Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan

is a fictional character in the ''Dragon Ball'' media franchise. Two different versions of the character exist: the original Broly, a major villain created by anime screenwriter Takao Koyama who appeared in a trilogy of 1990s ''Dragon Ball Z'' anime films, '' Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan'' (1993), '' Broly – Second Coming'' (1994), and '' Bio-Broly'' (1994), followed by a newer and reworked version of the character by series creator Akira Toriyama that debuted in the film '' Dragon Ball Super: Broly'' (2018), where he initially served as one of the main antagonists, then eventually a supporting character in his later appearances.

Creation and design

The character of Broly was created by Takao Koyama, who was inspired to create a menacing and powerful Saiyan villain after watching Future Trunks transforming into his Super Saiyan Third Grade form during the Perfect Cell Saga, and designed by Dragon Ball creator, Akira Toriyama. Following the Saiyan race's usual naming trend, which is based on vegetables, Broly's name is a pun on broccoli, while his father Paragus is a pun on asparagus. Besides flashback scenes of Broly as an infant in the 1990s movies as well as Toriyama's design sheets of that version of the character, neither the original nor the reworked version of Broly is seen with a tail, which is considered to be a defining characteristic of a Saiyan character within the series.

Voice actors

Powers and abilities

Like other Saiyans in the series, his heritage has given him superhuman strength, senses, durability, agility, speed, ''ki'' blasts and reflexes. In the ''Daizenshuu 6: Movies & TV'' (1995) guidebook, it is stated that Super Saiyan Broly's power surpasses that of Super Saiyan Goku and that in his "Legendary Super Saiyan" form Broly is an opponent with infinite power. According to Takao Koyama in a 2006 interview, Broly is the strongest and most powerful antagonist in the ''Dragon Ball Z'' series. In a 2013 interview regarding the movie '' Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods'', where Goku faces the God of Destruction, Beerus, he stated that Broly is scarier than Beerus. Broly's raw power may be equal to or eclipse that of the Gods Of Destruction. This was also supported by Goku's statement in the conclusion of ''Dragon Ball Super: Broly'', that the new incarnation of the character's power may surpass that of the god.

Appearances

''Dragon Ball Z''

''Broly'' Trilogy movies

Debuting in '' Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan'' Paragus lures Vegeta, Goku, and their companions to another planet, where Broly encounters Goku and goes into a rage, destroying the mind control device and becoming the unstoppable Legendary Super Saiyan. He effortlessly pummels Super Saiyan Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks, and Piccolo before killing his father. Goku eventually defeats him, but Broly somehow manages to make his way into an escape pod. His backstory was given in this movie. He was born with a power level of 10,000, which ultimately made him the target of summary execution at the order of the reigning Saiyan monarch King Vegeta due to fear that he'll ultimately prove a threat to his rule. This resulted in him being stabbed and left to die with his father Paragus before narrowly escaping Planet Vegeta's destruction at Frieza's hand. He also developed a subconscious hatred of Goku during this time because, as they were born the same day, they were neighbors in the nursery and Goku's crying disturbed him. It was heavily implied that the crying acted as a trigger to underlying post-traumatic stress disorder for Broly regarding the horrific events he had to endure that day.

Returning in '' Dragon Ball Z: Broly – Second Coming'', he crash-lands on Earth and becomes frozen over by a lake of water until the cries of Goku's son Goten awakens him. Broly fights a long battle against Goten, Trunks, and a Super Saiyan Gohan before a triple combined Kamehameha wave from Goku, Gohan, and Goten defeats him by blasting him through the sun.

'' Dragon Ball Z: Bio-Broly'', blood samples make their way into the hands of an industrialist, who creates a clone of the original Broly. The clone eventually wakes up and becomes mixed with bio-liquid, mutating him into a creature known as . He fought Goten, Trunks, Android 18, and Krillin and is eventually defeated by a combined ''Kamehameha'' attack after his body is exposed to seawater and becomes petrified as a result. The ending was originally meant to set up a fourth movie featuring Broly but was reworked into '' Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn'' with Janemba as the main villain.

''Dragon Ball Z: The Real 4-D at Super Tenkaichi Budokai''

''Dragon Ball Z: The Real 4-D at Super Tenkaichi Budokai (ドラゴンボールZ ザ・リアル4-D at 超天下一武道会 Doragon Bōru Zetto Za Riaru Fō-Dī atto Sūpā Tenkaichi Budōkai, lit. "Dragon Ball Z: The Real 4-D at the Super Number One Under Heaven Martial Arts Gathering")'' is an interactive 4-D cinematic theme attraction at Universal Studios Japan, and the successor to Dragon Ball Z: The Real 4-D. The film starts as an OVA before transitioning to CGI 3D models. The story takes place during a martial arts tournament, where the Legendary Super Saiyan (Broly) returns with a new God form (God Broly). He can overpower a Super Saiyan Blue Goku and knock out cold a Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta. With the audience's help, Goku can perform a unique God fusion and blasts God Broly away with his God Kamehameha.

