Did they STEAL the shrinking idea in GT & Daima from Detective Conan?

[Peach]

If you don't know about Detective Conan (also known as Case Closed in Western territories), it's about a High School Detective Shinichi Kudo/Jimmy Kudo who is poisoned by a mysterious organization. Instead of dying, he shrinks/turns into a 7-year-old. The manga and anime for Detective Conan debuted just two years before Dragon Ball GT and has remained popular ever since. It's still continuing to this day with over 20 films and over 1000 episodes.

I got to thinking. The mini versions of these characters in GT and Daima. Was this idea inspired by Detective Conan? Was Toei taking inspiration from another popular anime in in the 1990s and 2024 in hopes that the concept could make their series popular as well?

[JulieYBM]

The Conan animated series began in January 1996, so the popularity of the series might have been an influence. Toriyama was taking ideas right out of Hollywood films in the 1980s and 1990s, so it's not impossible that someone involved in GT thought that they could learn a thing or two from Conan.

[Goe]

Maybe in GT, not in Daima.

I think that because in both Detective Conan and GT, the main character was turned into a child and GT was from late 90s while Detective Conan manga was from 1994 and was successful then. Aya Matsui was the most plot contributor in GT if I am right, and I suspect women specially like Detective Conan (I don't have a research paper that prooves that, but almost all Detective Conan fans I know are female). So there are some reasons to think that.

However, I am not sure about that. Probably the idea was to return to the pre-Piccolo saga plot style, when Goku was a child that search dragon balls with his mates.

I don't think Detective Conan directly influenced Daima because the idea is totally different: not only Goku but everyone became kids. I think Daima was influenced by GT, someting like "how about not only Goku but everyone being kids?". If GT was directly influenced by DC, Daima was indirectly, but I am not sure GT was, but is probable.

[FortuneSSJ]

Daima is Toriyama GT.
Just like DBS Broly is Toriyama take on Broly.

The trio Goku/Kaioshin/Glorio feels like the trio Goku/Pan/Trunks.
Glorio/Trunks are the adults and smarter who pilot the ship, while the other two are the kids.

Both prioritize adventure over a more serious tone.

We may see more similarities with GT later on.

[MasenkoHA]

Characters being turned into children again is one of those stock plots that pops up everywhere especially in media aimed at children. The decision to turn Goku into a kid again came from trying to nerf him and probably to rehash early Dragon Ball since GT was originally conceived as first arc Dragon ball innnnn spaaaaaace

. Aya Matsui was the most plot contributor in GT if I am right, and I suspect women specially like Detective Conan (I don't have a research paper that prooves that, but almost all Detective Conan fans I know are female). So there are some reasons to think that.

She was the head writer for the first forty episodes but the idea to turn Goku into a kid wasn't her idea but Kōzō Morishita. Detective Conan having a big female fanbase and GT's first head writer being a woman are completely unrelated.

[Saiya6Cit]

I think the idea of turning them into children is to make the characters appealing to children because Daima feels to be orientated to the original DB fans, the ones who watched DB the first time it was aired on TV. And now those people have their own kids, or sometimes a dear nephew/niece, it is a show children feel like watching because of the cute colors and designs. We (the original fans) met Goku as a child. giving new generations the opportunity to do it as well is clever. It seems to have taken the right direction so far. This Goku feels like Goku. By making the characters younger they succed into giving the series a current and juvenile look. In other words, it was a marketing decision and something easy to do as the show is called after the 7 spheres, and they are magical. It has nothing to do with Conan. But it is interesting that you made that conection OP.

Toei Animation is correcting the mistakes of past (call it GT or Super) with this series. So far it has delivered.

[TheMikado]

I’m not really sure what Daima is yet..

[JulieYBM]

I’m not really sure what Daima is yet..

crankly man with no self-confidence turns unrelated party into children, kidnaps god and then doesn't elaborate.

[super michael]

I think the idea of turning them into children is to make the characters appealing to children because Daima feels to be orientated to the original DB fans, the ones who watched DB the first time it was aired on TV. And now those people have their own kids, or sometimes a dear nephew/niece, it is a show children feel like watching because of the cute colors and designs. We (the original fans) met Goku as a child. giving new generations the opportunity to do it as well is clever. It seems to have taken the right direction so far. This Goku feels like Goku. By making the characters younger they succed into giving the series a current and juvenile look. In other words, it was a marketing decision and something easy to do as the show is called after the 7 spheres, and they are magical. It has nothing to do with Conan. But it is interesting that you made that conection OP.

Toei Animation is correcting the mistakes of past (call it GT or Super) with this series. So far it has delivered.

The good thing about Dragon Ball Daima is they don't forbid any characters at all. In DBS they didn't stop showing or mentioning Goten and Trunks, only for them to not be allowed to train with experienced fighters, compete in friendly competition, compete in tournaments and fight villains. Toei really had something against Goten and Trunks in DBS.

In DBS Goku was constantly doing dumb things, which contracts the things that he knew in DB/DBZ. Luckily Daima fixed this flaw.
Daima Goku feels like DB/DBZ Goku.

[Omori]

Stealing is certainly a strong word, but the timing is interesting.

There's Detective Conan from 1994, there are Ranma 1/2 chapters where Ranma and Ryoga turn into children by late 1994/early 1995 (couldn't find the exact chapter release date, but Vol. 33 with chapters 347-349 was May 1995).

I think the intention was rather a "going back to the roots", but it's certainly possible that there might be some small subconscious inspirations from other media.

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

I don't think stories about characters being "turned small" or "turning into children" were a new concept when Detective Conan debuted. It's possible that they took inspiration from Conan for GT and Daima, but steal doesn't feel right to me.

[super michael]

In Digimon Adventure 02 Movie the characters turned into small kids temporary, near the end of the movie.