Introduction
Broly is a character from the Dragon Ball series, specifically the Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super movies. He is a powerful Saiyan warrior who was born with an extraordinary power level that exceeded that of most other Saiyans. He was originally presented as a villain who was obsessed with defeating Goku, the main protagonist of the series.
His power was fueled by his intense hatred for Goku and he was known for his immense strength, speed, and durability. In addition, Broly had the ability to transform into a “Legendary Super Saiyan” form, which granted him even greater power and physical changes, such as green hair and a massive increase in muscle mass. Over time, he has become a popular character among fans of the series, and has appeared in several Dragon Ball video games, movies, and other media.
Creation
Broly was created for the 1993 Dragon Ball Z movie “Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan” by series creator Akira Toriyama. However, while Toriyama provided the character designs and rough plot outline, he did not write the screenplay for the film. Instead, the screenplay was written by Takao Koyama, who incorporated Toriyama’s character designs and plot elements into the story.
According to interviews with Toriyama and Koyama, the idea for Broly came about as a way to introduce a new, powerful villain for Goku to fight. The character’s design was meant to be imposing and intimidating, with a muscular build and spiky green hair. However, the most distinctive aspect of Broly’s character was his intense hatred for Goku, which was linked to their past interactions as infants on Planet Vegeta. As the story goes, Goku’s constant crying as a baby in the incubator next to Broly’s drove the Saiyan to develop an intense hatred for Goku that would persist into adulthood.
While the original Broly movie was intended as a standalone story, the character proved to be popular with fans and has since appeared in multiple Dragon Ball Z movies, video games, and other media. In some of these later appearances, Broly’s backstory and personality were expanded upon, making him a more complex and sympathetic character.
In 2018, a new version of the character was introduced in the Dragon Ball Super movie “Dragon Ball Super: Broly,” which featured a new origin story and revised character design. This version of Broly was written by series creator Akira Toriyama and incorporated elements from the original Broly movie, but with significant changes.
In the new version of Broly’s origin story, he is revealed to be a Saiyan who was banished to a harsh, deserted planet as a baby by King Vegeta, who feared the child’s immense power. Broly is raised on the planet by his father, Paragus, who trains him to become a powerful warrior with a fierce hatred for the Saiyan prince, Vegeta. When Broly is discovered by Frieza, the primary antagonist of the movie, he is brought to Earth to fight Goku and Vegeta, who are both shocked by the level of his power.
The 2018 version of Broly also features a redesigned appearance, with a leaner build and a more subdued color palette for his clothing and hair. This version of Broly also has a more developed personality and backstory, with his intense rage and hatred for Vegeta and Goku explained by his traumatic upbringing and isolation on a hostile planet.
Overall, while the original and new versions of Broly share some similarities, the 2018 movie represents a significant update and reimagining of the character by series creator Akira Toriyama.
Characteristics
He is known for his incredible strength and power. Some of his key characteristics include:
- Immense strength: He is one of the strongest characters in the Dragon Ball universe, with a power level that exceeds even most other Saiyans. He is capable of incredible feats of strength, such as easily destroying planets and effortlessly overpowering his opponents.
- Uncontrollable rage: He is often portrayed as an uncontrollable force of destruction, driven by a deep-seated rage that is difficult to contain. His anger is typically directed towards Goku and Vegeta, whom he blames for his traumatic past.
- Transformation: Broly has the ability to transform into a “Legendary Super Saiyan,” a form that grants him even greater power and physical changes, such as green hair and a massive increase in muscle mass. In the 2018 version of the character, he is also shown to be capable of further transformations beyond this form.
- Limited speech: In both versions of the character, Broly is portrayed as speaking very little, with most of his dialogue consisting of grunts, roars, and other nonverbal expressions of his emotions.
- Tragic backstory: The 2018 version of the Saiyan’s backstory is more fully developed, showing him to have been raised in isolation on a harsh planet by his father, Paragus. His traumatic upbringing and mistreatment at the hands of King Vegeta are key factors in his intense rage and hatred for Goku and Vegeta.
Overall, he is a powerful and imposing character whose strength and rage make him a formidable opponent for the heroes of the Dragon Ball series.
Abilities
He is a character known for his incredible strength and power. Some of the key abilities and techniques associated with the character include:
- Superhuman strength: He possesses immense physical strength that allows him to easily overpower most opponents. His strength is so great that he is capable of effortlessly destroying entire planets.
- Ki manipulation: He has extensive control over his ki, or life energy, and is able to harness it to perform a wide range of attacks and techniques, such as energy blasts, energy shields, and energy spheres.
- Legendary Super Saiyan transformation: He has the ability to transform into a “Legendary Super Saiyan,” a form that grants him even greater power and a distinctive green aura. In this form, his strength and durability are greatly increased, and he gains access to new techniques, such as the Eraser Cannon.
- Adaptive Combat: Having start off by being trained by his father Paragus, he has had little combat experience. Although limited at first, he’s capable of keeping up with and adapting to master combatants like Goku and Vegeta. Even going so far to impress the likes of Frieza and Vegeta.
- Mimicry: The coveted ability to copy another fighter’s technique after seeing it used only once. While under the effects of Goku’s God Bind, Broly was able to backfire this technique on Goku by overflowing his own ki into it.
