T5W#240-Top 5 Dragon Ball Z Abridged TV Special Moments

Incase you came in late: This months Top 5 Wednesdays are one big shout out to Team Four Star and their Abridged Series masterpiece, Dragon Ball Z Abridged.  Recently, the guys announced the end of their passion project and that’s prompted me to look back at the greatest hits of the work that changed the Abridging landscape forever.  We’ve looked at the main series and the movies already.  This week, I’m counting down my Top 5 Dragon Ball Z Abridged TV Special Moments.  This means we’ll be looking at the TV Specials and OVAs made for Dragon Ball Z and aren’t considered movies themselves: Bardock-The Father of Goku, The History of Trunks, Episode of Bardock, Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans and, cause I forgot to include them in other lists, the Dragon Ball Z Kai Abridged minisodes.  Let’s get to the fun.

#5-Using the Transformers: The Movie Soundtrack (Bardock: The Father of Goku)

While it is a divisive flick, 1986’s Transformers: The Movie is a personal fav of mine.  Why that is, is a discussion for another time but one of the main reasons I enjoy it is the 80’s rock soundtrack.  This included 2 signature tracks from Stan Bush: “Dare” and “The Touch”.  The latter is a song I pretty much associate with both Transformers in general and Optimus Prime himself (and they probably will never use them in those goddawful Live Action Transformers flicks).  So imagine my surprise when not only does Dare open up Bardock: The Father of Goku (albeit to a less than heroic scene) but The Touch is used as the theme for Bardock’s final charge.  Goku’s dad even invokes Optimus Prime’s famous line before the song begins, “Frieza must be stopped…no matter the cost.”  Man when you hear The Touch play, you almost think Bardock has a chance.

#4-Trunks’ Hopeless Fight (The History of Trunks)

Team Four Star matured a lot over DBZA’s run.  While they poked plenty of fun at everything they could, these are still a group of guys who love Dragon Ball Z a lot.  They pay homage in jokes but know when to take themselves seriously.  While there are a couple of great jokes in The History of Trunks, it still retains the tone of being the darkest Dragon Ball Z entry to date.  It’s a future without hope and the epitome is a helpless Super Saiyan Trunks desperately wailing and crying as he lands several powerless punches against 17 and 18.  It is hard to crack jokes with a scenario like this and thankfully, Team Four Star stuck to their guns and let it ride…man was it going to be something when Trunks came back and, as Tien put it, “Wrecks their S***”.

#3-Z-Fighters vs. Santa (Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans)

Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans is a little known OVA entry in the DBZ franchise and it got an HD remake a few years back.  TFS used this version to give us another holiday special and it’s probably their best one yet.  Apparently Santa has a bone to pick with every single Z-Fighter except Gohan.  Gradually we see Goku, the Champion of Christmas, slowly come to realize the true meaning of Christmas: The bonds they share between friends family…and killing Santa.  Everyone is on fire with the jokes and quips, even if they are a ton of Christmas puns.  It’s the perfect Christmas gift from Dragon Ball Z Abridged.

#2-A Rare Look in the Writers Room (Dragon Ball Z Kai Abridged 2.9)

In a way I wish they’d done this more than once.  That’s also what makes this moment so awesome too.  When a Coccaine hyped Piccolo is about to strike Gohan, you know what joke is coming…but is Kaiser committed to it?  We cut back to the RL Writers Room where Kaiser is stressing over the Garlic Jr. Saga script.  Frustrated, he turns to a coked out Lani and Taka, who’s busy guzzling a wine box.  They settle on one of their oldest jokes cause why not.  But man it’s so sweet to see the team get a parody scene of their own and we get to glimpse the faces of the trio who made all this magic happen.  Also, “I want some coke toast”.

#1-Bardock Goes Super Saiyan (Episode of Bardock)

Episode of Bardock is probably one of the strangest entries in Dragon Ball canon…and yes, it is cannon.  It’s a premise so out of nowhere, it’s begging to be parodied.  And Team Four Star used the big twist brilliantly.  When Bardock realizes just what has happened to him: that somehow rather than dying in Bardock-The Father of Goku, he’s been blown into the past instead……yeah, that’s just crazy and nonsensical enough to drive any sane person to the right point of madness where becoming a Super Saiyan is absolutely possible.  Is seeing Bardock become a Super Saiyan like his son cool…oh absolutely.  But come on…not like this…not like this (ok just like in the Abridged version but not the official cannon, come on).