Super possibly losing its timeslot or going on hiatus in March?

[precita]

Only problem is no resolution for Freeza. He's not just going to go back to Hell and if he gets revived seeing him fly off into space won't be satisfying either.

[Basaku]

Only problem is no resolution for Freeza. He's not just going to go back to Hell and if he gets revived seeing him fly off into space won't be satisfying either.

Agree. Killing the Grand Priest, or an Angel, or Zeno, or figuring out how to get rid of Zeno, or making some unexpected SDB wish is what would be worthy enough culmination of Freeza's role and developement in the tournament. Anything less and it will retroactively make his return and all the talk about not bounding to the Gods' will a waste of everyone's time and the potential of his promising return. Build up and appropirate pay off. Toriyama used to do it masterfully (Cell saga ending for example), but I'm not sure if that's still on the cards...

[Chuquita]

Man I'd love a Freezaverse arc in theory. Execution who knows, but in theory it could be a lot of fun. Can't see it happening at all if we hiatus this March though.

[DBZ_Lee]

If Super went on hiatus for a whole year, airing 2 episodes a week on Toonami from the 22nd July (Kai finishes 15th, taking breaks into account) until the 24th March, would bring the Funimation dub up to date.
If it came back in January, then I believe they'd have to continue the 2 a week until the end of May, then they should be all caught up.
It is possible, but they would have to produce an extra 31 episodes, and I don't know how viable that is for them.

If a hiatus is coming, Funimation have an opportunity they may never have again to catch up.
It would be very cool if this happened, and I'd get my fix watching the dub catch up.

[BlueBasilisk]

I've had enough Frieza for a lifetime. He was a key figure in BoG, had an arc to himself in RoF, appeared in the illusion forest, and now he's back again. What he needs is a one-way trip to oblivion and I pray to god he gets it.

[Jackalope89]

I've had enough Frieza for a lifetime. He was a key figure in BoG, had an arc to himself in RoF, appeared in the illusion forest, and now he's back again. What he needs is a one-way trip to oblivion and I pray to god he gets it.

Yeah, I like Freeza. The guy is an irredeemable a-hole that loves murdering people. Far too many past villains became reformed, so having someone that can bring conflict, and have it be personal, while also recognizable, are only good things in my book.

[majinwarman]

It's gonna feel weird watching through February and March if this Kitaro announcement is a time-slot replacement.

It's gonna feel weird in general for a while if Super ends with this tournament.

I mean, it'll free up some of my time, and that wouldn't be all bad, but man does the execution of this tournament not do it for me as a finale.

I have to agree, I like this arc a lot but I was hoping it would lead into something else or have ramifications for the next arc. I can almost guarantee it won't end satisfying since they'll have one episode to wrap everything up in (assuming pace is still 1min = episode).

I'm hoping that they knew this arc would end at the cour and just wanted the final BD to wrap it up. But Kitaro thing looks likely an anime as they keep tweeting the different anime series it's had especially since the banner has "TV animation". (Though I appreciate it may say that because that's what they're celebrating 50th anniversary of the first series). So it definitely seems they're counting down to a new series.

It's also gonna be odd to see them continue to heavily market a show that won't exist anymore, they're going absolutely ham on UI Goku from March, nothing seemingly is slowing down everything is on regular schedule too. To wait 5 months and then the show ends to then decide that's when we'll market Goku's new form is just bizarre.

The only non-Kitaro-related stuff that makes me think they could've been planning this to be the final arc (for now?) would be the Buu arc similarities of this being the first arc to get a complete dedicated opening instead of just getting a partial animation update like the rest of F, Champa, and Goku Black arcs got along with the other Buu arc similarity of it being so much longer than the arcs before it (and I guess for those who split DB and Z, yet another series to end on a tournament arc with GT being the only exclusion to that).

If it ends here it won't be satisfying for me at all. I was really hoping for something more as a finale. I feel like there's a lot of unexplored places to take Goku and friends.

Nozawa also voicing Kitaro in a number of Gegege no Kitaro projects also has me worried about it taking Super's timeslot. As does them talking just about TV series in this retrospective when Kitaro has 8 movies in its backlog they could talk about too, yet haven't.

I remember the Goku Black merchandise (figures particularly) coming out way late after the arc was mostly over last year (you still can't buy his WCF directly from Amazon--only from sellers) so it could be another case of that. I dunno.

I just kinda hope this all blows over and Super isn't being replaced, but if it does get replaced I'm prepared to deal with it.

