Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return! [2008]
That poster is pretty awesome, actually. Unfortunately, that and the rather crisp (if somewhat washed-out) quality of the animation are really the only good things I can say about this OVA. I tracked down this little OVA in the internet out of curiousity, since it's not actually dubbed into English.
Oh, and I guess the remade version of the opening sequence of Cha-La-Head-Cha-La with some really gorgeous animated sequences of the old-school DBZ intro, replacing some characters with newer ones, is pretty. Otherwise... yeah, there's probably a good reason that this never got a localized version. Mostly because it's irrelevant.
On the plus side, there's really not much for me to hate about this OVA. It's real big appeal is that it's the reunion of the Dragon Ball Z cast during the huge drought where there isn't any new Dragon Ball material being produced, and the manga just seemed to be completely and utterly over. The final material of Dragon Ball Z came to a close in 1995, and Dragon Ball GT, the short-lived sequel came out in 2005, and there doesn't seem to be much to continue on the franchise other than the occasional fighting game... and this OVA, which came out in 2008. This isn't the case any more, though, since after the Battle of Gods movie premiered in 2013 (and another anime special, Episode of Bardock in 2011), Dragon Ball has received a gigantic resurgence thanks to several new movies and a new anime, and is still going strong, meaning this little nostalgia trip doesn't really do anything for me.
The plot hook is interesting. Apparently Vegeta's little brother Tarble (vegetable... get it?) shows up being pursued by two evil survivors of the Frieza Force, Avo and Cado, while the main DBZ cast shows up to much food at Mr. Satan's new hotel. The cast never treats Avo and Cado seriously, which is completely fine considering that this is meant to be a more fun, lighthearted slice-of-life episode... except that it fails at even that. A good chunk of the OVA is just drawing out Trunks and Goten as they muck around and prolong the fight needlessly,
and it's not even funny. Gotenks shows off some of Yamcha and Tien's moves (Tien doesn't even show up, actually!) and continues to do his irritating showboating.
There's some token efforts to give Krillin and Yamcha some badass moves, but it honestly falls flat when all they did is to cut some rubble. Goku ends it all with a simple Kamehameha after a way-too-long fight sequence, although he hilariously gets his hair turned blue in that sequence... maybe somebody had the right idea for Super Saiyan Blue this early on? Also, for all the hubbub about being Vegeta's brother, Tarble had absolutely no personality at all beyond being nebbish... and doesn't he look like a prototype version of Cabba, except, y'know, with a flatter personality? What is it with brothers in this franchse? Tarble's got less of a personality than Raditz did!
There's some token efforts to give Krillin and Yamcha some badass moves, but it honestly falls flat when all they did is to cut some rubble. Goku ends it all with a simple Kamehameha after a way-too-long fight sequence, although he hilariously gets his hair turned blue in that sequence... maybe somebody had the right idea for Super Saiyan Blue this early on? Also, for all the hubbub about being Vegeta's brother, Tarble had absolutely no personality at all beyond being nebbish... and doesn't he look like a prototype version of Cabba, except, y'know, with a flatter personality? What is it with brothers in this franchse? Tarble's got less of a personality than Raditz did!
Overall, the OVA was... just fine. There's really not much to talk about, though. Some enemies that aren't really a threat shows up to get trounced, Goten and Trunks act like assholes (god these two are insufferable) and the runtime ends up being around 10 or 15 minutes longer than it deserved to. And worst of all, Mr. Satan gets his huge, expensive hotel destroyed out of "karma" for showboating a little... even though he graciously gives everyone an expensive banquet and even told the reporters to fuck off. Hell, Videl even tells Satan off for even considering to use the dragon balls to fix the ruined hotel! What the hell, man? Poor Satan!
So yeah, honestly quite disappointing, and other than a brief mention of Tarble as "he's away" in the Battle of Gods movie -- and the fact that this line's completely removed from the Super version, it really seems that this OVA is meant to be a one-off easily-handwaved-away special to be like an anniversary thing... but really, it's so boring and devoid of life, the scripting is dull and the action sequences are bland, that honestly watching this 30-minute special felt more of a chore.
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