Dragon Ball Z’s Heavy Metal Music Made Broly a Bigger Legend in America Than Japan

When it comes to Dragon Ball, few characters are more popular than the Legendary Super Saiyan Broly. Since debuting in 1993, Broly has appeared in five films, dozens of video games, and a host of other Dragon Ball projects, making him one of the most prolific villains in the entire franchise.

However, as beloved as Broly is in Japan, fans in the United States are even more passionate about the OP Dragon Ball character, whose following in America has legitimately rivaled that of canon characters like Piccolo, Frieza, and Gohan since the mid-2000s. Although Broly’s Western popularity can be attributed to the rise of the Internet and other external factors, a major reason for this trend is one that even the most diehard DBZ fans often overlook: heavy metal music.

Broly — The Legendary Super Saiyan isn’t the first Dragon Ball film released in America with a heavy metal soundtrack. The franchise has been experimenting with rock soundtracks for its dubs since veteran composer Shuki Levy (Inspector Gadget, He-Man, Power Rangers, etc.) started working on Dragon Ball Z‘s Ocean Dub all the way back in 1995.

This trend became even more prevalent after Bruce Faulconer took over the soundtrack of DBZ‘s English Dub alongside Funimation in 1998, as the composer heavily leaned into hard rock and metal-inspired tracks in his creative process. Given Dragon Ball‘s near-immediate success in the Faulconer era, this trend ultimately translated to Dragon Ball Z‘s U.S. film releases, starting with Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug in 2001 — the first DBZ film released in America with licensed tracks from prominent bands like Deftones and Disturbed.

Although Lord Slug and Cooler’s Revenge (released in NA in 2002) both deserve credit for establishing the trend of metal songs appearing in DBZ films, neither of these films’ villains became anywhere near as popular as the Legendary Super Saiyan in the United States. To be fair, this trend was also seen in Japan, where the first and second Broly films set box office records for the Dragon Ball franchise upon their release in 1993 & 1994.

What separates Broly’s reception in the United States from that in Japan is the type of fans that Broly — The Legendary Super Saiyan appealed to. Whereas Broly was a big hit with younger fans in Japan (a trend seen in DBZ films across the 1990s), Funimation was targeting the exact opposite demographic.

From 2001 to 2003, Dragon Ball Z was the No.1-ranked Children’s TV show in the United States, according to the Nielsen Ratings. So, rather than using the English dub of DBZ‘s films to appeal to younger fans — a market they already dominated — Funimation chose to make these films broodier in hopes of appealing to a large demographic, and safe to say, this gamble paid off.

Broly — The Legendary Super Saiyan was immediately well-received by American fans upon its release in 2003, due in no small part to the changes made to the series as part of the localization process. Following in the footsteps of artists like Drowning Pools and Disturbed, who appeared in previous Dragon Ball films, Broly — The Legendary Super Saiyan features the talents of established metal bands like Haji’s Kitchen and Pantera.

Broly — The Legendary Super Saiyan Soundtrack
Track No.	Artist	Song Title
1.	Tendril	Eternal Sacrifice
2.	El Gato	Lost in America (Part 1)
3.	Brave Combo	Dance of the Hours (Part 1 & 2)
4.	Pointy Shoe Factory	On Your Knees
5.	Pointy Shoe Factory	Bump in the Night
6.	Doosu	Louisiana House Fire Mid. 1950
7.	The Aleph	Lazarus
8.	Slow Roosevelt	Boys Lie, Girls Steal
9.	Spoonfed Tribe	Beetle Orange
10.	Dokodemo Doa	Fearful Yet Hopeful
11.	Pointy Shoe Factory	The Dub and the Dead
12.	Pantera	10’s
13.	Tendrils	Invisibles
14.	Gravity Pool	Reach
15.	Gravity Pool	Won’t Give In
16.	Haji’s Kitchen	Day After Day
17.	Slow Roosevelt	Silverback
18.	Haji’s Kitchen	Warrior (Instrumental)
19.	Haji’s Kitchen	Lost
20.	El Gato	Stained-Glass Windshield

Between the film’s English voice acting, Western metal soundtrack, and over-the-top action, Broly perfected the DBZ formula by expanding its target demographic to include teenagers and young adults without losing the things that defined the franchise. The result is a distinctly American version of Dragon Ball that perfectly resonated with the Nu-metal wave of the late 1990s & early 2000s.

Broly’s Popularity With American Fans Changed the Future of Dragon Ball

Thanks to the character’s overwhelming popularity with younger Japanese fans and Western audiences, Broly has grown to become an essential part of the modern Dragon Ball landscape, and although his fights are rarely backed by heavy metal tracks, they remain immensely popular in the United States. To illustrate the disproportionate popularity of Broly in the West, look no further than the box office totals of Dragon Ball Super: Broly.

Generally, Japan’s box office numbers for anime films far exceed those of any other market, including the United States. For example, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, the highest-grossing anime film of all time, earned $245 million at the Japanese box office compared to $143 million in the U.S..

While other anime films like Chainsaw Man: The Reze Arc ($59 million Japanese gross vs. $43 million U.S. gross) and The Boy and the Heron ($60.7 million Japanese gross vs. $47.3 million U.S. gross) close this gap, none compare to Dragon Ball Super: Broly.

Broly’s canonical debut earned $34.6 million at the Japanese box office, only to be nearly eclipsed by the United States’ $30.7 million turnout. Barring films affected by the COVID pandemic like Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero (which also suffered in Japan after a ransomware attack on Toei Animation delayed its release), Dragon Ball Super: Broly‘s narrow gap in box office totals is the smallest in anime history, illustrating Broly’s disproportionate popularity in the West.

Heavy metal music obviously isn’t the only reason for Broly’s popularity in the West — the character’s resonance with early-2000s American maximalism and masculinity both play a major role in this phenomenon as well. Still, as the countless AMVs scattered around the internet will attest, Broly’s association with the metal era of DBZ remains a vital part of his history.