Why did people used to think Naruto would overtake Dragonball in popularity?

[Hellspawn28]

What is the most popular action anime in the west now? Attack on Titan has a decent following but the long breaks between seasons kills its potential.

All I see people talking about in the west is Super.

Attack on Titan, Sword Art Online, My Hero Academia, Hunter x Hunter, Jojo, Fairy Tail and One Punch Man seem to the biggest action anime of this decade. Fairy Tail did came out during the end of 2009, but it didn't become super popular until this decade started.

[precita]

Fairy Tail and Sword Art Online seem rather poorly received besides people who like fanservice.

[Hellspawn28]

I see a lot of merchandise for it and a lot of people on the web talking about it. Every generation of the anime & manga fandom in the has their major titles that are very big and marketed all over the place.

[sintzu]

It was agreed that to maintain the quality of the adapting of the comic storylines the cartoon would use original storylines to allow enough time for episodes to cover more than one chapter per episode.

I think that was a good idea in the long run cause when you go back to it you can skip all those filler episodes and just watch the manga based ones and get a great experience out of it.

The other thing they could've done is what Toei does with one piece where each episode adapts a chapter or less. The problem with that is they'd simply make up the lack of filler episode by streatching out the manga based ones which will result in an overall slow (and to some, unwatchable) show.

[Bullza]

The difference between Dragon Ball and all these other series is that somehow Dragon Ball has maintained its immense popularity ever since it started. The series had been over for years but they still kept making the games and the merchandise, people were still talking about it and searching for it.

In comparison these other series can get really popular, Naruto in particular was bigger than Dragon Ball at one point, but they can't seem to maintain popularity in the same way.

Series that were recently or currently popular like Bleach, Fairy Tail, Attack on Titan, Sword Art Online, My Hero Academia etc are just popular now. They will quickly fade away though while Dragon Ball will still be there.

If I were to compare them to movies.

Dragon Ball = Star Wars

Star Wars "ended" in 2005 with Revenge if the Sith but the series is that popular that they always kept coming out with new stuff anyway, cartoons, toys, games until they made a new series of movies a decade later. Star Wars will always be popular.

Other Anime popular series = Twilight/Hunger Games

Those movie series blew up in popularity, stayed highly popular for a few years and then they ended and that was it. The craze is over, nobody talks about these series anymore. They're done and they will be forgotten.

[precita]

Star Wars "ended" in 2005 with Revenge if the Sith but the series is that popular that they always kept coming out with new stuff anyway, cartoons, toys, games until they made a new series of movies a decade later. Star Wars will always be popular..

I think you're being very generous there, Star Wars "ended" in 1983. It had comics, novels, videogames, toys for decades even before the prequel era. There was an almost 20 year gap before Star Wars came back with prequels, it was already "done" in the eyes of the general public for years.

[sintzu]

The difference between Dragon Ball and all these other series is that somehow Dragon Ball has maintained its immense popularity ever since it started.

I think it's Toriyama's style, there's just something special about his art and writing that these other shows lack. It can manage to somehow keep bringing people back to it even if they've already seen it.

There was an almost 20 year gap before Star Wars came back with prequels, it was already "done" in the eyes of the general public for years.

DB went 15 years strong without any new main products so chances are it would've reached an extra 5 years without anything.

[Bullza]

I think you're being very generous there, Star Wars "ended" in 1983. It had comics, novels, videogames, toys for decades even before the prequel era. There was an almost 20 year gap before Star Wars came back with prequels, it was already "done" in the eyes of the general public for years.

Same thing, not sure what your point was. Star Wars is a series that will remain popular no matter what and remained for years while it's main product had ended. The same is also true for Dragon Ball.

Dragon Ball has lasting appeal. The others are just the latest craze that disappears after a while.

[ABED]

Plenty of movies and books end but still retain popularity. Jaws and Back to the Future fall into that category.

[sintzu]

Plenty of movies and books end but still retain popularity. Jaws and Back to the Future fall into that category.

That's the point, DB is one of those things that can end and remain Super popular.

[Neo-Makaiōshin]

Series that were recently or currently popular like Bleach, Fairy Tail, Attack on Titan, Sword Art Online, My Hero Academia etc are just popular now. They will quickly fade away though while Dragon Ball will still be there.

Too early to make this call.

[Bullza]

Too early to make this call.

It'll happen to them all, in the long run One Piece at least in Japan will probably stand the test of time.

Dragon Ball and Pokémon they'll always be popular series, the rest are just the latest popular thing until they're replaced by the next one.

Toriko they tried to hype up as being the next One Piece, that was popular for a while but now it's dead and forgotten. The same has happened to Bleach, they haven't even bothered making an anime to cover the last saga because nobody cares anymore.

One Punch Man is another one, that seemed like it was everywhere at one point. In 10-20 years from now, they'll mostly all be forgotten. Meanwhile Dragon Ball will probably still be having video games even then.

