Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler

Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler was the sixth Dragon Ball Z movie produced, originally released in Japan on March 7, 1992, between episodes 129 and 130. It was released on VHS and DVD in the United States in August of 2002, and it also had a special theater presentation (as part of a double-feature with the U.S. premiere of Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn) on March 17, 2006. These movies are the first Dragon Ball movies to receive a theatrical release in the United States.

This film is a direct sequel to the fifth movie, Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge, and the first appearance of Vegeta in a movie. In this film, Frieza's brother Cooler, who had been destroyed in the previous movie, returns. Cooler's remains merge with the Big Gete Star, which revives him. After his revival, Cooler takes control of the Big Gete Star and seeks to resume his consumption of the universe, one planet at a time.

The movie premiered on Cartoon Network's Toonami block on September 26, 2003, as part of DBZ Movies. The movie also aired on Toonami on one other occasion: February 6, 2004.

Synopsis
The movie begins with the Big Gete Star. The liquid metal exterior of the star moulds itself around New Namek, absorbing its energy. Dende, who is now the Earth's guardian, senses the plight of his people and calls Goku to ask for help. ‎ Goku, Gohan, Oolong, Krillin, Yajirobe, Master Roshi and Piccolo arrive and encounter an army of robots deployed on the planet to enslave the Namekians, whom they plan to use as biological fuel for the Big Gete Star. Goku demands that the robots leave peacefully, but their leader emerges and reveals himself to be Cooler, alive and well, in an android version of his fourth form. Cooler admits that he was indeed burned critically in the fires of the Sun, but survived and is now back for revenge. As the others engage the robots, Goku prepares to battle Cooler alone.

At first the Z Fighters have trouble penetrating the armor of Cooler's Cyclopian Guards, but Piccolo instructs them to concentrate their energy to one point, and doing so allows them to destroy a few of the robots. However, there are too many to handle and the warriors are captured along with the Namekians. However, Piccolo remains on the battlefield long enough to unleash a devastating attack which destroys the robots completely. He flies for the Big Gete Star to free his friends.

Goku battles Meta-Cooler, but it is apparent that Goku, even in Super Saiyan form, is no match for Cooler's "new metallic form", which gives him the ability to regenerate himself. Cooler reveals that the Big Gete Star constantly monitors his body, and fixes any problems or glitches that may occur (like Cooler's arm getting torn off for example) while also strengthening him in such a way that it can't happen the same way twice. Goku goes in for a final attack, but Cooler grabs him and starts to strangle him. Vegeta suddenly appears and saves Goku, himself transforming into a Super Saiyan. However, they are both still no match for Cooler, and are only able to win by combining their power and unleashing a devastating attack which destroys Cooler.

However, a whole army of Meta-Coolers immediately shows up: to remedy the loss of one Meta-Cooler, the Big Gete Star has created a thousand. Outnumbered and drained of energy, Goku and Vegeta are captured and transported to the Big Gete Star's core to be used as energy to power it. It is here that Goku and Vegeta finally learn the truth about Cooler's survival: following his death at Goku's hands, he was not destroyed completely, but his remains floated through space for a while, including pieces of his brain. A nearby computer chip gained sentience, assimilated a field of metal spaceship parts and combined them all into a spaceship, the Big Gete Star, and among these were the remains of Cooler's brain, which merged with the main computer and took control, which means that in a way, Cooler is the Big Gete Star. Cooler begins draining Goku and Vegeta of their energy, but they flood the circuitry with too much power and overload it, causing it to collapse. All the Meta-Coolers are destroyed and the prisoners are freed.

As the others evacuate, Goku and Vegeta face Cooler alone. Cooler takes the form of a wired, mutant-like giant being and grabs Goku, squashing him to death until Vegeta slices Cooler's arm off, giving Goku enough time to fire an energy beam into Cooler and destroy him once and for all. The Big Gete Star exits New Namek's atmosphere and explodes.

Goku and Vegeta fall from the sky near the rest of the Z Fighters, and everyone rejoices. They then realize that Vegeta is nowhere to be found, and Goku looks up at the sky, knowing where he is. Indeed, Vegeta is flying in space in his Space Pod (which he used to follow Goku to New Namek) with the computer chip from the Big Gete Star in his hands. He crushes it and heads back to Earth.

Characters
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Toonami Broadcast History

 * September 26, 2003 at 6:00 PM (DBZ Movies)
 * February 6, 2004 at at 5:30 PM