What would Toei have done with GT if it had gone on longer?

[WittyUsername]

It kinda was, but it was making a point. It's not a test in the sense that if you pass these criteria, it's a feminist work, but lamenting how many stories don't have their characters don't have their characters talking about a guy." It's a humorous but good observation. It's not an actual test, and says nothing about the quality of the media that either does or doesn't "pass the test".

There’s not really a shortage of female centered stories though, especially nowadays, is there? By all accounts, female centered stories have become pretty common. Hell, that She Ra reboot was apparently pretty popular.

The issue doesn't come down to numbers.

What would you say it comes down to? I’m not being facetious, I’m genuinely curious. I will be the first to say that I don’t have much knowledge about what constitutes good female representation.

[ABED]

Like anything, good writing and to not make narrative choices out of convention but because it's what is best for the story. I don't think a female character needing to be saved by a man is inherently bad. It's fine, but I think writers should take a step back to think if it's the best choice for the story. These issues shouldn't be a matter of ticking boxes.

[JulieYBM]

Hell, look at (most) men in cartoons (at least American ones). The fathers are always portrayed as bumbling idiots (Jimmy Neutron's dad, Timmy Turner's dad) or generally in a negative light (Pearl's dad Mr. Krabs). None of you all are saying it's misandry for always portraying men as stupid. But a girl needs to be rescued? "Misogyny." You all are ridiculous.

"But what about the men?!" is a nonsensical way to respond to a claim of sexism and misogyny. Naturally, any notion of "misandry" or sexism towards men is incomparable to circumstances involving women.

I also want to add that men in Hollywood seem to just hate men who are not angry, aggressive, manly men. Me? Loving, caring, emotionally well-developed men are massive turn-ons (mmm...DILFs) but to your average, paid-Hollywood writer? They fuckin' hate them. The biggest US sitcom of late is the recently ended The Big Bang Theory and not only did the men writing and producing that show clearly hate women and minorities, they hated the cishet white male leads, too.

[ABED]

Yeah that's not true at all.

[Robo4900]

I'd argue Hollywood does have problems relating to depicting men who aren't traditionally "MANLY MEN!!", though.

Regarding the Bechdel test... Like anything even remotely similar to it, it's a useful observational/conversational tool, but isn't any kind of substantive criticism on its own.
It's quite useful to point out that in the eleven years Toriyama drew Dragon Ball, he didn't once have two women have a conversation that wasn't about a man. Sometimes, that makes perfect sense -- in Marvel's Avengers, there's one woman in the cast, because the previous few movies had men headlining them. Not a fault in the movie Avengers itself, though it is pretty backwards how few women there were in the first couple of phases of the MCU. (And there is a reason for this; Ike Perlmutter, who had ultimate authority over the MCU until Civil War, thought that female-led superhero movies wouldn't sell, so he refused to let any such films get made. Thus why we didn't get Captain Marvel until a significant amount of time after Civil War)

The Bechdel test on its own doesn't really say much, but it's a conversational tool, it's a fun thought experiment, and it's a very approachable idea. As ABED notes, you won't fix a story by ticking boxes. But, sometimes a checklist can be a useful way to express some flaws in a work that would otherwise be a lot more complex to talk about.
It's very easy to understand that Toriyama's manga doesn't pass it, and GT doesn't pass it, and that can serve as an easy jumping off point to discuss the problems about Dragon Ball's gigantic cast... That has almost no women in it. And then you get into stuff like the "Pan is a girl for Goku to save", which feels like it came out of a pitch document for some dated pulp from the '60s...

[ABED]

And the writers are very upfront about Pan being a damsel for Goku to save. It's a shame because it's a simple fix. I wrote "simple" not "easy". Pan going on a journey and developing into her own person would've been great fodder for a story which isn't to say she can't be saved. One of my favorite episodes is when Giru rescued Pan on that desert planet.

[Robo4900]

And the writers are very upfront about Pan being a damsel for Goku to save. It's a shame because it's a simple fix. I wrote "simple" not "easy". Pan going on a journey and developing into her own person would've been great fodder for a story which isn't to say she can't be saved. One of my favorite episodes is when Giru rescued Pan on that desert planet.

Yep! Agreed 100%.
I appreciate the distinction between simple and easy.

