How popular is GT?

[MCDaveG]

I would probably find old dead topics for this kind of question, but as rarely as I am here now, there are moments in discussions around video games and canonicity of the whole series with various opinions on where does GT stand popularity wise.

And really, I am curious and would love to know if do we really know how popular is GT?
How popular is it in US, Europe or Japan itself? Where does it stand now in comparison to previous year and it's heyday when it premiered?
We have the ratings from the original run and probably some polls from back in the day, but is the show as hated as internet makes it ever since to now or maybe, it fares better with time and with some nostalgia?

It probably still holds some momentum, as we got reccuring GT characters in plethora of video games across all platforms, there were few runs of GT comic over the years, now recently in V-Jump.
Is it even still as popular to be included in games because of public demand or are the companies behind the franchise just leveraging the existence of extra character and stories, that they can adapt and to the mix for variety?

I'd love to get some answers from external sources also, because here the situation is clear. Even tho I have huge nostalgic feeling for the show and will watch it from time to time through my life to get this sense of childhood atmo, we can probably all agree that objectively, the show is lacking on story and writing front, while it has lot of cool designs.

[Goe]

I haven't official polls but I can copypaste one of my previous posts about GT in this forum. I wrote that in Septermber 15, 2020:

I can only tell you this data:

1. When I was 11, GT was released in my country (Spain). Then, I had 2 friends who were great DB fans. One of them didn’t like GT, me neither. The other friend never expressed his opinion.
2. In that times, a spanish GT magazine called “Dragon Ball GT La revista oficial” (in english: DBGT the official magazine) existed. However, content wasn’t entirely about GT and some articles about DBZ films and other Toriyama’s manga existed (I read about Dr. Slump, Dragon Boy, Karamaru or Mamejiro by first time in that magazine).
3. When I was 16, I had 3 new friends who also were DB fans. They didn’t like GT.
4. Later, at a former DB spanish forum, there were a proGT and an antiGT club. ProGT members were much more even antiGT members were a bunch (I don’t remember exact numbers, but it would be 300proGT members against 100 antiGT members or a similar proportion). Curiously, proGT fans usually said they prefer DB and DBZ but they liked GT anyway. Some anti GT fans were so full of hatred that they said “SSJ4 and Vegeta with moustache are garbage so it’s imposible that Toriyama, the best mangaka, did that nasty designs”. Finally, we discovered Toriyama actually did them.
5. In my university years, I met 4 proGT fans and 1 declared antiGT fan. However, one of that 4 proGTs said “everyone hates GT, but I like it”.
6. Some Google sugerences if you type “Dragon Ball GT es” in Google are:

Dragon Ball GT es una basura (in english: DBGT is a garbage)
Porque Dragon Ball GT es malo (in english: why DBGT is bad)

If you type one space more another suggerence is “Dragon ball GT es bueno” (In english:DBGT is good).

As a spaniard, this is my experience. It looks like DBGT here had a bunch of haters but a bunch of fans. If we compare DB, DBZ and DBGT (in Spain), it looks like DBGT is the less succesful by far, since haters of the other DB animes don’t exist. However, people who like GT seems to be a considerable number.

A guy who lived in Japan told me that GT was succesful there, but is my only reference about it. I have read USA fans prefer DBGT over DB, so the north american preferences would be: DBZ, DBGT, DB. However, I suspect is a fake rumor.

About the person who wrote GT was an absolute failure in the Kanzenshuu article, I think someone should ask him/her about that point.

Hope this helped.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

GT is popular enough. In its native Japan Dragon Ball's ratings were in decline from the mid-Boo arc, which remained constant going into GT. 40 episodes were ordered, but another 64 were added on, so it was clearly doing well enough. The Japanese GT DVDs also sold better than original Dragon Ball and Z. There was also an Animanga made for it.

