Dragon Ball (All Series)

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, she really felt like a part of "the family" in regard to the cast of supporting characters. It'd have been nice if she at least got a cameo in BOG, but it looks like by that point even most fans had forgotten about her.

On the subject of current DB stuff, part of me still wants it to continue in movie format where there is some quality control, but the most potential for good story-telling comes from serialization, but as we've been seeing with DBS, Toei doesn't care how big the property is, they'll still cut corners.

Normally I wouldn't care so much about a revived series and would say to just leave the original story alone. The difference here is that Dragon Ball has achieved such a huge status that it's not going away any time soon. in some countries besides just Japan it has become a part of mainstream pop culture, including other mediums like video games and such. Additionally, it was always based around coming up with new stories and making up new plot points on the spot, so in essence it was literally made to be easy to continue without a conclusive and definitive ending.

But the real reason that I actually do want to see it continue is that by nature DB has established a foundation in which you can tell so many different kinds of stories. Both of the recent films proved that by expanding the lore and even integrating expanded aspects of Toriyama's Universe into the story (such as Jaco). And while Toriyama's iconic manga series will always be the true Dragon Ball for me, many people who grew up with it as fans are probably working in the anime industry now, and since Toriyama himself stated in interviews that he's happy to pass the torch off to other writers to continue the series, it'd be a chance to help the series evolve and redefine its image for a new generation. In that regard, it's very much like Lupin III or Doraemon or Super Sentai or other similar franchises that have persisted for years through multiple incarnations.

Like I said, I want to write an article about why DBS is failing (aside from poor quality control in terms of production values), and how new DB material could be done far better with the right ideas and concepts applied with good writing. Perhaps after I finally retake my NAPLEX exam next month, I'll get on that.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Does anyone else know about the old Dragon Ball PSAs for Traffic and Fire Safety? I just find it so amusing that any PSA organization would use DB characters as role models for children considering how reckless most of them normally are, most notably Goku. Then again, if I was living in Japan and growing up on Dragon Ball at the time, I'd probably listen to these just because it's DB. It's also just a cute little novelty to know that this was even a thing. It really shows you just how much DB had infiltrated Japanese pop-culture, and this was Pre-Z Era, at that.

I mean, do JoJo's or FOTNS have children's safety PSA specials? I think not. The traffic safety one would have been ironically hilarious if they did a YYH version of that, though.

Here are the videos just in case anyone's curious:

http://youtu.be/pNmEiXF1tew

http://youtu.be/ZryRwhmCEso

[LumRanmaYasha]

Yeah, I've seen them. They're cute. Would have been amusing if FUNi dubbed them and CN/Toonami aired them as an "after school special" back in the day. 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I wouldn't mind seeing an Abridged take on them from TFS, but since they are focused on DBZ now and presumably for the next several years, that probably won't ever happen.

If they are still around long enough after they get to the end of DBZ, though, it'd be great if they made DB their next long-running project instead of moving onto GT. That's a very big IF at this point in time, of course.

Also, I looked up and found that they were included as part of the Dragon Box sets in Japan, which reminded me that the boxes were available in limited release by FUNimation a few years ago. I looked up the prices on Amazon and E-Bay out of curiosity and holy shit are they expensive as hell.

Good thing I'm not a huge fan of the anime version, otherwise if I wanted to collect DBZ on DVD (I don't own a Blu-Ray player), I'd have to settle for those garbage orange-brick sets.

I do eventually want to collect the original DB anime on DVD, though. Does anyone know if FUNi did away with the cropped footage for the blue-brick sets?

[LumRanmaYasha]

Does anyone know if FUNi did away with the cropped footage for the blue-brick sets?

They did.

[LumRanmaYasha]

FUNi will give a "look" at Super at their upcoming DBZ panel at New York Comic Con.

I'm assuming they'll announce that they've licensed the series then.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Oh, and remember that Sailor Moon Re-Animate fan project from last year? Now there's a group doing one for Dragon Ball!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Some of those shots looked like Dragon Ball meets Adventure Time in terms of the animation style. That's interesting, to say the least.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, DBS is still pretty "meh" to downright shit in quality, but I just wanted to say that Mr. Satan casually knocking Gohan away got a genuine chuckle out of me. Not sure why, but something about the image and thought of that scene has an ironic sort of humor about it.

Other than that, though, I'm understanding more and more why this show just doesn't work, so far. A big part of that, aside from just the animation problems, is how Toei is actively trying to appeal to DBZ nostalgia rather than making this series its own thing. We essentially had an episode-long power-up, this week, which in itself was a highly mocked staple of DBZ.