To be honest, I don't know anymore if this hiatus is happening or not. The signs point one way and change the next day. Predicting this seems to be more work than it should be. I personally don't want Super to leave but if it happens then I need to start finding a new weekly show. Since Season 3 of Boku no Hero Academia is still not out yet.

[Araki]

Heck they're not slowing down they're adding even more things to the DBS brand!! The "Blood of Saiyan"
line was under the Z brand and from May
it will be shifted over to DBS branding. With the three on going gashapon sets Bandai have announced another one starting in Feb. The Ichiban Kuji's are an schedule every 3 months but after this March one the next is scheduled for May not June and on top of ALL that Vegeta and Trunks Galick Gun MSD is being released in April under DBS brand.

It would be weird if the show ended indeed, with all that merchandise changing focus to DBS over the next months, but it wouldn't be a first for Bandai and its partners, I guess. For instance, Super Sentai is heavily merchandise-driven, and usually Bandai stops releasing stuff a little before a series is over. But a super popular Sentai like Gokaiger (2011) kept getting new releases under its brand over the entirety of 2012, and even the following years, eventually.

Maybe they think the brand got to a point where it's strong enough to keep selling so much even without a tv series? While at the same time trying to make Kitaro great again so they have another strong seller? I don't know. Even that would be hard to understand as Kitaro doesn't have 1/10 of the global appeal that DB has, but I'm trying to understand the logic behind a possible end/hiatus.

[Chuquita]

There's still new GT merchandise and that series has been over for 20+ years; Shueisha will probably still be making Super merchandise 20 years from now if it still sells well enough.

To be honest, I don't know anymore if this hiatus is happening or not. The signs point one way and change the next day. Predicting this seems to be more work than it should be. I personally don't want Super to leave but if it happens then I need to start finding a new weekly show. Since Season 3 of Boku no Hero Academia is still not out yet.

I follow a bunch of one-and-done anime each season (like I've got 5 winter-only 2017-2018 series I'm following; they're all around 12 episodes total) plus Toei's yearly-weekly Precure series. I pick up and drop One Piece's anime (I got bored with the anime's pace so I've just gone back to following the manga again) from time to time.

Super's the only anime that I watch "live"; it's the only one where I'm doing fan-art for it regularly. Everything else I watch I just watch whenever the time's available for me. If Super vanishes, even if it's for a year...that's still an entire year. The past three years have taught me that crazy shit can happen over the course of a single year.

I mean...I don't want to lose Super, but maybe something good will come from me having to forcibly part ways with the series since it does take up at least 3 hours of my life each week. But then I still don't know if the hiatus will happen at all.

But I do know that the Kitaro announcement could now happen as early as 7pm on that given day, not 10pm. Their latest site update didn't happen on that magic 10pm spot like it did the past couple days since it began. Today's countdown update happened at 7:03pm EST: https://twitter.com/kitaroanime50th/sta ... 3509756929

[JulieYBM]

Toriyama might've asked to end Dragon Ball Super here or at least go on a hiatus. Toei Animation and Shueisha might also be afraid of doing a filler arc because it would disrupt their claim of Toriyama's involvement since he won't be about to work on both at the same time.

[Araki]

There's still new GT merchandise and that series has been over for 20+ years; Shueisha will probably still be making Super merchandise 20 years from now if it still sells well enough.

That's a different situation. They didn't rebrand main Z merchandise as "GT" in 1998, after it was over, for obvious reasons. In fact, from what I remember the GT stuff wasn't everywhere even during 1996-97, compared to Z (yeah, I'm that old). It wasn't much of a strong seller.

We're not talking about an eventual SSJ4 action figure or rare pieces made for collectors, but major lines with regular release schedules being rebranded/released based on Super this year, thus my Super Sentai comparison, a franchise that also follows that logic. Or we could also use Gundam, which is always getting general stuff for all seasons out there, but whenever there's a new series, it becomes the focus for a while.

Toriyama might've asked to end Dragon Ball Super here or at least go on a hiatus. Toei Animation and Shueisha might also be afraid of doing a filler arc because it would disrupt their claim of Toriyama's involvement since he won't be about to work on both at the same time.

That was my first guess too. It's hard to imagine Toriyama working on both at the same time, and a long filler arc without his involvement could work against the series.

[precita]

I'm sure Toriyama didn't approve of stuff like Purple Vegeta or the various slice of life fillers but they still made them anyway.

[HeroR]

There's still new GT merchandise and that series has been over for 20+ years; Shueisha will probably still be making Super merchandise 20 years from now if it still sells well enough.

