''Dragon Ball Z: The History of Trunks'', known in Japan as is a TV special

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

based on

Akira Toriyama is a Japanese manga artist and character designer. He first achieved mainstream recognition for his highly successful manga series ''Dr. Slump'', before going on to create ''Dragon Ball'' (his best-known work) and acting as a character design ...

's ''

Dragon Ball is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The Dragon Ball (manga), initial manga, written and illustrated by Toriyama, was serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1984 to 1995, with the 519 individual chapters colle ...

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series. Originally airing in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

on February 24, 1993, between episodes 175 and 176, the special is based on an extra chapter of the manga series. It depicts the original post-apocalyptic future in which

Goku Son Goku is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the ''Dragon Ball'' manga series created by Akira Toriyama. He is based on Sun Wukong (known as Son Goku in Japan and Monkey King in the West), a main character of the classic Ch ...

dies from the heart virus and a teenage Trunks tries to defeat Androids 17 and 18 (native name:人造人間), humanoid robots who were originally designed to murder Goku and his allies, before their immense destructive power destroys the Earth completely.

Plot

In an alternate timeline, two years after defeating Frieza and King Cold, Goku succumbs to a viral

heart disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, hea ...

. Goku's death, being the result of natural causes, means that he can no longer be revived with the Dragon Balls. Six months later,

Piccolo The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the so ...

, Vegeta,

Krillin (known as Kuririn in Funimation's English subtitles and Viz Media's release of the manga, and Kulilin in Japanese merchandise English translations) is a fictional character in the '' Dragon Ball'' manga series created by Akira Toriyama. He is in ...

Tien Shinhan , known as Tenshinhan in Japanese media and Viz Media's release of the manga, is a fictional character in the ''Dragon Ball'' manga series created by Akira Toriyama. He is introduced in chapter #113 "The 22nd Tenka'ichi Budōkai", first published ...

, Yamcha, and

Chiaotzu '' Dragon Ball'' is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The franchise features an ensemble cast of characters and takes place in the same fictional universe as Toriyama's other work, ''Dr. Slump''. While many of the c ...

are killed by

Android 17 ''Dragon Ball'' is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The franchise features an ensemble cast of characters and takes place in the same fictional universe as Toriyama's other work, ''Dr. Slump''. While many of the cha ...

and

Android 18 is a fictional character in the ''Dragon Ball'' manga series created by Akira Toriyama. Android 18 makes her debut in Chapter #349 "The Androids Awake!", first published in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' on November 12, 1991. She and her twin brother, ...

. With the death of Piccolo, Earth's guardian,

Kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

, dies as well and the Dragon Balls are rendered permanently useless - making it impossible for anyone to be revived. Thirteen years later, the androids terrorize the planet while the sole survivor of the battle, Gohan, unsuccessfully attempts to stop them. He agrees to train Trunks, the teenage son of Vegeta and Bulma, who is eager to help. Gohan attempts to provoke Trunks enough to trigger his transformation into a Super Saiyan so that they will stand a better chance, but all are unsuccessful. The androids attack an amusement park and Gohan challenges them once again. However, Gohan is overwhelmed and Trunks intervenes. Android 18 easily defeats Trunks requiring Gohan to protect him. As Gohan hides with his unconscious pupil in his arms, the androids, unable to find their targets, bombard the entire area with energy blasts and leave. The pair are nearly killed and Gohan gives Trunks his final healing Senzu bean in order to save his life. Trunks awakens to find that Gohan has lost his left arm and brings him home to Bulma who saves his life. Once healed, Gohan resumes Trunks' training. One day, a huge explosion erupts within a nearby city. Gohan seemingly allows Trunks to join him, but renders him unconscious and departs alone. Gohan fights the androids but he is eventually overwhelmed and killed. Alerted by Gohan's energy signal suddenly vanishing, Trunks awakens and hurries into the city, where he finds Gohan's corpse. In his anger and grief, Trunks finally awakens his Super Saiyan transformation. Three years pass and Trunks assists Bulma with building a

time machine Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a w ...

