Toriyama’s Take On Post-Z Dragon Ball

[Mr. Slump]

I’ve always been curious to know what the story would’ve been like if Toriyama had continued past the end of Z. I know for sure he would’ve done things vastly differently from GT but in recent years I have to wonder if Toriyama’s version of post-Z wouldn’t have been much better than GT, because in recent years I’ve been underwhelmed by his Dragon Ball stuff whether that be the forgettable Dragon Ball Minus (I much prefer Toei’s 90’s Bardock special over it) and Dragon Ball Super: Broly - which, of course, he wrote. While I’m by no means saying Toriyama is a bad writer since Jaco The Patrolman was still great fun, and showed he’s still an immensely talented storyteller - what I am saying is that I don’t know if it could live up to expectations.

But I still have the same fascination and kind of obsession with knowing how he would’ve envisioned continuing Goku and friends adventures past the end of Z as I do with knowing what George Lucas had in mind for Luke and friends post-ROTJ before he gave up control. The new upcoming Dragon Ball movie sadly will most likely not be set post-Z but still set in the intervening period leading up to the end of it. Which disappoints me as I’m kind of sick of that time period and want to branch out beyond on it. I’m in the camp of continuing the story past that point with Toriyama writing.

Is anyone else here curious about what the authors version of post-Z Dragon Ball would’ve been? How do you think Toriyama would’ve handled it?

[Yuji]

You can take a glimpse into it with Neko Majin Z, a short manga that crosses over with epilogue Dragon Ball, although it's entirely comedic and some events don't line up well (Vegeta is a member of the Freeza force in Neko Majin, for instance). Toriyama also designed the GT characters so there's another glimpse at how they may look like five years later. There's also Dragon Ball Online, supervised by Toriyama, which takes place 250 years after the events of the original manga with an extended timeline; I'm not sure how much Toriyama had a hand in the time-line lore, however.

But to answer your question, yes. A lot of users in the Super threads wish the series took to the ending of Z and continued past it, myself included.