- Berserker state: His rage and anger can sometimes push him into a state of uncontrolled fury, in which he becomes even more powerful but loses most of his strategic thinking and control.
Overall, he is a powerful and versatile fighter who is capable of using a wide range of techniques and abilities to defeat his opponents.
Biography
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, becoming the unstoppable Legendary Super Saiyan. Broly easily defeats Super Saiyan Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks, and Piccolo before killing his father. Goku eventually defeats him, but Broly escapes in an escape pod.
Broly’s backstory is revealed in this movie, where he was born with a power level of 10,000, which resulted in him being stabbed and left to die with his father Paragus at the order of King Vegeta. Broly narrowly escaped Planet Vegeta’s destruction at Frieza’s hand, and he developed a subconscious hatred of Goku due to their shared birthdate, and Goku’s crying that day acted as a trigger for his post-traumatic stress disorder.
The 2018 film Dragon Ball Super: Broly introduced a new canon version of Broly, who is portrayed as a quiet and slightly naïve Saiyan with a tendency to explode in rage. He is 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 characterized as rough and quiet, 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. However, whenever provoked by severe stress, anger, or physical exertion, Broly has trouble controlling his power and enters a destructive, mindless berserker state, in which he possesses little to no sanity or ability to distinguish friend from foe.
He was emotionally scarred by his father Paragus’ violent discipline via shock collar, but remains loyal to him. He spent four decades living in exile with Paragus, being raised as a weapon of revenge against King Vegeta until they were 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 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 turning his attention to Frieza and attacking him. Goku and Vegeta 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.
Reception
He has been a popular character in the Dragon Ball franchise, with fans fascinated by his incredible power and volatile personality.
The original incarnation of Broly in the non-canon Dragon Ball Z films received mixed reviews. While some fans enjoyed his immense strength and unique backstory, others criticized the character for being one-dimensional and lacking depth beyond his brute force. However, his popularity grew over time, and he became a fan favorite due to his impressive power level and epic battles.
In the 2018 film Dragon Ball Super: Broly, the character was reworked and reintroduced as part of the official Dragon Ball Super canon. This new version of the character was met with positive reviews, with many fans praising the development of his character, which added new depth and nuance to the previously one-dimensional character. The movie also received critical acclaim for its animation, storytelling, and action sequences, with Broly’s character being a major highlight.
In Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, he makes a cameo appearance, training under Whis to control his rage and power. While his role in the film is small, fans were excited to see the character return in an official capacity and hope to see more of him in future Dragon Ball content.
Trivia
Broly, the Legendary Super Saiyan, is one of the most iconic characters in the Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super series. Known for his immense power and fearsome appearance, he has captured the imaginations of fans for over two decades. In this collection of trivia, we will explore some of the most interesting and little-known facts about this legendary character:
- He is a character from the Dragon Ball franchise created by Takao Koyama and designed by Akira Toriyama.
- He first appeared in the movie “Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan” in 1993.
- In his debut movie, he was depicted as a bloodthirsty and unstoppable villain who could defeat all of the Z Fighters with ease.
- The name “Broly” is an anagram of the vegetable “broccoli”, a reference to Toriyama’s habit of naming characters after food.
- He is known as the “Legendary Super Saiyan” due to his incredible power and status as a fabled warrior in Saiyan legend.
- The character is voiced by Vic Mignogna and Johnny Yong Bosch in the English verion. He is voiced by Bin Shimada in the Japanese verion.
- His father, Paragus, was a loyal servant of King Vegeta who was exiled along with his son to a desolate planet because of Broly’s immense power.
- In Dragon Ball Super: Broly, his backstory is retconned to show that he was exiled as a baby due to King Vegeta’s fear and jealousy of his power, and he was raised on a desolate planet by his father.
- In the 2018 film Dragon Ball Super: Broly, he is portrayed as a sympathetic character who is socially naive and emotionally scarred by his father’s violent discipline.
- His immense power is fueled by his uncontrolled rage, which causes him to enter a destructive, mindless berserker state.
- His power is so great that it caused a dimensional rift in the 2018 film Dragon Ball Super: Broly, leading to the creation of an alternate timeline.
- In the Dragon Ball Z movies, he is defeated by Goku with the help of the other Z Fighters.
- In Dragon Ball Super: Broly, he is defeated by Gogeta, the fusion of Goku and Vegeta, after a long and intense battle.
- The character has a number of signature moves, including the Eraser Cannon, Omega Blaster, and Gigantic Meteor.
- His power is said to increase every time he is defeated, making him even more dangerous in subsequent battles.
- In Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, he is seen training with Goku and Vegeta under the guidance of Whis to control his power and rage.
- In the Dragon Ball Z movies, he is depicted as having an intense hatred for Goku, stemming from their time in the Saiyan nursery.
- In “Dragon Ball Super: Broly,” it is revealed that his power increases every time he fights.
- In the English dub of “Dragon Ball Super: Broly,” his voice actor is Vic Mignogna.
- His appearance in “Dragon Ball Super: Broly” was designed to make him look more like a classic Dragon Ball character.
- The characters backstory was expanded upon in “Dragon Ball Super: Broly” to include his time spent living in exile with his father Paragus.
- In “Dragon Ball Super: Broly,” he is shown to have a very close relationship with his new friends, Cheelai and Lemo.
- His fighting style is described as “unorthodox” due to his tendency to rely on brute strength rather than technique.
