Why don’t the Dragon Ball Z movies fit with the main story?
It was extremely common for anime movies of the day — particularly adaptations of Shueisha’s shōnen and shōjo properties — to be stand-alone stories that don’t “fit” or otherwise reconcile with the mainline continuity. This was completely by design, both on purpose to tell these standalone stories, as well as due to the ongoing productions for the main television series.
How were these movies screened in Japan?
As opposed to the modern films (starting with 2013’s Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods), the older films were screened as multi-feature presentations at Toei festivals during school breaks in Japan. Sometimes there would be special themes to the festivals; for example, Dragon Ball Z Movie 3 was part of the “Akira Toriyama: The World” exhibition, and played alongside animated adaptations of two other Toriyama works: Pink and Kennosuke-sama.
Other times the additional features could be a Slam Dunk movie, a Ninku movie, etc. These festivals and movies were a chance for existing fans to have fun with the characters they knew, as well as a chance for new fans to get absorbed into the world without really having to know what was going on in the “real” story in the comic book or television series.
Whose decision was it to make the movies this way?
The decision to keep the movie stories separate from the main comic and television series continuity was a joint decision among all production partners and rights-holders. Scriptwriter Takao Koyama described this process in his interview for the 2006 “Dragon Box: The Movies” DVD box set release:
How did you create the original stories for the theatrical movies?
When we made the episodes for the theatrical features, first the scriptwriter, the producer, and Toriyama-sensei‘s supervising editor would get together, and meet about story concepts, such as what to do about the main villain. Then I would put together a plot based on the content of what we’d talked about. I’d send that plot to Toriyama-sensei and get his opinion on it, then start writing out the scenario — that was the typical flow. Once I got to writing, I’d be joined at the hip with the producer.With regards to the contents, there was the restriction that the movie “not progress into story settings further ahead than the TV anime at the time of its premiere”; for example, even if I’d decided to do fusion, I wouldn’t be allowed to do it ahead of the TV anime or the original manga. So I’d always be conscious of its state of progress on TV, and if we were doing the Freeza arc in the TV anime at the time of the premiere, a story would be born with the sense of, “Let’s bring out Freeza’s older brother!” Except, at times such as when the state of production on the TV anime caught up to the original work, it would be extremely tough with nothing to use as hints, and I received ideas directly from Toriyama-sensei.
It would take about three months’ time from the planning stage until the completion of a single movie’s scenario. Dragon Ball Z had two movies shown each year, in spring and summer, so that works out to me having been writing a theatrical movie scenario for over half a given year at the time. (laughs)
Continuing to use Dragon Ball Z Movie 3 as an example, you can see below just how close releases across the different media were at the time. This was often the case, as new chapters and episodes were released weekly.
How does Akira Toriyama view the movies?
In his “Super Interview” within Daizenshuu #6 (“Movies & TV Specials”) — and more on that book in a bit! — Toriyama makes a pretty innocuous statement about the separation of the main continuity and the contemporary films:
What is your personal stance on Dragon Ball‘s theatrical films, Sensei?
I take the movies as “stories in a different dimension from the main story of the comic”. I’m entirely just an audience member for them.
The key phrase Toriyama uses here is 別次元 (betsujigen), which means “another dimension” but also “on a whole different level”. There’s not necessarily a deeper meaning here about “timelines” and “continuities” — it’s a very simple way of saying “hey, this thing here is different from that over there.”
Toriyama’s explanation of “just an audience member for them” isn’t entirely accurate as he did design work for a wealth of characters, but his wording here more specifically means that he’s not a single guiding, leading point for their story and purpose for fitting these films into a larger, consistent narrative.
Was this understood in Japan at the time?
In this snippet from an article in the August 1995 issue of Animerica, Takashi Oshiguchi — who not only contributed the “From the Forest” column to the magazine each month, but also owned and operated the “Manga no Mori” store in Japan and also contributed to Animage — described the setup of these films:
Toei’s features tend to be the side-stories of the Toei animated or live-action shows on TV that year. They’re also stories that fit within a 30- to 40-minute frame, and–so as to not confuse the children–the plot does not conform with the continuity of the TV show. Japanese animated shows (and live-action shows) change annually, so the Anime Festival’s titles change every year, as well. And thus, most of its features are self-contained stories. But then, there are shows such as DRAGON BALL, which have been going on for nearly ten years. With two theatrical releases a year, you can see how quickly (and how easily) carefully plotted TV continuity can be breached, and why the TV continuities are therefore avoided in Toei Anime Festival releases.
After all, in the main DRAGON BALL continuity, main character Goku grows up and raises a family; his children grow up, and they eventually become the main characters themselves. As they grow up, various new friends and villains show up. The theatrical feature is just a short film that comes out every half-year, so it can’t cover the half-year of development in the official story. On the other hand, if a feature just tells its own story–for example, one with Goku still in his childhood–children might get confused.
Theatrical features must tell an original story that stands on its own at the theater, while still assuming that the children are familiar with the developments in the TV show. So usually the central characters in the feature are those who have been associated with the main character on TV by the time they show up in the theater, and they then get to face off villains original to the feature.
You might say it’s unfair of the Toei Anime Festival to expect its attendees to follow the TV show in order to enjoy the features. But remember that the primary audience is, of course, children. The grand premise is that children should be able to fully enjoy and be excited about seeing DRAGON BALL at the theater, and I think this is what is expected by children who both watch the TV show and attend the Toei Anime Festivals, as well.
What do the guidebooks say?
There are two notable guidebook tidbits to sort through: Daizenshuu 6’s anecdotes, and Daizenshuu 7’s timeline.
