Is Dragon Ball... dying?

[AgitoZ]

Yup. They accumulate a cult following!

No, they die.

[dprez]

It's not dying, but it's aging, and eventually it will start to die. I think it's going to be quite a while before that happens though.

Yes, a good while, by the time all of us have grand kids who are super into w/e the hell cartoon/anime/fad thing that is going on 20+ years from now.

But as long as young people are able to research what came before them, like all of us are able to now, the Dragon Ball franchise will most likely never die unless some mind of incredibly revolutionary piece of entertainment comes by, that makes the masses completely forget about animated television shows of the past 25 years. Hell, make that all of televised entertainment for that matter, for that is what I think it would take for something this grand and beloved by millions, to die, once and for all.

Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, the movies, the specials, and even the lackluster Dragon Ball GT, are so timeless, that they rival Mozart's work himself.

[Cipher]

"Dying" is a pretty final word for a series like this. At a certain point, as the series was still airing in Japan (and during its first few years in the U.S.), yes, there was a possibility that one day it would totally die. Flash-in-the-pan popularity, maybe a nostalgic revisiting or two but nothing large scale in the future. That could've happened when it ended.

But it didn't. And if it didn't die in 1997, it's not going to die now. It's proved itself as an evergreen property, which not every franchise can. But it's well within the ranks of, to pull a few American examples (since this sort of thing seems more prevalent stateside), all the classic superheroes and more recent properties like TMNT, Transformers, etc. It's become one of those all-ages properties that will always be renewable. It's just that markets can only take so much saturation at one time. There isn't a Batman series on air every year, for example.

It's going to lay low for a while before the next big push (a new series, new promotions, etc.). It was always going to do that. If it's in a slow decline now, that should be no surprise whatsoever. It's just going to die off until the next person says, "Hey, you know what's a reliable money-maker? Dragon Ball. It hasn't been around in a while; let's bring that back."

[Saiyajin no Tatsujin]

Yup. They accumulate a cult following!

No, they die.

Well, of course they do. You are right there.

[Kingdom Heartless]

I think people are definitely getting a little too freaked out over something similar to what happened six whole years ago.

I think it's too soon to take our cyanide pills, guys.

[Perfect]

It's Jonestown all over again...

[Krycek7o2]

It's Jonestown all over again...

Remember, some people were forced to drink the kool-aid...

[Rocketman]

Dragonball revived in the early 2000s because of the United States getting into it after it was already exhausted everywhere else. There's nowhere else left to host that kind of revival now.

[kei17]

Dragonball revived in the early 2000s because of the United States getting into it after it was already exhausted everywhere else. There's nowhere else left to host that kind of revival now.

That was one of the reasons. DB didn't revive in Japan just because of it.

[Kingdom Heartless]

Huge franchises rarely truly die... they just go into stasis for years at a time.

Look at The Muppets, Doctor Who, old Hanna Barbera shows and various other things...

Many things have strong lulls in popularity, often with failed attempts to bring them back, but eventually things always seem to make their return.

I feel we are years and years off being able to say Dragon Ball is "dead." It may spend a bit of time on life support, but there is always one brave (and sometimes stupid) person who thinks "the world is ready for this to come back."

[DBZGTKOSDH]

Dragonball revived in the early 2000s because of the United States getting into it after it was already exhausted everywhere else. There's nowhere else left to host that kind of revival now.

That was one of the reasons. DB didn't revive in Japan just because of it.

From Kanzntai's My Dragon Box Isn't Perfect?! feature:

Back in 2000, Toei Animation posted an online poll on their official website asking fans which of their properties they'd like to see get a home video release. At the time, it was merely to gauge fan interest, and to somewhat justify any expensive remastering processes these releases might involve. When all was said and done, DragonBall ranked somewhere amongst the top five requested anime series. After that a couple of years went by and most fans had all but forgotten about the poll.

Wasn't this also another major reason?

[Hellspawn28]

Dragonball revived in the early 2000s because of the United States getting into it after it was already exhausted everywhere else. There's nowhere else left to host that kind of revival now.

I think Dragon Ball became popular again in Japan because of the Kanzenban that was released in 2002, not it being played on CN from 1996-2003. As Kingdom Heartless said, series take a rest for a while and make a big come back years later. Good examples happen with series such as Batman, Godzilla and James Bond. This happen with Dragon Ball as well in 1997 after GT ended.

I personally think the video games have poor sales lately because they got mixed reviews. Burst Limit sold well because it got good reviews, I don't know why Bandai Namco didn't have them do a sequel in 2009 instead of Raging Blast? I guess they think more fans like Spike over Dimps.

