Dragonball Z Screening: Cooler's Revenge, January 11, 2002 

I met up with Kyle at the Taco Bueno near Valley View Mall and rode with him out to UT Arlington for the screening.  After searching a couple buildings, we found the correct one and walked into the auditorium.  We were a little late arriving, and walked in during the showing of Yu Yu Hakusho.  We took our seats in the back row and started watching the show.

Yu Yu Hakusho

Kyle and I got there during the midpoint of the second episode, so I really didn’t know what was going on at first.  From what I saw, I liked the show.  The episodes I did watch had a Tenchi Muyo feel to it, but Kyle promises me that it becomes more action packed.  The crowd seemed to really love it.  They were laughing pretty much the whole time it was on.  The show follows Yusuke, who is hit by a car and dies in the first episode.  In the second episode, he possesses the body of his rival, Kuwabara, and must tell his family and girlfriend that he can be brought back to life. The problem is getting them to believe him.  The third episode, which was stopped half way through, followed the mishaps of Kuwabara as he must avoid fighting for one week and pass his science test or his friend, Okobo (Kyle’s character), will lose his part time job.  This show has a lot of promise and I hear it is coming to Cartoon Network sometime soon, during its Adult Swim block.  I look forward to seeing what this show has to offer.

Blue Gender

I was kind of shocked the people running this program didn’t have a disclaimer that the show was meant for the adult audience since there were some young children present.  The crowd reaction was very light to this show due to the fact it has probably been seen.  The first three episodes were shown and they have been out since November.  Lots of chuckles during the humming scenes between Joey and Yugi.  I have to admit I didn’t like Blue Gender at first, but when the action started to pick up, it sort of grew on me.  I went ahead and bought the first and second volumes of Blue Gender on DVD and just got through watching disk two a little while ago.  The action picks up where it left off, following Yugi and Marlene as they continue on, looking for a way to get to second Earth.  Volume 2 also contains the final scene of Robert, Kyle’s character, but at least he goes out with a bang… literally!  This show also has promise and I will continue to watch it.

There was a ten-minute intermission afterwards as merchandise went on sale and Kyle and Chris Sabat started signing autographs for everyone.  I went ahead and bought vol.1 and 2 of Blue Gender for a total of $40.  I filled out a survey while I was at it.  One of the questions asked me where I had heard about the screening and I went ahead and gave Legacy a shameless plug.  Up next was the feature presentation for the evening so I took my seat again.

Cooler’s Revenge

Definitely the show everyone was dying to see.  This movie was by far better than the previous ones FUNimation has produced.  The music, which was mostly rock songs from the bands Disturbed and Deftones, matched the scenes perfectly.  The basic plot of this movie is Cooler learns of his brother, Frieza’s defeat at the hands of a Saiyan from Earth.  He arrives on Earth wanting vengeance.  In the mean time, Goku, Gohan, and Krillin are on a camping trip when the three cronies of Cooler show up and wreck havoc.  Of course, they are no match for Goku and Cooler must get involved.  I won’t spoil the rest but it is definitely one of the better movies I have seen.  The crowd popped during the fight scene and Goku’s transformation to Super Saiyan, and then gave it their roar of approval during the credits.  Make sure to purchase it when it comes out.

I think the night was a success overall.  About 70 people were present for the event and it seems everyone had a good time.  I apologize for the short critiques of the shows but I really do not want to spoil anything for you FUNi fans out there.  I really do hope FUNimation has more of these screenings in Dallas, because this one was really a lot of fun and one of the few chances to see DBZ on a movie screen.