5 Reasons to Revive The Dragon Ball Series
In December of 1984, Akira Toriyama released the first installment of Dragon Ball. Decades later, The manga and subsequent anime franchise are as popular as ever. With the success of the most recent movie release from the franchise, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, fans of Akira Toriyama’s brain child have been left wanting more. The film has generated close to$30 million domestically in Japan and fans worldwide have been demanding an international release. There have been rumors that Toriyama as stated that there will be a new series, but nothing has been set in stone.
So what is there to be gained for Goku and the Z-fighters to make a triumphant return? I have five reasons Akira Toriyama should revive the franchise and create a new series.
5. Bad Taste of GT
The creation of Dragon Ball GT was an attempt by Toei Animation to keep the popular series alive and capitalize of the fans that still wanted more after the conclusion of DragonBall Z. GT picks up the story ten years after DBZ ended. The series was centered around Goku and his friends’ quest to undo the effects of the Black Star Dragon Balls, which turned him into a child due to a wish from Emperor Pilaf from the original Dragonball series. The Black Star Balls needed to be retrieved in order to the world from blowing up. Much of the series focuses on Goku’s travels across the universe to gather the Dragon Balls and his encounters with mostly new and menacing villains. While the series attempted to capture the general structure the two series before it, Dragon Ball GT failed miserably in the eyes of many fans.
Unlike its predecessors, Dragon Ball GT was not adapted from the manga by Akira Toriyama. Toriyama was involved in the beginning by creating the names and the main character designs, but was not closely associated with the full production of the show. According to many fans of the Dragon Ball Franchise, his lack of involvement showed. DBGT was largely criticized for straying away from some original plot points that were set by Toriyama’s manga. Things like Gohan being able to go Super Saiyan, the Black Star Dragon Balls and Vegeta’s hairstyle change hurt the series in terms of being a continuation if the Z series. GT was not nearly as successful and well received as Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. It was met with mixed to negative reviews, with people finding fault in the characters’ personalities, the rushed story lines and apparent plot holes in comparison to the series before it. In fact, many fans look at this series as non-canon, rendering Super Saiyan 4, the Shadow Dragons, and Vegeta’s mustache irrelevant in their preferred version of the timeline.
4. Strength in Numbers
When Akira Toriyama created the Dragon Ball manga in 1984, he did it alone. At the time, the modern forms of manga and anime that exist today weren’t around, so there wasn’t a general blueprint to look after. Before Dragon Ball, there was very few manga that had achieved long-standing noteriety. The few that did included Kinnikuman (predecessor to the series that was popular in the U.S., Ultimate Muscle), Kochikame, and Toriyama’s own Dr .Slump. There weren’t many of the variety that Dragon Ball would come to occupy, so Toriyama did it all himself. He drew every character in every frame, on every page, in every chapter. The entirety of the story lines for Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z was completely written and illustrated by one man.
Now, with Dragon Ball being a major franchise and with plenty of backers, this will not be the case in any future creations. In an interview with V-Jump Magazine, Toriyama himself said how much he enjoyed having help in the creative process when working on Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods. He enjoyed how he was able to create the story, yet leave certain things for his staff to add. He didn’t have to suffer the plight of most up-and-coming mangaka and comic artists do and draw every panel like the old days. If Mr. Toriyama were to create a new series, he’d likely have the same luxury.
3. New Age of Anime
When the anime was originally being released, it was a different time in terms of visual capabilities. Anime, like manga, was a similarly untapped art form, in the sense that there wasn’t much to look to as a blueprint. There were a number of popular shows before it like Astro Boy, Speed Racer, and Space Battleship Yamato (adapted in the U.S. as Star Blazers). While popular, they failed to capture the imagination as anything more than a standard cartoon. Animation was not exactly in its infancy, but there were clear limitations during the franchise’s original run (the first episode of Dragon Ball aired in 1986, and the final episode of Dragon Ball GT aired in 1997).
Though the limitations were present, the series’ animation style progressed as the technology did. As Evidence the character designs for the characters and the intricate details of the battles were adjusted and improved continually through the Dragon Ball Z‘s near seven year run. During that time period, the three Dragon Ball series included many high-action fight scenes that could possibly be considered groundbreaking in any era. The new generation of anime, that includes popular series like Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece have shown the advancement of animation compared the style of decades past. With Toei Animation having the chance to test out the technological advancement on Dragon Ball with Battle of Gods and a few smaller events before it, the prospect of an entire new series without past limitations may prove tempting.
