Could Super stand on its own two feet?

[fadeddreams5]

I'm not making this topic to hate on the show (I do that too much as it is). But serious question, could Super stand on its own if DBZ and DB never existed or, at the very least, you never heard of them? In other words, if you just tuned in to Super, would you continue following it if you never watched or read anything related to DB?

I'm sure a majority of people here first watched DBZ when it aired on Toonami. This was before they watched or knew anything about DB. Despite this show taking place in the 2nd half of the series, and nobody knowing who the characters were when they watched the first episode, it became a worldwide phenomenon during the 90s and early 2000s. So clearly, DBZ stood on its own without the need of DB.

To be honest, I know this is a hard question to answer since we all had different mentalities as children than we do now. However, truth be told, I probably would have enjoyed Super as a kid, even if I never watched or heard of DB/DBZ. The colors, humor, and battles would have attracted me. I certainly wouldn't have become a hardcore fan straight into my adult years, but I would have tuned in and enjoyed. It'd become one of those shows I vaguely remember (e.g. ReBoot, Gundam Wing, Ultimate Muscle. Cyborg 009, etc.), but enjoyed as a child.

I can't say the same for GT. That art scheme would have turned me off, and I would have been bored very quickly by it, especially due to its music. I hated the Batman animated series and Big O back then for their darker color palette, even though I appreciate them now.

As an adult, I definitely would not have watched Super after the first few episodes. I just do it because I'm familiar with the characters (even if they're caricatures of their former selves) and franchise. If I was introduced to DBZ nowadays, I'd still very much get into it, albeit, wouldn't tolerate the filler and would skip through a lot of it. I can confirm this through my enjoyment of Kai and other shonen shows.

I think we can all agree, though, if these characters weren't popular or widely known, Super's ratings would plummet.

[Cipher]

For the target audience? Sure. I'm sure it's drawing in plenty of kids watching Toei's block on Sunday mornings, and had this played on Toonami or some equivalent after school when I was a kid, I'm sure I would have been drawn in by the tight serialization and plots that are at least tense and interesting on a surface level.

I don't think it's a good series, but I think most of its shortcomings are of the kind more likely to bother older viewers and longtime fans, or prevent it from being as solidly placed in younger viewers' minds as something to come back to later, rather than anything that would prevent success with its target audience. I'm sure it's drawing people into the franchise. It could be a lot better, but I've no doubt it's doing its job.

[precita]

If it started with the current Goku Black/Zamasu arc, yes.

If you ignore the crappy movie re-tellings, and the Champa tournament ranged from mediocre to OK at best....then Super improved dramatically afterward.

[Faisal Shourov]

If you ignore the first two arcs, I don't see why not. The quality has been pretty good since U6 arc really

[coola]

If we apply three episodes rule and drop, I'm afraid not many people would stay long enough for Black quality, if until then quality was as horrible as BOG/F retellings, it's more than 20 episodes.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

We were thrust into Z without DB that worked out fine. Super starts off really well at character establishment with the first couple of SoL episodes.

Definitely can. But whether it will is different story episode 5 could scare some kids off, if that doesn't then the Freeza arc would be the next stop if kids survive that then yay.

[Alee9977]

I don't know, I used to hate DB when I was a child but they used to repeat it everyday so it ended up being one of my favourite shows. Maybe if they aired Super just like they did with Z then yes.

[Doctor.]

I don't know how anyone can answer that question. Super is a sequel. A sequel can't stand on its own two feet, it always needs what came before it as a base, at least when it comes to captivating adults. Kids will watch anything.

[Draconic]

Even though I love Super, if I had no prior knowledge of the series it probably wouldn't catch my attention, mostly because I'm not really into anime. Also, the main atraction of the series for me are it's characters and that's because I've watched it from the very beginning with Goku as a kid and pretty much grew with him. I don't think I would even be into Z if I were to start now, since I wouldn't give a shit about all the stuff that makes the beginning so amazing to me, on the other hand, so that should be taken into account in my case.

