Has there been official word on exactly why GT ended?

[funrush]

I was just watching the end of GT with some friends and the topic came up of why GT ended at episode 64. Were the ratings low? Were people not buying enough action figures? Has anyone working on the show ever said anything about it?

[PrinceVegetto]

No official word but it's generally believed the DB hype had died down after DB being on the air every week from Feb 1986 to Nov 1997.

Toy sales for GT characters not being so great had to have also been a major reason into it ending after 64 episodes.

As per ratings, here's a comparison (GT's viewership was also down compared to its predecessors):
DB
Rating Shares:
Average: 21.2%
Maximum: 29.5% (Episode 047)
Minimum: 13.7% (Episode 110)

Z
Rating Shares:
Average: 20.5%
Maximum: 27.5% (Episode 218)
Minimum: 12.1% (Episode 273)

GT
Rating Shares:
Average: 14.6%
Maximum: 19.7% (Episode 02)
Minimum: 9.6% (Episode 21)

Source: https://www.kanzenshuu.com/episode/

[Jord]

In interviews the creators of GT said they always had the ending in mind when starting so I guess the order was just for a smaller number of episodes.
DB fatigue already set in so it's not surprising. It was slipping during the Buu saga.

[Dr. Casey]

Wouldn't have expected the Dragon Ball episode with the lowest viewership to be the ending to the first Goku vs. Piccolo Daimao.

[sangofe]

In interviews the creators of GT said they always had the ending in mind when starting so I guess the order was just for a smaller number of episodes.
DB fatigue already set in so it's not surprising. It was slipping during the Buu saga.

I wish I had sources but I am pretty sure that DBGT was originally planned to be much longer than it was.

[theherodjl]

Put yourself in the mind of a Toei employee in 1997. After the studio had spent 11 years working on an anime series that produced hundreds of episodes, a dozen and a half films, partial work on additional media, and some noncanon promotions, you kinda might be in total despair upon believing that you'll have to keep that work up for another few years longer, not even counting the work that'll need to also be done on non-DB projects. I wouldn't be surprised if the team at Toei just said "fuck it!" during the Baby arc and opted to move the series at lightspeed towards it's conclusion. Overworking is a common attitude in Japan but not everyone can just keep working forever and be expected to not just shatter eventually.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Put yourself in the mind of a Toei employee in 1997. After the studio had spent 11 years working on an anime series that produced hundreds of episodes, a dozen and a half films, partial work on additional media, and some noncanon promotions, you kinda might be in total despair upon believing that you'll have to keep that work up for another few years longer, not even counting the work that'll need to also be done on non-DB projects. I wouldn't be surprised if the team at Toei just said "fuck it!" during the Baby arc and opted to move the series at lightspeed towards it's conclusion. Overworking is a common attitude in Japan but not everyone can just keep working forever and be expected to not just shatter eventually.

I wouldn't be surprised if the feeling there was similar to when Toriyama himself was nearing the end of the original manga's serialized run in mid/late 1994, as at that point he'd been doing this for almost a decade (the manga's tenth anniversary came in December that year) and he was likely almost burnt out and just ready to end things. So, it was surely a similar deal for Toei's writers/animation staff.etc on GT in about mid 1997.

[PrinceVegetto]

Put yourself in the mind of a Toei employee in 1997. After the studio had spent 11 years working on an anime series that produced hundreds of episodes, a dozen and a half films, partial work on additional media, and some noncanon promotions, you kinda might be in total despair upon believing that you'll have to keep that work up for another few years longer, not even counting the work that'll need to also be done on non-DB projects. I wouldn't be surprised if the team at Toei just said "fuck it!" during the Baby arc and opted to move the series at lightspeed towards it's conclusion. Overworking is a common attitude in Japan but not everyone can just keep working forever and be expected to not just shatter eventually.