2. New Audience To Reach
As stated before, the final episode of Dragon Ball GT, the third and final Dragon Ball series, aired in 1997. In the U.S., the last episode of the English dub of the series aired in 2005. The shows have been kept alive in the mainstream circuit due to the success of Dragon Ball Z Kai, a revised version of DBZ, and the syndication of all three series. There has also been newer original releases periodically, and it’s become very noticeable that the majority of the fanfare for new material comes from those who have watched them around the time of the original run of the series. For this reason, much of the fan base exists in the young adult demographic, as opposed to usual younger audience that most animated shows are geared towards.
Much of the show’s popularity can be attributed to its originality. During the era of its original release, there weren’t too many shows that were similar to Dragon Ball. The same can’t quite be said of today, where there are many series to which Dragon Ball serves as an inspiration to are very prevalent among the public. With a newer and larger sample of pesople who are fans of similar content, it would be very interesting where this series could rank in popularity among the Fairy Tail‘s and Naruto Shippuden’s of the world.
1. The People Want It!
This one is a no-brainer. The fans are the biggest reason for Akira Toriyama to bring back the series that is has been cited as a starting point for much of today’s most popular anime and manga. The fan base for all things Dragon Ball can be described many things, but overall, they are extremely loyal. While there have been small offerings like Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!! and Episode of Bardock, there hadn’t been anything substantial in the Dragon Ball Universe in years. The fans have survived long periods of inactivity, the stigma of watching a cartoon despite getting older, and the cinematic horror show that was Dragon Ball: Evolution. If you need evidence of the yearning for more, look up a thing called “Dragon Ball AF”. People lose their minds at the thought of a new series.
The payoff for years of patience came in the form of the highly anticipated movie released on March 10, 2013. Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods has made around $30 million without branching outside of Japan. When it does, the revenue generated will most likely turn the film from a success to a huge success. People’s willingness to shed weight in their wallets is clear proof that supply and demand is still alive and well when it comes to this. Even the success of video games, most notably the Budokai series, speak to the undying popularity of the franchise. The anticipation for anything new relating to Dragon Ball creates fanfare world wide and that excitement will increase tenfold should Akira Toriyama make the decision to create a new series.
Nearly 30 years after it’s initial release, it seems like the popularity of Dragon Ball still has no signs of faltering. The Battle of Gods film not only brought the franchise back to the mainstream public’s eye, it sparked a revitalized campaign to convince the powers-that-be to completely revive the franchise into a new series. While there have been many rumors since the success of the recent film was disclosed, there’s been no official confirmation from Akira Toriyama on making more Dragon Ball. Until then, I’m sure the hands of every fan will stay up, lending their energy to the hope for more Dragon Ball.
What do you think? Leave a comment.
Everyone seems to be a critic when it comes to Dragon Ball Z. The fact is, this cartoon is more emotional and captivating than any American cartoon in history.
Most hardcore fans will tell you that this cartoon is ruined in the American dub. That’s simply not true. Sure, you won’t find vulgarity or the word ‘bastard’ but it’s pretty much the same thing.
If we will have a new DB series, I will be in line for that. In. Line.
Couldn’t agree with you more. I think people pay too much attention to the screaming, explosions, and hair changes to truly appreciate some of the deeper parts of the series. Personally, I enjoy the japanese and english dub (Funimation and even Ocean).
Thanks for reading!
I really missed dragon ball z so much. I grew up watching it and although I’m a adult I can not get enough of dragon ball z, I wish the series could continue indefinitely.
On one hand, i think a reboot is a cool idea. On the other hand they made Dragon Ball Kai which is pretty much a reboot (2009) so it doesn’t seem relevant right now…. at least not for another 5 or 10 years.
I think of Kai as more of a ploy to capitalize of the series’ withstanding popularity years after the fact and to dumb it down for a newer audience. It may have served as a trial run, but I don’t think it was aimed as a total reboot. I do agree that it should be a few years before anything gets made of it, just probably not as long.
Thank you for reading!
I don’t see how Kai is dumbing it down for a new audience – it just cuts down the fight scenes from 10eps at a time to 2-3 I’m pretty sure. It seems smarter to present the series that way.
What do you think they could improve by rebooting it? I guess animation wise they could…. ?
To me, a new series would be less about improving and more about branching out. Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT all had separate stories that made each series unique for better or worse. There’s things about the series they could improve, but I think it’s more about more originality than improvement
The problem I had with Kai is they took out a lot of the emotion and what made the charm of the show. Not talking about the fillers or long fights, but I just couldn’t feel for the characters as much as I did in the original series. People say they took out the filler and dialogue is more accurate of the manga. I didn’t gropw up watching DBZ and thinking what was accuarte with the manga. Hell i didn’t read the manga until I was in college and it was less than impressive and for the life of me I don’t understand why there are people out there so hell bent on having everything to be true to the manga.
