What will happen the day Akira Toriyama (God Forbid) Passes away?

[Xeztin]

Basically the title says it itself, let's look at the scenario (again, God forbid as I hope this man lives forever) that the legend himself, Akira Toriyama one day passes away. It could be during Super or perhaps after he steps down, or even after the end of Super and all current official material. What will happen to the franchise? Back in the 90's and back it seemed the traditional thing to do was let the manga (finished or abruptly ended) go with the author meaning it is stopped. Though now a days it seems bringing back old series and letting other artist and authors taking over from the original author/artist and continuing is the thing to do. Examples of this are Toyotaro with Dragon Ball (among many other artists working on the franchise at the moment) and Ikemoto for Boruto. Both of these series STILL have their original authors looking over them. What happens when one of them leaves this world? Will their franchise be stopped out of respect? OR are these two series big enough to get the ol'e western treatment of continuing after the OG author has long passed? (Perhaps turning it over to a successor and paying the OG author's surviving family.)

We're in a hell of a situation here, I have no idea what would happen. I honestly don't think Toriyama would want the franchise to go with him and I'm sure they've all thought about it at some point. Perhaps preparations have already been made? If I was in the man's shoes, I think if I could have my family took care of for generations to come as long as they produce material would be good enough for me. I think it's gotten to big to let go away again too, meaning I doubt they'd stop it. I also don't see why they'd go out of their way to hire all these young artists or the DB Room. I suspect it's already been brought to Toriyama and the higher up's attention? What do you guy's think? Your thoughts on the matter? I wonder about this often as I see happy birthday threads yearly on here.

Edit - This was originally intended to be in the General Franchise section, was posted in Super by accident. Feel free to move if necessary.

[precita]

Dragonball will die with him. Toei will end the series out of respect to the creator.

[Xeztin]

Dragonball will die with him. Toei will end the series out of respect to the creator.

What about Shueisha and all the other companies involved? What happens with all the artists they hire solely for Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball Heroes and Dimps as well? Can they really all just stop after investing so much? I often wonder if Toriyama's kids have any interest in the franchise in general. The video games? It can't all just go away that easily right?

[sintzu]

Dragonball will die with him. Toei will end the series out of respect to the creator.

What about Shueisha and all the other companies involved? What happens with all the artists they hire solely for Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball Heroes and Dimps as well? Can they really all just stop after investing so much?

Saying DB will stop after Toriyama passes away (we're all going to die some day) is like saying Apple would've closed their doors after jobs died. Everyone involved will miss him including the fans but DB will continue beyond his life time and probably beond ours. DB is now bigger than any one person, even its creator.

[Cursemark505]

There's not many more stories that they can tell anyways.
Everything comes to an end.
Dragon ball is not a franchise that continuously go on, especially with the same cast.
Goku has almost reached the pinnacle of power where he can defeat most characters, we've seen most of the strongest characters, the stakes are at their highest.
The Dragon Ball universe simply isn't vast a enough to where they can conjure up an infinite amount of stories unless they decide to asspull a bunch of stuff or switch to a different generation.

Aside from all of that, the voice actors are old.
Nozawa is already almost 81 and I hate to say it but she doesn't have that much time left to be doing this. It'd be weird if they replaced her.

[precita]

When Nozawa dies Toriyama will obviously not want to continue the franchise, and he'll likely stop giving story/plot ideas to Toei. After that Toei will probably just wrap up the series, assuming Nozawa passed away or gets too sick to act in the middle of an arc, and then give it a quick conclusion.

Dragonball without Nozawa or Toriyama should not exist

[Boo Machine]

Whether we believe it should exist or not afterwards doesn't matter. But I have a hard time believing that, If dragonball continues to make money, that they well just push that away. Perhaps I'm missing something , I'm certainly no expert on how Japan would handle a situation like this.

But there are plenty of franchises that outlive their creator and that's because they're still popular.

[Basako]

When Nozawa dies Toriyama will obviously not want to continue the franchise, and he'll likely stop giving story/plot ideas to Toei. After that Toei will probably just wrap up the series, assuming Nozawa passed away or gets too sick to act in the middle of an arc, and then give it a quick conclusion.

