What do you want the next DragonBall series to be like?

[8000 Saiyan]

Something fun to watch. Dragon Ball isn't a franchise for deep and complex stories.

[JulieYBM]

Tons of gay sex!!

The new foes for Gokuu and friends should be able to poison them, suffocate them or make them drowsy with their abilities. Include enemies that can seal the five senses, too. Never let Gokuu and friends enter a fight at full health.

[Kunzait_83]

It's the same thing that's happened to Star Wars. The IP is known for its setting and characters, but it's ultimately not following any particular storyline besides a very general one that's fundamentally more like a timeline than a single arc. It's essentially an anthology serial on a megascale.

This is what I feel Dragon Ball is also becoming. Before its revival, it was just a case of a manga that went on too long but was otherwise rooted in the same sensibilities as all other manga— even One Piece will end some day. It has a coherent beginning, middle, and end. Son Goku's adventures had a beginning and they had an end, and once that arc was over, so was the franchise.

But now— and especially after The Case of Being Reincarnated As Yamcha and Dragon Ball Minus— there's essentially a splitting of the central lore. It's no longer "just" the storyline that began with Dragon Ball chapter 1 and ended with chapter 519 (and then got picked up again with Super). It's likely going to become multiple different storylines penned by different writers, something more similar to a Western serial. As a result, the concept of there being a central "canon"— already tenuous in the franchise— will start to seriously fade away over time as the series is handed over to new lead writers, like Toyotaro. Eventually, we may even get splintering manga series following individual characters and then entirely new characters.

Much like how DC Comics have Superman and then the likes of Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, and others (and Marvel comics have Spiderman, Iron Man, the Avengers, et al), we might some day get a "Bird Studio" shared universe with the original being of Son Goku and then others of Vegeta, Gohan, Bardock, Yamcha, Tenshinhan, Muten Roshi, and so on. Their stories are compressed and even largely ignored during Son Goku's arc because you're damn right they should be lessened in importance. It's Goku's story— you're not going to dedicate most of a Superman arc to Green Lantern. Don't replace Son Goku as the main character of his own story.

This whole post is such a spot on excellent breakdown and analysis in the core difference between a franchise with a central "linear" story and a self-sustaining "open-ended" franchise. I've wanted for a long time now to try and really get at the heart of this issue, and this is as much of a nail-on-the-head of a stab at it as I've seen anyone make on here.

For my own part, I've for a very, very long time now (more than a decade and a half now at least) have had a thoroughly exhausted burn-out with uncentralized open-ended franchising of media, in a very broad, over-archingly general sense. I think that such a TREMENDOUS amount of media has been increasingly steered in this direction of an open-ended "shared universe" mega-franchise mentality where it seems like everyone is desperate to stake their claim in the kind of market that the MCU is currently dominating in (but this mentality has certainly predated the MCU by quite some time: the MCU and its ridiculous runaway success has just helped further kick it even more into overdrive).

By this same token, the one area where I disagree with Yuli's above (otherwise dead-on) analysis is that, yeah, I kinda personally WOULD very much mind Dragon Ball joining those ranks: in large part because we already have has so, so, so, SO much of this in the current film and television paradigm of the 2010s and much of the 2000s before it, that the idea of taking further "completed" singular, self-contained works that were perfectly fine just being left alone as finished works and flogging them utterly to death from now till eternity... its beyond tiring, and has BEEN beyond tiring for more than a decade now.

It plays very much into a "art and media as fast food" mentality that I utterly despise and am long beyond done with entertaining at this point: to say nothing of the whole "selling people's nostalgia back to them endlessly, to the point where no one ever wants to try anything new or original anymore" paradigm that comes part and parcel with it.

And of course, its not like this concept is even REMOTELY new: the Star Wars Expanded Universe and Marvel & DC Comics (Yuli's principal examples) predate the 21st century by a good many decades, and there were certainly some other examples besides those from way back as well (albeit oftentimes primarily within the children's market, with franchises like Transformers and whatnot). But my issue within the past couple decades or so specifically now is more just the sheer absurd out of control lengths and scope to which this mindset has spiraled out into and overtaken so much of wider media as a whole; to the point that I personally think has gotten to a degree that's beyond indefensible at this point.