[Saiyajin no Tatsujin]

Inevitably, DragonBall will become so old and dated (like it already isn't.. ) that it will be categorized in the "cult" genres, much like the "Old Skool" Kung Fu movie genre has. It isn't necessarily a bad thing, I think. I, myself, have been seeing DragonBall this way for a long time now.

My only concern is that it won't be respected, or appreciated by the next generation of anime fans to come because of how much it's been exploited and milked by FUNi and other companies out there. Not to say that I actually care about other people's opinions on DragonBall. It's just that I believe that DragonBall has played a very important role in Japanese anime, and deserves to be respected...no matter what.

[sangofe]

Dragonball revived in the early 2000s because of the United States getting into it after it was already exhausted everywhere else. There's nowhere else left to host that kind of revival now.

That was one of the reasons. DB didn't revive in Japan just because of it.

From Kanzntai's My Dragon Box Isn't Perfect?! feature:

Back in 2000, Toei Animation posted an online poll on their official website asking fans which of their properties they'd like to see get a home video release. At the time, it was merely to gauge fan interest, and to somewhat justify any expensive remastering processes these releases might involve. When all was said and done, DragonBall ranked somewhere amongst the top five requested anime series. After that a couple of years went by and most fans had all but forgotten about the poll.

Wasn't this also another major reason?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe they also asked the Japanese fans if they wanted english subtitles... and the answer was no...

[saiyanprimalforce]

I personally think the video games have poor sales lately because they got mixed reviews. Burst Limit sold well because it got good reviews, I don't know why Bandai Namco didn't have them do a sequel in 2009 instead of Raging Blast? I guess they think more fans like Spike over Dimps.

This. Burst Limit was the only other Dragonball z game I bought ever since the original Budokai. Budokai 3/Burst Limit are actually pretty decent fighting games compared to the garbage Spike spews out. Funny enough, I remember when I used to read message boards on gamefaqs, people would argue over the two, the Spike fans always going on about how the Tenkiachi/Raging Blast games were better because they're a better dbz "simulator." I'm not joking either. I'm sorry, but good gameplay and controls are what I buy a game for. Having it dressed up in Z is just icing on the cake.

[AgitoZ]

Wasn't this also another major reason?

Well, the interest mostly came from the rerelease of the comic.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

Wasn't this also another major reason?

Well, the interest mostly came from the rerelease of the comic.

But this poll was back in 2000, while the Kanzenban was released in 2002. Maybe Toei & Sueisha saw from the poll that DBZ was still a favorite, so the Kanzenban came, then the Dragon Boxes, then the video games, the CDs, the merchadise... The rest is history.

[AgitoZ]

But this poll was back in 2000, while the Kanzenban was released in 2002. Maybe Toei & Sueisha saw from the poll that DBZ was still a favorite, so the Kanzenban came, then the Dragon Boxes, then the video games, the CDs, the merchadise... The rest is history.

I meant the revival as a whole.

[SSJToreto]

Dragon Ball isn't dead, it just smells funny.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

I personally think the video games have poor sales lately because they got mixed reviews. Burst Limit sold well because it got good reviews, I don't know why Bandai Namco didn't have them do a sequel in 2009 instead of Raging Blast? I guess they think more fans like Spike over Dimps.

This. Burst Limit was the only other Dragonball z game I bought ever since the original Budokai. Budokai 3/Burst Limit are actually pretty decent fighting games compared to the garbage Spike spews out. Funny enough, I remember when I used to read message boards on gamefaqs, people would argue over the two, the Spike fans always going on about how the Tenkiachi/Raging Blast games were better because they're a better dbz "simulator." I'm not joking either. I'm sorry, but good gameplay and controls are what I buy a game for. Having it dressed up in Z is just icing on the cake.

Although I too have seen this ridiculous attitude that Sparking was superior simply because it was a DBZ simulator (Casual DBZ fans aren't 2D fighter fans, I guess), 2 points.

1) Sparking and Ultimate Tenkaichi are the only true garbage to Spike's name. Tenkaichi 2 was excellent, still pop it in for a round to this day. and I can say on faith I would somewhat enjoy every game of their's since by virtue of it being inspired by that design, even if the HD games messed with the button layout. This assumption that Spike is trash because their games have become stale is really no better than its assumed superiority by the evil masses. Reminds me of the consensus that Wii Music was a terribad game (It really wasn't) because everyone decided to make it a scapegoat to vent their silly Nintendo abandonment issues on.

2) Shin Budokai was the first in the series not to be a dial-a-combo fest. That Budokai 3 got competitive analysis is fantastic given how painfully simple it's base is; I was playing Budokai 2 and month or so ago... apparently in my absence I had imagined I could do more in the game than I actually could!