Dragon Ball GT tried to be Dragon Ball again?

[dbboxkaifan]

Admittedly I enjoyed Dragon Ball GT very much but that might've been due to how they handled the series, to me it seems they copied content from Dragon Ball to a series of its own (DBGT).

• Reason 1] Goku turns to a child.
• Reason 2] He's accompanied by a female character (Pan) whereas in Dragon Ball he travelled around with Bulma.
• Reason 3] Zunama terrorised a village who'd terrorise the residents to get the prettiest girl and in Dragon Ball there was Oolong for this.
• Reason 4] Gill is just an advanced Dragon Radar that Bulma invented on the original series too.
• Reason 5] Search for the Dragon Balls which they also done before.
• Reason 6] Emperor Pilaf of all people is the one to shrink Goku unintentionally.
• Reason 7] Dragon Ball: Path to Power used GT animation & music while it was all about Dragon Ball only.
• Reason 8] On Dragon Ball GT TV Special Goku Junior visits Mt. Paozu for the 4-Star Ball.

So seeing all these similarities it's hard to hate on Dragon Ball GT (I've always loved it) while it's technically not a real series it's fun to watch nevertheless.

[Wibbs]

It's no secret, the first series of GT is more or less the first series of DragonBall, but in space.

[Friezacooler]

Reason 9] Dragon ball GT builds up further on the legend regarding the origins of the dragonballs Mr Roshi was talking about in dragonball.

[Blade]

They definitely tried to recapture the tone of the original series for the first plot arc at least, but the return to a more action-heavy setting with the introduction of Baby and Super Saiyan 4 was always planned form the start. I think in the Shadow Dragon arc they tried to capture the best of both worlds, in that the episodic format featured both a light and partially comedic caper in the hunt for the evil dragons but also some of the intensity of Goku's battles to defeat them. That's not to say that the first arc isn't completely without it's Z-esque battles, though - such as the fights with Rejick, Luud and Rildo, but there's definitely a larger emphasis on a wider plot as opposed to the simple 'we have to beat this big bad' that Z and the movies invariably went with.

Whether the tepid reception that the first arc received in any way influenced the writing of the Shadow Dragon arc remains to be seen, but even in 2014 there's a lot of mystery and conjecture about what GT's intended scope was, and whether the original intent was to end the series with the defeat of Baby or that successful ratings or merchandise promotion influenced them to extend its remit.

[Hellspawn28]

GT has been known to rehash old ideas from DB and DBZ.

[Cipher]

GT has been known to rehash old ideas from DB and DBZ.

Eh, that's a bit dismissive. I'd say it's more littered with homages. No one's pretending the Zuunama story arc, for example, is anything close to an original scenario. But it's been long enough since the original Dragon Ball that it works to some degree.

There's a strong sense of nostalgia throughout GT, not only in its story arcs, but its endings (Don't You See?, Blue Velvet and Rusty Machine Gun are all littered with homages to earlier events), its tone, etc.

[RocktheDragon]

GT has been known to rehash old ideas from DB and DBZ.

Eh, that's a bit dismissive. I'd say it's more littered with homages. No one's pretending the Zuunama story arc, for example, is anything close to an original scenario. But it's been long enough since the original Dragon Ball that it works to some degree.

There's a strong sense of nostalgia throughout GT, not only in its story arcs, but its endings (Don't You See?, Blue Velvet and Rusty Machine Gun are all littered with homages to earlier events), its tone, etc.

While I do agree with most of your points I would say that GT was a let down in plot developments and character interaction. It just didn't feel like a very organic story was being told and it's something that still bugs me to this day when I put it on to watch. Something's just a little off with the whole series that puts me out of my element in trying to fully enjoy it.

One other aspect perhaps is the music. I don't find the score anywhere near compelling enough beyond the intro taken from another production. There aren't any scenes that I can remember where the music takes me back to it (Gohan becoming SSJ2, Trunks slicing Freeza, etc).

[Hellspawn28]

I feel GT did rehash stuff from the past. The Sigma Force was a robot rehash of The Ginyu Force, The Bebi saga was a rehash of Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans story, SSj4 Goku vs Bebi Vegeta was a rehash of Goku's first fight with Vegeta (Both battles play out very similar from each other), the Super 17 saga rehash Fusion Reborn, SSj4 Gogeta was a rehash of Vegito and Super Yi Xing Long's death was a rehash of Kid Buu's death. Also Bebi Vegeta was pretty much Majin Vegeta 2.0 in my opinion.

[dbboxkaifan]

One other aspect perhaps is the music. I don't find the score anywhere near compelling enough beyond the intro taken from another production. There aren't any scenes that I can remember where the music takes me back to it (Gohan becoming SSJ2, Trunks slicing Freeza, etc).

BGMs: 01, 11, 12, 14, 16, 22, 31, 36, 39, 41, 45, 47, 51, 58, 60, 67, 70, 72, 74

All these tracks are memorable and some of the best that GT's soundtrack have to offer, I for one am saddened that it was never released on CD because they deserve to be heard in high quality.

Since this never had an official release it's okay to leave here a download link of GT's BGM compilation: https://mega.co.nz/#!jQJxkI4D!K7nj-Uhbn ... upfLHijO88

[TheGmGoken]

The fact that is tried to be like DB part 1 is what kinda ruined it. I mean I thought some of the stuff was decent. But the way they pulled it off was so horrible. It's like they tried to hard to be good. Goku became a major idiot. Not naive. But a flat out idiot. Mainly in the dub(Eng) as in the JPN I think he was more like Toei Goku..aka Movie Goku. I give credit for trying but meh. So yes they tried to capture DB's adventure and gag tone. But quickly turned back to Z style action.

