Dragon Ball: Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans

Gaiden: Saiyajin Zetsumetsu Keikaku
Written by	Takao Koyama (story)
Starring	Masako Nozawa (Son Gokū / Son Gohan / Tullece) Ryō Horikawa (Vegeta) Toshio Furukawa (Piccolo) Takeshi Kusao (Trunks) Hiromi Tsuru (Bulma) Naoko Watanabe (Chi Chi) Toku Nishio (Mr. Popo) Tomiko Suzuki (Dende) Ryuusei Nakao (Freeza / Coola) Hisao Egawa (Monster / Goddo Gadon) Yuusaku Yara (Slug) Shinji Ogawa (Dr. Raichi) Joji Yanami (Kaiosama/Narration)

Dragon Ball: Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans (ドラゴンボールZ外伝 サイヤ人絶滅計画, Dragon Ball Z Gaiden: Saiyajin Zetsumetsu Keikaku; lit. "Dragon Ball Z Side Story: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans") was the first Dragon Ball Z original video animation (OVA). It was originally released on home video cassettes in Japan on August 6, 1993, between episodes 195 and 196, as an Official Visual Guides to the Famicom game Dragon Ball Z Gaiden: Saiyajin Zetsumetsu Keikaku. The OVA has since been re-released on DVD in Japan as an extra feature of the Dragon Box collection in 2003.

Coming as a bonus with every copy of Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 in 2010, the OVA was completely reconstructed, re-scripted, and re-edited, finally seeing release in North America and Europe. As announced in December 2011, this remake was streamed online, as part of the Dragon Ball SSSS project.

Plot

Chikyū-Hen

The Ghost Warriors

Dr. Raichi is one of the only survivors of the Tuffles, a race that once lived on Planet Plant before the coming of the Saiyans. The Saiyans not only massacred the entire Tuffle race, but also stole their technology and conquered the planet, renaming it Planet Vegeta in honor of their king. Raichi managed to escape with a capsule and found refuge on the Dark Planet, a world at the end of the universe. His only wish is to eradicate the last remaining Saiyans.

Before Hatchiyack's appearance in a powerful body

To do this, Dr. Raichi puts devices on Earth that emit Destron Gas and destroy all life. When Mr. Popo/Bulma finds out that only a few hours are left until the planet's destruction, Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, Future Trunks, and Piccolo rush to destroy the evil devices located around the planet. They manage to destroy all but one that is protected by an impenetrable energy barrier. However, Frieza, Cooler, Turles and Lord Slug appear and engage the heroes in individual fight. It is revealed by King Kai that the villains are Ghost Warriors, and will continually come back to life when killed unless defeated in the same way their lives were originally ended.

Uchū-Hen: Fighting Hatchiyack

Hatchiyack just moments before his destruction

The heroes track Dr. Raichi down to the Dark Planet and engage him, discovering that hisalled Hatchiyack, a device phe hatred of the Tuffles. It is also revealed that Dr. Raichi is a Ghost Warrior himself, generated by geta vaporizes Raichi, preventing him from re-materializing, Raichi had causes Hatchiyack to exceed its limit. Hatchiyrsful android body, whose power is said to match or perhapBroly's, according to Goku. Hatchiyack devastates the heroes until the Sayans, after having transformed into their Super Saiyan states, combine theirpowers together into one massive wave of energy with Goku using Super Kamehameha, Gohan using Super Masenkoegta using Final Flash (but fired it in a Maximum Flasher-style)nd Piccolo using Special Beam Cannon (Plo participates in the final struggle only in the 2010 version), thus ending the threat of the Ghost Warriors. Before the entire planet exploded due to the fierce battle, Goku and the Z Fighters were transporte

Production

Original release

Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans was released following the Famicom game of the same name, Saiyajin Zetsumetsu Keikaku, in the form of two VHS cassettes dubbed "Official Visual Guides" as the OVA served as a sort of "animated walkthrough" for the game. In 1994, footage from the OVA was turned into two video games for the Playdia console (Chikyū-Hen and Uchū-Hen).

