dissipate.

After the battle, Yajirobe distributes Senzu beans to everyone. Meanwhile, Master Roshi is unaware of what is happening because he slept through the entire event. He wakes up from his sleep and wishes for something interesting to happen.

Music

The film's opening theme song is "Cha-La Head Cha-La", while the insert song is "Kuchibue no Kimochi" ("The Feeling of Whistling") and the ending theme song "'Ya' na Koto ni wa Genki-Dama!!" ("There's a Genki-Dama in Bad Things") are also used.

Press releases

The Lord Slug film was released on DVD and VHS on August 7, 2001, in North America. The film was later digitally remastered as a Double Feature set with The Tree of Might for Blu-ray and DVD on September 16, 2008. Meanwhile, on November 1, 2011, another remastered set was released, featuring the first five Dragon Ball Z films.