Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler 1992

The Namekian people, now living on a new planet after their home world was destroyed years prior by Frieza, find New Namek under siege by a mysterious, sentient spaceship that has latched onto and begun attacking their home. Dende, Tomiko Suzuki, now the Earth’s guardian, senses the plight of his people and telepathically calls on Goku for help.

Goku, Masako Nozawa, Gohan, Masako Nozawa, Krillin, Mayumi Tanaka, Piccolo, Toshio Furukawa, Oolong, Naoki Tatsuta, Yajirobe, Mayumi Tanaka and Master Roshi, Kohei Miyauchi, travel to the New Namek and, upon arrival, encounter an army of large robots menacing the Namekians. They soon learn that Cooler, Frieza’s brother who Goku was believed to have defeated, is back in a new metallic form and intent on absorbing the planet and its lifeforms to power his ship. Ryusei Nakao brings Cooler to life in a gleaming, indomitable chassis, and the threat he poses becomes immediate and overwhelming.

Goku fights Cooler while the others clash with the robotic guards, their sturdy armor proving hard to pierce. All but Piccolo are captured along with a village of Namekians, heightening the urgency of the mission. Piccolo, rallying his strength, unleashes a single, massive ki attack that destroys the robots and sets him on a dangerous rescue path to free the captured villagers. Meanwhile, Goku battles the newly enhanced Meta-Cooler, a form that allows him to regenerate himself and to move with astonishing speed using Instantaneous Movement, a technique that mirrors Goku’s own abilities.

Cooler explains that his ship perpetually monitors and repairs his body, continually upgrading its design to boost durability. In a dramatic turn, Goku transforms into a Super Saiyan, but the transformation proves ineffective against Meta-Cooler. Vegeta arrives in the nick of time, Ryo Horikawa, and joins forces with Goku to take on the extraordinary foe.

The two Super Saiyans launch a coordinated assault on Meta-Cooler and manage to destroy him, yet the ship rapidly recreates a thousand manifestations of Meta-Cooler, tipping the balance decisively against the Saiyans. Goku and Vegeta mount a final defense, but they are captured and transported to be converted into fuel for the ship’s power.

As the ship drains their life energy, Cooler explains that, after his defeat, his brain was absorbed by and fused with the ship’s computer, allowing him to seize control. Goku and Vegeta prepare to unleash their ki in a dramatic overload that aims to short-circuit the entire system. They confront the real, biological Cooler, and Goku delivers a decisive ki blast that ends him. Piccolo arrives and confronts a Meta-Cooler, which then explodes. The combined onslaught of Meta-Coolers and robot soldiers collapses, and the heroes manage to escape before the ship departs New Namek’s orbit and detonates.

Goku and Vegeta descend near their friends as cheers erupt in celebration of the victory. Back in space, Vegeta crushes the ship’s main computer chip, erasing the weaponized design that had threatened the cosmos, and the crew revels in their hard-won safety and survival.