2010 release

The Z Fighters return on Earth

Some arguments about gaining the license to release it on DVD in English started when news about Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!! was first heard. However, this became a reality when an English version was announced to be releasing with Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2. According to Namco Bandai, "The exclusive new feature entitled Dragon Ball: Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans is a completely reconstructed, re-scripted and re-edited version of an original Japanese episode that has never been released in the U.S or Canada, offering something unique to fans of the series. Everyone who buys the game can watch this exclusive anime straight out of the box. Namco Bandai has confirmed that the footage will not be english dubbed but instead have english subtitles.

Some scenes were deleted and other were changed from the original movie. The Z Fighters never encounter and fight the monsters guarding the Destron Gas machines. There is one machine in Satan City. When the Z Fighters find the Destron Gas machine, the Saiyans are in base form, and only Vegeta transforms to destroy the machine, the others transform for the fight against the Ghost Warriors. In the original, they are all already in Super Sayan form. Also, it is Bulma who comes help the Z Fighters after they are pinned down by the Ghost Warriors (scene not present in the original, except for the in game scenes when the player loses the fight), instead of Goku being helped by King Kai. Goku does not fight God Guardon on Raichi's planet, instead travelling through space to get to him. During the original movie, Piccolo did not join in on the Beam Struggle against Hatchiyack, and he did not bring the Senzu Beans, shortening a bit the fight.

Releases on Home Media

The original was released on VHS in 1993, but only in Japan. The OVA later appeared in the Japanese version of the Dragon Boxes in 2003.

The 2010 remake will appear on a bonus DVD that will come with the March 2012 issue of Saikyō Jump. The DVD will also contain the 2011 anime adaptation of Dragon Ball: Episode of Bardock.

Continuity

Trunks remembers how he killed Frieza

The storyline of this movie is supposed to take place during the ten-day wait prior to the Cell Games, after the events of Dragon Ball Z: Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan (as Goku states that Hatchiyack might be even stronger than Broly). In the OVA, Vegeta can be seen performing the Final Flash, a technique that he developed in his Super Vegeta form against Cell's perfect form (which occured in the episode 146, "Trunks Ascends", maintaining continuity), Goku is still alive (his death occured during the Cell Games), and Bulma even wears the clothing from before the Cell Games when she was repairing Android 16.

The movie fits here in the timeline but, like in Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan, Gohan and Goku are seen outside their Super Saiyan forms, which they were supposed to not transform out of during that period. Also, after training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber in the series, Trunks lets his hair grow, but in the OVA, Trunks has short hair (his hair was long in Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan). The notion of Turles and Slug having menaced Earth at some point is a slight issue, as their respective movies are more difficult to fit in continuity.

Trivia

• Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans establishes the history of the Saiyans arriving on Planet Plant and taking over of Planet Plant/Vegeta (basically expanding on the story told in the anime).
• The concept of a villainous Tuffle out for revenge on the Saiyan race would later turn up again in the form of the villainous Machine Mutant, Baby.
• Outside DBZ video games, Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans is the only time Frieza and Cooler are shown interacting. This is also the only film where Vegeta confronts Frieza while in his Super Saiyan form (Goku and Trunks have already done so, while an adult Gohan confronts Frieza in the movie Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn). It is also the first and only time Future Trunks and Vegeta encounter the villains Turles and Lord Slug, as well as the first and only time Future Trunks encounters Cooler.
• Against the Ghost Warriors, the battles are as follows: Gohan vs. Turles, Piccolo vs. Lord Slug, Trunks vs. Frieza and Goku vs. Cooler. It is interesting to note that Vegeta mysteriously disappears during this scene, as there are not enough villains to go around. He appears shortly after the fight sequences, looking dishevelled from battle (despite not being shown fighting) when it is revealed that the Ghost Warriors are harder to defeat than their original counterparts. His random disappearance happens in both the original movie and the remastered version. However, he provides a finishing attack on the Ghost Warrior Cooler after Bulma restores the Z Fighters' use of Ki with a neutralizing agent for the Destron Gas.
• Even though it was stated in the original version that Ghost Warriors can only be defeated by the same way they were killed when they were alive, none of the Ghost Warriors were defeated in that way.
• The remastered version featured in Raging Blast 2 is the first Dragon Ball Z movie with Dragon Ball Z Kai music.