[dbs fanboy]

We were thrust into Z without DB that worked out fine. Super starts off really well at character establishment with the first couple of SoL episodes.

Definitely can. But whether it will is different story episode 5 could scare some kids off, if that doesn't then the Freeza arc would be the next stop if kids survive that then yay.

Pretty much this, althought if we're talking about the Blue Ray version of ep 5, then the stop point would be the RoF arc, after that, super would pretty much do it well as the tournament is funny and entertaining and this current arc is good (so far).

In fact, my 6 years old cousin has been introduced to this fanbase by super; he used to play db budokai 3 when he was 4, but he did'nt care about any character, and when he started watching super, he didn't had any clue of who was who (he called Goku ssgod the red haired guy).
And he pretty much loves the show, well, idk how would he react with the RoF arc, as i hated it and i couldn't stand trying to rewatch it with him.

Oh and in my case, i would probably watch it out of boredom in my TV, i would consider it much better than other shows like Gumball or Uncle Grandpa but it wouldn't surpass my beloved Steven universe), then in the Black saga it would become one of my fav shows (on TV).

[fadeddreams5]

I don't know how anyone can answer that question. Super is a sequel. A sequel can't stand on its own two feet, it always needs what came before it as a base, at least when it comes to captivating adults. Kids will watch anything.

DBZ is proof a sequel doesn't require you to watch the original to enjoy it, and that's partly because of the structure and simplicity of the series, as well as execution. If we look at movies, there are many times you can watch a sequel without watching its predecessor, and still be very into it (e.g. Winter Soldier over The First Avenger).

Also, saying kids will watch (and enjoy?) anything is unfair.

[Doctor.]

I don't know how anyone can answer that question. Super is a sequel. A sequel can't stand on its own two feet, it always needs what came before it as a base, at least when it comes to captivating adults. Kids will watch anything.

DBZ is proof a sequel doesn't require you to watch the original to enjoy it, and that's partly because of the structure and simplicity of the series, as well as execution. If we look at movies, there are many times you can watch a sequel without watching its predecessor, and still be very into it (e.g. Winter Soldier over The First Avenger).

Also, saying kids will watch (and enjoy?) anything is unfair.

DBZ was watched by dumb kids. Dumb kids will watch anything. They may have not even enjoyed it at the time and, when they grow up, they'll still look back at it with nostalgia. I know a lot of people who watched DBZ as kids and then kept praising it when it came up to the conversation, even though they remembered absolutely nothing about the show and when they went to re-watch it, they didn't enjoy it, mostly because half of the story was missing.

At least, personally, I can't enjoy anything if I didn't start from the beginning. I played Chrono Cross before Trigger and thought it was a garbage story, then I played Trigger and appreciated Cross' plot a lot more.

It's not unfair, kids will watch anything. It doesn't mean they'll enjoy it, but most of the time they'll still keep watching out of pure boredom.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

I don't know how anyone can answer that question. Super is a sequel. A sequel can't stand on its own two feet, it always needs what came before it as a base, at least when it comes to captivating adults. Kids will watch anything.

DBZ is proof a sequel doesn't require you to watch the original to enjoy it, and that's partly because of the structure and simplicity of the series, as well as execution. If we look at movies, there are many times you can watch a sequel without watching its predecessor, and still be very into it (e.g. Winter Soldier over The First Avenger).

Also, saying kids will watch (and enjoy?) anything is unfair.

I'd say Z was helped a lot by the Ocean dub cutting, comparison the actual first episode of Z and Super. I think Super is a lot more new friendlier like it has lil action, comedy and we get a few character beats etc.

[Yomi]

I didn't have the generic "running home from school" story for my first DBZ experience.
I saw Piccolo saving Gohan against Nappa on Nicktoons one day and I was like "why do I hate this show again?"

So I just started watching "DBZ" from episode 1 and was really lost, and bored. These characters had no development whatsoever yet,
But they wanted me to care? So I looked up "where to start watching DBZ" found out there was an original show, and loved watching it,
by the time I reached DBZ, I had context for all the things they wanted me to care about.