I know GT has also not done bad in the UK, it aired in March 2003 and was kept in reruns until all Dragon Ball content was removed from the air over 2 years later allegedly because Cartoon Network didn't want to keep paying the license for Dragon Ball and preferred to create original content. Manga UK also released GT on DVD twice, first with the individual season sets and then a Complete Series box set.

In 2012 GT was also aired on AXN Animax in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Moldova, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Albania subtitled in the various languages, so there must have been some interest as this was years after the numerous other European dubs from France, Germany, Spain and Italy had aired and likely been seen by many of the aforementioned countries.

Sadly Finland never aired GT, although apparently SubTV was a small channel and it cost them a lot to bring back Dragon Ball Z in reruns. The same could possibly apply to Belgium where even Z didn't have a complete run on Kanaal 2. The Netherlands aired GT but Yorkiddin imported their materials from Cartoon Network UK so it was probably cheaper for them than a lot of other European countries.

I'm not sure how strong US ratings were, but considering Nicktoons aired GT when Funimation's dub of Boo Kai wasn't ready I'd have to imagine they did their research and determined GT did well enough on Toonami as they were clearly seeking new Dragon Ball content. In any case there's been 4 complete releases of GT on DVD in the US (singles, seasons, Funimation Complete Series and Crunchyroll Complete Series), which again indicates there was some demand in the shrinking home video market.

Speaking of home video Hong Kong had more than one Cantonese dub for GT, with one being made exclusively for Aiko's VCD releases. Again a different dub means money was spent on it, suggesting there was a demand.

My friend Cure Dragon 255 would know more about this than me, but Latin America also loved GT. Dragon Ball is like a religion to them, and GT was simply more Dragon Ball.

There's probably plenty more examples from different territories but in general GT does appear to be well liked.

[Koitsukai]

Funnily enough, I've met more people in real life that hadn't watched GT than GT haters. Those who have watched GT were lukewarm about it, and actually I think I was the biggest GT fan I've ever met.
My fan-art was about GT once everything was said and done(meaning after the first golden age was over and years before DBKai and DBS), although probably because of it being the end of Goku's journey rather than out of love or interest for the show.

So, from my experience, people haven't paid much attention to GT to begin with, and those who did, enjoyed it to some extent.

[Tian]

Well, as Dragon Ball Ireland stated, the Dragon Ball franchise as a whole has a icon and nearly religious status here in Latin America.

Now, speaking about my country (Argentina), GT was a huge hit and is fondly remembered as the two previous anime series (DB & DBZ).

Argentinian children watched it through 2 channels: Magic Kids (a local channel which went defunct in 2006) and Cartoon Network LatAm (which stopped airing the whole franchise in 2021)

There are some personal experiences with GT I can share:
- 2007: Before GT was premiered in Cartoon Network LatAm, my older brother (who watched it through Magic Kids some years before) accidentally spoiled me about the SSJ4 transformation. You won't believe how excited he was when he was talking about it.

- 2009: I went to a flea market where most of the bootleg DVDs were GT.

- 2012-2015: During that time, I often saw Final Bout in some video game stores and restaurants with kids zones.

- 2019: DBS Broly was premiered here in Argentina, and while waiting in the line, I heard several chats from both ahead and behind me about GT stuff.

[Hellspawn28]

It's still the black sheep of the series. When Dragon Ball does something new, it's still tie in with DBZ somehow. The 2008 was set in the Z era of Dragon Ball and didn't do anything GT related. Even Super is not following the events of GT. Considering how the show ended so shortly compare to DBZ and the show is still view negatively with many casual fans, I don't think it's that popular. Sure it has its fans, but that doesn't mean it's not well liked. It's like how with the PS2 era of Mortal Kombat where those games have fan favorite characters, but the games are still dislike.

[VegettoEX]

I don't really know how you can quantify an answer to that question, which is perhaps why folks keep telling personal stories.

