But first comes the part where I talk about why I'm posting this so long after the last one. Laziness, work, just enjoying Dragon Ball... all are reasons. I do want to have a HUGE disclaimer about this post, though. This is all my own opinion. But hey, who really cares, right? Let's talk Dragon Ball!
GT
Ok, so the first thing to do is accept that GT failed. I don't mean that as an attack on GT, or to say that no one likes it or SHOULD like it. Heck, I said the Baby saga was better than the Resurrection F saga, so even I like parts of GT! But GT WAS a failure. It ended after 64 episodes, small potatoes for Dragon Ball series. It never really developed that much merchandise when it came out in Japan. Heck, there has never even been a game made for GT outside of America! (And yes...Transformation was America only... well, maybe PAL, I'm not sure, but definitely not Japan. And Final Bout WAS in Japan... but not as a GT game. It was just Dragon Ball: Final Bout.) Ok, so GT failed. But why? I already showed that it was very similar to Super in the way it started... and arguably had an advantage OVER Super in the animation and Music department! So why did GT get canceled while Super still trucks on? Well, it may be partly due to timing. GT was released the week after Z ended... which itself was released like 2 weeks after OG ended. My point? With GT included, Dragon Ball was on the air for 11 years! Holy cow, that's a long time for a show, let alone a weekly anime! Throw in the two movies a year they were doing, plus specials and promotional tie ins, and I'm sure the team at Toei was just tired with Dragon Ball. We know Toriyama was! You could say that maybe the audience themselves got tired with the franchise, and so it went into hibernation in Japan until the 80's nostalgia brought it back into popularity in Japan. However, I don't think it was that the audience was getting tired of it... but that Toei caused them to think they were tired of it. The manga has ended, the anime has reached the manga's end, and Toriyama says goodbye to the series. How was Dragon Ball going to survive with no source material and little guidance from it's creator? Toei fell quickly onto copying popular Dragon Ball elements, using popular cliches, and aiming for Nostalgia to hold onto audiences. The problem is that there wasn't much Nostalgia for the main bulk of their audience: Children. The kids that grew up on classic Dragon Ball were now teenagers that probably didn't care about kid shows, and the new kids had no nostalgia with the series and were probably irritated that Goku was a kid and their favorite characters were no where to be seen. Not to mention that on the game front was the crappy Final Bout, and it's no wonder the franchise went dormant in Japan.
SUPER
Now the timing element of Super was much more in it's favor. After around 20 years, it WAS nostalgic enough because the original kids watching in Japan were now adults with kids of their own to show Dragon Ball. Plus, the huge successes of Battle of Gods and Resurrection F, along with Japanese children's favorite Dragon Ball Heroes, ensured that the market WAS their to tell new stories. And Toriyama was even along for the ride this time, with Toyotaro providing a manga to read as well! ...so is Super more successful because it was timed better? No, it got past it's growing pains because of the timing, it became successful because Super had something GT did not: characters. Super may rely on Goku and Vegeta to save the day a little TOO often, but it has a lot of fan favorite characters actually DOING something, unlike in GT. Best you got in GT was a shot of Yamcha waving from the distance, while Super has not only an episode dedicated to Yamcha and his baseball career, but a small humorous subplot about him thinking he'll be picked for the Tournament of Power. Yes, they refuse to age Goten, Trunks, and Marron physically, but they show how they grow mentally and socially... except Marron, she just gets to say things that make Krillin sad. Poor Krillin. My point is that Super didn't fail not due to luck or circumstances, but that they were willing to grow and change, and to showcase some of our favorite characters... except Launch. Everyone has forgotten about Launch.
