Feature Information

Feature Synopsis

One peaceful afternoon, the Son family and friends are spending the day out on the town shopping in West City. Meanwhile, two strangers enter the city and begin causing havoc, destroying nearly everything in their path. As the Son family is eating, the building they’re in is suddenly attacked, as it turns out the two are after Son Goku. When Goku sees that innocent people are being attacked in his name, he becomes furious. Trunks comes to Goku’s aid, and the two lead the artificial humans out of the city. As the battle is moved elsewhere, Goku and Gohan, now dressed in white tuxes, return and land in West City.

The two proceed to show clips and highlights from the preceding Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z movies. Goku of course doesn’t much like being all dressed up, and by the end he powers up to change back into his typical dōgi. Gohan tries to do the same, but isn’t powerful enough to get out of his tux. Goku says he’ll get there someday, and Gohan tells everyone to be sure to go see “Extreme Battle!! The Three Great Super Saiyans” in theaters.

Feature Notes

• This special is known amongst most Dragon Ball fans by a few different names, such as the “3rd Dragon Ball Z TV Special” or the “Movie Overview Special”. However, the yellow title cards shown at the beginning and end of the special note that this is actually the “Dragon Ball Z Summer Vacation Special”, as Dragon Ball Z movie 7 was premiering during school summer vacation in 1992. In addition, calling it the 3rd Dragon Ball Z TV special is quite misleading, as it is nothing like the Bardock or Trunks TV specials. This special actually premiered before the Trunks TV special, and therefore by using such logic it would be the 2nd Dragon Ball Z TV special in chronological order.
• The special is a compilation of footage, much like a clip show, from the movies up through Dragon Ball Z movie 7 and is hosted by Goku and Gohan, who are wearing tuxes. Throughout the special, Goku and Gohan examine specific aspects of the movies, such as how different Goku and Gohan were as kids, every wish made to Shenlong, and the different techniques used in the movies.
• It is not known exactly when this special was first aired on Fuji TV, but we do know that it aired at some point after Dragon Ball Z movie 7 premiered on 11 July 1992, as both Goku and Gohan note in the special that the movie has already premiered. The video source used for this guide comes from a re-run of the special on Tokai TV, a Fuji TV affiliate, which aired on 03 August 1992. Therefore, it can be assumed that the special originally premiered sometime between these two dates.
• The title card music used in the special is actually the title card music used in the Dragon Ball TV series and not that from Dragon Ball Z.
• Oddly enough, the footage for Dragon Ball movies 1-3 and Dragon Ball Z movies 1-3 used in this special are all presented in a 4:3 fullscreen format, as that’s how these movies were originally released in Japan on VHS. However, the remaining movies (Dragon Ball Z movies 4-7) are all presented in a 16:9 widescreen format. To make things even more perplexing, the beginning footage from Dragon Ball Z movie 7 is all in a 4:3 fullscreen format, including all of the new scenes with Goku and Goku in tuxes.
• The special was co-directed by Kōzō Morishita and Shin’ichi Fukumitsu rather than any of the traditional episode directors involved with the anime series. Kōzō Morishita is a series producer and is typically involved with the planning aspects of the series. Shin’ichi Fukumitsu has been the series’ editor since the very first episode and is primarily responsible for splicing the film together, creating the final animation reel. This is the first Dragon Ball production to not feature an editing credit, and is also the first time either have been credited in the series as director.

Feature Credits

All credits listed below are as originally presented in the feature.

Cast Credits

The cast credits are listed in rough order of introduction within the feature. For more detailed information about the series cast, visit the Cast Guide.

Opening Credits

Ending Credits