One thing I will say is that, unless you actively keep up with Japanese products, you might not realize just how ubiquitous and omnipresent GT really is. When you open the pages of V-Jump (the magazine where Super is serialized), you're often hit with GT-adjacent material long before you see anything else, be it figures or Heroes cards/story stuff or what have you. And then there's Saikyo Jump, where in addition to GT itself literally being serialized for the last near-decade, the two other Dragon Ball manga in there are likewise heavily filled with GT content.

GT is still an absolute modern day pillar of the franchise, one that Toei/Shueisha are simultaneously absolutely ambivalent about with regard to anyone actually watching it.

[Skar]

It's still the black sheep of the series. When Dragon Ball does something new, it's still tie in with DBZ somehow. The 2008 was set in the Z era of Dragon Ball and didn't do anything GT related. Even Super is not following the events of GT. Considering how the show ended so shortly compare to DBZ and the show is still view negatively with many casual fans, I don't think it's that popular. Sure it has its fans, but that doesn't mean it's not well liked. It's like how with the PS2 era of Mortal Kombat where those games have fan favorite characters, but the games are still dislike.

I think it has more to do with Toriyama choosing this specific time period and not being interested in going past EoZ than anything against GT. It's not like a Hollywood sequel that was ignored in favor of a new sequel since everything in the revival is taking place before it in the timeline anyway. GT still included in video games and merchandise.

[Saiya6Cit]

I may only speak for mexico where the truth is that as long as there is goku or "el cokun" (as some old folks would call it) on tv, people will watch it.

It will be on the background at any tv in any taco restaurantz dr's office, stores just anywhere.

When it came out in 2001 most people did not like it. But at the same time it gained new viewers. Trunks was very popular with the females and Pan was seen as cool by most girls because she was the first female saiyan on screen. Then everyone loved the SSJ4 and the gogeta fusion but by then it was the end.

Dragon ball GT is currently on open signal tv. It is popular but Dragon ball and dragon ball Z are prefered.

Sorry if misspelling. English is not my native and I could not spell check on this stupid phone...

[MCDaveG]

I am actually surprised, thanks for all the answers and lot of data and objective answers with some interesting personal stories.

I feel that Latin American sentiment about more Dragon Ball, as that’s similar to me and my friends when Z switched to GT and we were super excited.
It’s actually funny, that the show is far from being the black sheep and universally hated the internet makes it to be.
Reminds me of Star Wars fandom and sequels, as everyone is spilling vitriol, but the movies are actually fine… with some questionable writing at times and some might say wasted potential or not being on par with expectations, but people will always complain with such franchises.

But as many pointed out confirming my suspicions, there has to be demand with all the video game content and merch still going on, most notably Heroes.
If not for the story, I still think that GT has some bold and creative designs and while I prefer classic SSJ myself, SSJ4 looks awesome.

I have talked many times on this forum about the nostalgia and watching stuff as a kid in my old age, so I’ll skip that, but back to the more Dragon Ball… With SSJ being numbered up to 4 in GT, our kid inaginations ran wild with how would SSJ5 or 6 look if the show went further and the GT ending caught us by surprise, with how long Z was. And also, around the same time we were browsing internet through dial up and it was the heyday of DBAF hoax, with that SSJ5 fanart and SSJ4 Gohan one. I won’t lie that I went with the hopes for AF for some time…

And we have actually got that SSJ4 Gohan in time through Heroes! Or GT Gotenks, which is something I have longed for since Goten and Trunks talked about fusing, but never did on the show. It is insane in a way.

[Cure Dragon 255]

My friend Cure Dragon 255 would know more about this than me, but Latin America also loved GT. Dragon Ball is like a religion to them, and GT was simply more Dragon Ball.

There's probably plenty more examples from different territories but in general GT does appear to be well liked.

Thank you for your kind words and your trust in me. I can confirm this is true. And not just that, some local tv networks beat Cartoon Network Latin America to airing GT. But sadly, people simply dont like GT anymore now that Super exists. As soon as Telefuturo (One of said networks that aired GT and even brought it back recently) finished their current Z broadcast they went straight to Super. But back when it first premiered it indeed was just "More Dragon Ball" and WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more appreciated for that reason.

