Why wasn't there a Buu Saga Special?

[LuckyCat]

In Dragon Ball Z we got both a special for the Freeza saga (Bardock) and the Android/Cell saga (Trunks).

So why not a Buu Saga special? Was Majin Buu not dark enough for Toei? Did no characters fit the bill for a special? Was there not enough room in the budget?

[VegettoEX]

I mean, by that extension, you could just ask "Why wasn't there a Red Ribbon Army special? Why wasn't there a Piccolo special? Why wasn't there a Saiyan special? Why wasn't there a Buu special?"

For Trunks, it was actually something in the manga to adapt from, so it's really only the Bardock special that was a major anomaly.

[Gyt Kaliba]

I don't know about answers for any of the other possible reasons, but as far as the characters go...well, if they were going to do a special in the vein of the previous two, which were pretty dark and foreboding at least by Dragon Ball standards, then there's really only one thing they could have done - Majin Boo's reign of terror years and years before, ending with his conflict with the Kaioshin themselves. As interested as I would be to have seen something like that, I can think of a couple of reasons they might have balked at that idea.

1) No recognizable and popular characters. The Bardock special was largely populated by brand new characters, yes, but Bardock was custom designed to look a lot like his son, and even ended up with his same voice actress. We still had Freeza there too, and as he's one of the most popular villains, I imagine that was another check off the list. Finish that out with some shots of baby Goku, fan popular Vegeta in his youth, and a decent amount of 'cameos' of other characters from that era of material like Dodoria, Zarbon, and Nappa (seriously, where was Raditz at least for this though, if not the Ginyu Force?), and they had it covered. With the Trunks special, we likewise are robbed of a lot of our other favorite characters, but the focus is on Trunks, another fan popular character. We're also treated to seeing Gohan from that alternate timeline. With a Boo era special, we'd pretty much be left with...the Kaioshin, most likely mainly the Eastern one (our main one in the series). Maybe Kaio-sama and the other Kaio could appear too. But beyond that? Our narrative would mainly be behind the Kaioshin, who don't seem to garner that much popularity or excitement from fans.

2) The tone of 'hope'. The way both the Bardock and Trunks specials played out to their ends definitely left a feeling of 'it's all heading here, hope for the best!' at their ends. Bardock ended knowing his son was going to come into conflict with Freeza, and at the time it came out originally that fight hadn't happened yet, so it served to hype up that upcoming fight all the more. We're ready to see Goku tangle with Freeza. With the Trunks special, it quite literally ends on 'hope', as we see Trunks head out to warn Goku about the Androids. By the time that one came out, we already knew a good deal that was going to happen after that point, but the plotline at large was still unresolved - we're meant to be left wondering how everyone is going to get out of this huge mess they're in, but told to never give up the 'hope'. If they were to take that same kind of feeling to a Boo arc special, it'd be a little bit harder to do. Again, we don't really have any of our favorite characters to get behind for it. And no matter where it ended, it wasn't going to have that same feeling really. If it ended with Boo being sealed and Kaioshin taking out Bibidi, and Babidi being shown somewhere out there swearing revenge while Kaioshin is happy it's 'all over at last', that's...kind of anti-climactic in a way, given what we already know to be happening. Maybe if they flashed forward to Kaioshin fighting Boo only to get blown away and taking Gohan away, that would be a way to end on some 'hope', but...I'unno. It's still not quite the same.

There's the possibility they could have done something else entirely of course, but whenever I think of a Boo arc special, that's pretty much the only route I could imagine them having taken, and upon retrospect it just doesn't quite seem like it could have worked that well.

[JulieYBM]

In Dragon Ball Z we got both a special for the Freeza saga (Bardock) and the Android/Cell saga (Trunks).

So why not a Buu Saga special? Was Majin Buu not dark enough for Toei? Did no characters fit the bill for a special? Was there not enough room in the budget?

Money for a special would not come out of the money for the TV series. Fuji TV and the other production committee members would come together, decide to do a TV special and then set aside money for it on its own.

[Nex Carnifex]

Not dark enough? Buu saga had the darkest scenes in the entire series

[sintzu]

I guess you could consider the 2008 OVA a Buu arc special cause it kind of deals with the aftermath of the battle.

[Tian]

I think it's because there wasn't a interesting character background story to explore in the Buu Saga

[Lord Beerus]

I think it's because there wasn't a interesting character background story to explore in the Buu Saga

Um, Dabra?

[trick007z]

I think it's because there wasn't a interesting character background story to explore in the Buu Saga

Um, Dabra?

Not really. The Bardock special really fleshes out the Saiyan culture under Frieza and presents the definitive take on where Goku and Frieza intersect. The Trunks special is really just a prologue to the Android arc.

Dabra was just some demon that Babidi took control of for brief period of time. He has very little connection to Buu beyond that. The closest thing to a special you could have done would be to take the flashback with Bibidi and the Kai's out of the main series and expanding it into a special. But then it takes away a lot of the impact of Kid Buu.