Anyone who was old enough to care about plot, wouldn't enjoy DBZ from the get go, because all these characters having done nothing yet
and barely showing any emotion when Goku died so early on, would be odd. And why even care that Goku died? We just saw him in one fight
why sympathize?

It's also a fair point to mention that most kids who got into DBZ, didn't do it from episode 1. It's a complex question, but I think Kids today would
be able to pick up Super on it's own, but I think that they would be curious about all the references to "Goku vs Frieza" "The Cell Debacle" the "Mafuba"

Super references the past a lot more than DBZ referenced DB.

[Cipher]

Anyone who was old enough to care about plot, wouldn't enjoy DBZ from the get go, because all these characters having done nothing yet
and barely showing any emotion when Goku died so early on, would be odd. And why even care that Goku died? We just saw him in one fight
why sympathize?

That's exactly why I've said before I have trouble imagining an adult starting with Z and becoming super invested in the series, or even invested enough to continue.

Of course, adults aren't the target audience, and the series didn't run ten years in Japan without new readers and viewers jumping on each arc.

[Boo Machine]

I have trouble imagining Starting with Super. I started with DBZ and was really lost on who everyone was. But it stopped being an issue after a while and I just enjoyed it. So I guess kids who are watching it in japan go through the same thing with super. Small moment of confusion then acceptance. I feel like Super really needs you to have seen, at the very least, DBZ to get a lot of the past events they mentioned.

A lot of people may need the originals first, but in the case of my dad, he got into DBZ during it's run of the Android arc when it was just making it's way over here in the states. And he has been into it ever since having seen GT and all the movies after. Still watches it to this day on Toonami when he can catch it. But he has not seen DragonBall and has no idea of the events that went on during. He might be in the minority but he enjoys the sequels just fine without the originals. I'd imagine he isn't the only one. I feel like some people just enjoy the spectacle.

[Kanassa]

Depends, are the first two arcs still movie re-tellings in this fantasy? Because I think most of my annoyance for them is the fact I'm mostly sitting there thinking ''I've already seen the movies 30 times! I NEED SOME NEW SHIT!". If the movies don't exist in this, then I'd probably have enjoyed the two arcs much more (The BoG arc is actually well done, and while RoF was bad for me I still think I'd be entertained by it). I'd be a tad bit tilting my head at the transformations (Even as a kid I'd find Goku already having 3 transformations a bit iffy), but I'd have fallen in love with both the Uni 6 and Black Arc (And F!Trunks would become my favoraite once again).

RoF would probably make me replicate my feelings of when I first watched DBZ and never got to liking it until years later. This is because RoF and the Saiyan Arc relied heavily on knowing what came before, so Kid Me felt left out of the fun due to not knowing enough about the characters to care that they were getting their asses kicked (Plus, this was the first show I had watched that had bood in it).

Though overall I know that both as a kid and a college student, I'd watch DBS over DBZ as a TV show. DBZ has too much filler and drawn out fights for it to hold my attention if I had to wait a week for each episode, Super on the other hand handles it MUCH better. Also, even as a Super fan I admit that art-wise DBZ was better. But, I'm also the guy who adores Stormhawks (Offtopic: That show that I'm cnvinced no one else has ever heard of!), so the art is not THAT big a factor for me.

[Saikyo no Senshi]

No, but neither can the second half of the original series. But like Doctor said kids are dumb and will watch anything, DBZ found its audience in those kids and so has Super.

- Travis

[dbs fanboy]

No, but neither can the second half of the original series. But like Doctor said kids are dumb and will watch anything, DBZ found its audience in those kids and so has Super.

- Travis

What do you mean? Half of Z or the entirety of Z?

Also it depends, as Doctor said as well, some would watch it out of boredom and then get engaged.

[dbs fanboy]

*Nevermind, it was an stupid reply, i'm on the phone so i can't delete my post, sorry.