Honestly, this whole topic: the fast-food franchising of media overall and moreover, the uncritical, over-eager, and outright childlike manner in which so much of both mainstream and "geek culture" have embraced and glommed onto this more sterile, corporatized view of art and media as "consumer product brands" without thinking twice... beyond just Dragon Ball, but in the context of this forum and community, certainly centered on how it has impacted not just how Dragon Ball is currently being produced, but also moreover how the fanbase views and interprets the series on a very basic, baseline level....

...its honestly worth a whole thread exploring in depth all by itself.

If I wasn't so busy with (vastly more important) real life matters these days, I'd love to dive headlong into this topic myself, and have been wanting to for quite some time now.

[ABED]

Star Wars is a bunch of stories taking place in a single galaxy. The MCU is a bunch of franchises taking place in a single universe. DB is at its core one single story. That's the difference. Unlike DB, The MCU and Star Wars are such broad worlds, they can encompass many different stories. At some point stories need to end even if the universe they inhabit doesn't. The important thing to understand is why certain "shared universes" have been successes where others have failed - it's stories that sell people on franchises, not the other way around.

It bugs me when stories go longer than they should because I want great stories, but the "corporatization" of it all doesn't. Stories are arguably better than they've ever been. They may not be in the medium we prefer, but overall, we're getting more content, and more great content, than ever before. Most of it's on TV. DB is unfortunately no longer one of those series anymore. If they want to continue the world, do a spin-off, because Son Goku's story reached its peak and conclusion decades ago.

[funrush]

Toriyama tried and failed to pass the torch to Gohan, opting to do more Goku stories. I want them to try shifting focus to another character again. Do a series where sometimes the main character just isn't Goku, he's playing a supporting role or he's absent altogether. I'm not sure who the best candidate for this would be, but I think Broly is a really good option and if the series takes place post-EOZ, I'd love to see stories where Uub and Pan are co-stars, fighting together.

I also want to learn more about Hit. I'd love a Hit-centric mini-arc.

[MasenkoHA]

Toriyama tried and failed to pass the torch to Gohan, opting to do more Goku stories. I want them to try shifting focus to another character again. Do a series where sometimes the main character just isn't Goku, he's playing a supporting role or he's absent altogether. I'm not sure who the best candidate for this would be, but I think Broly is a really good option and if the series takes place post-EOZ, I'd love to see stories where Uub and Pan are co-stars, fighting together.

I also want to learn more about Hit. I'd love a Hit-centric mini-arc.

No. Broli is not interesting enough to carry his own series.

[funrush]

Wouldn't even have to be the whole series, just an arc or two.

He's a guy with insane power and Gohan-esque potential who's been stranded on a planet for his entire life. It'd be interesting to see him try to learn how to control himself, how to socialize on Earth, how to gain a sense of morality and wanting to protect the life on Earth. How to fight alongside others, etc.

Plus the end of the movie basically sets up an arc where Goku and Freeza will fight over him, and it'd be kinda interesting if a lot of that arc was from his perspective and not just Goku's.

[VDenter]

For it not to exist? It's pretty bad that Super seems to get worse and worse the more i think about it. It just wasn't a good successor to DB/DBZ. It didn't need to exist and it only exists so that the DB can be milked for all of its worth. Now this wouldn't even be that big of a problem if the new content was good but it just fails to stack up to pretty much anything that came prior, so much so that i find it completely pointless. DB did not need or needs to continue. It was as many have already said a product of its era and it told a mostly consistently imaginative and satisfying story that ended when the creator felt it had to end. Now the series just doesn't know when to end, and everything that made it once unique, interesting, entertaining and just flat out good is pretty much absent. It will be a pretty depressing time when there is more bad content associated with DB than great content. If the series continues with this level of quality, that's what will come to pass. I don't want that to happen, and i can't wrap my head around as to why anyone would want that either. Just let it end.

