Hot on the heels of our last update on the subject (less than half an hour in fact), Yūsuke Watanabe, scriptwriter of next year’s new Dragon Ball Z film, took to his Twitter account to clarify the timeframe, as pointed out to us by kei17 on the forums:
@komori_mayo ありがとう！厳密にいうと原作漫画の「最終話」と「その直前回」の間です。ＧＴは原作にないからね～。[rest omitted]
@komori_mayo Thanks! Strictly speaking, it’s between the comic’s “final chapter” and “just before that”. GT isn’t part of the original work, after all~. […]
Watanabe’s tweets about the script actually began several days before the official announcement, with him playfully teasing the reveal (which had already been leaked). He also linked to the Comic Natalie article cited by Anime News Network and retweeted a similar article from Oricon, which suggests that he was either interviewed (and uncredited) or otherwise closely involved with the announcement regarding the “lost decade”. While he has not commented on these articles’ second claim — that of the film’s relation to the plot of the manga — we can assume, by his implicit endorsement, that they are probably on the mark. Regarding the content of the films, in addition to mentioning that he “won’t forget getting chills” when writing the iconic lines “Heya! I’m Goku!” or “…Kakarrot…!”, he also had this to say:
劇場版は１７年ぶりとなるアニメ『ドラゴンボールＺ』の脚本をやらせてもらいました。本当に「やらせてもらいました」がピッタリの言葉です。完全新作オリジナルです。鳥山先生は本当に偉大です。童心に戻れます。来年の公開までは金髪でいようと思います。
I was given the honor of doing the script for the first Dragon Ball Z theatrical anime in 17 years. “Given the honor” really is the best way to say it. It’s a completely new, original work. Toriyama-sensei is truly great. I can go back to being a child. I think I’ll keep my hair dyed blond until [the movie] opens next spring.
So, with word from the official screenwriter, it seems that the matter has been settled. With that out of the way, the fandom can now get back to its rampant speculation…!
18 Comments
Is Yusuke Wantanbe the Kai director?
It feels good to know the scriptwriter enjoyed working on the movie. X3
I’ve never heard those 10 years between Buu and Uub referred to as the “Lost Decade” before, I kinda like it, even though I’ll probably continue to call that time period what I have been calling it.
Heh, “Kakarrot” is such a double-edged sword; that could be anyone from Vegeta to Brolli to someone brand new. XD
Also interesting note about GT. Even though I don’t care about what is or is not considered “canon” , I still find that mentioning GT as not a part of the original work curious. I wouldn’t mind eventually seeing a completely different take with completely different character designs (I’m looking at you, “moostache”-Vegeta) on those years in the timeline.
^^^^^^^ I’d love it if Toriyama made a new series or movie down the line that tells us what happens after Uub, in his own opinion. Something to take the place of GT.
As far as this movie is concerned, I hope it feels more like the Jump special and sort of a condensed version of a saga. I mean, give the movie time to develop the characters and have something interesting happen to them (like what happens over the course of a saga/arc)… not just cool fights.
It’s just such a great time to be a Dragonball fan 🙂
Interestingly enough, the fact that the screenwriter doesn’t think GT is part of the original work, would also suggest that he thinks none of the previous movies are, either. This would technically mean that he considers what he’s writing to be a proper continuation of the story.
Did Mike say that in his post? I’m just trying to make my comment relevant. All I really want to get across is how happy I am 😀
Did Mike say that in what post?
He probably meant to ask if Mike mentioned what he wrote:
“Interestingly enough, the fact that the screenwriter doesn’t think GT is part of the original work, would also suggest that he thinks none of the previous movies are, either. This would technically mean that he considers what he’s writing to be a proper continuation of the story”
… in his news post. Which is a strange question…
“he considers what he’s writing to be a proper continuation of the story” you’re speculating here
@dylanmorgan17:
No, he’s a newcomer to the franchise, as we noted back in our post about the movie announcement.
@gotenz1:
What I wrote in the article was that, by linking to certain news articles on his Twitter account, Watanabe has given implicit endorsement to statements about the story being part of the “official history of Dragon Ball”. And just to clear up any confusion, what he means by the “final chapter” is obviously not literally the final weekly installment (chapter 519), but the last, two-chapter story arc, hence the film taking place during the 10 year timeskip before that.
What Mike has written about it, on the other hand, has been mostly, “Julian, we need you to look at this, translate it, and write up something for the website, NOW”. Lovingly, of course.
No one’s going to redo GT, don’t over think it.
There is the risk of doing something worse than GT, so nothing will take its place. Toei will just add new movies or possible series in free spaces. And Toriyama will never replace it, there are contracts with Shueisha and Toei that prevent authors from doing everything they want with their franchise.
“There is the risk of doing something worse than GT, so nothing will take its place.”
Have you ever heard of Dragon Ball Online?
Dragon Ball Online is a video game, so it’s a little different but yet, it doesn’t really take the place of Dragon Ball GT. The game just ignore GT and takes places several years after Dragon Ball GT’s placement in the series’ timeline. Even if the game had included Dragon Ball GT in its timeline, it wouldn’t have changed its main story.
It would have completely changed the story. Goku & Vegeta would never fight, Piccolo would be dead, and the Majin race would never exist.
The Goku & Vegeta disappearance is part of the backstory and doesn’t affect the game’s actual story. Same for Piccolo (Dende could have warned Trunks alone about Miira). And Majin Buu could have created the Majin race in Age 789 instead of Age 790, it wouldn’t have changed anything to the game’s actual story.
No, the Majin race wouldn’t exist. We don’t see Booby or any of their babies in GT, and later, Boo merges with Oob. No Majin race, ever.
The could have existed offscreen, at least a pregnant Booby
It’s not because something is not seen that it doen’t exist
You seriously think this? 🙄