Daizenshuu 6 (“Movies & TV Specials”)
While the vast majority of the movies can’t “fit” with the main story continuity, on the first page of each movie’s spotlight section (examples for DBZ movies 1 and 7 shown below), Daizenshuu 6 acknowledges this but goes a step further and proposes time slots in which the movies would happen if they could happen — note the timeline of events printed along the vertical black bar with each movie’s introductory page.
What’s particularly notable here for Daizenshuu 6’s descriptions is that they go so far as to note these placements with sentences such as 平行世界的な出来事といえる (or “It can be said that these are parallel world events”). This is why it’s important to actually read the surrounding text for these tidbits, rather than simply looking at the timeline placement infographic and taking them at basic face-value — there is more clarification being made in the Japanese text!
- DBZ Movie 1: Since Goku and Chi-Chi are together and have Gohan, and since Goku dies during the battle against Raditz, this movie must happen sometime between these events
- DBZ Movie 2: Due to the “kame” kanji on Goku’s chest and the “kaiō” kanji on his back, this movie must happen sometime between the fight with Vegeta and Goku’s arrival on Planet Namek. However, Gohan is on Earth when he should be on Namek.
- DBZ Movie 3: Once again considering the kanji on Goku’s outfit, this movie must happen around when Goku arrives on Planet Namek. However, the fight against these villains take place on Earth, contradicting the main story events.
- DBZ Movie 4: Since Goku has not yet become a Super Saiyan, this movie must happen sometime between his arrival on Planet Namek and his Super Saiyan transformation. However, Goku and the others should be in the midst of their battle on Namek.
- DBZ Movie 5: Within the movie’s dialogue, the Turtle Hermit says that Goku has come back from Planet Namek. Therefore, this movie must happen some time during the three years between the appearance of Trunks and the artificial humans.
- DBZ Movie 6: Due to Goku having no kanji on his outfit, as well as Vegeta’s Super Saiyan transformation and Dende being God, this movie must be somewhere between the declaration of and events of the Cell Games.
- DBZ Movie 7: Since Dr. Gero has been killed and Gohan is seemingly unable to become a Super Saiyan, but because Goku should either be out of commission from the heart disease or training in the Room of Spirit and Time, this movie must be an event in some sort of parallel world.
- DBZ Movie 8: Gohan is able to transform into a Super Saiyan, but with Goku and the others so casually enjoying the cherry blossom festival when they should otherwise be engaged with Cell, even though this movie would seem to take place between Cell reaching his perfect form and the Cell Games, it does not fully fit.
- DBZ Movie 9: Within the movie’s dialogue, it is stated that Trunks has defeated #17 and #18 in his future timeline. Therefore, this movie must take place a short time after the end of the Cell Games, and before Gohan becomes a high school student.
- DBZ Movie 10: Due to the fact that Goku is dead, and based on Videl’s hairstyle, this movie must take place sometime shortly before the 25th Tenka’ichi Budokai.
- DBZ Movie 11: With #18 demanding prize money from Mr. Satan, this movie must take place sometime after the 25th Tenka’ichi Budokai has ended. However, since everyone (notably Goten and Trunks) should be busy fighting Boo at this time, it does not fully fit.
- DBZ Movie 12: Within the movie’s dialogue, Goku mentions Boo by name; additionally, Gotenks appears and Vegeta is dead. Therefore, this movie must take place sometime during (but before the end of) the fight with Boo.
- DBZ Movie 13: Since Goku and Vegeta have their physical bodies and the world otherwise seems to be at peace, this movie must take place after the battle with Boo has ended.
Daizenshuu 7 (“Large Encyclopedia”)
Sprinkled in with what is otherwise a fairly by-the-books reconciling of the different Ages and timeframes noted in the manga and television series, Daizenshuu 7 curiously cites — of all the possible ones to include! — (at least some version of) the events from DBZ movies 1 and 5 in its timeline:
DBZ Movie 1 is listed has having happened in Age 761. This is the same year as the events with Raditz in the mainline continuity, but of course these two stories can’t actually happen alongside each other. Perhaps those at Caramel Mama compiling the timeline felt compelled to list this movie’s events since they had included the events from the film’s “sequel”-ish filler arc in the television series?
More questionable, however, is the timeline’s citation of DBZ Movie 5 happening sometime between Age 764 and 767. To be clear, the curious part of this citation is not necessarily its appearance at all, but the fact that these two movies are the only ones cited in Daizenshuu 7’s timeline!
The slightly-updated timeline in Chōzenshū 4 keeps these two movie references, and adds an additional one for the 2013 theatrical film, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods (in Age 788), but the then-recent-film’s inclusion isn’t a surprise considering its promotion at the time as being within the “official history” of the mainline continuity.
What Changed?
Particularly with adaptations of Shueisha properties, this style of movie production largely changed with the release of One Piece Film: Strong World in 2009. This new era of One Piece theatrical films featured stories personally written and overseen by manga author Eiichirō Oda, and has continued up through (as of this article’s writing) 2022’s One Piece Film: Red.
This trend also carried over to other franchises — see, for example, series such as Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen receiving theatrical films that either directly continue the story, and/or adapt events from their respective manga. By leveraging the name and involvement of the original author, the production teams shoot for larger budgets and fan engagement.
For the Dragon Ball franchise, this change occurred with the 2013 theatrical film, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods mid-production: while the film was initially in development at Toei with a script by Yūsuke Watanabe and character designs by Tadayoshi Yamamuro, Akira Toriyama became involved (at the suggestion of Kazuhiko Torishima), effectively rewriting and reworking the entire script and scenario. From there, Toriyama personally wrote the scripts for 2015’s Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’, 2018’s Dragon Ball Super: Broly, and 2022’s Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
Dragon Ball Heroes
TO ADD: 歴史
Additional Resources
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