, when a warning on the television indicates that the androids are attacking a nearby city. Despite Bulma's warnings, Trunks confronts them but is easily defeated and nearly killed. He awakens in his house with his mother at his side, and finally decides that the time machine is their best hope to find a way to stop the androids. Once healed, Trunks prepares to depart with medicine to cure Goku's heart disease in hand. He travels twenty years into the past with the hopes of changing his future.

Cast

Notes

is listed in the credits of this special, despite not having any lines.

Music

Funimation Soundtrack

The following songs were present in the English version of ''Dragon Ball Z: The History of Trunks'', as well as its accompanying soundtrack CD, with exception to most of

Dream Theater Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of the ...

's music, "Home" being the only track showcased in the soundtrack from them and "Prelude" by Slaughter. The soundtrack also contained remixes of other songs. #

Bootsy Collins William Earl "Bootsy" Collins (born October 26, 1951) is an American bass guitarist and singer. Rising to prominence with James Brown in the early 1970s, and later with Parliament-Funkadelic, Collins established himself as one of the leading n ...

with Buckethead - Shackler # Neck Down - Garden of Grace # Triprocket -

Immigrant Song "Immigrant Song" is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. It is built upon a repeating riff and features lyrical references to Norse mythology, with singer Robert Plant's howling vocals mentioning war-making and Valhalla. The song was i ...

# Dream Theater - Regression # Dream Theater - Overture 1928 # Dream Theater - Fatal Tragedy # Dream Theater - Through Her Eyes # Dream Theater - Home # Dream Theater - The Dance of Eternity # Dream Theater - Beyond This Life # Slaughter - Prelude # Slaughter - Unknown Destination However, the TV special on Double Feature, there is an alternate audio track containing the English dub with original Japanese background music by

Shunsuke Kikuchi was a Japanese composer who was active from the early 1960s until 2017. He specialized in incidental music for media such as television and film. Kikuchi was regarded as one of Japan's most highly demanded film and TV composers, working princi ...

Reception

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and oth ...

's reviewer Chris Shepard stated: "It is interesting... Gohan and Trunks are both understandable characters who I was really able to get into and sympathize for during their battles" but also felt a "good understanding of the happenings of the TV series is recommended". He also felt that the action sequences were exceptional and did not "overdo themselves". He expressed some disappointment in the English dub as the storyline sounded "completely alien" to the Japanese subtitles. For his final grade he noted " heDub doesn't contain the original music... tisn't true to the original" but was pleased overall. John Sinnott of DVDTalk praised the television special, seeing it as being separate from the other episodes of ''Dragon Ball''. He believed this to be a positive attribute. Regarding the Blu-ray release of the film he was less impressed with the color and aspect ratio, citing them as not particularly "exciting". However he expressed joy at Funimation leaving the original Japanese soundtrack and the English voice dubs in, describing them as "enveloping". For fans of ''Dragon Ball'' he recommended watching the episode as it "worked a lot better than the average theatrical film since they follow ''DBZ'' continuity and expand the story while filling in details". Like Shepard the Sinnott review advised those who are not familiar to the ''Dragon Ball'' franchise to avoid the episode but that fans will enjoy it. In conclusion he felt the film was enjoyable at best.

Releases

It was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

and VHS in North America on October 24, 2000. Later a

double feature The double feature is a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatres would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown. Opera use Opera ho ...

was released with a second special and '' Bardock – The Father of Goku'' with

digitally remastered Remaster refers to changing the quality of the sound or of the image, or both, of previously created recordings, either audiophonic, cinematic, or videographic. The terms digital remastering and digitally remastered are also used. Mastering A ...

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...

format on DVD on February 19, 2008, then on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

released on July 15, 2008. The second special was re-released to DVD on September 15, 2009, in a remastered-widescreen single-disc edition.

References

External links

* * {{Toei Animation OVAs 1993 films 1993 anime films 1993 television films 1993 television specials Alternate history television episodes Anime spin-offs History of Trunks, The Funimation Television episodes about time travel Films directed by Yoshihiro Ueda Japanese animated films Japanese television specials 1990s animated television specials Films scored by Shunsuke Kikuchi