And yeah, great episode, it showed a lot of the promise GT had in its early "Grand Tour" era that could've been used if the writers had written all three of their leads as fully fleshed out characters... Granted, Trunks wasn't particularly more interesting in that episode than he was in the rest of the run, but as can often be a saving grace with a flat character, the way he bounced off the other two was very fun in the episode, and his role mattered greatly to Pan's arc in the episode.

[JulieYBM]

I've been reading about the history of 'Otaku' lately and I find it very fascinating how it sort of ties in with the current topic. In the 1970s 'men' (I can't confirm whether or not some of these people were not people of other genders simply mistaken for men) were abandoning mens' culture for women's culture, which was experiencing a revolution at the time. Men were consuming shoujo comics in such droves that they eventually began to create their own. Azuma Hideo and others were creating the bishoujo, a cute girl character that combined the shoujo comics styles with Tezuka Osamu's art style. This is how men began to create what I l like to call 'comics by girls for girls, but by men for men'. These were comics about the girls, rather than comics about boys with girls in them. I find this a very distinct notion that needs to be made more in how we approach media for men that happen to have girls in them. Pan happens to be The Girl in Dragon Ball GT, therefore she is regulated to unsavory bullshit story beats. Meanwhile, we series about girls as leads who get to be cool and cute, like Shin Seiki Evangelion (hell, I'd argue that Shinji is a trans woman, too), Dirty Pair, Patlabor, et cetera. Then, of course, it's impossible not to look at modern Toei cartoons like the PreCure franchise, Tiger Mask W and GeGeGe no Kitarou (2018) and not see how the women in those all have their own varied personalities and storylines.

Fun fact: Nakamorio Akio (himself a fan of idols, but considering himself above 2D-lovers) originally coined 'Otaku' in the second edition of a column he wrote for Manga Burikko (July 1983; a magazine on the front-lines of the lolicon/bishoujo boom). Otaku was originally a second-person pronoun that 'Otaku' were using to refer to one another. In Otaku no Kenkyuu Nakamori would describe Otaku as being 'faggy' (okama-ppoi; "それにさぁ、奴ら男性的能力が欠除してるせいか妙におカマっぽいんだよね。") for lacking masculine traits and hanging around supposed cross-dressers (how many of these people being cross-dresses and not just trans women I cannot say). 'Otaku' originally being a homophobic/transphobic slur is really ironic, since Otaku then took the word back through their self-parodies and self-deprecation. The irony is doubly humorous when one thinks about how western fans of Japanese cartoons do not believe Gender, Sexuality, and Romantic Minorities exist in Japan. 'Otaku', for their masturbating to drawings and characters wound up stumping a piece of shit sexist homophobe and transphobe.

Fuck, I went off on a dozen tangents. Whoops.

[Jord]

It would be interesting to see where it would have went indeed. To me, the dragon saga always seemed like the endgame with the disappearance of the dragon balls bookending the show in a nice way. The part that would have been changed most would be the part just before it, with Super 17.

Even though it's short and looked to be cobbled together I still like this saga. Super 17 had a cool design, it was short and sweet and featured 18 in a mature and powerful role with a bitter sweet ending. Super 17 saga gets a lot of criticism but the way 18 was written here was so much better than the way the female characters were written in Dragon Ball Super. (lolz-hyper-anime-character trope and quickest learner in the galaxy Kale and "I'm so shy but I get really strong if pushed"-troping Caulifla spring to mind. No female in my dragon ball watching group of friends took the writing in that part seriously, and rightly so, even though it was obviously pandering to the female part of the audience. )

I believe the Tenkaichi budokai in GT would have lasted longer, even if it didn't lead to anything major. It felt very short which is a-typical for a tournament in dragon ball.
Vegeta attaining SSJ4 would have gotten more development as well. I do believe Pan would have gotten a power up as well, even if would not have been SSJ necessarily, maybe something more akin to Gohan's potential unleashed. Getting SSJ1 so late in the series wouldn't have mean anything power wise.

[Robo4900]

Fuck, I went off on a dozen tangents. Whoops.

No "Whoops" necessary; that was most interesting. Thank you.

Even though it's short and looked to be cobbled together I still like this saga. Super 17 had a cool design, it was short and sweet and featured 18 in a mature and powerful role with a bitter sweet ending. Super 17 saga gets a lot of criticism but the way 18 was written here was so much better than the way the female characters were written in Dragon Ball Super.