That's a different situation. They didn't rebrand main Z merchandise as "GT" in 1998, after it was over, for obvious reasons. In fact, from what I remember the GT stuff wasn't everywhere even during 1996-97, compared to Z (yeah, I'm that old). It wasn't much of a strong seller.

We're not talking about an eventual SSJ4 action figure or rare pieces made for collectors, but major lines with regular release schedules being rebranded/released based on Super this year, thus my Super Sentai comparison, a franchise that also follows that logic. Or we could also use Gundam, which is always getting general stuff for all seasons out there, but whenever there's a new series, it becomes the focus for a while.

Toriyama might've asked to end Dragon Ball Super here or at least go on a hiatus. Toei Animation and Shueisha might also be afraid of doing a filler arc because it would disrupt their claim of Toriyama's involvement since he won't be about to work on both at the same time.

That was my first guess too. It's hard to imagine Toriyama working on both at the same time, and a long filler arc without his involvement could work against the series.

Why? Other manga writers do it, with Oda being the standout example, and Toriyama isn't even doing most of the heavy lifting.

I'm sure Toriyama didn't approve of stuff like Purple Vegeta or the various slice of life fillers but they still made them anyway.

That's really you just guessing since Toyo more or less said the opposite. Toriyama checks everything Dragon Ball related, even the video games.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

I'm sure Toriyama didn't approve of stuff like Purple Vegeta or the various slice of life fillers but they still made them anyway.

Pretty sure he does everyone thought the retellings were all Toei then we find out it was all Toriyama's idea, Namekian Book of Legends anyone? Also he said he was responsible for the post battle aftermath of the Buu arc in DBS before the actual BoG arc started. Wouldn't be surprised if he outlined more than people think.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

Something to ponder. The first Kitaro film in 2008 was made to celebrate the 40th anniv of the first television series now we're 10 years later celebrating the 50th anniv. Perhaps this could be a movie afterall. In 2008 they still had a series on going, I believe, but still made a point about celebrating the 40th anniv with a movie.

[HeroR]

I'm sure Toriyama didn't approve of stuff like Purple Vegeta or the various slice of life fillers but they still made them anyway.

Pretty sure he does everyone thought the retellings were all Toei then we find out it was all Toriyama's idea, Namekian Book of Legends anyone? Also he said he was responsible for the post battle aftermath of the Buu arc in DBS before the actual BoG arc started. Wouldn't be surprised if he outlined more than people think.

Funny thing, Toriyama outright said it was his idea for the retellings before Super even started. For some reason, everyone just forgot about that and blamed Toei.

[Araki]

Why? Other manga writers do it, with Oda being the standout example, and Toriyama isn't even doing most of the heavy lifting.

Oh, it's not that I doubt Toriyama could do it, but I could totally understand if they're avoiding to tire him out of the franchise, too. I mean, we know he's writing the full script and apparently doing a lot of new designs. Oda is much younger and a famous workaholic.

[HeroR]

Why? Other manga writers do it, with Oda being the standout example, and Toriyama isn't even doing most of the heavy lifting.

Oh, it's not that I doubt Toriyama could do it, but I could totally understand if they're avoiding to tire him out of the franchise, too. I mean, we know he's writing the full script and apparently doing a lot of new designs. Oda is much younger and a famous workaholic.

Super's script would have been done months ago. Remember, the Future Trunks Saga's script was done by February and the arc began in June. He also had Toyo helping him with the designs in the anime with him designing most of the new Gods of Destruction.

My point is that I don't see how Toriyama can be overworked in this case since he has a lot of people helping him. I will admit that Oda isn't the best example, but even he slowed it down after Strong World since he was just doing too much in that time period. He wrote and director Strong World during the Marineford arc and that part of the manga had a ton of breaks.

[majinwarman]

Something to ponder. The first Kitaro film in 2008 was made to celebrate the 40th anniv of the first television series now we're 10 years later celebrating the 50th anniv. Perhaps this could be a movie afterall. In 2008 they still had a series on going, I believe, but still made a point about celebrating the 40th anniv with a movie.

I don't think Toei would want to work on two movies at the same time.

[HeroR]

Something to ponder. The first Kitaro film in 2008 was made to celebrate the 40th anniv of the first television series now we're 10 years later celebrating the 50th anniv. Perhaps this could be a movie afterall. In 2008 they still had a series on going, I believe, but still made a point about celebrating the 40th anniv with a movie.

I don't think Toei would want to work on two movies at the same time.

Toei did do it in the past.