[omaro34]

Because the Buu saga wasn't up to par when compared to the first 2 sagas.

[Lord Beerus]

Dabra was just some demon that Babidi took control of for brief period of time. He has very little connection to Buu beyond that. The closest thing to a special you could have done would be to take the flashback with Bibidi and the Kai's out of the main series and expanding it into a special. But then it takes away a lot of the impact of Kid Buu.

Dabra is way more than. He's King of the Demon Realm for crying out loud. And that would strongly suggested that he is a Makaio, and that in itself opens the door to a part of the Dragon Ball Universe that still hasn't explored or looked into properly, excluding a few tidbits from the Super Exciting Guide.

[Zephyr]

I think it's because there wasn't a interesting character background story to explore in the Buu Saga

The Buu/Kaioshin backstory could have made a great TV Special, instead of simply episode padding. It's literally the entire crux of the arc, and thus would work in an identical vein to the Trunks special.

[LuckyCat]

I mean, by that extension, you could just ask "Why wasn't there a Red Ribbon Army special? Why wasn't there a Piccolo special? Why wasn't there a Saiyan special? Why wasn't there a Buu special?"

For Trunks, it was actually something in the manga to adapt from, so it's really only the Bardock special that was a major anomaly.

I considered that, and I could say within the context of the Dragon Ball Z anime. But also I think that Red Ribbon or even Piccolo Daimao would be too short of stories (compared to Freeza, Androids and Buu) to warrant an extra special. Also, Saiyan saga is covered a little in the Bardock special, at least there are clips from it in the special. Fair point about "History of Trunks" actually being written by Toriyama in the manga, though.

Money for a special would not come out of the money for the TV series. Fuji TV and the other production committee members would come together, decide to do a TV special and then set aside money for it on its own.

So then the question would be why didn't Fuji TV and other production committee members come together for the Buu saga?

1) No recognizable and popular characters.

Maybe! Kaioshin was kind of a dud, though I guess a special about the other Kaioshin could work. Dabura could also work, though the specials tend to be around heroic characters.

The Buu/Kaioshin backstory could have made a great TV Special, instead of simply episode padding. It's literally the entire crux of the arc, and thus would work in an identical vein to the Trunks special.

That's touching on my theory, that Buu saga as animated was already long enough to include back stories within the show. But I really liked the stories with the other Kaioshin fighting Buu, and would've loved to see more on that.

[VegettoEX]

But also I think that Red Ribbon or even Piccolo Daimao would be too short of stories (compared to Freeza, Androids and Buu) to warrant an extra special.

There's an entire story about Mutaito and the original fight against Demon King Piccolo to include. Sure, some of that was in the TV series, but we also saw random footage of the alternate Trunks timeline in the TV series totally separate/independent from the regular Trunks TV special, too. Also think about the three completely different versions the anime had of Child-Of-Katatz splitting off his evil half; this too could have been an entirely separate TV special.

Redundancy was never a problem for them. There were all sorts of extra stories that could be told .

[DBZAOTA482]

Nobody gives a fuck about Kaioshin or his people. That's why.

[VegettoEX]

Nobody gives a fuck about Kaioshin or his people. That's why.

Clearly someone does, as they literally just mentioned it here in this thread.

If you're not interested, that's fine: don't bother posting. Enough is enough here. You do not speak for the entire fandom.

[JulieYBM]

Two new movies were coming out per year. A new special probably felt redundant or nobody could think of an angle for the special.

[DBZAOTA482]

Nobody gives a fuck about Kaioshin or his people. That's why.

Clearly someone does, as they literally just mentioned it here in this thread.

If you're not interested, that's fine: don't bother posting. Enough is enough here. You do not speak for the entire fandom.

I exaggerated but I don't think what I said is far from the truth given my experience.

I mean, is there really a group of people who are actively interested to know more about Kaioshin? His character is little more than a plot-device meant to (over-)hype up Majin Boo. Even his one and only fight in the entire series is literally just him getting tooled by a toying around Majin Boo.

[Kamicciolo]

It woulda been kinda cool actually if they had a sort of "retroactive" special for the Red Ribbon Army arc during or after the Android one, where it could follow Dr. Gero and some of his going-ons whilst Goku was tearing through the army and all. Sorta a way to build up a bit of backstory on Gero and give his revenge motivation more impact.

[VegettoEX]

It woulda been kinda cool actually if they had a sort of "retroactive" special for the Red Ribbon Army arc during or after the Android one, where it could follow Dr. Gero and some of his going-ons whilst Goku was tearing through the army and all. Sorta a way to build up a bit of backstory on Gero and give his revenge motivation more impact.

Totally agreed.

It's an average day in May. The army has been busy. Gero decides to take a lunch break. He returns to headquarters only to find the entire thing destroyed, including all of his machines.

The hard drives weren't backed up off-site.

Revenge begins.