Fair.
18 was rather good there to my recollection. TBH, 18 is a favourite character of mine anyway, so it is nice to see her get her spotlight moment.
Super #17 is a frustrating arc, 'cause it has some great character stuff (Mr Satan's spotlight episode, #41, which also gives us some fun material with Oob, is another great example, though really that's a slice of life breather episode, so IDK if it counts... Still, it was the first of the 24-episode second half of GT), and while it does end up largely as a perfunctory rehash of Z movie 12, I do honestly enjoy the fanservicey idea of a bunch of old villains coming back through a hell portal. But what made Z movie 12 work was that it was a very focussed story; it's a story about Vegeta learning to put aside his pride, which was quite fitting at the time of release. Problem is, they didn't really get to the emotional core of Super #17 until the climax, and I don't think the setup really supported the emotional core well, even though it was a strong emotional core.

The Super #17 arc is the puppets episode from Community season 4 (the season they did without Dan Harmon, in which everything felt off, and the theme episodes felt gimmicky and unnecessary), where the conceit is there just for the sake of it being there. Like the writers decided "Let's do an episode where everyone is puppets!!" and then they had no sensible reason for that to be happening in terms of the emotional core (and, to be honest, there was no emotional core, really). Meanwhile, you have the episode that season which Jim Rash wrote, where two of the characters swap bodies. It's a goofy, fun premise, but it holds up the emotional core of the episode perfectly, so it all works. It feels like a season 3 episode; it's good Community... It's good TV.

... I could go into a whole analysis of conceit vs emotional core (and I could talk about Community for DAYS), but I don't have the study break time to do it properly, and I'm sure it's an easy enough concept to grasp. The point I'm getting at is just the simple one that "Hell opens up and all the past villains come back and Goku gets trapped in hell briefly and #17 goes evil because he had his programming overridden by Mu and Gero" as a conceit doesn't mean anything for the emotional core about #18 and her brother. It's a solid emotional core, but the premise of the story is completely irrelevant to it, really. And it's not really fixable without a complete rewrite... Either they needed an entirely different emotional core, or an entirely different storyline.

(lolz-hyper-anime-character trope and quickest learner in the galaxy Kale and "I'm so shy but I get really strong if pushed"-troping Caulifla spring to mind. No female in my dragon ball watching group of friends took the writing in that part seriously, and rightly so, even though it was obviously pandering to the female part of the audience. )

You got those two the wrong way around.

But, still, fair enough. I would argue Caulifla is a fine character, but the plot writing around her doesn't work. It's fine for someone to be a prodigy (like Oob, Luke Skywalker, Kylo Ren, Rey Skywalker Palpatine Solana From Nowhere, Goku, Goten, Anakin Skywalker, etc.), but to my recollection, she doesn't have any particular arc, and the best Toei could come up with to add to Toriyama's outline is adding the "back tinglies" scene, which is just awful over-explanation bullshit. "She's an established warrior on her Saiyan planet who trained for a while" is a fine justification for how she gets pretty strong (though, "They somehow found out the Super Saiyan God ritual and did it" would be a better one), but the Tournament Of Power was pretty much an infinite void of nothingness as far as characterisation is concerned. Which is a shame. Adding a couple of Saiyan women to the cast sounds like it could yield some fun stuff, but as usual in Super, Toei completely squander all potential of a story in favour of shallow fanservice and over-explanation of some worldbuilding bullshit we don't need to know.

... Though Kale is a waste of character in general tbh. I get that basically they wanted to do a new take on Broly but this time as a woman, but IDK... It just didn't work. Maybe it's just the TOP's tendency to drain all characters who come into contact with it of all that potentially makes them engaging; maybe in a later arc, they'll come back to the U6 Saiyans and we'll see Caulifla and Kale in a much more interesting light... But IDK.

I believe the Tenkaichi budokai in GT would have lasted longer, even if it didn't lead to anything major. It felt very short which is a-typical for a tournament in dragon ball.

Yeah, maybe. TBH, I don't mind them doing the tournament as basically a slice of life episode, given how strong everyone's got now, but a full-on tournament storyline would've been neat, if done right.

Vegeta attaining SSJ4 would have gotten more development as well. I do believe Pan would have gotten a power up as well, even if would not have been SSJ necessarily, maybe something more akin to Gohan's potential unleashed. Getting SSJ1 so late in the series wouldn't have mean anything power wise.

Mm.
I think we got a lot of what Vegeta was going to do to get Super Saiyan 4 shown to us in the Evil Dragons arc, but they had to do it quickly, so most of it was compressed into their budget-saving/time-stretching clip show episode.