The thing that Toei fails to realize is that it needs to be trying to shed that exact image with this show. DBZ is NOT a good anime. It has some genuinely great moments and episodes, and is based off of excellent source matetial, but the good is diluted by tons of cheap and drawn out content. The thing is, though, that DBZ had the excuse of utilizing a lot of cheap filler and extended power-up clips out of necessity due to not wanting to overtake the manga.

The way that anime is produced has changed since then, what with the idea of seasons with breaks in-between being a more common practice these days, and usually for the better. In addition to that, Super doesn't have any source material to adhere to, unless you coubt the movies, but this series is SUPPOSED to overtake those, in the first place. Therefore, there is no need for so much filler or drawn-out sequences for the sake of stalling for time. We should be getting a fair deal of plot progression in each episode without any of the old DBZ pause tactics getting in the way. The only reason to do that would be just for the sole purpose of saving money and milking the show out for longer, without any regard to quality.

But that's just it. The greedy executive suits at Toei don't care about quality. They care about easy money, and are so naiive to think that they'll get away with no effort. People have higher standards these days. The generation that grew up with DBZ has grown up, and modern kids aren't going to care about it if it does nothing to make itself stand out from the plethora of highly popular shonen series that are currently running.

Simply taking Toriyama's story ideas does not put this on the level of quality of Toriyama's actual work (as DBZ being an inferior adaptation of the manga has already proven). Instead, this anime SHOULD be a modern evolution of DB, keeping its core concepts at heart, but changing the formula just enough to appeal to a brand new generation of shonen anime fans. Sadly, that's not the goal that Toei has in mind for this show, at least not so far.

Also, the soundtrack is painfully boring and forgettable, as well as inappropriately utilized. The choice of music for when Goku finally achieves his SSG transformation was embarrassingly unfitting for the weight of that scene. So, that hurts the quality too. I don't care if Kai's music was plagiarized; I'd desperately take that over anything in Super. Kikuchi's score as well. And while I dislike the Faulconer score, even that isn't as horridly bland as Super's OST.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

And now there's yet another unofficial DBZ animation project in the works (unrelated to the one that CX brought up); this time in the form of a CG sort of Pixar-esque animation style:

http://kotaku.com/upcoming-dragon-ball-z-animation-looks-like-a-pixar-mov-1730559439

It's pretty impressive for something being done by just seven animators; though at least two of them are credited as having worked as graphics designers on big-budget video games, so they certainly have experience with CG animation.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Damn, that Super Buu character design is total nightmare fuel. Very curious to see the final product when it's finished.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, at least we got some half-way decent fight animation this week. It's just too bad that we have to slog through ten mediocre to bad episodes to get to one that's just kind of OK....kind of like the original DBZ, now that I think about it. But at least that series had good source material to work with, along with an excellent score, and a better use of the limited animation style. I'm not calling it good, but at least you could tell that they were trying.

I'm going to wait until the end of the year, though, before I write a blog post about this show, if only because I'll be really busy until the Holliday Season.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So I have to give the show at least some credit, here. The animation quality has improved a lot (by TV standards) in the last few episodes.

Additionally, this was the first legitimate decent episode, IMO. The previous few were just fighting for the most part, though Mr. Satan did get a really good character moment where he jumped in front of Videl to protect her, even if it would've been futile, which I love that the writers at least seem to understand what makes the character so great beyond just comic relief.

This episode had good fight animation, but it also had a connecting theme that made it actually work as an episode. That theme is summed up in a great character moment and line from Goku in which he tells Beerus something along the lines of "You don't decide my limits." I also thought that we got another great character moment with Vegeta catching Goku as he came crashing down to the ground. Additionally, some of the music they used seemed new and while not necessarily great, felt appropriate to the emotional cues of the story and characters, and was decent for what it was. In short, this episode actually felt like it had some heart to it, and I appreciate that it didn't just follow Battle of Gods to the letter, but gave its own spin on the ending (I still prefer BOG, though).

Don't get me wrong, one fairly good episode (once again, IMO, you guys may disagree) doesn't automatically make me forgive Toei's lack of effort up to this point, but it does give me just a slight bit of hope that they are responding to criticisms so far and trying to clean up their act. I won't expect them to, though.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

'Dat moustache!

[LumRanmaYasha]

Not going to lie, I thought the latest episode was absolutely hilarious. First episode of Super that I've legitimately enjoyed so far.