''Dragon Ball Super'' movies

A new canon version of Broly reworked into a quiet and slightly naïve Saiyan with a penchant for exploding in rage, debuts in the 2018 film, '' Dragon Ball Super: Broly'', which tells the story of Goku, Vegeta, and Frieza encountering the exiled Saiyan for the first time. Broly's rebooted storyline portrays him as an abnormally powerful Saiyan who is exiled to the wasteland planet Vampa by King Vegeta out of fear and jealousy of his power. Broly is portrayed as a rough and quiet character with significant social naivety from his time spent living on a desolate world. He displays additional personality traits that are deemed rare in Saiyans, such as compassion, gentleness, and a refusal to fight simply for the sake of fighting. Despite his initial docility, Broly has trouble controlling his power whenever provoked by severe stress, anger, or sufficient physical exertion such as when fighting; when he loses control, Broly enters a destructive, mindless berserker state in which he possesses little to no sanity or ability to distinguish friend from foe. He is also emotionally scarred by his father Paragus violently disciplining him via shock collar, but in spite of this abusive upbringing, Broly remains loyal to his father. Broly spent four decades living in exile with Paragus, being raised as a weapon of revenge against King Vegeta until they are rescued by soldiers of the Frieza Force, Cheelai and Lemo, who quickly befriend Broly. Recruited by Frieza and headed for Earth, Paragus unleashes Broly upon Vegeta to take his revenge on the Vegeta Royal Bloodline. Broly, untrained for battle against other powerful Saiyans, nevertheless quickly adapts against Vegeta and Goku, but gradually loses control of his mind and enters his Wrathful transformation. Later in the film, in a bid to use Broly's rage as a power increase against Goku and Vegeta, Frieza kills Paragus and calls Broly's attention to his father's death, lying to him that it was a stray energy blast from his fight with the other two Saiyans that killed his father. Paragus's death successfully provokes Broly, who transforms into the Wrathful Super Saiyan form, at the total cost of his sanity. In this form, he defeats Goku and Vegeta in their Super Saiyan Blue forms, forcing them to retreat, before Broly turns his attention to Frieza and attacks him, provoking Frieza to transform into his Golden Frieza transformation, although it makes little difference against Broly. Goku and Vegeta, with the guidance of Piccolo and in spite of Vegeta's prideful hesitation, practice the Fusion Dance but fail twice, leaving Frieza at Broly's mercy for an hour. Ultimately, Goku and Vegeta succeed in fusing, becoming Gogeta. Gogeta returns to battle and enters his Super Saiyan form, resuming the battle with Broly. Gogeta and Broly clash, causing reality to 'break' around them. Broly enters his Full Power Super Saiyan form, and in turn, Gogeta turns into a Super Saiyan Blue. The two continue fighting, with Gogeta trying various techniques against Broly, including a Full-Force Kamehameha to end the fight. Cheelai and Lemo use the Dragon Balls to transport Broly back to Vampa with a wish from Shenron before Gogeta can finish him off with the attack. Later, Cheelai and Lemo settle down with the reverted Broly but are visited by Goku, who brings the group supplies and offers to teach Broly how to control his power, befriending him and sparking a friendly rivalry between them.

Broly makes a cameo appearance in the 2022 film '' Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero'', training with Goku and Vegeta under Whis to control his rage and power.

In other media

Broly debuted in the video game ''Dragon Ball Z Super Butoden 2'' (1993). Since then, Broly has frequently been included in several ''Dragon Ball Z''-related video games, along with fellow movie and ''Dragon Ball GT'' characters such as Bardock, Cooler, Janemba, Baby and Omega Shenron. Dragon Ball Z: Buu's Fury loosely adapted his second film and features him as a boss. In '' Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors 2'' (2005), Broly is the subject of three side stories: one that deals with what would have happened if Broly and Paragus succeeded in destroying the Z-Fighters; another, Broly being placed under the control of Dr. Gero; the third, Broly arriving during the Majin Buu Saga and bonding with Mr. Satan. In '' Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit'' (2008), he has his own story mode entry alongside Bardock, which is a loose adaptation of his debut film's narrative. Both his original and ''Super'' incarnations appear as playable characters via downloadable content in the video game ''Dragon Ball FighterZ'' (2018).

Although Broly never appears in the original manga, he appears as a frequent antagonist in the spin-off manga, '' Dragon Ball Heroes: Victory Mission'' (2012), written by Toyotarō in '' Weekly Shōnen Jump'' and published by Shueisha, where he acts as the henchman to Genome in the latter's plan to retrieve the Black Star Dragon Balls. His battle with Goku and Vegeta in ''Dragon Ball Super: Broly'' is teased in a panel that follows the conclusion of the Universal Tournament arc for '' Dragon Ball Super''.

Reception

Broly is considered to be one of the most popular villains within the ''Dragon Ball'' series, with a cult following. He placed second by fan vote in a poll of ''Dragon Ball'' antagonists published by the March 2018 issue of '' V Jump''. Chris Carle from ''IGN'' ranked Broly as tenth on ''IGN's'' list of ''Top 13 Dragon Ball Z Characters''. In a 2016 list of the best ''Dragon Ball Z'' fights, the fight between Broly and Goku and others in the first movie was ranked as seventh; and the fight against Goten, Gohan and Goku in the second movie, as sixth. On the character's popularity, Will Harrison from '' Polygon'' drew parallels between Broly and Boba Fett from ''Star Wars''. Shawn Saris, also from ''IGN'', states that one of the characteristics that makes Broly memorable is his frightening size as well as brutal behavior during fights.

The ''Dragon Ball Super'' character Kale has received particular attention from critics as well as ''Dragon Ball'' fandom due to her similarities to the original version of Broly.

See also

* List of ''Dragon Ball'' characters

References

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Dragon Ball characters
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