Was Nigrissi supposed to be part of Anilaza?

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LoganForkHands73
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Was Nigrissi supposed to be part of Anilaza?

Post by LoganForkHands73 » Mon Mar 29, 2021 11:44 am

Anilaza is a... perplexing character. Conceived as the ultimate, final trump card for the technologically-minded Team Universe 3 in their survivalist stratagem throughout the Tournament of Power, Anilaza is a merged warrior composed of four U3 "modified warriors": Dr. Paparoni and his three robotic creations Panchia, Koitsukai and Bollarator. He's notable for being by far the largest combatant in the entire tournament, totally dwarfing the other large cyborgs on Team U3 as well as the Metalman Magetta from Team U6. In the anime, he forms a last stand against the combined might of Team U7, almost eliminating Android #17 and causing Android #18 to sacrifice herself in her brother's place. He's ultimately defeated by the combined strength of Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Freeza and #17, the latter of whom ironically lands the deciding blow against the big red gem on his forehead.

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He is defeated much more ignominiously (and hilariously) by Berserker Kale in the manga, as his enormous size causes him to stumble out of the arena after Kale delivers a single kick to his abdomen.

There's very little information out there regarding the design process behind Anilaza. Many have labelled him a hodgepodge of various Toei-made monsters from days past, most notably Hatchiyack, whom Anilaza definitely resembles the most:
He's certainly a Toei creation for the anime, though Toyotaro incorporated him into the manga for a brief cameo as described above. Like most characters not from Universe 6, 7 and 11, Toyotaro sweeps him aside with little fanfare. In the anime, Paparoni fuses with his robots after they had already fused themselves together into the abominable 'Koichiarator', a step in the transformation that's omitted in the manga version.

Anyway, onto the main point... Anilaza's design doesn't make a huge amount of sense. Three out of four of his component parts are robotic fighters (seemingly the only warriors from Team U3 to be fully mechanical), with the last being their mostly non-combatant humanoid creator. Anilaza resembles none of them at all, and although he is described as having mechanical features like a reactor core (a weakness that #17 instinctively exploits during their battle), he seems more organic than robotic.

Furthermore, Anilaza is somehow powerful enough to overwhelm the entire Universe 7 squad in a beam struggle until #17 scores that critical hit. Even Jiren steps in to stop his wild energy blasts briefly. While the tin-can robot trio were pretty damn strong, enough to put Ultimate Gohan on the ropes, it's hard to believe that adding in a relative weakling like Paparoni would really tip the scales enough to turn him into an unstoppable monster on par with the two strongest universes combined. So what gives?

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Let's dial things back to before the beginning of the tournament arc. When Universe 3 were introduced, they built up the character Nigrissi to be the team's leader and most powerful warrior, as well as the one who modified all of the other warriors. Looking at Nigrissi's design, there is definitely a resemblance between him and Anilaza. They both have noticeably alien designs and similar colour schemes. Anilaza basically looks like a beefed up, kaiju-sized version of Nigrissi. It was frequently foreshadowed that Universe 3 had some kind of final card to play in the tournament through vague remarks, like when their Kaioshin boasts that Potara fusion is unnecessary (not least because most of his fighters don't have earlobes :eh: ). As Team U3's champion and a genius scientist in his own right, Nigrissi seemed destined to take this role.

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However, that's not what happened. Nigrissi ends up being one of the first U3 warriors to be eliminated, as he's taken out with zero fanfare by Cabba of all people. Base form Cabba. Who wasn't even looking at him when he backhanded him off the stage. Ouch. Not only that, Nigrissi's prized creation Narirama also gets an embarrassing elimination courtesy of Hit and Basil. This gave Universe 3 a perceived jobber status not helped by their comedic personalities and designs, though in reality, the other Universe 3 fighters have a surprisingly decent performance in the anime.

I believe that somewhere along the line, some of the animators or directors made a blunder. If we consider that Anilaza was always on the cards, it seems only natural that Nigrissi would be the one to transform into him. But for whatever reason, someone mistook him for a generic fodder character (easy mistake to make in all honesty) and clumsily slotted him into Cabba's establishing scene, necessitating that the team's other mad scientist Dr. Paparoni take his place as the one who merges to become Anilaza during the endgame of the tournament.

Further evidence of this: while I've not seen any footage of this, apparently Anilaza makes an appearance in the arcade game's version of the Universe Conflict arc from Dragon Ball Heroes, where he appears as a separate being from Paparoni. That may not sound like a big deal considering the fact that various versions of Gogeta and Vegetto have met in that game, I don't believe it's commented on so either Bandai Namco forgot about Anilaza's anime origin, or they were going with what may have been the original concept behind him.

All things considered, while I can acknowledge that he's possibly the most conceptually botched up character in the entire arc, I don't hate Anilaza. It was entertaining to see the Dragon Team fight a giant kaiju with buckets of nonsensical abilities. The eventual joint beam struggle between them was a legitimately iconic scene for me. It's the sort of untamed madness that the Tournament of Power setting was built to showcase.