HOW TO FIX THEM
So now the question before us is... how would we fix GT or Super? Well, here's my take. Let's start with GT. First, I'd either remove the time destroying element of the Black Star Balls, or make the search more urgent and larger. Maybe have multiple teams of different characters together on their own ships, like Yamcha, Tenshinhan, and Krillin, searching other sectors. It'd really allow for other characters to share the spotlight, and maybe even highlight unusual combinations of characters, like Yajirobe and Goten or something. Then maybe the Baby parasite infected the earth while the characters were away, leading to them slowly being taken over as each group returns until it's once again Goku and a few alone. Later, when Hell breaks open, actually show the characters battling them for real, and keep Goku out of Hell. Make him have to fight Freeza and Cell FOR REAL on earth, and then while all the heroes are distracted, the 17's merge and rallies the remaining forces of Hell together to attack all the heroes as one. At the end our 17 is able to take enough control over Super 17 to make the ultimate sacrifice to reseal the villains in Hell for eternity. Then with the Shadow Dragons, make each Dragon more tied into the wishes made, and show how each one had a dark tinge to it, even if it was for good reasons. Then the 1 star dragon, the leader of them, can be from King Piccolo's wish, the one time the wish was made by the villain for a villainous reason; and the Four Star Dragon can be from the wish to restore Bora to life, arguably the most selfless wish on Goku's end. The ending I'd say to keep, though show Krillin and everyone returning to life... Geez. Super is a bit tricky... but the real issue is with the first 2 sagas. The obvious solution is just nixing them since we have the movies, but I say no. I think the first saga should have been condensed into a short saga, while the Freeza stuff should have been expanded upon and altered a bit more. Show us what SSJ Blue is, show more of Freeza's training. Give us a better reason why Beerus and Whis wouldn't stop Freeza. And maybe... FINALLY.... give Vegeta the friggin win over Freeza... Of course, it's possible that Vegeta WILL get the final victory over Freeza...
WHAT'S NEXT?
Super is about to air episode 96 at the time of me writing this, and we have NO idea when it will end! Are we in the final saga? Will Super go beyond the End of Z? Will Super end and be replaced by a sequel series? There are so many questions that I have no answers to. But here's where we are: The universal survival arc is well under way. Freeza is the surprise 10th contestant for Universe 7, and he's playing his own game. The other universes' have their own contestants with immense strength, including two more Super Saiyans from universe 6... and both are female! So will Universe 7 win? ...maybe. I think it's obvious that no matter what happens that Toei isn't going to just erase this multiverse, at least without an out. My honest belief is that Goku will win at the end, and then he gets his wish. His wish is for everyone from the universes being destroyed be brought back to live in Universe 7, making for a MUCH larger amount of people in Universe 7. I think that will be the set up for the next stage of adventures where they fight and meet people from the old universes in Universe 7. Heck, Goku said at the End of Z that he was off training for a while to fight Uub, so maye that's what he was off doing. But ultimately, that's just a guess. One thing I DO want them to do is to change up the looks of some of these characters. Age up Goten, Trunks, and Marron a little, maybe change some hair and clothing on Chi-Chi, Bulma, and Videl. Just change it up a bit...
CONCLUSION
I'm so glad I started this little comparison piece. I feel like I've gained a new love and appreciation for the series I love so much. I won't lie, when I started I had this blind love towards Super and a bit of a disregard for GT. But now that I've rewatched both in Japanese, and forced myself to think WHY I felt certain ways toward both series, I think I like GT a little it more and Super a little bit less... but in a good way. I love Dragon Ball, ALL of Dragon Ball. It has it's problems, yes, but I still love it. But blind love can be dangerous, and it's good to acknowledge problems when you see them. So thank you all for reading my 5 part comparison on GT vs Super. I hoped you enjoyed it, and please remember that this was all just my own opinion. I know I'm not the best writer, and I'm sure I made a lot of mistakes in these 5 parts. At the very least I KNOW I made a lot of grammar and spelling mistakes. But I felt the need to write them. If just 1 person read this and looked at GT or Super a little bit differently then I'm happy. So in the end, I DO love Dragon Ball GT, just like I love Super, and Z, and OG. ...Not Evolution, though. That movie can go and f... wait, movies? ...hmm...
In case you can't tell by that clever segway, next series of posts will be movie going through and reviewing all of the Dragon Ball films... the animated ones at least. ...or maybe... just maybe... Geeko will be given a second chance. ...and then fail horribly because DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION IS A HORRIBLE, AWFUL, NO GOOD PIECE OF SH...
I am The R2 Dude, and this is The R2 View!
