Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

[Lord Beerus]

If they get the right people involved, (i.e. people who know about Dragon Ball beyond a surface level and have an understanding of Wuxia in general) perhaps a Netflix series could work. But this begs an even bigger question...

Why even fantasise about a live action adaption of manga that has always been adapted in the first place?

[MasenkoHA]

This would require planning on par or exceeding the Harry Potter movies which took over the better part of a decade for its actors. Very few people would be willing to sign away that much of their life.

Any hypothetical Dragon Ball series could/would just do a time skip with child Goku and adult Goku being played by different actors (unless they decided to start him off as an adult for some stupid reason) I mean it’s 11 year in-universe from the start of Dragon Ball to the start of the Z portion. Doubtful they’d have it move in real time. They could also just give whatever child actor plays Goku the role of Gohan when/if they ever came to that if the actor worked out.:

edit: Oh, yeah. Please get rid of the sexual humor, at least any of it involving children in any way. If you want to keep Kamesennin mega-horny, that's fine, but keep him away from Bulma, and maybe limit it to him just loving porn. It's 2020, not 1986. I can still enjoy the original manga while also realizing why it's problematic and shouldn't be 100% faithfully reproduced. And this is from a big Kamesennin fan.

Kame Sennin is so much more than “dirty old pervert” that I feel like removing that aspect wouldn’t do a disservice to him at all. If they want to keep that just have him own porno mags and watch a lot of late night tv or something.

Hell you can kill two birds with one stone having Goku find out boys and girls have different parts when he accidentally sees one of Roshi’s magazines.

[JulieYBM]

How about flip Muten Roushi's humor around a little by making his horniness not so one-sided? Like, horny old man failing to assault a girl is a bit boring at this point. How able make the humor come from Blooma reciprocating? Engage women in the sexual humor for once.

[MyVisionity]

Kame Sennin is so much more than “dirty old pervert” that I feel like removing that aspect wouldn’t do a disservice to him at all.

I agree that Roshi is much more than a pervert, but I don't see how that aspect could ever be removed altogether. It's an undeniable part of who he is, and how Toriyama envisioned the character.

If they want to keep that just have him own porno mags and watch a lot of late night tv or something.

Except being a fan of porn is a far cry from groping around and sneaking into bed/bathrooms etc. It might be problematic to portray the character this way, but you sacrifice quite a bit in my view by cutting it out.

[emperior]

Dragon Ball isn't really chinese it's like 98% japanese with Toriyama taking some stuff from chinese. But he takes stuff from western countries too.

Ultra Instinct: Taken directly from Wuxin, a Chinese martial arts concept.

God Ki: A Chinese Taoist concept.

The whole "back tingle" thing when turning SSJ in Super that people threw a shit fit over: Also a Chinese Taoist concept, taken from the concepts of Dantians and Meridians.

Mortal martial arts warriors fighting against gods and heavenly deities: Another stock Chinese Wuxia (really Xianxia) concept.

Very off-topic question, but considering your vast knowledge of wuxia: do you think there are some other amazing (more amazing than Ultra Instinct, for example) concepts from the genre that Dragon Ball still hasn’t used to this day? Like something that you encountered which made you think: yeah, they will/should definitely use this.

The concepts I left in the quotation are new to Super, but they were some great ones that Dragon Ball definitely had to use, so I am sure that out there there are some other similar concepts Toriyama still hasn’t used and might be saving for the future. Unless Wuxin really is the highest form of martial arts mastery in traditional Chinese MAs.

[It_Is_Ayna_You_Flips]

How about flip Muten Roushi's humor around a little by making his horniness not so one-sided? Like, horny old man failing to assault a girl is a bit boring at this point. How able make the humor come from Blooma reciprocating? Engage women in the sexual humor for once.

I think that's the route other shonen have gone with the pervet old sage character. Biscuit Krueger is very openly hedonistic and licentious but it rarely comes up as when the story introduces her she's working with children so why would it? Jiraiya is very very horny but rather than predatory he was always shown as just being a huge braggart. When the opprutunity to take advantage of a girl actually presents itself he instead frees of her mind control before going to confront the episode's villains. So... yeah. I dunno why a DB adaptation couldn't do the same.

[Doctor.]

I wouldn't be opposed to it, but I definitely don't think it would be good unless it's an eastern production. It would be interesting to see some western directors take a shot at it. The experience and atmosphere would be almost entirely different, for sure, but it could be an interesting take.

[MyVisionity]

Jiraiya is very very horny but rather than predatory he was always shown as just being a huge braggart. When the opprutunity to take advantage of a girl actually presents itself he instead frees of her mind control before going to confront the episode's villains. So... yeah. I dunno why a DB adaptation couldn't do the same.

That's the difference between a series like Naruto and a series like Dragon Ball. The DB characters are flawed in a way that others are not. They have dark sides to them, almost sinister at times. It's like what Toriyama said about his writing and the "poison" that slips in and out of the shadows from time to time. That's how one might view Roshi's more questionable behavior.

That said, you could indeed do a DB adaptation with a Roshi who doesn't cross the line. It just comes at the price of losing those darker aspects of Toriyama's characterization. Not that it wouldn't still succeed of course, but it's just something to consider.

