General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13! (ドラゴンボールZ 極限バトル!!三大超サイヤ人)

Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13! (Dragon Ball Z: Kyokugen Battle!! Three Great Super Saiyans, ドラゴンボールZ 極限バトル!!三大超サイヤ人) is a 1992 Japanese animated film in which Son Goku and his allies fight three androids created by the surviving supercomputer of Dr. Gero, culminating in a battle between three Super Saiyans and the fused Super Android 13. It premiered in Japan on July 11, 1992, runs 45 minutes, and was distributed by Toei.¹

Key fact	Detail
Japanese release	July 11, 1992, as part of the summer Toei Anime Fair; 45 minutes, Toei distribution¹
Place in series	Tenth Dragon Ball theatrical film and the seventh under the Dragon Ball Z banner²
Main staff	Director Kazuhito Kikuchi; screenplay Takao Koyama; animation supervisor Minoru Maeda; original manga by Akira Toriyama¹
Villains	Androids 13, 14, and 15, generated by Dr. Gero's supercomputer after his death; 13 absorbs the other two to become Super Android 13¹
First appearance	The first Dragon Ball Z film in which Future Trunks appears³
IMDb rating	6.9/10 from about 9,100 user ratings⁴
Home video	Japanese LaserDisc on February 25, 1993; Funimation Blu-ray double feature with Bojack Unbound on February 10, 2009⁵^•⁶

Spoilers

Story

Dr. Gero, who built androids to destroy Goku, is killed by his own creation, but the data he left behind allows his laboratory computer to complete his strongest androids: Numbers 15, 14, and 13.¹ Androids 14 and 15 ambush Goku and his companions while they are relaxing in the Ginza district on a Sunday, reducing a department store to rubble and panicking the crowd.¹ To keep bystanders out of danger, Goku and Trunks move the battle to a glacial region, leaving Gohan and Krillin behind.¹

The fighters fare poorly because the enemy computer has learned their movements and fighting data. Vegeta arrives to reinforce them, uniting Goku, Trunks, and Vegeta as the three Super Saiyans of the title, and Piccolo joins as well.¹ Even so, none can stand against Android 13 once he absorbs the components of the destroyed 14 and 15 and becomes the towering Super Android 13; even Super Saiyan Goku is struck down by a super energy blast and sinks into a crevasse.¹ As a last resort Goku forms a Spirit Bomb (Genki Dama), transforms into a Super Saiyan while taking its power into himself, and destroys the transformed android with that strength.¹^•⁹

Production and release

The film was produced by Toei as one of the family-oriented theatrical programs of the Toei Anime Fair, where it counted as the seventh such feature and the tenth Dragon Ball film overall.² At the 1992 summer fair it screened alongside Dragon Quest: Great Adventure of Dai and Rokudenashi Blues.⁷ Takao Koyama wrote the screenplay, as he had for the previous film, and Minoru Maeda again served as animation supervisor; Kazuhito Kikuchi, previously known for Magical Taruruto-kun, directed.¹ IMDb credits Daisuke Nishio as director, a discrepancy with the Japanese credits, which name Kikuchi.⁸

The Japanese voice cast featured the series' regulars: Masako Nozawa as Son Goku and Son Gohan, Toshio Furukawa as Piccolo, Mayumi Tanaka as Kuririn, Takeshi Kusao as Trunks, and Ryo Horikawa as Vegeta, with Kazuyuki Sogabe as Android 13, Hisao Egawa as Android 14, and Toshio Kobayashi among the android roles.⁸ The Toei character page lists Kazuyuki Sogabe, Hisao Egawa, and Toshio Kobayashi as the voices of Androids 13, 14, and 15 respectively.⁹

Continuity and reception

Like the other Dragon Ball Z theatrical films, the story sits outside the manga's continuity; reviewers describe the Z films as "what if?" stories that cannot be fitted between the episodes of the television series.¹⁰ The film is generally placed around the Android and Cell saga period of the series.¹¹ A Japanese fan wiki notes that the 1992 summer Toei Anime Fair pamphlet speculated that Android 13's ability to strengthen himself by absorbing other androids made him a kind of prototype for Cell.¹²

On IMDb the film holds a 6.9/10 rating from about 9,100 users, with an unweighted mean of 7.2.⁴ Rotten Tomatoes records no critic reviews and an audience score of 63% from fewer than 50 ratings.¹³ Critical takes have been mixed: DVD Talk called it mildly entertaining but contrived, noting that the fighters' delayed transformations and rescues strain logic, while Starburst counted it among the better "what if?" scenarios and praised the Funimation dub.⁶^•¹⁰ Kotaku's retrospective ranking was harsher, calling the film essentially one long fight that loses momentum once it moves to the Arctic, though it noted the original Japanese version avoids the English dub's much-mocked characterization of Android 13.¹⁴

Home video and later availability

The film first reached home video in Japan on LaserDisc on February 25, 1993.⁵ It was later collected in the Dragon Box DVD sets and released individually on DVD in November 2008.¹² In North America, Funimation issued it on Blu-ray in 2009 as a double feature with Bojack Unbound.⁶ In September 2025 Toei Animation streamed the English dub free on YouTube for a limited time to celebrate Android 13's addition to the mobile game Dragon Ball Legends.¹⁵

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Animated and short films › Japanese anime features › Released 1932 to 1998

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026