[Majin Man 101]

I would probably find old dead topics for this kind of question, but as rarely as I am here now, there are moments in discussions around video games and canonicity of the whole series with various opinions on where does GT stand popularity wise.

And really, I am curious and would love to know if do we really know how popular is GT?
How popular is it in US, Europe or Japan itself? Where does it stand now in comparison to previous year and it's heyday when it premiered?
We have the ratings from the original run and probably some polls from back in the day, but is the show as hated as internet makes it ever since to now or maybe, it fares better with time and with some nostalgia?

It probably still holds some momentum, as we got reccuring GT characters in plethora of video games across all platforms, there were few runs of GT comic over the years, now recently in V-Jump.
Is it even still as popular to be included in games because of public demand or are the companies behind the franchise just leveraging the existence of extra character and stories, that they can adapt and to the mix for variety?

I'd love to get some answers from external sources also, because here the situation is clear. Even tho I have huge nostalgic feeling for the show and will watch it from time to time through my life to get this sense of childhood atmo, we can probably all agree that objectively, the show is lacking on story and writing front, while it has lot of cool designs.

While it's difficult to fully quantify this question, I can speak only from personal experience which I'm sure others may share. I would argue that GT is really only "popular" to those who follow the franchise closely. I love talking to people about Dragon Ball, but sadly, when the conversation shifts to GT, the only response that I get is that..."it's trash." And it appears that Dragon Ball Super is held in higher regard than GT.

So, in my experience it is popular in the sense that people know what it is, but they have only seen bits and pieces or just heard that it's bad, so they don't watch it. Aside from the inclusion of GT transformations and characters in Super Dragon Ball Heroes, which I think is probably just done for the sake of variety, I really don't think it has that broad of appeal.

[Hellspawn28]

GT still included in video games and merchandise.

Yeah, but that does not mean it's not unpopular with fans. The characters can be popular, but not the show itself. I still many casual fans that are like "GT sucks because it's not canon" and "Skip GT!!". Even before GT was dubbed in English, I still remember many fans were not happy with the show.

I feel like we didn't get a new series for so long because it felt too risky to do another show without Toriyama. Doing another GT style show would have been too risky.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Thank you for your kind words and your trust in me.

No problem at all.

I would argue that GT is really only "popular" to those who follow the franchise closely. I love talking to people about Dragon Ball, but sadly, when the conversation shifts to GT, the only response that I get is that..."it's trash." And it appears that Dragon Ball Super is held in higher regard than GT.

That is a good point. Dragon Ball Z was one of my closest friend's favourite show growing up, but he only watched the first episode of GT. Most other fans I've spoken to have either enjoyed GT or been lukewarm about it.

I would guess the fact GT is more of an experimental series and is different from Z made some people tune out, conversely fans who just saw it as more Dragon Ball and were willing to give it a chance and liked GT for what it was, even if its not what they wanted from a sequel to Z.

I think that Super has filled a gap for those fans who felt dissatisfied by GT, the fans who wanted big battles from the get-go, the fans who wanted Goku to remain an adult, the fans who wanted to see Vegeta still trying to surpass him, and so fort. On the other hand Super has shown another part of the fandom how great some of GT's ideas were, and appreciate it wasn't constantly trying to pander to the fans.

[Majin Man 101]

Thank you for your kind words and your trust in me.

No problem at all.

I would argue that GT is really only "popular" to those who follow the franchise closely. I love talking to people about Dragon Ball, but sadly, when the conversation shifts to GT, the only response that I get is that..."it's trash." And it appears that Dragon Ball Super is held in higher regard than GT.

That is a good point. Dragon Ball Z was one of my closest friend's favourite show growing up, but he only watched the first episode of GT. Most other fans I've spoken to have either enjoyed GT or been lukewarm about it.