[XanatosVanBadass]

This thread has reinforced my belief that, if a new live action DB movie NEEDS to be made, I don’t want anyone in the (US/English speaking) west to have ANY involvement.

[WittyUsername]

Kame Sennin is so much more than “dirty old pervert” that I feel like removing that aspect wouldn’t do a disservice to him at all.

I agree that Roshi is much more than a pervert, but I don't see how that aspect could ever be removed altogether. It's an undeniable part of who he is, and how Toriyama envisioned the character.

If they want to keep that just have him own porno mags and watch a lot of late night tv or something.

Except being a fan of porn is a far cry from groping around and sneaking into bed/bathrooms etc. It might be problematic to portray the character this way, but you sacrifice quite a bit in my view by cutting it out.

As far as maintaining Roshi’s perviness is concerned, if there’s one thing I absolutely have to give DBE the slightest bit of credit for, it’s how they handled that. He was still shown to have some perverted tendencies, but it was significantly toned down.

[Planetnamek]

This thread has reinforced my belief that, if a new live action DB movie NEEDS to be made, I don’t want anyone in the (US/English speaking) west to have ANY involvement.

I'm not totally against that, i'm one of the few people on the planet that didn't totally hate Netflix's take on Death Note so i'm willing to give the west a chance, though given the potential high cost for a live-action DBZ series i'm not sure I ever see it happening.

[Matches Malone]

This thread has reinforced my belief that, if a new live action DB movie NEEDS to be made, I don’t want anyone in the (US/English speaking) west to have ANY involvement.

The west will most likely be very involved with it due to DB's popularity there and the budgets used by Western companies. It's unfortunate that we'll most likely get a Westernized version of DB instead of what it actually is.

[It_Is_Ayna_You_Flips]

This thread has reinforced my belief that, if a new live action DB movie NEEDS to be made, I don’t want anyone in the (US/English speaking) west to have ANY involvement.

The west will most likely be very involved with it due to DB's popularity there and the budgets used by Western companies. It's unfortunate that we'll most likely get a Westernized version of DB instead of what it actually is.

I think this is too pessimistic. After thinking about it, I just can't see any director, script writer, or producer look at the response to Evolution and decide they want to repeat that.

[Matches Malone]

I think this is too pessimistic. After thinking about it, I just can't see any director, script writer, or producer look at the response to Evolution and decide they want to repeat that.

I don't think they'll make something as bad as evolution budget wise, but I'll be shocked if whoever doesn't try to make "their" version of DB. I just don't think Hollywood respects anime and manga enough to make a faithful adaption. There's too many possibilities to list all of them, but the things that come to mind is setting it in the real world, most likely North America, and turning the cast into Americans with American lives.

Although this is what I expect, I'm going to wait until we get our first look at One Piece before making a final judgement as I hope to god I'm completely wrong on this.

[Planetnamek]

I think this is too pessimistic. After thinking about it, I just can't see any director, script writer, or producer look at the response to Evolution and decide they want to repeat that.

I don't think they'll make something as bad as evolution budget wise, but I'll be shocked if whoever doesn't try to make "their" version of DB. I just don't think Hollywood respects anime and manga enough to make a faithful adaption. There's too many possibilities to list all of them, but the things that come to mind is setting it in the real world, most likely North America, and turning the cast into Americans with American lives.

Although this is what I expect, I'm going to wait until we get our first look at One Piece before making a final judgement as I hope to god I'm completely wrong on this.

Wait hold the phone, there's going to be a One Piece live-action movie?

[It_Is_Ayna_You_Flips]

I don't think they'll make something as bad as evolution budget wise, but I'll be shocked if whoever doesn't try to make "their" version of DB. I just don't think Hollywood respects anime and manga enough to make a faithful adaption. There's too many possibilities to list all of them, but the things that come to mind is setting it in the real world, most likely North America, and turning the cast into Americans with American lives.

I get that. I'm still salty about the Americanized adaptations of Satoshi Kon's work (which ironically, didn't include Millennium Actress. The only one of his movies Hollywood would have gotten right.)

[Matches Malone]

Wait hold the phone, there's going to be a One Piece live-action movie?

It's going to be a 10 episode season on Netflix. If they can make something that looks and feels like One Piece, then I'll be more than happy to change my outlook on a potential DB project (series or movie).

[Planetnamek]

Wait hold the phone, there's going to be a One Piece live-action movie?

It's going to be a 10 episode season on Netflix. If they can make something that looks and feels like One Piece, then I'll be more than happy to change my outlook on a potential DB project (series or movie).

Ah, color me intrigued.

[kemuri07]

Wait hold the phone, there's going to be a One Piece live-action movie?

It's going to be a 10 episode season on Netflix. If they can make something that looks and feels like One Piece, then I'll be more than happy to change my outlook on a potential DB project (series or movie).

...have you seen the other live-action anime on Netflix?

It's not gonna happen.

[Matches Malone]

...have you seen the other live-action anime on Netflix?

It's not gonna happen.

I know it won't, it'll probably be One Piece in name only, but like with everything, there's always that 1% chance of a miracle happening so we might get lucky.