Is Dragon Ball as a franchise over?

[Great Saiyaman I]

Merchandise sales are dropping, Kai has been announced to be over, and though it will still make money, it seems at this point its no longer going to be a major contender. Do you see anything left in the franchise at this point?

[jjgp1112]

As Mike pointed out, this isn't all that different from the post-GT cancellation period. Besides, Kai has been a success over here in the states, so I'm sure Funi could still milk plenty of cash out of DB.

[TheGreatness25]

Kai has been... what? Wow... I hope it left off at a decent point.

[Chuquita]

I'm still hoping that Ultimate Butoden gets a release over in the U.S. and Europe before this last gasp. >_> I want to play that game.

Is it over though? Really over? It's sad to think about. I'm not sure what I'd do if it is. I still have TFS's Abridged, and the bits and pieces of new DBO plot to hold me over on DB stuff, but....

I still kinda wanna blame Toei and poor planning/general cheapness on their part. They could've done more to revitalize the series. Kai completely from scratch, a totally new series with new stories, a full length DB movie that would've been made with love the way OP's Strong World was; hell, a better done, more accurate, and fun live action movie instead of what we ended up with here.

Very "would have could have should have" kinda stuff.

As it is, I still adore DB, but I'm not sure Toei does enough to put serious money behind helping things. If they don't care enough about the franchise themselves, how are they supposed to make others care? Besides, they probably earn loads of money off of One Piece nowadays (and don't get me wrong, I really like One Piece) and in terms of "prints money", that's their new money machine and it'll probably continue to be.


I would not be surprised if we don't get any new videogames (no Raging Blast 3) this year beyond Ultimate Butoden and (maybe?) that game that's currently an arcade-exclusive.


I wonder what would happen to the forums here. The other DB forum I used to visit is near-deserted; will days go by on Daizex where nobody posts anything?

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

Merchandise sales are dropping

The anime industry in general is in the shitter. Blame the economy.

Kai has been canceled

Has it? Or was it always planned to end after the Cell arc? DBKai being "canceled" due to low sales is only speculation at this point.

[Tanooki Kuribo]

Merchandise sales are dropping, Kai has been canceled, and though it will still make money, it seems at this point its no longer going to be a major contender. Do you see anything left in the franchise at this point?

There was barely anything left in the franchise by the end of the 90's. After DBGT aired there was a dry spell. That's just what's probably going to happen now. No biggie. It can't be on top forever.

Over here in the US FUNimation could still milk it for a while with:

* Dubbing the "Yo! Son Goku Returns" feature.
* Dubbing the "Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans" feature.
* Releasing the DBZ Dragon Box the Movies box set.
* Putting DB/DBZ/DBGT on Blu-ray.

FUNimation has many ways they could still milk the series.

[SonEric84]

I still kinda wanna blame Toei and poor planning/general cheapness on their part. They could've done more to revitalize the series. Kai completely from scratch, a totally new series with new stories, a full length DB movie that would've been made with love the way OP's Strong World was; hell, a better done, more accurate, and fun live action movie instead of what we ended up with here.

Very "would have could have should have" kinda stuff.

I agree with you, they should have just done Kai with completely new animation, in the style of the opening sequence or Jump Special (though I don't think there's too much difference in those designs). I think if they did a whole new anime it would have gained more interest than rehashing old footage with awkwardly placed redraws. As for a new series with new stories, I would have liked to see "Dragon Ball Z Gaiden", a series where each episode (or arc) tells the back story for parts of the original continuity that could use some fleshing out. Master Roshi's early life, the Kaioshin, Freeza's empire and their rise to power, etc.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

Given that the series ended in 96(?), Kai's being an interesting but artificial revival in some ways, and the Japanese merchandise fail that's supposedly killing it, I would not be surprised. Funimation still has a few options, but with Kai done they're basically on "Clean-up Crew".

A phrase for which I must apologize as we've still got the Kai dub going strong as ever.

[Hellspawn28]

The series itself has been over in 15 and half years. I think the series will go into another dark age like what happen to GT in 1997. Other then Kai, Video Games, Action Figures, and DVD releases, Dragon Ball is a pretty much a dead franchise. I think those thing along with the Interent keeps the fandom alive today.

This type of thing happens a lot in franchises, James Bond was put on hold for a few years until 2006 when they rebooted the series. No new Batman movies until nearly a decade later in 2005 when "Batman Begins" was released. The Godzilla franchise went through the same as well after 1975, 1995, and 2004. I can see Dragon Ball taking a break for another three or four years from now. Maybe Toei will give us a 4th series in 2014, for the 30th anniversary.

[Adamant]

I wonder what would happen to the forums here. The other DB forum I used to visit is near-deserted; will days go by on Daizex where nobody posts anything?