Dragonball without Nozawa or Toriyama should not exist

Toriyama won't stop the story if Nozawa retires, not because of that, at least. Neither Toei.

They could make a good casting and find someone who could mimic Nozawa, some people are good at that. Unfortunately the reality is that they would replace her with any other artist they already have. There wouldn't be a casting and the voice would change noticeably. I don't care that much about the original dub in this case, frankly, I don't like Nozawa's Goku, but I understand that people do.

As for Toriyama, he is quite young yet. He already passed the torch once, meaning he is not against that. It was GT, we know it didn't work, but maybe Toyotaro could make a better job. But no need to worry yet, the formula is kind of working now.

[sintzu]

There's not many more stories that they can tell anyways.

Nozawa is already almost 81 and I hate to say it but she doesn't have that much time left to be doing this. It'd be weird if they replaced her.

Look at Pokemon and comics, if there's enough $$$ then it'll go on. We currently have 11 universes that haven't been used much so there are countless stories to be told with them. We've got the GT era that could be revisited & the time patrol content that's in heroes and XV.

When Nozawa dies Toriyama will obviously not want to continue the franchise, and he'll likely stop giving story/plot ideas to Toei.

After that Toei will probably just wrap up the series, assuming Nozawa passed away or gets too sick to act in the middle of an arc, and then give it a quick conclusion.

Dragonball without Nozawa or Toriyama should not exist

He didn't even give a comment for the current arc so he might not be that involved to begin with. When BOG was being made they were going to do it and other future stories, Toriyama coming on board wasn't the plan so if he decides to stop they'll just find someone else.

If you were the head of a major company, would you end something this big ? better question, would you even be allowed to by your shareholders ?

An argument could be made about it not continuing beyond the manga as well but due to its popularity, it has with no endgame in sight.

I agree with you and others, DB should not go on forever but that's just from a viewer/fan point of view. Companies don't think like that, at least most of them. if something makes money then it'll go on for as long as it does so.

[sangofe]

I honestly don't think Toriyama would want the franchise to go with him
.

What makes you say that? I'd think the opposite as he's been hinting at Toyotaro to start putting in his ideas for the story. Besides, Toyotaro made several character designs for the various universes. The situation is nothing like when Fox tried to make their take on the show with their movie.

[Simere]

I honestly don't think Toriyama would want the franchise to go with him

What makes you say that? I'd think the opposite as he's been hinting at Toyotaro to start putting in his ideas for the story. Besides, Toyotaro made several character designs for the various universes.

That's the same, not the opposite. Toriyama wouldn't want the franchise to die with him, he thinks. Honestly.

[sangofe]

I honestly don't think Toriyama would want the franchise to go with him

What makes you say that? I'd think the opposite as he's been hinting at Toyotaro to start putting in his ideas for the story. Besides, Toyotaro made several character designs for the various universes.

That's the same, not the opposite. Toriyama wouldn't want the franchise to die with him, he thinks. Honestly.

Ooops. I read that wrongly

[Totamo]

Here is the thing: Toriyama stopped doing dragon ball for a long time and Toei was running the show.


they don't have a good track record with success when it comes to their own dragon ball stuff. GT and Kai were canceled and none of their movies have came even close to the ones Toriyama were involved with, which is the reason dragon ball super exists right now .


Whether it be his talent or his name, dragon ball is much more successful with him than without him and if dragon ball doesn't make the cash, it 'll be trashed.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

The same as what happened when he initially passed the torch and allowed TOEI to create GT. The series will go on as long as its making money. TOEI just need to learn from their mistakes and use what worked financially to keep things going. And as hard is it might be for people to accept a new Japanese Goku, Nozawa will eventually have a successor. The character is just too iconic.

[sintzu]

Nozawa will eventually have a successor. The character is just too iconic.

When someone is in their 80's anything can happen so I won't be surprised if they already have whoever will take over in case she can't do it anymore.

[Saikyo no Senshi]

Dragon Ball could probably be over before that. There's only so much you can milk before it runs dry. I think that point is coming very soon. 2-3 years tops and the burnout phase will hit unless there's some drastic changes which I don't see the current producers having the balls to do so.

