Hello everyone!! I am sure that if you are an anime lover, you must have heard of Dragon Ball at least once in your life. It is one of the oldest anime franchises that are still popular even in 2022 and is among some of the most popular anime of all time. The anime started off with its first series known as Dragon Ball then went to Dragon Ball Z and had many variations of it. When the Z series ended, fans were thinking that it was the end of the series as the producers had made clear that Dragon Ball GT was not canon. This made us think that maybe the anime might not come, but, to everyone’s surprise, it did. It was the latest edition of the franchise which was known as Dragon Ball Super and had run for many years as we witnessed many arcs in the series.
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Dragon Ball Super Anime
With the introduction of the multiverse, Dragon Ball Super made it unimaginably huge as the concept had paved the way to a huge amount of possibilities that could keep the show running for years. It also made the movie Battle of Gods canon as it was adapted into the anime as the first arc of the series. From then onwards, we have already seen a lot of transformations and will get to see even more with the incorporation of “God Chi”. To be honest I believe that the series will keep on running as long as it has a huge fanbase as it always did.
Now, let’s try to discuss the journey of the Dragon Ball franchise over the years and look at how it has developed.
Dragon Ball Super: DBS Superhero Movie becomes #1 in the US
Talk about an AMAZING opening weekend in the US! #DragonBallSuperSuperHero
💥 MORE: https://t.co/AKHR2Eay23 pic.twitter.com/SPcG2xOHtl
— Dragon Ball Super (@dragonballsuper) August 21, 2022
You must have heard of the Dragon Ball Super Movie turning into a huge success in the US and the success can be attributed to the love for Dragon Ball that is still there among the fans. Given that it was not advertised as much as it succeeded just shows us how much the fans wanted to see the movie. It made 20.1 million dollars in its first week of release and has become the top anime movie and also the number 1 film at the US box office. There is a lot of love for Gohan in the west which can be inferred from the fact that it was a Gohan-centric movie and yet it rose to the top in just a week. This is no small feat for an anime movie and it also gave a strong message that people do want to see more of Gohan, at least that’s what I think and the Goku show needs to be put to a halt. We also got to look at Gohan’s way of getting stronger which is different from the others and his new form was the highlight of the movie.
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Discussion on Development of Dragon Ball Anime Franchise and its Downfall
Dragon Ball made its debut way back in 1986 and has been around ever since then including the breaks. Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z were some of the best anime series of that time and almost everyone loved the anime at that time. How could we not, the action sequences of the anime were way beyond most of the other anime in the same timeline.
It all started with little Goku who was trying to surpass the OG Master Roshi and over time, was able to surpass even the most elite warriors of the universe. As the enemies got stronger, so did the protagonist, Goku. For me, the most epic moments were from the Z series when he fought against Vegeta and the other is when he turned into Super Saiyan for the first time. Those moments are still iconic and I can never forget them. However, the scenario changed a little after the Androids arc as Vegeta married Bulma and turned into a good person and Goku was able to recognize the potential hidden within Gohan as he trained him to become even stronger than him. The only problem with the character of Gohan was that he was not the character who loved to fight and fought only when he thought was needed. These attributes of Gohan made him the strongest character of the series, however, it remained temporary as he was nerfed in the future and was turned into a weak geek.
Ever since my childhood I have been a fan of Dragon Ball Z and enjoyed it a lot when I was smaller. Maybe it was because of the fact that I was not aware much of the anime world and it was really intriguing at that time. As I grew up, I started liking Gohan more and more. I don’t really know exactly why but it might have been because of the reliability that Gohan had. I can’t say for sure but he became my favourite character and after the cell saga, I thought that it might be the time when Gohan will take the baton and become the next protagonist of the anime. However, that never came true as it started to be more and more about Goku and his progress and after a certain point, it even got annoying as to how the plot was being made solely for the convenience of Goku. It’s not that I did not like Goku or I stopped watching but the fact that Dragon Ball Z became a Goku show and even its sequel Dragon Ball Super followed the same footsteps was just too painful for me.
The show never moved on from Goku and it’s likely that his popularity was a major reason behind it and it is not wrong but as a viewer, it’s hard to watch it like this. Though I still enjoy the shonen aspect of the series in both the anime as well as the manga, I doubt that it will ever reach the level of Dragon Ball Z at its prime. Those who love the series still do even now, even I enjoy watching the anime or reading the manga but I am sure many must have the same feeling which is that the show has lost all sense of power scaling and it is hard to determine just how exactly do we judge a character’s power level and their potential. If nothing else is done to incorporate other characters then I am afraid that the franchise might start seeing a decline in its popularity.
As a matter of fact, this decline might have made the production rethink and adopt Gohan as the protagonist of the latest movie, and as you already know Dragon Ball Super Superhero has been the highest-grossing anime movie in the US, breaking all records, is just insane. I never knew that the movie had built up this much hype and that there are still so many fans who love Gohan. I hope that even in the future they incorporate more characters in some way so that they don’t become completely irrelevant to the story. If you were to choose a character that needs redemption then who would you choose to redeem?
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Final Words
It was an iconic anime series and still is, but, to be honest, it is popular currently only because of the huge fanbase it was able to amass. I believe that the series is not as good as it used to be and only the shonen aspect of it is relevant nowadays. Maybe it’s just me but Dragon Ball Z felt much better than Dragon Ball Super.
However, with the recent movie and its success, I hope that the anime will try to involve more characters or else people will start shifting to other anime as there are a lot of better options available. If there is something you would like to share with me then you can comment down below or if you want to interact with me then you can contact me via Instagram on my profile @theanimeguy24. I’ll see you all next time, Peace!!