[Jord]

Fair.
18 was rather good there to my recollection. TBH, 18 is a favourite character of mine anyway, so it is nice to see her get her spotlight moment.
Super #17 is a frustrating arc, 'cause it has some great character stuff (Mr Satan's spotlight episode, #41, which also gives us some fun material with Oob, is another great example, though really that's a slice of life breather episode, so IDK if it counts... Still, it was the first of the 24-episode second half of GT), and while it does end up largely as a perfunctory rehash of Z movie 12, I do honestly enjoy the fanservicey idea of a bunch of old villains coming back through a hell portal. But what made Z movie 12 work was that it was a very focussed story; it's a story about Vegeta learning to put aside his pride, which was quite fitting at the time of release. Problem is, they didn't really get to the emotional core of Super #17 until the climax, and I don't think the setup really supported the emotional core well, even though it was a strong emotional core.

The Super #17 arc is the puppets episode from Community season 4 (the season they did without Dan Harmon, in which everything felt off, and the theme episodes felt gimmicky and unnecessary), where the conceit is there just for the sake of it being there. Like the writers decided "Let's do an episode where everyone is puppets!!" and then they had no sensible reason for that to be happening in terms of the emotional core (and, to be honest, there was no emotional core, really). Meanwhile, you have the episode that season which Jim Rash wrote, where two of the characters swap bodies. It's a goofy, fun premise, but it holds up the emotional core of the episode perfectly, so it all works. It feels like a season 3 episode; it's good Community... It's good TV.

... I could go into a whole analysis of conceit vs emotional core (and I could talk about Community for DAYS), but I don't have the study break time to do it properly, and I'm sure it's an easy enough concept to grasp. The point I'm getting at is just the simple one that "Hell opens up and all the past villains come back and Goku gets trapped in hell briefly and #17 goes evil because he had his programming overridden by Mu and Gero" as a conceit doesn't mean anything for the emotional core about #18 and her brother. It's a solid emotional core, but the premise of the story is completely irrelevant to it, really. And it's not really fixable without a complete rewrite... Either they needed an entirely different emotional core, or an entirely different storyline.

I agree. I like the arc but it could have been that much better. The premise was interesting with 17 basically getting brainwashed and Goku stuck in Hell. The ending is also great with 18 getting through to 17's human side, still stuck in Super 17 but the parts in between, while serviceable, could have been better. Show Earth's 17's struggle more while fused with Hell's 17. Let Goku's stay in Hell come with a consequence like a (temporarily) power down since SSJ4 vs Super 17 was just super silly. Let Gero and Myuu help in defeating 17 by relaying a defect or weakness of Super 17 after getting killed again.

Mm.
I think we got a lot of what Vegeta was going to do to get Super Saiyan 4 shown to us in the Evil Dragons arc, but they had to do it quickly, so most of it was compressed into their budget-saving/time-stretching clip show episode.

I do like that Vegeta-centred episode actually. It's nice and reflective. That being said, him getting SSJ4 via a machine really seemed like a solution written in because of the lack of episodes.

That fact that GT actually has 64 episodes + a TV special does have the advantage that it's easier to rewatch than the much larger Z and original DB. I usually watch the series once per year and appreciate it's take on the characters, along with that amazing background music.

[Robo4900]

I agree. I like the arc but it could have been that much better. The premise was interesting with 17 basically getting brainwashed and Goku stuck in Hell. The ending is also great with 18 getting through to 17's human side, still stuck in Super 17 but the parts in between, while serviceable, could have been better. Show Earth's 17's struggle more while fused with Hell's 17. Let Goku's stay in Hell come with a consequence like a (temporarily) power down since SSJ4 vs Super 17 was just super silly. Let Gero and Myuu help in defeating 17 by relaying a defect or weakness of Super 17 after getting killed again.

Agreed.

Though, if Goku has to have some consequences for leaving hell, a minor powerdown is not very interesting. It has to be a serious personal consequence. Maybe he stays stuck in hell, but can project his presence into the real world... So he's able to interact with people, but can't actually be the one doing the fighting.
Though then you have the problem of how #17 actually gets destroyed. Though that is solvable; one way it could be done is that #17 activates his own internal bomb.
Then, with #17 gone, the villains from hell are sent back, and Yama has Goku returned to his proper place on earth.

I do like that Vegeta-centred episode actually. It's nice and reflective. That being said, him getting SSJ4 via a machine really seemed like a solution written in because of the lack of episodes.