I loved this show growing up and I still love it (this coming from no anime fan either), in fact I just bought the DVD’s (the ones with the orange covers) and am currently re-watching it now. When I was younger I only saw about one in every ten episodes (never having the luxury of my own TV set) so I was always a little confused about what was going on but that didn’t stop me from loving the show. I love that the DVD’s are uncensored, it just flows better and rocks harder. I also love how it has the English and Japanese dialogue, but I have no idea why people say the Japanese dialogue is better, I find it stale and monotone for the most part, and all the voices are kinda high and girlie, I dunno, maybe it’s just because I grew up with Sean Schemmel’s and Christopher Sabat’s iconic (to me anyway) voices, among the other North American voice actors. Fingers crossed for a revival!
That’s one of the biggest reasons that I love the show. It has a lot of crossover appeal for people who aren’t exactly fans of the genre. I was with you when I was younger with the episode jumbling. The dialogue thing is just what you grew up with first in most people’s opinions, but Schemmel and Sabat are definitely personal heroes of mine!
Thanks for reading.
Okay, so maybe I’ll get hated for the rest of my life for writing this. But at least I’ll get to have my say.
There are just so many problems with DBZ–I can’t believe I watched it all the way through when I was a little kid, and actually liked it.
The one thing that I won’t complain about is the animation, because even though it’s really bad at the start of the series; it gets better towards the end.
Dragonball Z seems to have filler in just about every saga. The obvious example that seems to be cited everywhere I’ve looked seems to be when Frieza destroyed the planet Namek–but the example I’ll draw attention to is that at one stage, Goten and Kid Trunks were training in that Time Vault thing, and they sent their Kamehameha blasts at each other. While it could have lasted less than five minutes; the writers of the show evidently felt it was necessary to extend it out for an entire episode.
In my personal opinion, the characters tended to be on the annoying side of the scale. Yes, I understand it’s just a kid’s show and all characters in kid’s shows are supposed to be a bit annoying–but most are considerably less annoying than this.
If it weren’t for the annoying characters and large amounts of filler; I could imagine myself liking this show. It’s just too bad that they had to wreck it: the animation in some of the later episodes is good, and it deals with some rather interesting concepts.
I’m sure you won’t get too much hate for this haha. But I can see where you’re coming from. I know more than a few people that were turned off by some of the characters personalities and the prolonged moments of the show. Every show has pros and cons no matter how you look at it. While I see a few things differently, I really appreciate your opinion.
Thanks for reading!
The most overrated rubbish I ever saw, shows like Naruto (as much as I hate the main character, loved the supporting ones) were inventive with their action sequences/fights, even freaking Pokemon was better. DBZ was all hype and less bite, all “Oh such amazing poooweeeerrrr!!!!” and boasting about how they havent reached their full power level without actually even fighting yet. Lacked any substance, was all style & hype. It was basically power rangers for high school kids!
Hajime No Ippo as far as fighting animes go was amongst the best. A tight story with a tight choreography for the fight sequences. That created a real sense of drama and suspense, unlike DBZ which always seemed to promise us all of this “in the next episode of dragon ball Z”. But it never came.
Their worst sin for me was how they made characters like Piccolo a non factor, he was genuinely an interesting guy and was a nice contrast to his saiyan counterparts. They reduced him to the level of Krillin! tbf the cast of characters, even goku were all interesting. The real problem was that the stories sucked. take any one episode and you could probably cut out half the length of it. I believe when they remastered the episodes to cut out the fillers they actually cut out 2/3s! tells you everything about the amount of fat the original narrative had.
At times they could generate genuine excitement… if your like 12.
This rubbish doesn’t need to be revived, it was the dumbest anime out there. Giving it fresh new animation would be like polishing a turd.
Just let this series die and instead give focus to bringing something new!
With that said, the DBZ movies were a lot better than the regular episodes. But there are certainly better animes out there that are worthy of attention more so than dbz.
I love the passion in this comment.
While I disagree with some comments, I was also irked by the diminishing importance of some characters by the end of the series. The “if you’re not goku, you’re krillin” mentality towards the end of the buu saga got annoying.
On the other hand, I feel like the fighting was great for its time, the most if the stories more towards the start of the series were strong when they weren’t being drowned out by over the top aesthetics, and that a new series could offer much more than the previous ones. I also found some of the movies very compelling.
Thank you for reading!
Nothing personal mate, but the series really irks me because I was into it back in the day, but to be fair I think I grew out of it quicker than most of my other friends.
