Is Dragon Ball the Star Wars of anime?

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

This was a point brought up in Derek Padula's book Dragon Soul and as a long time fan of both franchises I found it very interesting.

I found it interesting not only because of the influence both properties had on their respective genres (Dragon Ball on anime/manga, and Star Wars on film), but also for the fact each series appeals to people of all ages and still has had a huge following across the world for decades.

I sometimes bring up these facts to defend Dragon Ball when people who don't know much about it other than a few kids who watched it back in the day and have had little exposure to the fandom write it off. Not that this bothers me a great deal, but I think it's somewhat important because I know people who don't like Star Wars at all but respect it for having the following it does.

Anyone else ever think this way about Dragon Ball?

[MozillaVulpix]

Well, they've both gotten reboots recently.

But, in all honesty, I'd agree. They both kickstarted a specific genre, they're both known for their relative simplicity, and they both have amassed an incredibly large, international fanbase of all ages and cultures.

They're also both run by toy sales, to some extent.

[MCDaveG]

I've heard somewhere and read in some articles some time ago, that Gundam is nicknamed ''The Japanese Star Wars'',
with it's masked enemies, the Newtype ''religion'' and beam sabers the mobile suits have.

[Vijay]

I find it insulting for DragonBall being compared to SW

At least comparing it to GodFather would somewhat do justice

Reason being I watched the super-hyped Force Awakens & the film sucked ass. Piss poor direction, atrocious pacing, horrible character utilization, lack of likable/relatable leads & terrible screenplay. Yet, was glorified as hell by Rotten Tomato, IMDB, Hollywood Reporter every goddamn site.

As a non-fan, I simply felt FA was low-tier B-grade flick at best. And to think DB, a show that transcends age, time, generations & legions of fans across the globe (and its not even REAL for gods sake) being compared to a detestable film/franchise.

[VegettoEX]

Reason being I watched the super-hyped Force Awakens & the film sucked ass. Piss poor direction, atrocious pacing, horrible character utilization, lack of likable/relatable leads & terrible screenplay. Yet, was glorified as hell by Rotten Tomato, IMDB, Hollywood Reporter every goddamn site.

Plenty of people would say the same thing about all sorts of various Dragon Ball media, myself included.

[RedRibbonSoldier#42]

As a non-fan, I simply felt FA was low-tier B-grade flick at best. And to think DB, a show that transcends age, time, generations & legions of fans across the globe (and its not even REAL for gods sake) being compared to a detestable film/franchise.

Star Wars does all of those things, and is equally not real.

[Gaffer Tape]

Well, they've both gotten reboots recently.

Sorry, Gaby, but this continual weird use of the term "reboot" has been getting under my skin lately. Like "prequel," the media have been stretching the term "reboot" to apply to all kinds of things it doesn't mean. It's become this hot buzzword they use to describe any kind of late-arrival sequel or revival. With perhaps the exception being the Star Wars Expanded Universe, neither franchise has been rebooted because a reboot "means to discard all continuity in an established series in order to recreate its characters, timeline and backstory from the beginning." The Force Awakens is a straight up sequel to Return of the Jedi. Dragon Ball Super and its ilk likewise take place after an already established event in existing Dragon Ball lore. A reboot would be what Batman Begins is to Batman & Robin. Please forgive my pedantry.

To answer the question, yes, I've always compared the two, but more in regards to its sharply divided fanbases due to the people in charge "reversioning" the property and completely alienating fans of the original both from the product and the group of fans who prefer the reversioning.

[ShadowBardock89]

I find it insulting for DragonBall being compared to SW

At least comparing it to GodFather would somewhat do justice

Reason being I watched the super-hyped Force Awakens & the film sucked ass. Piss poor direction, atrocious pacing, horrible character utilization, lack of likable/relatable leads & terrible screenplay. Yet, was glorified as hell by Rotten Tomato, IMDB, Hollywood Reporter every goddamn site.

As a non-fan, I simply felt FA was low-tier B-grade flick at best. And to think DB, a show that transcends age, time, generations & legions of fans across the globe (and its not even REAL for gods sake) being compared to a detestable film/franchise.

You do realize your opinion is in the extreme minority and does not reflect the reality of the situation?

Anyway, I'd like to point the anime franchise that has been compared to Star Wars is Gundam.
In terms of popularity, I'd say the equivalent is One Piece based on this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_b ... ling_manga

[Vijay]

Reason being I watched the super-hyped Force Awakens & the film sucked ass. Piss poor direction, atrocious pacing, horrible character utilization, lack of likable/relatable leads & terrible screenplay. Yet, was glorified as hell by Rotten Tomato, IMDB, Hollywood Reporter every goddamn site.

Plenty of people would say the same thing about all sorts of various Dragon Ball media, myself included.

Curious abt "plenty of people" part. If you're referring to certain section of Naruto, Bleach & OP fans that tend to blatantly badmouth DragonBall media for the sake of help aggrandizing their preferred show, then I wouldnt bother responding

DBZ isnt an art. Or even high-caliber piece of work for it to be criticized to such microscopic level as direction, pacing, screenplay etc. Hell, Broly trilogies, Fusion Reborn & Wrath of Dragon had superior level of pacing, screenplay & direction. But SW on the other hand, had always been regarded as high-caliber franchise & almost completly impervious to criticism

[Luso Saiyan]

Reason being I watched the super-hyped Force Awakens & the film sucked ass. Piss poor direction, atrocious pacing, horrible character utilization, lack of likable/relatable leads & terrible screenplay. Yet, was glorified as hell by Rotten Tomato, IMDB, Hollywood Reporter every goddamn site.