I feel bad for the One Piece crew

[Vegard Aune]

Put yourself in the mind of a Toei employee in 1997. After the studio had spent 11 years working on an anime series that produced hundreds of episodes, a dozen and a half films, partial work on additional media, and some noncanon promotions, you kinda might be in total despair upon believing that you'll have to keep that work up for another few years longer, not even counting the work that'll need to also be done on non-DB projects. I wouldn't be surprised if the team at Toei just said "fuck it!" during the Baby arc and opted to move the series at lightspeed towards it's conclusion. Overworking is a common attitude in Japan but not everyone can just keep working forever and be expected to not just shatter eventually.

That's... not really how any of this works though. If a show is deemed profitable it'll keep going. If the people running the show even have enough of a say to just decide to drop out, they will likely just be replaced. Whatever the specific reasons that led to GT ending after 64 episodes was, I seriously doubt "Toei didn't want to do it anymore" was one of them. Like, for the manga, where Toriyama was the guy behind it all, that tracks, (though even then he apparently had to ask the higher-ups at Shueisha to allow him to call it quits) but for an anime produced by a large staff of dedicated TV writers, directors, animators etc? Not so much.

I feel bad for the One Piece crew

One Piece has undergone multiple staff overhauls. It's one of the reasons why, if you look at different eras of the show, it just looks different. Different character designers, different directors making decisions as to how things should look, and so forth. Dragon Ball went through this too.

[WittyUsername]

Yeah, the idea that the anime ended when it did because the staff got tired of doing it doesn’t make much sense. Besides, didn’t the anime go through a staff overhaul during the 23rd Budokai episodes?

As for why Gt ended when it did, I assumed it was simply because Toei no longer saw it as lucrative enough to keep going. After all, the manga had ended in mid-1995, and there was only so much that Toei could do on their own to keep interest alive. I’m pretty sure that’s the same reason they stopped doing bi-annual movies. It wasn’t worth the resources anymore.

[Jord]

GT's ratings weren't really that bad, especially compared to end of Z.
However, they were going downwards for a while so I guess TOEI wanted to pull the plug before they hit rock bottom. Don't forget that DB stared airing in '84 and GT aired in '96. A lot of early fans may have aged out by then.

[Skar]

I don't think we have an official reason but they had the ending in mind early on so it seems like they didn't plan for it to last long. I remember they said something about wanting to keep that timeslot so until they worked on the next anime. I'm not a fan of the idea that anything successful will continue indefinitely until it loses money. By that logic there wouldn't be any series ending on a good note while it's still successful. All the classic series that have ended might not have aged well if the studio just kept scrapping ideas together to keep them going as long as possible.

[Cure Dragon 255]

I don't think we have an official reason but they had the ending in mind early on so it seems like they didn't plan for it to last long. I remember they said something about wanting to keep that timeslot so until they worked on the next anime. I'm not a fan of the idea that anything successful will continue indefinitely until it loses money. By that logic there wouldn't be any series ending on a good note while it's still successful. All the classic series that have ended might not have aged well if the studio just kept scrapping ideas together to keep them going as long as possible.

By that logic, but that's the logic Toei operates with. You might hate it but Toei just doesnt operate under the logic you want it to. I do agree that there are many who do end it before the quality declines and some even end at the top of their game and that's great.

[Skar]

By that logic, but that's the logic Toei operates with. You might hate it but Toei just doesnt operate under the logic you want it to. I do agree that there are many who do end it before the quality declines and some even end at the top of their game and that's great.

Well Toei has been a studio since the 60's and worked on over 200 anime series. I'm pretty sure they have more series that were given a normal ending and intended to only last a certain number of episodes than milked until they stopped making money. I remember when fans were saying DBS was guaranteed to return the following year and every year since then but they're still waiting.