The annoying thing for me is that with a better writer/director the whole concept could of been executed better. I think when they actually focused on action it was exciting, I don’t think I’d seen any powers on that scale before on TV. Trouble is they had a tendency to chop up their momentum with the cheap old reversal of “oh so that was your best attack? now see my full powa!!!” and then you would have Krillin with his mouth gaping open at how fast goku is fighting that you cant even see him!
For me if they want to make a new series they need to utilise their supporting characters like Piccilo and even Krillin better, make it less about the “o such amazing powa!!!” and bring the focus back onto the individual characters unique abilities, like how Piccilo could stretch his limbs like Dhalsim and making Krillins Destructo disc an equaliser in how it could even cut up Frieza!
Thats what made Naruto an interesting watch, their was room to get a little creative with the charcters ability so that even if there was a difference in raw power, somehow the characters could compensate with some ability that was unique to them.
I think the downfall of most animes imo has been filler content. If DBZ had less of it, you’d have a stronger show.
A new series would need to change the formula a bit, not too much but enough for it not to seem as if they were repeating an old trick.
“how the death of a character, practically has no consequence”
Whenever somebody brings up this argument, I immediately disregard anything else they want to say. Asking this question only shows that you really haven’t been paying attention to the show or haven’t watched it long enough to know the obvious answer to it. It’s a really dumb point to bring up and was only legitimized by TFS’s parody series.
“Naruto”
“inventive”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Part of what takes the impact out of the show is how the death of a character, practically has no consequence. Thanks to those wishing dragon balls, the tension of death is absent in a show where the heroes are fighting all the time to save lives.
I’m not exactly saying it should take a darker turn, but there was a tension in the early half of dbz all the way upto Frieza saga, of the loss of innocent life and even the loss of our heroes lives.But as the show went on, you could take it for granted that somehow they will use the dragon balls to undo all the damage.
Part of any journey you take with a character is that you need some kind of irreversible change by the end of it, dbz seems too comfortable in maintaining a status quo.
Yet change is perhaps the most important principle of any story.
I totally agree with this and the comment above. I’d like for non-saiyan characters to be featured more, for someone non-Goku related to defeat a major villain, and for there to be a more consequential result for death. It’s always good to hear a constructive, yet differing opinion
I kind of disagree with this comment. The reason Dragonball was so unique for it’s time was that they could collect the balls and make a wish. It was like the power of the Gods could be summoned for a short period of time. However, the point that they made was that anyone who died of natural causes couldn’t be brought back no matter what. Remember in the Future Trunks alternative timeline? Goku died of the Heart Virus so he couldn’t be brought back at all. Maybe it was a bit much for Porunga to be able to wish back people multiple times but being wished back by Shenron once didn’t diminish the story at all for me. The only thing that I disliked about the entire series was the fact that Goten, and Bulla were filler. Goten never got his own story line other than fusing with Trucks, and Bulla was half Saiyan but never did anything but give Baby her power in GT. Plus if you consider that non canon she was in 3 episodes along with Pan which really disappointed me since these were the first two female Saiyans we had come to know in the current timeline even though they were only 1/2 and 1/4th Saiyan. I think what would of made GT better is if it continued the trend of following a certain character growing up. In Dragonball we had Goku, in Dragonball Z it was Gohan. In Dragonball GT we instantly have an teenage Pan we skipped a huge part of her story and that instantly turned me off. Plus after all that we never get to see her progress in anyway like we did Goku and Gohan. They say that she can go Super Saiyan along with Bulla but never do. That’s what I would like to see if a new series was to pop up.
I own all the DBZ box sets. I miss and love DBZ and would definitely enjoy its return. I have not seen this latest movie you talk about but I am definitely keen!
I like the idea but the fact remains that it must be cannon for anyone to take it seriously. The idea of watching the series with no filler was accomplished by Kai which leaves a new installment altogether as the only option. That being said, do I want an new installment with updated animation, less filler, and a proper continuation of Z that puts GT out of the picture? Absolutely.
I totally agree with you mate. I’d jump at the idea of watching another DBZ series.
Judging something based on canon in my view is really pointless. Unless the non-canon material diminishes the quality, like many problems in GT did, it really doesn’t bother me. I want is to see the story continue and evolve, not be constricted by some subjective standard. My generation grew up loving DBZ, we didn’t acre what was canon or not. Just as long as it was cool and added something to the story.
I like the fact that Akira Toriyama is thinking about making a new series that I’m sure is going to be a great success all over the world. Lets just hope he decides to make a new series. I’m sure that everyone is going to be very thankful, the only thing we can do right now is lend our energy to Akira so he can make a new serie.