Indeed.
I think the Vegeta episode could've been done a little better, but all the new material in it, and Vegeta's monologuing over it, was solid. It's sort of a second go at his reflections on his life from the Boo arc, focussing more on himself than on Goku. If the Boo arc flashback sequence was him reflecting on Goku being his better, then the one in GT is Vegeta reflecting on where this leaves him now. Which is neat.

That fact that GT actually has 64 episodes + a TV special does have the advantage that it's easier to rewatch than the much larger Z and original DB. I usually watch the series once per year and appreciate it's take on the characters, along with that amazing background music.

Sure. I agree.
I do kinda wish it had been a little longer... Or maybe that the Baby arc had been a little shorter to give the second half more room. But either way, yeah, I enjoy GT very much. It does a great job of concluding Dragon Ball. And as you note, the BGM is 10/10.

[Zestanor]

Anyway, it's a kids cartoon. It shouldn't be re-enforcing harmful ideologies, it should be normalizing respect between children of all genders

Sorry for the late reply. It looks like some other folks have responded to this thread before I did. Anyway, what "harmful ideology" do you mean here?

[JulieYBM]

Anyway, it's a kids cartoon. It shouldn't be re-enforcing harmful ideologies, it should be normalizing respect between children of all genders

Sorry for the late reply. It looks like some other folks have responded to this thread before I did. Anyway, what "harmful ideology" do mean here?

I explained it in the same post. I don't want kids cartoons teaching misogyny (actively or passively) but to be actively writing stories that instills respect for other genders in their stories.

[Zestanor]

I explained it in the same post. I don't want kids cartoons teaching misogyny (actively or passively) but to be actively writing stories that instills respect for other genders in their stories.

Yeah I got that, but which part did you see as misogynistic?

[JulieYBM]

I explained it in the same post. I don't want kids cartoons teaching misogyny (actively or passively) but to be actively writing stories that instills respect for other genders in their stories.

Yeah I got that, but which part did you see as misogynistic?

The idea that children need women to be rescued by men or else it's 'too harsh' to quote Producer Morishita Kouzou. The idea that women can't fight or be the hero. I don't want an ideology like that ever being allowed near children. It's abusive.

Fun fact: Morishita apparently just retired from Toei Animation. He was until recently the Toei Animation Chairman. It looks like he won't be able to butt in on productions anymore like he did Dragon Ball Super (which cost the series its pre-production period).

[Jord]

I explained it in the same post. I don't want kids cartoons teaching misogyny (actively or passively) but to be actively writing stories that instills respect for other genders in their stories.

Yeah I got that, but which part did you see as misogynistic?

The idea that children need women to be rescued by men or else it's 'too harsh' to quote Producer Morishita Kouzou. The idea that women can't fight or be the hero. I don't want an ideology like that ever being allowed near children. It's abusive.

Fun fact: Morishita apparently just retired from Toei Animation. He was until recently the Toei Animation Chairman. It looks like he won't be able to butt in on productions anymore like he did Dragon Ball Super (which cost the series its pre-production period).

Yeah, it's extremely odd how a series aimed at boys makes the the boys and the men the main heroes during the fights in the series. Who would have thought that the producers of the show tailor their show to their main audience?
How very odd, it's almost like we have shows specifically targeted at boys and series specifically targeted at girls where woman play the leading parts. Oh wait, there are. They are called shoujo.

Besides that, the women in Dragon ball, or at least the more noticeable ones are powerful women in their own right, mostly due to the fact that they use their brains instead of their brawn.

Bulma. Possibly the most capable or at least the most smart character in the entire show. Shows her ingenuity in Dragon Ball, fixes an old space ship so they can go to Namek, makes a Time Machine, holds her own against Vegeta, develops the Brutz Wave enhancer in GT, as well as creates or helps construct the space ship in the first part of GT.

#18. Powerful woman, both physically as well as mentally. Even beats up Vegeta. Doesn't take crap from anyone. Even when settled down uses her brains to extort Satan. Is the character that ultimately is the key to Goku beating Super 17.

Chi-Chi. A good fighter in her time. Manages a Saiyan house hold and still cares for her family, even after all the hijinx they put her true. The anime makes her a tad more naggin' than the manga but either way doesn't let the physically stronger characters get in the way of her values. Her drive to let Gohan study pay of as the series progresses.

Videl. Independent woman. Good fighter. Sharp as a tack the moment she's introduced. Fairly quickly deduces who Great Saiyaman is as well as the truth behind the Cell Games and her father.