The only thing left that I would like to see is a next generation story. Also, by focusing on non-Nozawa voiced characters, the producers will have to not worry about finding a replacement for an iconic voice. That problem can be solved.

In conclusion, I see two scenarios with either of them being a possibility. 1) DBS ends 2019 or 2020 at best with a final hurrah for all the original staff involved, Toriyama included and that's it. 2) They move to next generation with new staff from top to bottom and totally freshen up this franchise. No Gokuu and No Toriyama.

If unfortunately any of the major players pass away before DBS ends, they can always kickstart the next gen plans immediately. That's what I think will happen.

[Totamo]

Dragon Ball could probably be over before that. There's only so much you can milk before it runs dry. I think that point is coming very soon. 2-3 years tops and the burnout phase will hit unless there's some drastic changes which I don't see the current producers having the balls to do so.

The only thing left that I would like to see is a next generation story. Also, by focusing on non-Nozawa voiced characters, the producers will have to not worry about finding a replacement for an iconic voice. That problem can be solved.

In conclusion, I see two scenarios with either of them being a possibility. 1) DBS ends 2019 or 2020 at best with a final hurrah for all the original staff involved, Toriyama included and that's it. 2) They move to next generation with new staff from top to bottom and totally freshen up this franchise. No Gokuu and No Toriyama.

If unfortunately any of the major players pass away before DBS ends, they can always kickstart the next gen plans immediately. That's what I think will happen.

Dragon ball already did a next gen story and her name was Pan.

Guess what, she is considered one of the worst parts of GT and not many like GT to begin with.

[Ilikepictures-meh]

Dragon Ball could probably be over before that. There's only so much you can milk before it runs dry. I think that point is coming very soon. 2-3 years tops and the burnout phase will hit unless there's some drastic changes which I don't see the current producers having the balls to do so.

The only thing left that I would like to see is a next generation story. Also, by focusing on non-Nozawa voiced characters, the producers will have to not worry about finding a replacement for an iconic voice. That problem can be solved.

In conclusion, I see two scenarios with either of them being a possibility. 1) DBS ends 2019 or 2020 at best with a final hurrah for all the original staff involved, Toriyama included and that's it. 2) They move to next generation with new staff from top to bottom and totally freshen up this franchise. No Gokuu and No Toriyama.

If unfortunately any of the major players pass away before DBS ends, they can always kickstart the next gen plans immediately. That's what I think will happen.

Dragon ball already did a next gen story and her name was Pan.

Guess what, she is considered one of the worst parts of GT and not many like GT to begin with.

Statements like these make no sense. While Pan and GT has a fair amount of critics, they also have many supporters as well.
Also more importantly, since GT seemingly has no relavence as far as the main continuation of the story is concerned, Pan , along with others for the "new generation" could be easily reintroduced and handled very differently, having an entirely different personality/character in the process. So disliking GT version of Pan wouldn't even matter.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Dragon Ball could probably be over before that. There's only so much you can milk before it runs dry. I think that point is coming very soon. 2-3 years tops and the burnout phase will hit unless there's some drastic changes which I don't see the current producers having the balls to do so.

The only thing left that I would like to see is a next generation story. Also, by focusing on non-Nozawa voiced characters, the producers will have to not worry about finding a replacement for an iconic voice. That problem can be solved.

In conclusion, I see two scenarios with either of them being a possibility. 1) DBS ends 2019 or 2020 at best with a final hurrah for all the original staff involved, Toriyama included and that's it. 2) They move to next generation with new staff from top to bottom and totally freshen up this franchise. No Gokuu and No Toriyama.

If unfortunately any of the major players pass away before DBS ends, they can always kickstart the next gen plans immediately. That's what I think will happen.

TOEI will find a way to milk the series much longer than another 3 years, mark my words. I also don't think they are ready to commit to creating Dragon Ball stories without Goku. At this point it would still be a risk because the character is a huge part of this franchise's continued success. I could see them testing the waters with a few random spinoffs here and there to run alongside the main storyline but it will take some time for a Goku-less (for lack of a better term) long running Dragon Ball series to be anywhere near as profitable.

[FortuneSSJ]

We will revive him.