How much of a risk was it to give the movie to Gohan & Piccolo

Discussion specifically regarding the "Dragon Ball Super" TV series premiering July 2015 in Japan, including individual threads for each episode.

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How much of a risk was it to give the movie to Gohan & Piccolo

Post by Michsi » Sun Jun 19, 2022 8:43 am

While trying to gauge the reaction of the Japanese fandom for this movie with my very limited Japanese and Google translate I came across a tweet that kinda depicts my biggest fear of how Super Hero would do: basically an older fan overheard kids asking about Vegeta and Goku after the movie. So yeah, as much as we gripe about the Goku & Vegeta show , it does seem that in the end they pull in the most viewership.

As much as I applaud the decision to focus on other characters, I wonder if the pretty bad treatment Gohan and Piccolo got in Super, which couldn't have made them fan favourites among the younger generation, kinda hindered this movie to be as successful as the others.

I still am super excited and really happy with what I heard about the movie and totally plan on seeing it and buying the dvd. Just sad that not that many seem to share that enthusiasm.

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Re: How much of a risk was it to give the movie to Gohan & Piccolo

Post by Jiren The Alpha » Sun Jun 19, 2022 10:42 am

Toriyama took risks when he first started as a writer, that was a time were he needed money, now i feel like he just writes what he wants to because they is no risk of him losing anything, he still tries to write somthing that fans can like but i thing he prioritize making a story that he likes more then what the fans like.

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Re: How much of a risk was it to give the movie to Gohan & Piccolo

Post by omaro34 » Mon Jun 20, 2022 4:03 pm

You're basing your analysis on what other people think based off a few comments that you had to translate online? Of course there will be those that prefer Goku & Vegeta, but guess what? We've had Goku and Vegeta as the leads for many many years, and the one time the focus isn't on them for a change a certain number of fans complain? Sounds very spoiled to me. We all like the series for different reasons, I'm just thankful we have new Dragonball in 2022.
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Re: How much of a risk was it to give the movie to Gohan & Piccolo

Post by sigmasigma » Mon Jun 20, 2022 4:47 pm

I am not sure whether the movie will be better if it is a Goku vs Cell Max movie

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Re: How much of a risk was it to give the movie to Gohan & Piccolo

Post by Michsi » Tue Jun 21, 2022 3:26 am

omaro34 wrote: Mon Jun 20, 2022 4:03 pm You're basing your analysis on what other people think based off a few comments that you had to translate online? Of course there will be those that prefer Goku & Vegeta, but guess what? We've had Goku and Vegeta as the leads for many many years, and the one time the focus isn't on them for a change a certain number of fans complain? Sounds very spoiled to me. We all like the series for different reasons, I'm just thankful we have new Dragonball in 2022.
Well no, the main factor is that it isn't performing at the box office as well as the other modern movies. I just took that tweet as a representing a possible reason for why that is.

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Re: How much of a risk was it to give the movie to Gohan & Piccolo

Post by ChronoTwigger » Tue Jun 21, 2022 10:53 am

The entirety of DBS is halted in a kinda hiatus. The manga run in circles, the anime stopped and if you think a bit, the whole events of this movie doesn't touch the actual or future main continuity - ultrapower Gohan is still a billion time below Goku at this stage.

I suppose the idea was to make just a filler movie, with no pain and no glory.
They risked nothing, as the movie intention wasn't to be an historical blockbuster, but a filler.

DBS is about to 'end'. They cannot put hot meat on the table, as we're at dessert time. They had a share of incomes to invest, they decided to make a self contained, lil filler and develop a new CGI dept in the meanwhile, so they can use it for other purposes.
Now a lot of house animators collected the knowledge base for that CGI to use on other stuff.

It wasn't a risk: they obtained exactly what they wanted. It's probably the whole audience that's waiting for something more, but I suppose this will happen when Super conclude and the next big thing will be there.
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Re: How much of a risk was it to give the movie to Gohan & Piccolo

Post by DragonBallFoodie » Tue Jun 28, 2022 6:57 pm

I don't know if it was so big a risk, considering a lot of fans wanted to see more beyond Goku and Vegeta.

Them getting what they wanted was expected, their feedback to it is more debatable.
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Re: How much of a risk was it to give the movie to Gohan & Piccolo

Post by WittyUsername » Tue Jun 28, 2022 7:11 pm

From my understanding, Gohan and Piccolo are pretty popular in Latin America, and Dragon Ball in general is huge with people in those countries, so at the very least, the movie might do well over there.

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Re: How much of a risk was it to give the movie to Gohan & Piccolo

Post by Lukmendes » Wed Jun 29, 2022 12:29 am

Gohan already got to be the protagonist of Bojack's and Broly 2's movies, and even though both were many years ago, they would still be aware that Gohan is a character who can bring attention as a protagonist.

So yeah, for him, not a risk, and Piccolo was always a popular character, so him being a protagonist is not a risk too I'd say.
Last edited by Lukmendes on Wed Jun 29, 2022 1:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
jjgp1112 wrote: Sat Mar 12, 2022 12:08 am My man, all Goku had to do was go SSJ3 and shock Vegeta so much the M on his head would have turned into an L and Buu would have never happened.

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Re: How much of a risk was it to give the movie to Gohan & Piccolo

Post by Lionel » Wed Jun 29, 2022 12:48 am

Yeah the premise was already in existence, at least as far as Gohan's stardom is concerned. A lot of speculation is circulating on the factors behind the movie's modest revenues compared to some of the previous ones. The shift in focus is a heavily scrutinised one but also the choice in animation style was likely a factor too which has also been noted.

At this point in time I can't see Gohan becoming the full time protagonist. His character has become too engrossed with this cyclical pattern of growing stronger only to slack off and lose it due to complacency then regain it. A tritagonist role for him or perhaps even a quartet with Gohan and Piccolo being incorporated as full time additions to the 'viable' roster may work.

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Re: How much of a risk was it to give the movie to Gohan & Piccolo

Post by BWri » Wed Jun 29, 2022 2:42 am

Michsi wrote: Sun Jun 19, 2022 8:43 am As much as I applaud the decision to focus on other characters, I wonder if the pretty bad treatment Gohan and Piccolo got in Super, which couldn't have made them fan favourites among the younger generation, kinda hindered this movie to be as successful as the others.

This is a problem which really hurts the franchise and in some ways does hurt the appeal of the movie. At the very least, both characters have been trending upwards in how they're treated.

They've always been fan favorites. Even when Super was actively shitting on both characters, they remained popular. Even with diminished roles in the story they're typically in the top 5 rankings when it comes to popularity. I think the western viewers are more fickle than the Japanese viewers because from what I notice, Japanese character polls are fairly consistent.
I still am super excited and really happy with what I heard about the movie and totally plan on seeing it and buying the dvd. Just sad that not that many seem to share that enthusiasm.
I think the main risk here was changing the artstyle to 3D models. But when that is combined with the focus on secondary characters and limited marketing, then you get a less popular movie. I think time will be very kind to this movie though because I think it will do well in the west. And it's still one of the better DB movies so it will withstand the test of time.

What this means going forward, is I think they won't be so afraid to take risks with the series which is great for most of us in the fandom.
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