That's what happens when you pander to the (vocal) crowd. You can see the same with certain Dragon Ball projects that don't involve Toriyama.

[Iberian_Saiyan]

Reason being I watched the super-hyped Force Awakens & the film sucked ass. Piss poor direction, atrocious pacing, horrible character utilization, lack of likable/relatable leads & terrible screenplay. Yet, was glorified as hell by Rotten Tomato, IMDB, Hollywood Reporter every goddamn site.

Disney is in charge of it now so it'll be as is from now on, although, Star Wars: Rogue One looks pretty interesting.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

To answer the question, yes, I've always compared the two, but more in regards to its sharply divided fanbases due to the people in charge "reversioning" the property and completely alienating fans of the original both from the product and the group of fans who prefer the reversioning.

I can see that too. You could make an argument the uncut original Japanese version of the show with the most accurate colours found on the Dragon Boxes is the Dragon Ball equivalent to the unaltered original Star Wars trilogy that was released on VHS, Laserdisc and on DVD without being fully remastered.

Reason being I watched the super-hyped Force Awakens & the film sucked ass. Piss poor direction, atrocious pacing, horrible character utilization, lack of likable/relatable leads & terrible screenplay. Yet, was glorified as hell by Rotten Tomato, IMDB, Hollywood Reporter every goddamn site.

Disney is in charge of it now so it'll be as is from now on, although, Star Wars: Rogue One looks pretty interesting.

First off I disagree wholeheartedly with Vijay's assessment of The Force Awakens, second even if it was of the quality he described it would not be Disney's fault. In actuality Disney has several great films to their name, The Force Awakens only being the latest addition to that.

[coola]

While there are some similarites, like questionable add ons to stories, at least Toriyama don't go crazy nad create Super Ultra Special True Version of manga, and force people to accept Dragon Ball Kai as true anime canon, and ignore DB/DBZ

[Hellspawn28]

Gundam is the Star Wars of anime in Japan given how it's one of the biggest sci-fi franchises in Japan and has been on going since the 1970's.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

While there are some similarites, like questionable add ons to stories, at least Toriyama don't go crazy nad create Super Ultra Special True Version of manga, and force people to accept Dragon Ball Kai as true anime canon, and ignore DB/DBZ

I disagree. With all due respect to Toriyama you could argue things like Dragon Ball Minus and his retconning of old stories in recent years is comparable to George Lucas trying to rewrite history with the Star Wars Special Editions.

[Vegard Aune]

While there are some similarites, like questionable add ons to stories, at least Toriyama don't go crazy nad create Super Ultra Special True Version of manga, and force people to accept Dragon Ball Kai as true anime canon, and ignore DB/DBZ

"Dragon Ball Z is the Star Wars of anime, with FUNi being George Lucas and the season sets being the Special Editions."
A quote I saw in a signature over on... a Star Wars fan forum I'm probably not allowed to reference by name due to them distributing fan-edits of questionable legal status.
And while this obviously only holds true for the US, it is a pretty apt comparison; In both cases the rights-holders just keep refusing to provide fans with the product the way it was originally produced, and instead just keep making one change after another to try and make it seem more modern and such. And in both cases we have had one re-release that included that original version fans wanted... but it was a limited release that is long since out of print. One difference though; The Dragon Boxes were exactly what the fans had asked for, whereas the 2006 DVD-release of the original theatrical Star Wars cuts was a half-assed shoddy LD-rip that was encoded in letterboxed 4:3 and interlaced, leaving the quality pretty garbage compared to the special editions and making it clear that it was just a last-minute addition to try and make the fans stop complaining. Yeah, the DBoxes had their flaws too, but at the time I distinctly remember fans being overjoyed at us getting them, and they still remain the closest we've gotten to a perfect Dragon Ball home release anywhere.

[Danfun64]

I thought the exact quote was "Dragon Ball Z is the Star Wars of anime, both in a cultural sense and in a Funimation-is-George-Lucas sense."

[sintzu]

Both have huge fan bases worldwide.

Both were able to go a decade without new content and still stay relevant. (Star wars went 10 years without a new movie while DB went 11 years without an anime)

Both have rich lore that's always developing.

Both fan bases always argue over what's canon.

Gundam is the Star Wars of anime in Japan given how it's one of the biggest sci-fi franchises in Japan and has been on going since the 1970's.

Gundam isn't as big worldwide as DB so it's the closest Japan has to Star Wars.

With all due respect to Toriyama you could argue things like Dragon Ball Minus and his retconning of old stories in recent years is comparable to George Lucas trying to rewrite history with the Star Wars Special Editions.

At least he didn't have Bardock's special pulled from stores like what Lucas did with the original star wars.

[Luso Saiyan]

To answer the question, yes, I've always compared the two, but more in regards to its sharply divided fanbases due to the people in charge "reversioning" the property and completely alienating fans of the original both from the product and the group of fans who prefer the reversioning.

At the same time, both fanbases arrogantly pretend they know better than the author of the respective franchises about what they created (and I'm not talking about power levels and ship lenghts).

[precita]

Dragonball isn't even half as popular as Star Wars is. Do you people not realize how HUGE the Star Wars fanbase is? It goes back to the 70's, and the 3 movies are far more mainstream than anything out of the Dragonball franchise.

The Star Wars franchise has generated billions of dollars in revenue, you can't same the same for Dragonball.