[Vegard Aune]

Yeah I guess I shouldn't have made that statement quite so general. It's not so much that shows will keep going indefinitely as long as they are successful, as just... the more successful they are, the more likely it is that there are some studio execs somewhere that will at least push for them to continue. And GT was very much a case of Toei attempting to keep the Dragon Ball hype train going. It's honestly kind of baffling that DBS still hasn't made a proper return on TV, what with the manga still being ongoing and Toei still making movies for it. One would think that continuing to make more TV episodes would be a no-brainer, especially now that there are two full story arcs in the manga, and two movies, that they could easily adapt.

[Cure Dragon 255]

By that logic, but that's the logic Toei operates with. You might hate it but Toei just doesnt operate under the logic you want it to. I do agree that there are many who do end it before the quality declines and some even end at the top of their game and that's great.

Well Toei has been a studio since the 60's and worked on over 200 anime series. I'm pretty sure they have more series that were given a normal ending and intended to only last a certain number of episodes than milked until they stopped making money. I remember when fans were saying DBS was guaranteed to return the following year and every year since then but they're still waiting.

That is true. And believe it or it I was going to mention that as Dragon Ball calling it quits when they could have kept going. I am sad it ended but glad they didnt really dry the franchise.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Originally GT had the greenlight for 40 episodes, but it was pretty much a given more episodes would be ordered. The second order was for 24 episodes, but I don't recall the reason why it was no more than that, and why that point was to be the original end of the Dragon Ball series. I'd guess it was because ratings were on the decline since the middle of the Boo arc and TOEI thought it would be better to focus on new shows and let Dragon Ball end while it was still doing alright on Fuji TV.

[Trouser]

Originally GT had the greenlight for 40 episodes, but it was pretty much a given more episodes would be ordered. The second order was for 24 episodes, but I don't recall the reason why it was no more than that, and why that point was to be the original end of the Dragon Ball series. I'd guess it was because ratings were on the decline since the middle of the Boo arc and TOEI thought it would be better to focus on new shows and let Dragon Ball end while it was still doing alright on Fuji TV.

Episode #40 was amazing, I loved everything about it (Piccolo's death is just... *cries*). It works as an ending too. But I'm glad we've had got 24 more episodes, even if the Super #17's Arc (except his design, it's sick, I love it) was mediocre.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Originally GT had the greenlight for 40 episodes, but it was pretty much a given more episodes would be ordered. The second order was for 24 episodes, but I don't recall the reason why it was no more than that, and why that point was to be the original end of the Dragon Ball series. I'd guess it was because ratings were on the decline since the middle of the Boo arc and TOEI thought it would be better to focus on new shows and let Dragon Ball end while it was still doing alright on Fuji TV.

Episode #40 was amazing, I loved everything about it (Piccolo's death is just... *cries*). It works as an ending too. But I'm glad we've had got 24 more episodes, even if the Super #17's Arc (except his design, it's sick, I love it) was mediocre.

I do wonder if they had the Goku Jr. special as a possible ending to GT in mind while making it (given the century time skip and all) until they got that extra 24 episode extension, given it was aired after the end of the Baby arc and just around the start of the Super #17 stuff.

[WittyUsername]

Originally GT had the greenlight for 40 episodes, but it was pretty much a given more episodes would be ordered. The second order was for 24 episodes, but I don't recall the reason why it was no more than that, and why that point was to be the original end of the Dragon Ball series. I'd guess it was because ratings were on the decline since the middle of the Boo arc and TOEI thought it would be better to focus on new shows and let Dragon Ball end while it was still doing alright on Fuji TV.

Episode #40 was amazing, I loved everything about it (Piccolo's death is just... *cries*). It works as an ending too. But I'm glad we've had got 24 more episodes, even if the Super #17's Arc (except his design, it's sick, I love it) was mediocre.

I do wonder if they had the Goku Jr. special as a possible ending to GT in mind while making it (given the century time skip and all) until they got that extra 24 episode extension, given it was aired after the end of the Baby arc and just around the start of the Super #17 stuff.

At the very least, I assume the special had to have been written before they decided on the Evil Dragons storyline.