Is this how you imagined the franchise being revived?

[precita]

Back in the early 2000's people have always speculated what the Dragonball franchise would be like if it was ever revived. Around the time the dub of DBZ and GT finished in the U.S. it seems American fans in particular always wanted more. People were constantly reminded GT bombed and Toriyama wanted nothing to do with the series anymore, and were told a new series would "never happen in a million years."

Even when we got new videogames, toys, etc...and a pretty cool one-off special in 2008, we assumed that would be it. Kai wasn't even reanimated as a new series, just spliced together DBZ episodes.

Then we suddenly got a new movie. Then more specials. Then another new movie. Then a series. All within the span of a few years. Now the series has poor animation and adapts the recent movies to episodes. The series added two new Super Saiyan forms, Gohan is downgraded, Freeza returns again, and the focus is on some alternate universe.

What did you imagine a franchise revival would be like?

[Khin]

Id prefer the new transformations and Freeza over those terrible Evil Goku,SSJ stage reaching damn SSJ 30 or something. and all those AF like ideas that fans come up years ago and i never liked Gohan that much anyway so i dont give a single sh*t about him.And we have new guys like Beerus who is one of the best thing to come out of modern Dragon Ball.

[Vijay]

Man, look at how much "unsatisfied" threads have popped.

I myself remember posting in at least 10 threads on Super

And this is in 21st century where you have Internet access, pop a topic in Forum. Discuss.

How those innocent fans would've reacted when GT first aired in 90's in Japan?

I sincerely wanted to "re-do" DragonBall franchise myself.

And this burning passion in me has been over 10 years, in which I'll allocate budget equivalent to that of Cell&Buu Arc's & COMPLETLY reanimate the whole franchise.

I NEVER wanted the franchise to be ressurected THIS way!!!

Certain masterpieces are best left alone.

[Chuquita]

I thought it'd go the Toriyama-less, boring (imo) full cast reboot thing or a boring (imo) DBHeroes TV series if at all.

I'm actually mostly happy with Super, such as it is. The only things that made upset me were blueper (which made me sad) and Koyama ruining the hand-holding teleport (which made me angry).

Other than that, I'm good with what's going on. I get "new" stuff from Gokû and Vegeta each week; it's great.

[Luso Saiyan]

As far as timeline goes, yes. Even before Toriyama made that comment. It was the most logical choice.

[Doctor.]

Is it how I imagined it? Yes, I imagined it being a series with low stakes and a lack of tension set in the 10-year gap. Is it how I wanted it to be? Not really, I wanted a series with Oob and Pan as the main characters, with Goku in the teaching role, hopefully Super goes past the 28th TB.

[Hellspawn28]

Since the 2008 Jump Special, I had a feeling that Toriyama would return back to the series. So yes. Besides most of the AF stuff did become true. SSj Bardock, SSj3 Future Trunks, SSj4 Broli, SSj3 Vegeta, SSj4 Gohan, Adult Gotenks and Bebi Janemba would be stuff only exist in Dragon Ball AF from 10+ years ago. Now they are now official transformations and fusions.

[ekrolo2]

BoG gave me hope that the revive DB would be a bit smarter and a little more self aware of its own tropes and would strive to subvert them but nothing afterward has done that for me. All the mistakes and problems Z and GT had are being repeated with a complete straight face with nothing learned.

[fadeddreams5]

Hell no. And that includes BoG. I was too spoiled by DBZ (Saiyan-Cell sagas, specials, and Toei movies), so the lighthearted shift and overall fluff of BoG and other modern installments to the franchise have been a major turn off for me. Super, in particular, is just garbage so far. Even the Buu saga wasn't anything like this. Never thought I'd stop watching a sequel to my favorite anime series midway through.

[sintzu]

I never thought it would get revived especially by Toriyama but if by a 0.1 % chance it did I thought it would take place before GT or after the battle with Omega Shenron.

When BOG was announced to be set before the manga's ending I thought it's 2nd main character would be Gohan but to my surprise it was Vegeta instead.

I thought the tone would be on par with the Piccolo-Cell serious tone which wasn't the case in BOG but it went that direction with RF.

From a production point of view I thought a new series would be on par with the industry's best but that's obviously not the case with Super.

[jjgp1112]

I wasn't exactly eager for new Dragon Ball because I thought if it were entirely in Toei's hands, it'd be of the excruciatingly dull variety that fans today often clamor for. Instead, Toriyama's made his imprint, and I've been pleasantly surprised by stuff like Battle of Gods and the Jump Special.

[irreality]

I had no expectations the franchise would ever be revived in the early 2000s. Videogames, sure, or a third party movie like Evolution, but not anything written by Toriyama or even a series.

[Hellspawn28]

They would not done a new series in 1998-1999 or the early-mid 2000's due to GT still being recent and GT did poorly. Toei probably didn't want to take another risk on doing another show. In 2009, we got Kai and that help renew interest in the series. We also got Dragon Ball Evolution after being in development hell for seven years. DBE being awful made Toriyama want to return back to the series. I guess if it was not for Kai and DBE, we won't have two new movies (BOG and ROF) and Super right now.

[Michsi]

I can't say much about the story ideas, but as far as the tone of the series goes, yeah, this is pretty much what I expected after the past few specials we got.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

No, in that I didn't expect Battle of Gods to be as good and affirming as it was! Super's being largely terrible, albeit for mostly for temporary reasons, was always a possibility. It seems that a lot of people forgot that the mess that was GT premiered the week after the Z TV series ended- that is to say, we have a nigh-twenty year old precedent of Toei writing bad Dragon Ball on a weekly basis. So all in all the comeback has been a net positive: bad stuff is a given, good stuff is a pleasant surprise!

[FortuneSSJ]

I didn't imagine the franchise to be revived at all.
GT gave it the perfect ending and A Hero's Legacy movie just nailed it.

[Black_Anime_Fan]

Hell no. And that includes BoG. I was too spoiled by DBZ (Saiyan-Cell sagas, specials, and Toei movies), so the lighthearted shift and overall fluff of BoG and other modern installments to the franchise have been a major turn off for me. Super, in particular, is just garbage so far. Even the Buu saga wasn't anything like this. Never thought I'd stop watching a sequel to my favorite anime series midway through.

You pretty much answered for me. Although I'm still tuning in to Super every week, I feel the same about the series. I think Toriyama just forgot what decade he was in.

[precita]

The Buu saga was all about passing the torch to Gohan, and Goten/Trunks until they decided on Vegito and Goku/Vegeta becoming leads at the end.

Sadly Goku/Vegeta being the leads continued into Battle of Gods, the Freeza movie, and now Super. I thought the whole point was to focus on the kids? And now we don't know if we'll ever see Uub, Pan, etc. old enough to fight either.

I also really wanted to see what a Toriyama version of Pan older would be like, and how different her personality would be from GT Pan. I guess we'll never get that.

[sintzu]

I thought the whole point was to focus on the kids ?

The kids aren't as marketable as Goku & Vegeta so chances are they'll remain as the leads till the end.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Before Battle of Gods was announced I had serious doubts the series would be revived, if ever.

While I've been happy with the movies, and the few parts Super has done better I thought a new series would have been set in the 100 year time gap between Omega Shenron's defeat and the end of GT with Goku Jr, perhaps during the time of the latter, as I didn't think Toriyama would return to the franchise.

It's interesting that Heroes is becoming a substitute for the series that never was (AF).