If anime never happened, would Dragon Ball ever be as big as it is now?

[Psajdak]

Someone recently wrote how anime is irrelevant; like, it only matters what manga says, cause Toriyama is first and foremost mangaka.

Now, I understand why people say such things, even though I am primarily anime person, but still...

I have a feeling that one day no matter how much canon it is, manga will be pretty much forgotten, or plain ignored, in similar way how most people don't actually pay attention to original Batman, or Superman comics.

If we erased DB anime from history, I wonder how popular would manga be in current era...

[MasenkoHA]

Perhaps not internationally but certainly in its home country of Japan. The anime exist because the manga was popular. The manga was going strong for about two years before the anime even started.

[Grimlock]

You understand? Then please enlighten me, because for the life of me I can't understand such randomness in that statement.

But as for the question, no. Obviously not. You don't even need to have a basic knowledge to know that it's the animated version/visual aspect which drives and boosts sales of anything and everything. That much is as clear as the brightest day.

The written aspect/medium would be as popular as a book/paper can be, but it won't generate as much merchandising as its counterpart would. It won't reach people as easily as its counterpart would. Not everyone is into reading, hell, I'd argue that they are the minority. So if you want to gather as much popularity as possible, aim for a movie, a series, whatever you want to make sure people watch that, not just read it.

You really think we'd have as much stuff about Harry Potter with just the books? No, it's thanks to the movies and the popularity they brought to the franchise. Conversely, we don't have much stuff about Eragon. Why? Because there's just one movie and it's not that popular (and it wasn't well received). As of now, Eragon is just books.

You think Moro is popular amongst Dragon Ball casual fans/general people? Believe me, he isn't. As long as he keeps in the manga, he'll be an unknown character. It will be the anime which will make him more popular, which will make him appear in video games, and get merchandising. Dragon Ball wouldn't be as big as it is now without the anime (and basically everything without their adaptations).

[Psajdak]

You understand? Then please enlighten me, because for the life of me I can't understand such randomness in that statement.

Basically, those who say that anime is irrelevant, mean that since Dragon Ball is originally manga, that only what is in manga means something, and everything else is just adaptation of it.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

It may still be big, but definitely not as big because comics, as a medium are not as widely loved as TV series. As said also, the anime's existence was arguably inevitable given the success of the manga.

[PurestEvil]

hell no it would not be as popular. maybe in Japan, sure, but definitely not in Europe or the Americas.

[Adamant]

You can ask this question about pretty much everything that started out in print media and then got movies or TV shows.
Like... would Lord of the Rings be as big as it is now if not for the Jackson movies? Obviously no, the movies drew in a lot of people that would otherwise not have touched the franchise, and there's lots of casual fans out there that have no idea these movies were based on a book. But Lord of the Rings was hardly this obscure forgotten footnote until Jackson dug it out of obscurity either, and the original book is never going to be forgotten.

Replace Lord of the Rings with Dragonball and Jackson with Toei and you have your answer.

[DBZAOTA482]

In Japan, it might be but in the west, Dragon Ball wouldn't be nearly as recognized because the manga market hasn't exploded in popularity like the anime market did in the late-90s to early-2000s.

[MasenkoHA]

In Japan, it might be but in the west, Dragon Ball wouldn't be nearly as recognized because the manga market hasn't exploded in popularity like the anime market did in the late-90s to early-2000s.

I’d argue (but I have no issues being proven wrong) the manga market in the west grew BECAUSE of the anime boom in the 80s and 90s.


We might not have even seen Dragon Ball manga in the west if the anime didn’t exist

[Zephyr]

You understand? Then please enlighten me, because for the life of me I can't understand such randomness in that statement.

Basically, those who say that anime is irrelevant, mean that since Dragon Ball is originally manga, that only what is in manga means something, and everything else is just adaptation of it.

Ontologically, the comic (as serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump) is "the original piece", so to speak. Things such as the animated television adaptation, the Hollywood film adaptation, and even collected volumes of the comics (with their fixing of errors, and changing of details, here and there), are in some manner derivative of it, rather than being equivalent in "being" or "essence" to it; they are iterations on it, descendants of it. This is purely descriptive. There's no value judgment here. It's just a matter of distinguishing a trunk from a branch. I am a distinct living being from either of my parents, yet the connection there is real. Homo Sapiens is a distinct species from Homo Habilis, yet the connection there is real. One comes before the other, and the other comes from the one.

Understanding the nature of this relationship is helpful for framing one's value judgment of both "the original piece"/"the work proper" and any related work. If one understands the original piece better, they'll likely be more sensitive and perceptive to positive (and negative) changes that occur on branches, and might thus better appreciate them for their own aesthetic contributions. The more we understand the relationships between different pieces of art, the more full a picture we get of the pieces involved. The more a picture of a piece we have, the more "into view" we bring it, the more vividly we'll detect its sensory (and non-sensory) details and qualities, and the more we'll be able to have to say about it, and the more informed what we have to say about it will be. The more someone understands about the relationship between a tree in a forest, and the soil in which the trees dig their roots, the more someone will understand both the nature of the trees as well as the nature of the soil.

That's a different matter from, say, arguing that "this branch of the trunk is more aesthetically valuable than the trunk". Or, from arguing that "without this branch, the trunk wouldn't be as popular or well-known around the world". I think these are worth being able to distinguish, because they're all worth being able to discuss, clearly and without semantic confusion, in their own right.

---

All that being said, I'm not sure how big manga is, or would be, around the world, anime notwithstanding. Obviously not everyone who gets into comics, be they of American or Japanese origin (or otherwise), does so because they were initially exposed to a more accessible adaptation, but most of the "manga/anime" fandoms that I see are centered around animated works, rather than their comic source material. So, based on my own experience, I'd find it hard to imagine Dragon Ball being as big without an animated adaptation. I got into it via said adaptation. Had that not happened would I have discovered the comic? I have no way to know. Either way, I can't say that, from the perspective of myself in that timeline where I had no attachment to it, I would mourn the fact. From the perspective of myself in this timeline, the comic would still exist, and that's enough for me, as far as my aesthetic values go, even though Nozawa, Yanami, Kikuchi, and others definitely give the animated adaptation a wealth of aesthetic merit.

[Anonymous Friend]

I doubt the franchise would been as big in Japan if there was only a manga. It would have stoll been popular, but not as popular.

[HokutoNanto519]

The animated adaptation of Dragon Ball was and still is incredibly popular among loads of folks. The ability to reach watchers every week on dedicated channels could obviously boost its visibility to people and as such, boost and maintain its popularity.

There's storage and price factors too (though it can be very muddled depending on the perspective, admittingly). Anime usually takes up a lot less shelf space and tend to be cheaper (at least that's my experience). Storing and paying for 42 volumes of manga can understandably be quite the undertaking for some folks.

[Cursed Lemon]

I mean, what's the most popular manga that never got made into an anime?

[Adamant]

I mean, what's the most popular manga that never got made into an anime?

Probably Vagabond. Which is pretty damn popular.

[OmegaRockman]

I think it would've been a case of "still really popular in Japan, probably not so much internationally." The case study I'd point to as evidence is JoJo, which has always been popular in Japan and definitely had a niche of international fans through the manga, OVAs, and games, but it didn't explode in international popularity until the TV series aired.

[Ringworm128]

I could see the manga becoming a fairly popular cult classic in the west. However I think an anime adaptation would be inevitable, and if the 86 anime never got made we would have probably got a situation similar to Jojo where an adaptation gets made decades later, with maybe a couple of OVA's in the 90's.