KBABZ wrote:Robo4900 wrote:"Z-like" is an odd term to use, because Dragon Ball and Z are one story...
I know, I guess what I mean by "
Z-like" is "
of the style associated with the latter and more well-known parts of the story that were in fact in the earlier stuff but hadn't evolved into the later form yet but we all know it was there all along because this is a continuous story". But "Z-like" is easier to remember, and when I refer to Z I'm not just referring to that stuff as "just that latter more popular of the two anime" but more importantly as "the back nine of the story", as it were.
I do get what you mean, but still, I don't think even the longer descriptor there does justice to exactly what you're getting at. The problem is, with a story that progresses as naturally and fluidly as Dragon Ball does, it's kind of hard to unpick certain aspects of it from individual places, because it's all tied up together... Z is a neat divisor to point to because that's when Toei rebranded the series for a ratings boost, and it was accompanied by a timeskip, but really, trying to unpick this is like trying to unpick a bad plot thread in a movie you like; the more you look at it, analyse how it ties into the story, what it means, and how it's incorporated in, the more you realise that the professional screenwriter who put this together has interwoven this bad plot thread expertly into the movie, and removing it is a far more complex task than some internet guy with a strong opinion can muster very easily. Say what you will about Spider-Man 3, it's an absolute masterpiece compared to any of the various fan rewrites you'll find online.
It's the problem of trying to pull a loose thread out of a blanket; you probably could get the thread out, but it'll probably take about half the blanket with it, it's all too connected up... You'd have to put some work into adjusting the rest of the thing to fit the alteration, perhaps incorporate some new stuff to make it all fit cohesively, but that can often fall apart...
I'm going about this a really roundabout way, but the point is, because of the way things are set up and followed on from in Dragon Ball, trying to pinpoint a specific point when Dragon Ball took on the style you're talking about is just as hard as pinpointing the specific point when Vegeta became a goodguy... It's just too smooth a transition; you can point to some key things that indicate the change happening, but you could make the case for basically any point along the entire transitional period as being the point when it changed.
So... I dunno, I think "Z-like" is a silly term for various reasons, as I've gone into, and yet even describing exactly what the style we're talking about is is difficult, so... I dunno. Easier to point out a problem than to suggest a solution, I suppose.
KBABZ wrote:Sidebar: While I can easily associate DB and DBZ as one story (because that's how it was written), does anyone feel that way with DBZ to Super, or back in the day DBZ to GT? Or are they so different that one can't help but treat them as separate entities in the story?
To this day, GT feels like the natural follow-up to DB and Z to me.
Not as close a link as DB and Z, it feels like there's definitely a significant leap, but it feels less like a totally different show, and more like the difference in style between the 21st Tenkaichi arc and the Namek arc, but with some aesthetic changes layered on top of that.
Meanwhile, I will never see the Super anime as a natural follow-up to DB and Z. It feels too calculated, manufactured, and reliant on evoking the past of the franchise to feel like an authentic direct follow-on from what DB and Z were doing. DB, Z, and GT took pieces from the history of the franchise as seeds for what it would do next, put together some kind of uniqe mix, and usually end up creating a style you hadn't really seen in any of the prior arcs, but Super is much more interested in just being a throwback to places the franchise already went that were quite popular back in the day.
And overall, I've always found Super's tone, storytelling, and the aesthetics(Especially the music, though the visual style plays into this too) to all be distinctly un-Dragon Ball... Really, I would liken the Super anime more to the lesser movies than to DB, Z, or GT.
The manga comes
much closer, to the point where I think it absolutely feels like a true sequel to the original story, kind of like GT is to Z, but to a lesser extent; while the storytelling is strong, and very Dragon Ball, the actual stories themselves are very weak, and feel like mediocre fanfiction... But the way it's presented is rather excellent, so the end result is a rather fun, if a bit thinly-plotted, little distraction to enjoy for ten minutes once a month.
The point of Dragon Ball is to enjoy it. Never lose sight of that.