Trunks, as everyone knows, beat an opponent that Goku had trouble taking out. Who he was and where he came from was only slightly touched upon in the main run of Dragonball Z and you were never told the whole story. Well, Dragonball Z: The History of Trunks tells the story of when he came to be and the future he came from.

 
 

Highlights

The movie really shows how desperate the situation of the world had become. After the 13 year time skip of the mysterious Androids' unchallenged rampage across the world, there is nearly no one who can stand up to them. The Androids are nearly unstoppable and the fact that they would fire an energy blast and then go ride on a rollercoaster just makes them more twisted than if they were to just go around killing everyone. Not even Gohan, not only dressing like Goku but also the only survivor due to being too young to fight, could stand up to both of them for very long. Granted it didn’t help because Trunks had yet to be taught how to fight, and Gohan lost an arm trying to protect Trunks from the vicious Androids. His sacrifice of taking on both Androids is what finally drives Trunks to achieve his Super Sayjin level power that he had been unable to reach even with all the anger and pain he was feeling at the senseless destruction. After achieving that level of power and another time skip of three years, he confronts the Androids and, after fighting them, learns that they were built for world domination. The movie ends with Trunks getting into the time machine that his mother, Bulma, has been working on. During the credits you see clips from the original DragonBall Z series that connect the story lines.

Overall

I really liked this movie. As a fan of fighting, I enjoyed watching the Androids and Gohan go at it. To see what was once a scared little boy grow into a fighter much like his father was a nice surprise. The dialog between #17 and #18 is a nice bit of twisted humor, and that made his death much more touching. I was laughing when he was crashing his car and apologizing as he was hitting people and then changed his mind and said he wasn’t sorry, it was a great way of showing just how twisted he was. Even though they mentioned their creator, Dr. Gero, and #17 having a Red bow-tie mark on his shirt, they really weren’t given a complete back story of how they came to be. Also, it was odd that neither Bulma nor Trunks ever says who his father is. The one thing I didn’t like about this movie was the length. As soon as you start getting into the movie it’s over and it just left me wanting more.

ComicsOnline gives Dragonball Z: The History of Trunks 4.5 out of 5 killer Androids.