[Toxin45]

For it not to exist? It's pretty bad that Super seems to get worse and worse the more i think about it. It just wasn't a good successor to DB/DBZ. It didn't need to exist and it only exists so that the DB can be milked for all of its worth. Now this wouldn't even be that big of a problem if the new content was good but it just fails to stack up to pretty much anything that came prior, so much so that i find it completely pointless. DB did not need or needs to continue. It was as many have already said a product of its era and it told a mostly consistently imaginative and satisfying story that ended when the creator felt it had to end. Now the series just doesn't know when to end, and everything that made it once unique, interesting, entertaining and just flat out good is pretty much absent. It will be a pretty depressing time when there is more bad content associated with DB than great content. If the series continues with this level of quality, that's what will come to pass. I don't want that to happen, and i can't wrap my head around as to why anyone would want that either. Just let it end.

Not until it gets past the end of z stories. Besides this is an unpopular opinion dude we are already getting a second super movie so please get over it. Besdis GT wasn't really that good either. We still got video games too so dragon ball as a franchise would still continue with that.

[ABED]

Video Games aren't the same thing. Video games are participatory, whereas stories are more passive experiences.

[JulieYBM]

There also needs to be a lot of pregnant boys/girls/enbies/two-spirits/various other barers of wombs. It's fun!

Building on my earlier post, Gokuu and others should always be at less than full-power because this allows the fights to ignore the worst part of a lot of fights: deciding who is stronger than who. It should almost always be impossible to tell who is stronger than who. This raises the tension of the battles more.

[louisascommie]

Pan as seen in end of z is a dedicated martial artist like goku

[Jord]

There also needs to be a lot of pregnant boys/girls/enbies/two-spirits/various other barers of wombs. It's fun!

Wow. So edgy. I really feel sorry for you.

On-topic
Anyhow. Thanks to Supremekai25 for bringing this to my attention but Future Trunks should get an spin off series. His world is totally different. He's the last strong guy alive and his world could be an awesome and fresh place for a series with him leading and training a new generation of heroes. No shifting between timelines like in Heroes, just Trunks 'bad' future.
Trunks' timeline was very interesting .It would be awesome to see Trunks as a leader having to deal with both familiar and new post Cell-threads as well as the responsibility of leadership.

[Desassina]

I just want a remake of the original Dragon Ball anime to end at Piccolo Daimao and to set sail with new stories featuring kid Goku.

[Dbzfan94]

There also needs to be a lot of pregnant boys/girls/enbies/two-spirits/various other barers of wombs. It's fun

I know you're just trolling but seriously Toei would never do this.

[JulieYBM]

There also needs to be a lot of pregnant boys/girls/enbies/two-spirits/various other barers of wombs. It's fun

I know you're just trolling but seriously Toei would never do this.

Legitimately not trolling. I know they won't do it but I want it anyway, just like I want battles with characters not in their best health to up the stakes.

[goku the krump dancer]

Cell, King Piccolo and Bebi! Did the whole pregnant dude thing already.

[JulieYBM]

Cell, King Piccolo and Bebi! Did the whole pregnant dude thing already.

Gokuu already did the whole punching thing!

[Bebi Hatchiyack]

For the next DB Series I want it to be:

• A bit on the Sadara side
• A lot after Uub and the 28th Tenkaichi Budokai
• with why not a canonized Cooler
• And why not a canonized Super Saiyan 4
• With Moro in the mix
• And bring my boy Broly from Vampa back too

[goku the krump dancer]

Cell, King Piccolo and Bebi! Did the whole pregnant dude thing already.

Gokuu already did the whole punching thing!

And continues to do so, I don’t really see your point. Unless you’re trying to say “It can be done again”. Which while true isn’t necessarily what Dragon Ball is about, Goku punching things however is. A-Sexual humanoid Alien/Robo/Monster creatures that have babies are just drips of water in the ocean that is Goku’s journey of constant improvement.

A question like “What would you want a new series to be like” comes off as one asking of Strong Narrovite and Tonal Changes not just esthetics to the material.