Great argument for reviving the series, Dragon Ball and DBZ are legends in their own right and an upgrade in animation would do the show some justice. Its original run on Toonami certainly converted many new fans, but with Dragon Ball Kai it does seem less likely that a new saga would be in the works any time soon. With that being said, Dragon Ball Kai will have its fans and its detractors… I say if it keeps DBZ on television for new audiences then that is a plus in my book!
DBZ was my childhood growing up. I ignore GT completely, in my eyes it never happened. It was awful and brought nothing to me, except Super Saiyan 4.
I watched Battle of Gods and really enjoyed it. It had the old DBZ feel to it. I’ve heard rumors of Vegeta getting his own movie which would be awesome for the fact of him being my favorite character from the series.
If they bring a new series back I’ll be first in line to watch. People should look up the fan made Dragonball AF series btw. It’s actually pretty good, depending on what you find. I also enjoy Dragonball: Multiverse.
I also disliked gt because of the super saiyan 4 and the look of goku. The fact that vegeta skipped super saiyan 3 also angered me because gt lacked detail with only 64 episodes and about 20 episodes sagas although i did like the idea of baby because it went back to.when king kai told goku about sayian history and the tuffles i didnt like the look or his powers that baby had but it did kind of revert to the buu saga when babbidi possesed vegeta but overall it was a terrible series
I think it would be a great idea to bring back Dragon Ball. The show was my all-time favorite and actually thought me some great moral lessons, such as the conflict between good and evil and the value of hard work and determination. When I look at television shows today, I see this lessons generally lacking. In my opinion, Dragon Ball Z is much more than simply a beat-em up action series. In many ways its Japan’s version of superhero comics. Especially with the introduction of the multi-universe and the new Super Saiyan God mode, now is the perfect idea to create a new series or at the very least a new string of movies.
Honestly I enjoyed DB more than DBZ well maybe cause the buu saga really ruined it for me. But it was also that to me it had a different tone and I extremely loved the fights it became more about bigger blasts and energy beams blah blah
Good article bro . Keep up the good work . More dragon ball will make the world a happier place
well, i would have loved if they continue there story again from dragon ball z series
i would have loved if the akira toriya would have continiued the story from the z series
ha start dbz on cn now we are missing so much not me only manybfans are missing these episode. plz start on cn meanw cartoon network dbz.
I think I’m a Dragon Ball Z fan,since I had watched all the episodes episodes that had been released in the 80s/90s.
I was sad that the story had ended, where Goku’s future generation was fighting with Vegeta’s grandchild in the tournament. I wished that they had continued the story, where Goku and his friends had more adventures and fighting enemies.
My imagination of future released episodes/Movie of the anime:
– Goku and all of his friends meet up having a party at Bulama’s house, where all of them had suddenly teleported to the past, in the planet Vegeta, where Goku’s father was alive and Frieza was not there at that time. (Well, it doesn’t have to be teleported to planet Vegeta, it can just be anywhere in the past, where Goku and his friends fight strong opponents) How Goku and the rest teleported to the past, is that Bulama had recently discovered an ancient object deep in the ground while searching for dragon balls. Bulama thought it was a bit strange, so she had showed everyone and when Goku touched it, everyone around him in the party got transported, except Bulama’s parent, where Bulama can contact them in the past with her adv, tech. watch or phone. (Prob. include videl and her baby about one year old..prob. somewhere in the plot showed how her baby got some incredible mysterious power…don’t know where I’m going..tht means Trunk and Goten are grown up, but i prefer them when they are small, cuz they are cute. OH Well, I just want a plot some what like this.
-another plot on tournaments in the galaxy where Goku and his friends are invited by the Destruction God (Cat).
-A plot on Goku discovering more about his parents, which i want to know more about his mom and dad…wish there is a movie where Goku and friends (more fun) traveled back to the past.
– plot on Goku meeting new stronger opponents and prob. in the plot where Goku had a technique where he can share his “Qi”/power to his friends to get stronger at a moment where they need to fight off many enemies and protecting their other friends and families…and protecting others too…
A new series has came months ago
“Dragon Ball Super”
It’s Awesome…
And it’s 1st two sagas consists of two new movies
1. “Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods”
2. “Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection of F”
These two movies of DBZ in 1st and 2nd saga of DBS shows that DB super is the continuty of DB Z.
Long Live Dragon Ball-Z-Super.
Mr. Osomatsu (1962-69) is also an anime (albeit a lesser-known one) that could be used as an example for Dragonball’s influences; it came out at roughly the same period as Speed Racer.