But anyway, what do you think of the theory? Convincing, or was Anilaza really nothing but a last minute rush job?

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Re: Was Nigrissi supposed to be part of Anilaza?

Post by Xeogran » Mon Mar 29, 2021 12:50 pm

I agree with what you said, Nigrisshi looks the most similar to Anilaza and probably should be his main component. Now it's just weird.

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Re: Was Nigrissi supposed to be part of Anilaza?

Post by WittyUsername » Mon Mar 29, 2021 1:24 pm

I never actually considered this, but now that you mention it, that does make sense. I also am fairly certain that Kale was originally supposed to be Renso’s sister, rather than Caulifla, considering that she actually kind of looks like him.

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Re: Was Nigrissi supposed to be part of Anilaza?

Post by Krillin1994 » Fri Apr 16, 2021 9:03 pm

Always a possibility that more of them could've fused into making Anilaza even stronger, but they just had to use who was remaining.

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Re: Was Nigrissi supposed to be part of Anilaza?

Post by Cipher » Fri Apr 16, 2021 11:18 pm

I find this plausible.

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Re: Was Nigrissi supposed to be part of Anilaza?

Post by Yo'Goodfella » Thu Jun 03, 2021 6:02 am

I can definitely see it, though my memory on U3 is really foggy at the moment (I started doing a rewatch).

It does feel like there's some confusion on what the new characters are supposed to be for me. Then again, I am trying to refresh my memory on that fact. Nigrissi had one of the most disappointing eliminations for sure, as we've never seen him showcase any technique, I think the only moment before his elimination that we see was him running alongside his teammates.

This theory could very well be confirmed or not based on Nigrissi's moveset and how close it would be to Anilaza.


Maybe it was discarded as they thought having a fusion of 5 fighters was too risky, as it's 5 fighters lost when Anilaza falls? I'm not sure.
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Re: Was Nigrissi supposed to be part of Anilaza?

Post by Polyphase Avatron » Thu Jun 03, 2021 7:28 am

Yo'Goodfella wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 6:02 am I can definitely see it, though my memory on U3 is really foggy at the moment (I started doing a rewatch).

It does feel like there's some confusion on what the new characters are supposed to be for me. Then again, I am trying to refresh my memory on that fact. Nigrissi had one of the most disappointing eliminations for sure, as we've never seen him showcase any technique, I think the only moment before his elimination that we see was him running alongside his teammates.

This theory could very well be confirmed or not based on Nigrissi's moveset and how close it would be to Anilaza.


Maybe it was discarded as they thought having a fusion of 5 fighters was too risky, as it's 5 fighters lost when Anilaza falls? I'm not sure.
Plot twist: Nigrissi is actually super strong, and his elimination was just due to being caught off-guard at a very unlucky time (i.e. Goku and Sorbet's laser).
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Re: Was Nigrissi supposed to be part of Anilaza?

Post by Yo'Goodfella » Thu Jun 03, 2021 7:39 am

Polyphase Avatron wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 7:28 am
Yo'Goodfella wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 6:02 am I can definitely see it, though my memory on U3 is really foggy at the moment (I started doing a rewatch).

It does feel like there's some confusion on what the new characters are supposed to be for me. Then again, I am trying to refresh my memory on that fact. Nigrissi had one of the most disappointing eliminations for sure, as we've never seen him showcase any technique, I think the only moment before his elimination that we see was him running alongside his teammates.

This theory could very well be confirmed or not based on Nigrissi's moveset and how close it would be to Anilaza.


Maybe it was discarded as they thought having a fusion of 5 fighters was too risky, as it's 5 fighters lost when Anilaza falls? I'm not sure.
Plot twist: Nigrissi is actually super strong, and his elimination was just due to being caught off-guard at a very unlucky time (i.e. Goku and Sorbet's laser).
I wish I could say the same really, but he was trying to attack Cabba as he got backhanded. I wonder if more cases like the one you mentioned could be true, as there has to be SOME merit to a fighter if they were chosen to represent a universe.

Dr. Rota and Jirasen come to mind.
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I'm really not an expert on the matter, but I like to think.

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Re: Was Nigrissi supposed to be part of Anilaza?

Post by Gokitalo » Fri Jun 11, 2021 9:37 pm

LoganForkHands73 wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 11:44 am I believe that somewhere along the line, some of the animators or directors made a blunder. If we consider that Anilaza was always on the cards, it seems only natural that Nigrissi would be the one to transform into him. But for whatever reason, someone mistook him for a generic fodder character (easy mistake to make in all honesty) and clumsily slotted him into Cabba's establishing scene, necessitating that the team's other mad scientist Dr. Paparoni take his place as the one who merges to become Anilaza during the endgame of the tournament.
I don't think it was an error, to be honest. If Nigrissi was intentionally made to resemble Anilaza (I doubt it, but there are definitely certain visual similarities), it could've been a misdirect-- something Toriyama himself, at least, is quite fond of. Besides, the Super anime staff was regularly corresponding with Toriyama while putting the arc together, so it's very likely any questions regarding who's supposed to become Anilaza would've been cleared up.