[sintzu]

Series that were recently or currently popular like Bleach, Fairy Tail, Attack on Titan, Sword Art Online, My Hero Academia etc are just popular now. They will quickly fade away though while Dragon Ball will still be there.

Too early to make this call.

Bleach and Toriko's anime AND manga got cancelled and the other anime never got anywhere near as big as DB.

One Piece is still ongoing and will probably end up like Naruto where someone else will continue the story once Oda's over so there's no way to tell how long they'd last if they ended cause they probably won't.

[Hellspawn28]

A lot of popular anime titles get forgotten over time. Before the days of Pokemon and Toonami, anime titles like Kimagure Orange Road, Vampire Hunter D, Patlabor, Record of Lodoss War, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Robot Carnival, Crusher Joe, Bubblegum Crisis, Golgo 13, Dominion Tank Police, Ranma 1/2, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Wings of Honneamise, Crying Freeman and several others. Most of those are forgotten by today's fandom expect for Akira and Ghost in the Shell.

[JulieYBM]

Every then-modern audience likes the things made for them. Things die and go away and nobody will ever miss them.

[8000 Saiyan]

A lot of popular anime titles get forgotten over time. Before the days of Pokemon and Toonami, anime titles like Kimagure Orange Road, Vampire Hunter D, Patlabor, Record of Lodoss War, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Robot Carnival, Crusher Joe, Bubblegum Crisis, Golgo 13, Dominion Tank Police, Ranma 1/2, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Wings of Honneamise, Crying Freeman and several others. Most of those are forgotten by today's fandom expect for Akira and Ghost in the Shell.

I remember Vampire Hunter D, Golgo 13, Ranma 1/2 and Street Fighter 2.

[precita]

I wouldn't say all old anime/manga is forgotten. We see popular ones like Sailor Moon return with new series too. I think it basically proves which are the truly popular anime that people remember and talk about decades after they end, and which shows are just popular "in the moment" but after a few years everyone just moves on from them.

Of course I'm mainly talking about shonen here, there are tons of 12 episode anime every season that are mostly just slice of life or fanservice shows that people only watch for cute girls and then move on to a new show after they end.

[SaiyanGod117]

Dragon Ball has immense lasting appeal, the show ended in 1995, yet has remained successfully in syndication till this day, the only other the show with that much staying power I can of think is Seinfeld. Partly reason for that is the genre it encompasses, Martial-arts fanstay with a huge amount of futuristic Sci-fi through in, on top of engaging characters, is bound to attract a huge demographic, to be honest Dragon Ball could go the Marvel, DC, or Star Wars route if it hasn't already and spawn a whole slew of characters and stories.

[precita]

Dragon Ball has immense lasting appeal, the show ended in 1995, yet has remained successfully in syndication till this day, the only other the show with that much staying power I can of think is Seinfeld. Partly reason for that is the genre it encompasses, Martial-arts fanstay with a huge amount of futuristic Sci-fi through in, on top of engaging characters, is bound to attract a huge demographic, to be honest Dragon Ball could go the Marvel, DC, or Star Wars route if it hasn't already and spawn a whole slew of characters and stories.

Well the problem with American franchises is they are designed to last forever, but they're constantly rebooted. The Batman, Spiderman, Superman, etc. of today are not the same ones from 70 years ago. Not only do the comics have reboots, but every time a new cartoon or movie series starts, they're always reboots that start at square one again. Japanese anime doesn't really have reboots like that too often, they either do continuations or just remake the same story with new animation like they're doing with Sailor Moon.

[SaiyanGod117]

Dragon Ball has immense lasting appeal, the show ended in 1995, yet has remained successfully in syndication till this day, the only other the show with that much staying power I can of think is Seinfeld. Partly reason for that is the genre it encompasses, Martial-arts fanstay with a huge amount of futuristic Sci-fi through in, on top of engaging characters, is bound to attract a huge demographic, to be honest Dragon Ball could go the Marvel, DC, or Star Wars route if it hasn't already and spawn a whole slew of characters and stories.

Well the problem with American franchises is they are designed to last forever, but they're constantly rebooted. The Batman, Spiderman, Superman, etc. of today are not the same ones from 70 years ago. Not only do the comics have reboots, but every time a new cartoon or movie series starts, they're always reboots that start at square one again. Japanese anime doesn't really have reboots like that too often, they either do continuations or just remake the same story with new animation like they're doing with Sailor Moon.

Well Toei already set up something like Dragon Room, for new creators to make side stories about Dragon Ball, who knows Dragon Ball might break the mold and be the first Japanese anime/manga do something like that--it's Universe is already perfectly set up for it. Or as I said before, it could go the Star Wars route and tell stories that's in the same timeline of main continuity, but of different characters perspective or character backgrounds i.e. Vegeta's time as a prince or Hit's come up as an assassin.