Brolyis often regarded as a powerful character inDragon Ball, but that’s typically referring to his more modern,Dragon Ball Super-era incarnation. However, Broly’s original incarnation actually possessed a form so powerful, even Goku was utterly helpless against it.
Broly was first introduced in the filmDragon Ball Z: Broly, the Legendary Super Saiyan, where he was an unrepentant villain out for revenge against Goku. Broly would come back again inBroly – Second Coming, and a clone of Broly appears as Bio-Broly inBio-Broly. That’s the last time that the original incarnation of Broly appears inDragon Ballmovies, with Broly’s next appearance coming with a major retcon to his origins and personality inDragon Ball Super: Broly. However, before theDragon Ball Super: Brolymovie, there was one other major appearance of Broly.
God Broly’s Origins Are a Bit Bizarre
The New Form Debuted in a Theme Park Attraction
Broly actually made his last appearance inDragon Ball Z: The Real 4-D at Super Tenkaichi Budokai, a 4-D show and attraction that once stood in Universal Studios Japan.Super Tenkaichi Budokaimade its debut in June 2017, bringing back Broly for the first time in decades for a rematch against theDragon Ball Super-era Goku. The attraction begins with a showdown at the World Martial Arts Tournament, with a battle royale final round consisting of Vegeta, Goku, Krillin, Piccolo, and Great Saiyaman Gohan. The audience watches from aboard a Capsule Corp ship.
As the battle royale gets underway, the fight is quickly interrupted by Broly, demonstrating a brand-new form that no one has seen before:God Broly. God Broly attacks, knocking away the heroes and the audience alike. Bulma catches Broly’s attention, and he redirects his attack at the Capsule Corp ship, forcing Vegeta to take the hit in order to save them. With Vegeta already out of the fight, things aren’t looking good, and soon the battle rests on Goku’s shoulders alone. Broly launches a powerful attack, causing the ship and Goku to crash into the ground.
Goku summons Shenron and makes a strange wish: he asks to fuse with the audience.
Goku summons Shenron and makes a strange wish: he asks to fuse with the audience. Their power is funneled into Goku, and just in time, as Broly makes his dramatic return. The newly empowered Goku is now able to deflect Broly’s attacks with ease, and lays the beatdown on the Saiyan. As Broly charges up a massive attack, Goku defeats him with one final Kamehameha, then unfuses with the audience, thanking them for lending him their power.
God Broly Posed an Epic Challenge for Goku
Broly’s New Form Was Phenomenally Powerful
Throughout the entire sequence, Goku is in Super Saiyan Blue form, and still is unable to even really scratch Broly until he fuses with the audience. God Broly, in terms of design, looks quite a bit like his Super Saiyan 3 form, both massive and muscular with long, flowing hair, although he still has eyebrows.It was explicitly stated in the promotional material before the attraction became available that this was an enemy that “Goku can do nothing against,” something that’s pretty well held up by the actual movie. This is what necessitates Goku’s odd wish to fuse with the audience.
It’s not known how Broly achieved this new form, or if it was in any way related tothe Super Saiyan God form that Goku is familiar with. The form doesn’t really appear in any other media; its only other appearance is as a non-playable character inSuper Dragon Ball Heroes, who was available as a challenge boss for a limited period of time to celebrate the attraction’s release. In reference to his defeat in the movie, the form’s weakness was actually Kamehameha blasts.
Is God Broly the Strongest Villain in Dragon Ball?
God Broly Ranks Highly Among Goku’s Adversaries
While most fans would likely consider a theme park ride to be about as far away from canon as one can get, ultimately it is still an officially producedDragon Ballproduct, so there’s no real harm in evaluating God Broly as he was depicted in the film. Aside from knocking Goku and the others around, God Broly doesn’t do anything particularly impressive, so it’s difficult to evaluate the full extent of his potential. God Broly’s energy blast does look quite strong, perhaps even strong enough to destroy the Earth, had it been allowed to hit.
God Broly doesn’t really demonstrate any particularly unusual abilities, though presumably he still has all the old tricks that he was capable of in previous forms that he took on. It’s likely thatGod Broly as a formwas created so that Broly could convincingly face off with Goku in Super Saiyan Blue, bringing him up to par with all the power creep that has taken place in the series since the originalDragon Ball ZBroly movies were released.
Still, the fact that God Broly was able to no-sell pretty much everything Super Saiyan Blue Goku could throw at him shows that he has a tremendous amount of power, making him far stronger than Golden Frieza. Excepting Beerus and Whis, God Broly may well actually be the strongest opponent Goku has ever faced, as even Jiren wasn’t totally immune to Super Saiyan Blue.The only character who might actually be able to compete with God Brolyat this point is Black Frieza, whose full potential is also unknown at the moment.
Alas, it seems unlikely that God Broly will ever appear again, being limited only to the attraction at Universal Studios Japan. The attraction only lasted from June to October 2017, meaning the window to actually experience the ride was quite short. The film portion of the attraction is now considered to be lost media, since these kinds of special 4-D movies almost never get any sort of home release. Despite all of that, though, God Broly’s legacy will live on as one of the most overpowered enemy forms to have ever debuted inDragon Ball, and that’s really saying something.