At any rate, while Paparoni doesn't seem like an all-too powerful person alone, let's not forget about that special staff he carries around: that probably played a big role in the power increase. Plus we know that the merging of flesh and machine can often create some pretty powerful warriors in Dragon Ball, for whatever reason (as the Artificial Humans have shown us-- 17 and 18 went from being normal humans to having battle powers well above Freeza's, just with tech).

We may never know the full "how" behind Anilaza, and it's not impossible that you're right, but I personally think the choices the Super anime made regarding the character were deliberate. But hey, maybe one day an animator or director who worked on the Tournament of Power will say otherwise, who knows...

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Re: Was Nigrissi supposed to be part of Anilaza?

Post by Polyphase Avatron » Sat Jun 12, 2021 1:53 am

Gokitalo wrote: Fri Jun 11, 2021 9:37 pm
LoganForkHands73 wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 11:44 am I believe that somewhere along the line, some of the animators or directors made a blunder. If we consider that Anilaza was always on the cards, it seems only natural that Nigrissi would be the one to transform into him. But for whatever reason, someone mistook him for a generic fodder character (easy mistake to make in all honesty) and clumsily slotted him into Cabba's establishing scene, necessitating that the team's other mad scientist Dr. Paparoni take his place as the one who merges to become Anilaza during the endgame of the tournament.
I don't think it was an error, to be honest. If Nigrissi was intentionally made to resemble Anilaza (I doubt it, but there are definitely certain visual similarities), it could've been a misdirect-- something Toriyama himself, at least, is quite fond of. Besides, the Super anime staff was regularly corresponding with Toriyama while putting the arc together, so it's very likely any questions regarding who's supposed to become Anilaza would've been cleared up.
How could it have been a misdirect? We saw Nigrisshi way before we even knew that Anilaza was a thing.
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Re: Was Nigrissi supposed to be part of Anilaza?

Post by Gokitalo » Sat Jun 12, 2021 4:28 pm

Polyphase Avatron wrote: Sat Jun 12, 2021 1:53 am
How could it have been a misdirect? We saw Nigrisshi way before we even knew that Anilaza was a thing.
Perhaps not in the direct sense-- I can't recall if Anilaza was teased in promotional material before the tournament-- but definitely indirectly, as the four beings who formed Anilaza weren't exactly the most menacing-looking of Universe 3's fighters. Borareta, Koitsukai and Panchia certainly didn't look all that formidable compared to most of the other tournament competitors in general, and that goes triple for Paparoni... yet they ended up forming two extremely powerful beings when fused. Meanwhile, Nigrissi bore a much closer resemblance to a traditional fighter, and his monstrous features certainly gave him an air of menace... and yet he didn't amount to much.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Super anime staff looked at Borareta, Koitsukai, Panchia and Paparoni and went, "You know what? If we made THEM Anilaza... no one would see it coming." Nigrissi, conversely, would have been the more obvious choice, and Dragon Ball isn't a franchise that likes leaning toward the obvious... not usually, anyway.

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Re: Was Nigrissi supposed to be part of Anilaza?

Post by precita » Sun Jun 13, 2021 9:45 pm

They basically didn't plan any of this out ahead of time.

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Re: Was Nigrissi supposed to be part of Anilaza?

Post by WittyUsername » Thu Jun 17, 2021 1:57 pm

Gokitalo wrote: Sat Jun 12, 2021 4:28 pm
Polyphase Avatron wrote: Sat Jun 12, 2021 1:53 am
How could it have been a misdirect? We saw Nigrisshi way before we even knew that Anilaza was a thing.
Perhaps not in the direct sense-- I can't recall if Anilaza was teased in promotional material before the tournament-- but definitely indirectly, as the four beings who formed Anilaza weren't exactly the most menacing-looking of Universe 3's fighters. Borareta, Koitsukai and Panchia certainly didn't look all that formidable compared to most of the other tournament competitors in general, and that goes triple for Paparoni... yet they ended up forming two extremely powerful beings when fused. Meanwhile, Nigrissi bore a much closer resemblance to a traditional fighter, and his monstrous features certainly gave him an air of menace... and yet he didn't amount to much.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Super anime staff looked at Borareta, Koitsukai, Panchia and Paparoni and went, "You know what? If we made THEM Anilaza... no one would see it coming." Nigrissi, conversely, would have been the more obvious choice, and Dragon Ball isn't a franchise that likes leaning toward the obvious... not usually, anyway.
I think you might be giving Toei too much credit.

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