Toei Establishes Department Focused on Dragon Ball

[Gyt Kaliba]

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2 ... ll/.129582

So it looks like Toei as well as Shueisha is basically making a 'Dragon Ball Room'. A couple of thoughts immediately came to mind for me when I saw this news.

1) Wait, wasn't Toei already a part of the DB Room that Shueisha made? So I'd assume this department will mainly be focusing on how to go about adapting or approving stuff that the DB Room gives them, though will likely also still have a foot in the door of the Shueisha office as well?

2) This pretty much all but confirms, it's probably safe to assume anyway, that there's more stuff to come after the movie in December. Because if not, what's the purpose of making a department solely focused on a property that's about to go dormant?

Just my two cents on it. I'm still holding out hope that someday they'll start up some kind of yearly TV special program (akin to what the Lupin III franchise was doing until fairly recently), and continue doing what the Bardock and Trunks TV specials did - giving us nice little 'character study' pieces that break the mold a bit, while also giving us backstories for various characters that wouldn't otherwise get them. That's just what I'd like to see though - what would you guys like to see come out of this?

[KBABZ]

It might also be a contingency plan for how to handle Dragon Ball in the future, in particular how to handle the property after Toriyama and/or Nozawa pass away, which is gonna happen eventually. Dragon Ball is too big for Toei and Shuesha to just put aside because of those two events.

As for the concept itself, I personally like it. I think Super shows that they really needed to have their act together more to make a product that lives up to the standards people hold for Dragon Ball these days. It should also provide a little bit more synergy between the manga and anime adaptations, and perhaps even be better equipped for the international side of things.

[sintzu]

This was probably done not only for future series but maybe they're going to give us more movies like one every other year. We most likely will get lots of ovas and specials as well.

[TheShadowEmperor8055]

Face it, Dragon Ball makes too much money for it to just go away. At least we have Toriyama on the ride for the time being too.

[superrayman3]

Hopefully this new "Dragon Ball Room" will be more of a archival kind of department primarily dedicated to preserving the DB anime series as a whole, as someone who appreciates and respects the hard work that went into a series like DB/Z/GT (Kai and Super don't really have the issues I'm about to discuss so I'm not too concerned about them as those were handled 10x better compared to the earlier stuff) it always irritated me that Toei have made very little effort to properly preserve those materials in the 30+ years the series has existed (especially since the DB franchise is considered one of the most successful and important anime series from the 80's-90's era not just in Japan but around the world), from the lack of color correction of the footage to Toei's outright refusal to preserve fan recordings of the higher quality cinetape audio masters which better preserve and reflect the original experience of the performances from the time period compared to those lo-fi optical tracks Toei have/use (IMHO the optical tracks don't really do the original seiyu performances proper justice which is a shame because some of the seiyu that were involved with the series are sadly no longer among us, and I see Toei's refusal to preserve those fan recordings and their continuous insistence on using low quality audio when higher quality audio still exists out there as being highly disrespectful to the work and legacy of those seiyu that have passed, maybe I'm the only one who feels this way IDK, I've always been weird like that). Chances are my guess is probably wrong but a guy can dream and hope can't he?

[KinguKurimuzon]

So does this mean we're getting a Yamcha Manga adaptation? Come on Toei, you did it for Episode of Bardock, so you can do it here too.

[Nevaeh]

This is their Star Wars. Chances they start popping out spinoffs is high

[Kokonoe]

Good. They need a studio focused purely on Dragon Ball content cause even throughout the latest Super arc it still wasn't all sunshine and rainbows in terms of artwork.

[Thanos]

This is their Star Wars. Chances they start popping out spinoffs is high

Dragon Ball has been becoming increasingly comparable to Star Wars. Despite the franchises’ dormancy, it retained its popularity, and its global stature is just now becoming obvious.

I just hope this means they don’t overly milk it on the animation side of things. I want more Dragon Ball indefinitely, but there is that risk if they get too ambitious.

[JulieYBM]

It'd be nice if this meant that projects would actually be planned out instead of beginning production immediately. Actually taking the time to schedule out when production will take place will definitely save everyone a lot of headaches.

[SuperCyan2]

'Dragon Ball Room' so like, a Dragon Ball Archival Room? That sounds pretty awesome and while it's a bit late to start archiving, everything is available for them to regain what's lost. Plus, Dragon Ball have some of the most loyal fans out there which are happy to donate/share the content TOEI once lost (well, got rid of it). I'd still say for not anyone to get their hopes up with this room.