[Cipher]

One other aspect perhaps is the music. I don't find the score anywhere near compelling enough beyond the intro taken from another production. There aren't any scenes that I can remember where the music takes me back to it (Gohan becoming SSJ2, Trunks slicing Freeza, etc).

Well, then on that we simply disagree. Kikuchi's score fits the series to a T, but on the whole I find GT''s score far more memorable and affecting, and I think it fits its material well. The insert songs in Z work well in their moments, but they're also kind of patently ridiculous and dated.

[Blade]

One other aspect perhaps is the music. I don't find the score anywhere near compelling enough beyond the intro taken from another production. There aren't any scenes that I can remember where the music takes me back to it (Gohan becoming SSJ2, Trunks slicing Freeza, etc).

Well, then on that we simply disagree. Kikuchi's score fits the series to a T, but on the whole I find GT''s score far more memorable and affecting, and I think it fits its material well. The insert songs in Z work well in their moments, but they're also kind of patently ridiculous and dated.

I think the score for GT is one of the strongest contributors to the show's distinct feel and character. It's a shame that, with such a refined gloss around how the show is presented and put together, that the storyline - the very thing that should be of a decent quality to warrant production in the first place, is incredibly lacking.

On a side note, I do believe that's post number 1000.

[sangofe]

I feel GT did rehash stuff from the past. The Sigma Force was a robot rehash of The Ginyu Force, The Bebi saga was a rehash of Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans story, SSj4 Goku vs Bebi Vegeta was a rehash of Goku's first fight with Vegeta (Both battles play out very similar from each other), the Super 17 saga rehash Fusion Reborn, SSj4 Gogeta was a rehash of Vegito and Super Yi Xing Long's death was a rehash of Kid Buu's death. Also Bebi Vegeta was pretty much Majin Vegeta 2.0 in my opinion.

I'm agreeing so much with all of this.

[90sDBZ]

The only problem with them making GT like DB was that everyone was overpowered and it felt sort of dumb to see them mess around all clumsily instead of just blasting their way through. It would've been funny to see how Vegeta would react to their course of action if he'd gone with them. That aside I really enjoy GT these days. I used to be bothered by all the rehashing but now I've just learned to enjoy it for what it is. And it did get much better once things got more Zish. And I really enjoy the intro/ending themes and SS4 is awesome.

[DBZ Mick]

The early half tries to to be like DB while the second half tries to be more like DBZ. It's like a mesh of both just not always executed the best- saying that as fan of GT. That being said I only really couldn't stand the Zoonama stuff.

[Blade]

The early half tries to to be like DB while the second half tries to be more like DBZ. It's like a mesh of both just not always executed the best- saying that as fan of GT. That being said I only really couldn't stand the Zoonama stuff.

What about Dolltoki and the Para Para brothers?

I think the main thing that annoys me about early GT is, that as soon as it seems to be going somewhere and something is planted that piques my interest, the writers invariably round out the plot line in the laziest, most predictable way possible. Two examples that stand out for me are the introduction of Luud and Rildo, both of which are introduced in episode cliffhangers that feel quite purposeful all of a sudden after previously meandering a little bit, only for any dramatic pay off or tone to be scrubbed out in the following episode.

I get that they were trying to save all the dramatic gravitas for the introduction of Baby, which in some ways they were quite successful with, but I think GT could have been successful with its earlier monster/caper-of-the-week format - I think the guys writing it just needed to be more imaginative.

[DBZ Mick]

I kinda didn't mind the whole Lood cult plot element with the Para Para Brothers and Dolltaki. And later it was all setup for the Machine Mutants and eventually Baby.

[RocktheDragon]

One other aspect perhaps is the music. I don't find the score anywhere near compelling enough beyond the intro taken from another production. There aren't any scenes that I can remember where the music takes me back to it (Gohan becoming SSJ2, Trunks slicing Freeza, etc).

Well, then on that we simply disagree. Kikuchi's score fits the series to a T, but on the whole I find GT''s score far more memorable and affecting, and I think it fits its material well. The insert songs in Z work well in their moments, but they're also kind of patently ridiculous and dated.

That's interesting. For me the story and execution of plot lines in Z is done so well that I think it makes it easier on the Kikuchi score to be that great. By that I mean that there could have probably been a "lesser" score put into Z and the music would still be memorable to me because of the specific scenes and scenarios in that anime. Also I find that the insert songs still work well and don't feel dated to me at all.

With GT I absolutely loathed the story and it probably made it difficult to enjoy what was happening on screen. I disliked the dialogue, the fighting scenes, and pretty much everything that went along with it. That might have gotten in the way of my enjoyment of the music so who knows.

In the near future I might be purchasing the GT Japanese Dragon Box so that would give me a great excuse to watch the series all the way through again. If I do end up purchasing it I might post my thoughts and reflections on the music. This is definitely something interesting to at least think about in a future viewing of that series.

[XanatosVanBadass]

I like to say that DBGT is an attempt to bring back the fun humor of Dragon Ball. Except that they forgot the part where they have to actually make it funny.

[Polyphase Avatron]

GT was surely an attempt to bring back the nostalgic feeling of early Dragonball, but (in my opinion) they failed miserably at it.