I would guess the fact GT is more of an experimental series and is different from Z made some people tune out, conversely fans who just saw it as more Dragon Ball and were willing to give it a chance and liked GT for what it was, even if its not what they wanted from a sequel to Z.

I think that Super has filled a gap for those fans who felt dissatisfied by GT, the fans who wanted big battles from the get-go, the fans who wanted Goku to remain an adult, the fans who wanted to see Vegeta still trying to surpass him, and so fort. On the other hand Super has shown another part of the fandom how great some of GT's ideas were, and appreciate it wasn't constantly trying to pander to the fans.

The decision in Dragon Ball GT to turn Goku back into a child was absolutely one of the best ideas ever. GT executed it pretty flawlessly in my opinion and it felt natural. Worked good for the story and added good comic relief in how it was utilized. Goku still kept all his growth as a character while being shrunk down to the size of a child. Conversely, Super kept him an adult, but he acts dumber than ever.

All I know is that if Dragon Ball Super anime ever continues, they could really test some of the popularity of GT by throwing in Super Saiyan 4 as the next transformation after Super Saiyan Blue.... Or is Ultra Instinct a transformation? Or is it a technique? I don't really know. But I bet you that if Super introduces Super Saiyan 4 or tries to do a retelling of a GT arc, it will increase the popularity of GT.

[Skar]

Yeah, but that does not mean it's not unpopular with fans. The characters can be popular, but not the show itself. I still many casual fans that are like "GT sucks because it's not canon" and "Skip GT!!". Even before GT was dubbed in English, I still remember many fans were not happy with the show.

I feel like we didn't get a new series for so long because it felt too risky to do another show without Toriyama. Doing another GT style show would have been too risky.

Well I don't think any shonen sequel was as successful as the original if the author wasn't involved. GT could've been better but likely would've still been seen as a DB sequel without Toriyama. Heroes is a Japan exclusive game and still includes GT characters and transformations. I assume there are enough fans who like the show in order to include almost everything that appeared in it.

[Jord]

Whether you like GT or not, it gave us unique concepts and designs that still "work" today. They are refreshing and stand out.
SSJ4's design is way "out there" but it's unique and liked by fans. You won't mistake it for another, similar looking form. Same goes for (then) new designs such as Pan, GT Trunks (clothing), Giru, the Shadow Dragons, Super 17 etc. From a design standpoint they stand out from Z which gives them a unique appeal. Whether their storylines were great or not doesn't matter since their designs stand out and can be used in new stories.

When you look at Super, a lot of the designs are derided from Z with minimal design changes. Let's be fair, the new anime forms are just recolors of existing forms from Z. Making it (probably) intentionally blend in with Z more, but giving it less of it's own unique identity.

GT as a show is also unique in it's tone. While Super plays it extremely safe, GT breaks all kinds of unwritten rules that Z established. Important characters actually die and stay dead, characters get whole new looks right from the get go. The soundtrack has a way different feel than Z. It's the end of the trilogy and basically, anything can happen. Characters act like progressions of their earlier selves and when you have watched those characters grow up it's interesting to see them in a later stage in their lives.
Whether you like GT or not, it's different, which makes it stand out.

[MasenkoHA]

Even before GT was dubbed in English, I still remember many fans were not happy with the show.

.

Indeed, GT's unpopularity with sub fans seemed to be a major part in Funimation's decision to reversion the whole thing after taking baby steps in the right direction with the original Dragon Ball and YuYu Hakusho

[sunsetshimmer]

Fans want GT content in games. it seems most of fandom like GT characters, villains and forms, but not necessarily series story and execution. Anyway i know plenty of DB fans and all of them like GT. There was one guy at my work place that was pretty young and was more fresh "post Super era" fan than someone who grew on watching DB and he preffered Super overall, but still considered GT to be decent.