[Ajay]

'Dragon Ball Room' so like, a Dragon Ball Archival Room? That sounds pretty awesome and while it's a bit late to start archiving, everything is available for them to regain what's lost. Plus, Dragon Ball have some of the most loyal fans out there which are happy to donate/share the content TOEI once lost (well, got rid of it). I'd still say for not anyone to get their hopes up with this room.

It's a planning department from Shueisha designed to coordinate their various projects.

This new department outlined in the OP is at Toei, and is dedicated to the planning of animated projects, such as the new movie, and I imagine the inevitable TV continuation.

[Lord Beerus]

This the second "Dragon Ball Room" that has been created. Now we know they're are serious about this.

Either way, looks everyone involved in Dragon Ball are making some major plans to keep this Dragon Ball gravy boat gloating for as long as possible. Dragon Ball Super to Toei and Shueisha has become what Marvel is to Disney.

[snaku]

It might also be a contingency plan for how to handle Dragon Ball in the future, in particular how to handle the property after Toriyama and/or Nozawa pass away, which is gonna happen eventually. Dragon Ball is too big for Toei and Shuesha to just put aside because of those two events.

As for the concept itself, I personally like it. I think Super shows that they really needed to have their act together more to make a product that lives up to the standards people hold for Dragon Ball these days. It should also provide a little bit more synergy between the manga and anime adaptations, and perhaps even be better equipped for the international side of things.

Do we know if Nozawa has a protege working under her that can take over the Goku role when the time comes?

[Bebi Hatchiyack]

Now let's wait for Namco Bandai to do the same for the videogame side

[emperior]

This is some good news for the future of animated Dragon Ball. I hope we will get some TV Specials/OVAs as well: they could start from adapting the "Reborn as Yamcha" manga or they could make some canonical specials which add onto the lore from Super; for example, we could get a special about Jiren's story, the Trio de Dangers or a deeper look into the battle between Trunks and Black before the events of episode 47, which could also show Black and Zamasu killing the Kaioshins and some mortals all around the universes - it could also be an occasion to expand onto the "Zero Mortals Plan", as the anime didn't explain it as much as the manga did.

I wish we could get something before the movie, and I hope that from now on Dragon Ball will get lots of animated stuff like One Piece.

[Cure Dragon 255]

It'd be nice if this meant that projects would actually be planned out instead of beginning production immediately. Actually taking the time to schedule out when production will take place will definitely save everyone a lot of headaches.

What is there to plan? SSGSS Ultra Instinct Bardock and SSGSS Royal Ultra Instict Broly writes itself!

[KBABZ]

Do we know if Nozawa has a protege working under her that can take over the Goku role when the time comes?

Boy I hope she does!

[Baggie_Saiyan]

Face it, Dragon Ball makes too much money for it to just go away. At least we have Toriyama on the ride for the time being too.

While I am happy that DB is doing well, I am NOT happy that the likes of Bandai are using this success to treat fans like shit. They charged fans ~13,000yen (~$120) for this figure set and the final version (once fans had already placed orders months ago as once the deadline is over that is it so fans would have no idea what the final versions would look like) looked like complete shit like bootleg tier bad!

Why do companies do this? When something is a success they cut corners? It is honestly pretty disgusting. If I was a Japanese resident and bought this I would be on the phone to Bandai not giving them a rest. Sure they gave the usual prototype disclaimer but this was beyond a f**king joke.

[KBABZ]

While I am happy that DB is doing well, I am NOT happy that the likes of Bandai are using this success to treat fans like shit. They charged fans ~13,000yen (~$120) for this figure set and the final version (once fans had already placed orders months ago as once the deadline is over that is it so fans would have no idea what the final versions would look like) looked like complete shit like bootleg tier bad!

Why do companies do this? When something is a success they cut corners and stagnant? It is honestly pretty disgusting. If I was a Japanese resident and bought this I would be on the phone to Bandai not giving them a rest. Sure they gave the usual prototype disclaimer but this was beyond a f**king joke.

Depends on the company I suppose. I recently got this fantastic Dragon Ball figure/vehicle that came out earlier this year, and while it was a bit pricey the craftsmanship on it is pretty great for its size.

(as a side-note, I've found that the best metric for the quality of a Dragon Ball figure line is how well they did Goku's hair)