Launch. Great character with her extremely ditsy, naive side and her hyper agressive side basically cancelling each other out.

Fortuneteller Baba. Powerful witch, can look into the future. Respected by all characters.

[Robo4900]

Yeah, it's extremely odd how a series aimed at boys makes the the boys and the men the main heroes during the fights in the series. Who would have thought that the producers of the show tailor their show to their main audience?
How very odd, it's almost like we have shows specifically targeted at boys and series specifically targeted at girls where woman play the leading parts. Oh wait, there are. They are called shoujo.

Ah yes, because if it's a boys' show, then it is a WRONG decision for girls to be major players in the main cast?

Seriously... "Show aimed at boys" doesn't mean "No girls allowed". That's a ridiculous notion. It's a notion that is likely widely subscribed-to by many people working on Dragon Ball over the years, but it's a crazy one.

Besides that, the women in Dragon ball, or at least the more noticeable ones are powerful women in their own right, mostly due to the fact that they use their brains instead of their brawn.

Bulma. Possibly the most capable or at least the most smart character in the entire show. Shows her ingenuity in Dragon Ball, fixes an old space ship so they can go to Namek, makes a Time Machine, holds her own against Vegeta, develops the Brutz Wave enhancer in GT, as well as creates or helps construct the space ship in the first part of GT.

#18. Powerful woman, both physically as well as mentally. Even beats up Vegeta. Doesn't take crap from anyone. Even when settled down uses her brains to extort Satan. Is the character that ultimately is the key to Goku beating Super 17.

Chi-Chi. A good fighter in her time. Manages a Saiyan house hold and still cares for her family, even after all the hijinx they put her true. The anime makes her a tad more naggin' than the manga but either way doesn't let the physically stronger characters get in the way of her values. Her drive to let Gohan study pay of as the series progresses.

Videl. Independent woman. Good fighter. Sharp as a tack the moment she's introduced. Fairly quickly deduces who Great Saiyaman is as well as the truth behind the Cell Games and her father.

Launch. Great character with her extremely ditsy, naive side and her hyper agressive side basically cancelling each other out.

Fortuneteller Baba. Powerful witch, can look into the future. Respected by all characters.

Congratulations, you have successfully listed all of the women in Dragon Ball. If I was to do that with all the men, I'd have a post so long, Kunzait would call it excessive.

(No offense, Kunzait; I love your posts)

I think it's also worth noting that, much as Videl seems independent, sharp, fesity, and gets involved in fighting, she basically stops being any of that after her fight with Spopovich, and moves onto a role of "the sweet girl who worries about her dear Gohan." And aside from her, the only woman who was ever really a lead in the show was Bulma...

Toriyama's main problem isn't that he writes women badly, usually he writes women just fine when he does write them, but... He just doesn't write women into his stories, and when he does, he tends to avoid putting them as leads.

[Matches Malone]

Pan was definitely a missed opportunity. Considering how little room for development there was for everyone else, we could've seen the story through her eyes instead of Goku's. I'm not saying she should've been taking main villains down, but she should've changed as the story went on, going from a spoiled brat to someone Goku could trust to stay calm when things got tough. I don't have an issue with her starting out as someone Goku needed to save, but by the end she should've become an asset to the team, not remain a liability.

[Jord]

Ah yes, because if it's a boys' show, then it is a WRONG decision for girls to be major players in the main cast?

Seriously... "Show aimed at boys" doesn't mean "No girls allowed".

Girls are allowed, they just used their brains instead of their brawn like Bulma. Doesn't necessarily mean that they were worse than the male cast, they just used different talents.

That's a ridiculous notion. It's a notion that is likely widely subscribed-to by many people working on Dragon Ball over the years, but it's a crazy one.

Since Dragon Ball is one of most if not the most successful anime of all time, it appears the people working on Dragon Ball were pretty good at what they were doing and knowing exactly what their audience wants. Guess that notion is not so ridiculous.

Congratulations, you have successfully listed all of the women in Dragon Ball. If I was to do that with all the men, I'd have a post so long, Kunzait would call it excessive.

Sure you can, and how many of those men actually mattered in the end? Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, perhaps (future) Trunks, although he sure fizzled out fast. Relevancy isn't decided by gender but by writing.
Heck, a large part of the male cast was cast aside after the Frieza saga.Meanwhile characters like Bulma and 18 still played large parts in shaping the story line.