I'd assume GT is more hated in internet than it actually is in real life and tbh before Super i didn't really see much hate towards it. Existence of Super divided fanbase into "GT fans" and "DBS fans" which is just sad, as hating Super automatically makes you "GT fan" and vice versa, like you couldn't just like both or dislike both.

Popularity and reception isn't the same thing though. GT was never as popular as DBZ, but i believe it's still more popular than og DB and liked more probably thanks to Baby arc changing series tone closer to DBZ rather than early DB.

So yeah, GT isn't beloved in fanbase, but it's still popular. Not as much as Z, not as much as Super, but it's not like people don't talk about it and do not show any interest in GT content. If it wasn't popular, people wouldn't waste time making countless "GT vs Super" discussions.

[Goe]

I'd assume GT is more hated in internet than it actually is in real life

First of all, I believe you, but my experiences are the opposite… maybe because we are from different countries.

In 1998, GT came to Spain. I was a DB fan but I wasn't able to net-surfing then. I didn't like GT then. Reasons were less epic fights and Pan being annoying. I had 2 close friends who were also DB fans and I told one of them I didn't like GT and he told me he neither. I knew him and he would never agreed with me only due to conformism (we both disliked GT but usually had arguments due to different preferences about other things). The other friend never told us his opinion about GT.

About 2003, I had 3 new friends who were DB fans and they didn't like GT. One of them told me he hated when Parapara brothers forced Goku, Pan and Trunks to dance because he consider it was a ridiculous scene. He also hated Vegeta with moustache. I think he wasn't influenced by the internet because he hadn't MSN messenger then, so I guess he didn't use internet regularly. Moreover, even he likes DB, I know he didn't usually search about it in internet because he didn't know about Journey to the West until I told him recently (and when someone search in internet about DB, easily discover that… I discovered it at 2006 at the latest)

In 2007, in University, there were a talk about childhood cartoons and a boy mentioned "Son Goku". A girl said "I didn't watched GT" and the boy replied "GT was bad".

That kind of things happened outside the internet.

before Super i didn't really see much hate towards it.

I have the opposite experience. After Super I suspect that GT is less hated than before (I explained it here: viewtopic.php?p=1713248#p1713248). One of my friends who hated GT before Super told me once "I didn't like GT at all, but I think GT is good compared with Super". The same guy told me in other ocasion that he prefered GT because with Super, the end of Z is a non-sense and he hates the Zeno Sama even more than Giru.

That is my experience outside internet. I am not sure it has sense to separate real life to internet because DB fans have the same preferences in internet and real life. But I think after net-surfing, preferences may change in some fans that follow the leaders.

For example, in a former DB forum (about 2006-2007), the leaders usually said DB manga is a masterpiece, and anime filler, movies and GT was garbage because Toei writters were bad. If someone expressed different opinions, he/she could be treated as a "n00b". One guy explicitely said that he liked GT as a child but once he read anti-GT opinions in internet, stopped liking it. I guess this forum promoted conformism. Some users would change their preferences because they were influenced by the group leaders in that forum. Obviously, users were too young there, mostly teenagers. So in this case, internet may have increased GT "hatred". Despite of that, proGT users were more than antiGT users in that forum, but antiGT users expressed plenty of reasons to hate GT while proGT users usually avoid that argument. In any case, most popular forum users were anti-GT and that could encourage conformism.

But, I repeat, I have experiences of GT hatred outside internet. Moreover, most of them were before internet era. If after internet era, GT hatred increased, It was because before internet, GT haters were a bunch, because a small group of individuals couldn't create a tendency without marketing strategies… and we are talking about DB fans, not marketing experts.

Moreover, as a GT hater before the internet, I could say that I already shared the opinion about Pan being annoying and hateful before read the same opinions in internet. I think Pan is one of the principal reasons GT was disapointing for many fans. In my opinion, that experience support the hypothesis of GT being hated for different reasons that internet encouraging to hate it.