Well, the Daizex forums did quite well pre-Kai, when the only thing that came out was crappy retreads of video games that weren't very good in the first place, and various box sets of stuff that was already available. The franchise has technically been done and over for about 15 years now.

[CODii]

Did we consider the franchise "over" a few years ago, before Kai had ever been announced? No. How is this any different than back then? The series in the decade after GT that it can survive without a current TV series. I don't see why this would be any different.

I wonder what would happen to the forums here. The other DB forum I used to visit is near-deserted; will days go by on Daizex where nobody posts anything?

This website recently celebrated its 13th birthday. Kai was a minor blip on that timeline. Besides, there are a lot of people on this forum who could not care less about Kai. I really don't think daizex.com is going anywhere.

[Hellspawn28]

Well, the Daizex forums did quite well pre-Kai, when the only thing that came out was crappy retreads of video games that weren't very good in the first place, and various box sets of stuff that was already available. The franchise has technically been done and over for about 15 years now.

Not to mention that Dragon Ball was still on TV in the US back in the early and mid 2000's. For the people who did not import the series, we still had GT and Uncut DBZ to talk about. I think the Kai dub is still playing on Nicktoons and I don't think it's going to end on Nicktoons anytime soon (Or from what I've seen).

[TripleRach]

Over here in the US FUNimation could still milk it for a while with:

* Dubbing the "Yo! Son Goku Returns" feature.
* Dubbing the "Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans" feature.
* Releasing the DBZ Dragon Box the Movies box set.
* Putting DB/DBZ/DBGT on Blu-ray.

FUNimation has many ways they could still milk the series.

I was thinking something similar. If Toei wants to make money on the series, they could start licensing out some of those specials internationally. We know FUNimation is interested in that stuff, and so are a lot of foreign fans. At this point, Bandai might be easy to convince to sell at least one version of the OVA, since they're losing money too. And I don't think they have much to lose on it. I'd guess that the majority of people who wanted RB2 just for the new special have already bought it, while the Playdia version is long out of print. It all seems like a win-win situation on the Japanese end.

[Adamant]

Not to mention that Dragon Ball was still on TV in the US back in the early and mid 2000's. For the people who did not import the series, we still had GT and Uncut DBZ to talk about. I think the Kai dub is still playing on Nicktoons and I don't think it's going to end on Nicktoons anytime soon (Or from what I've seen).

International forum, large amount of people with zero interest in what's airing badly dubbed on TV in one particular country, the webmaster included, etc., etc.

[Tanooki Kuribo]

....airing badly dubbed on TV in one particular country...

Dragon Ball Z Kai isn't dubbed badly. It's actually pretty good. I'm very happy with this dub.

[AnimeMaakuo]

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[Gozar]

I'm going to repost what I posted over in the Kai cancelation thread...

I think something good could come out of this. Kai got canned in Japan, Video Game sales are down, Kai's price is getting reduced state side, and the Dragon Boxes may not be selling that well here...

What does this all add up to? Perhaps Toei will finally realize that the DragonBall ship is sailing and REALLY try something new. Since GT's end in 1997 how many fresh things have the franchise REALLY gotten?

-The start of the new Video Game era in 2002 (Which has now become a repetivive bore for many people)
-The new Kanzenban ending in 2004
-Heya! Son Goku and His Friends Return in 2008

That's about it. The new Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans was just a new shiny remake of an already existing story. Kai is just a (less) shiny remake of the same story. As much as I love Kai and PtEtS, the fact is that they aren't exacly "fresh" or new.

The DragonBall franchise needs a real reboot. New stories. New Movies. The fandom went nuts when Ossu! came out 2 years ago. We need more stuff like that. A completely new storyline to jump in to. Set them in random timelines. Give some "What-If" movies just to spark some interest and conversation.

In other words, don't keep packaging the same stuff in a shinier box and act like it's something brand spanking new. Because the fact is, the common fan isn't me. The common fan isn't EX. The common fan isn't the bulk of this Forum. They won't go out and buy the singles, Season Sets, DBOX, Kai, and every Video Game under the sun year after year since the day the series debuted.

Bring us something new.

[Namekjin]

I think maybe Kai will be popular in America and they may continue into the Boo Saga if there is enough interest like Bakugan wasn't popular over in Japan but was so popular in America that they made a second season.

Also NOW'S THE TIME for AF.

[Hellspawn28]

Unless ZB is a huge seller, I doubt they are going to make any new video games since all of the recent games have sold poorly. I think it's because people are sick of them, just like the Saw movies and Tony Hawk games. The Dragon Ball series needs something that could get the mainstram audience into the series again.

I don't think DBkai really did that since most people I know outside the Internet did not know that DBkai and DBE exist. The only people that knew about it where the fans.

[AnimeMaakuo]

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