I would have preferred these aliens/demons that Akira Toriyama drew over the Gendarmerie Force

[Benjamin-Simons-91]

These characters don't scream "rehashed Ginyu Force" and seem to have an actual character/nature than these "villains" Daima gave us to waste our time.
Besides, it takes an adult Goku as a Super Saiyan to handle them, while we now know that the obstacles in Daima were easily handled if the Z-Fighters were still adults. And the Gendarmerie Force were easily taken care of by a kid Vegeta in base form.

Edit: updated the image, the one from the Dragon Ball WIki, just like that site, was problematic.

[YamiGoku]

"Nothing" would have been better over the Gendarmerie Force, just a waste of time and space like manny things in Daima, It would have been better to spend that time in manny other things like a point for having Degesu as a character or a better way to make Arinsu "change of heart" feel more natural.

[Vegeta th3 4th]

It would have been better to spend that time in manny other things like a point for having Degesu as a character or a better way to make Arinsu "change of heart" feel more natural.

So much time was wasted in episodes 13-17 that would've been better spent on those two characters and even Glorio.

[MisteryOne]

No lmao the problem with them is the writing and how unnecesary they are, not the design. This would not fix anything at all. They were only funny for the single gag that didn't involve them being a blatant Ginyu copy.

The fact that you also apparently see "character" in such generic designs is also pretty concerning. Drsgon Quest's monster have a lot more charisma than those random generic thugs. But again, the design is not the problem at all with them.

[BernardoCairo]

First, this image looks amazing. Sharp 90s style! It looks like Toriyama's Chrono Trigger art.

Second, I would have liked the Gendarmerie Force a lot more if Piccolo had defeated them. That simple change would have made things better for me.

[Benjamin-Simons-91]

The fact that you also apparently see "character" in such generic designs is also pretty concerning.

Have you heard of the phrase: "To each, their own opinion"? There's no need to use such harsh phrasing as if you were diagnosing a medical condition.

In my opinion, these characters are far better than the "fake Beerus grunts" design and most definitely not scream "Ginyu Force knock-offs". Let alone the fact that Goku is fighting them as a Super Saiyan while he's in his adult strength.

[LoganForkHands73]

I've never seen this artwork before, where's it from? It's cool.

Anything would have been better than the Gendarmerie Force. I was really unimpressed by these characters. I might go so far to say they're the lamest to come out of modern Dragon Ball. Utterly forgettable designs, no unique personality or abilities, no discernible impact on the story, and their defeat wasn't even satisfying. Comparisons to the Ginyu Force are obviously intentional. Being brutally honest, the whole "haha these tokusentai guys are dumb and pose all the time" gag has had diminishing returns for years already. I don't get why Toriyama and co. found this to be peak comedy.

As much as I was a bit antipathetic to them from the get-go, they had some potential. If they actually could back up their boasts and challenge the heroes, that genuinely would have subverted expectations. Considering that later episodes showed that, with sufficient firepower, the standard Gendarmerie laser guns could give the heroes some difficulty, it would have been interesting to see an elite team rely on weapons that are actually effective. But no. Their gatling guns are useless and the leader's (can anyone remember their individual names? There you go) trump card is a big fireball.

People were critical of the padding in Daima, most of it I didn't agree with, but with the G-Force, it's indisputable to me: wasting time was their only purpose.

[supershonen]

One thing that bugs me is how non-threatning demon world folks look. When dabura was introduced as the king of demon world he had that classic demonic look but in daima the demons look like cartoonish aliens like any other space beings. The characters should have been less cartoon like and more monster like.

[LoganForkHands73]

Man, this artwork jumped back into my head to live rent free so I had to come back and find it.

Unrelated to the point of the OP (I’m still firmly on the “fuck the Gendarmerie Force” train, no change to report there), this brought me back to the age old thought experiment of ‘what if Dragon Ball Z had more adventure-focused arcs?’ Toriyama never took the opportunity to explore anything like this in the manga after Namek, not least because Goku was put out of commission in nearly every damn arc, but this artwork’s existence indicates that he might have been interested in it. It would’ve been cool to see Goku take on low-level mooks that were at least tough enough to require Super Saiyan. The Cell Juniors sort of count but they were more like mini-bosses in disguise.

[Ronin]

I've never seen this artwork before, where's it from? It's cool.

I don't know if you ever found where it was from, but I was just wondering the same thing looking at this thread and apparently it's from the cover of the September 1993 issue of V-Jump. And I think it was also in a Dragon Ball art book. This link shows the cover and another cover that shows Super Saiyan Goku with some other nameless aliens: https://en.dragon-ball-official.com/news/01_2953.html

[Ronin]

I've never seen this artwork before, where's it from? It's cool.

I don't know if you ever found where it was from, but I was just wondering the same thing looking at this thread and apparently it's from the cover of the September 1993 issue of V-Jump. And I think it was also in a Dragon Ball art book. This link shows the cover and another cover that shows Super Saiyan Goku with some other nameless aliens: https://en.dragon-ball-official.com/news/01_2953.html

Actually never mind. The creatures in the second picture I mentioned actually do have names. They're Kinkarn and Arbee/Roszak from Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans. Makes me wonder if the other creatures from the OP image could be unused designs maybe.

[VegettoEX]

Yep, this is artwork Akira Toriyama himself personally drew as the cover for the September 1993 issue of V-Jump (released in July 1993). It's specifically artwork for and promoting Dragon Ball Z Side-Story: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans for the Nintendo Famicom (for which there is a multi-page feature in the magazine)-

https://imgur.com/a/akira-toriyama-v-ju ... rk-rnW2nrj

And yes, because it's Toriyama artwork, it does appear in Daizenshuu #1 (the last photo in that Imgur link above).

[Saiya6Cit]

These characters don't scream "rehashed Ginyu Force" and seem to have an actual character/nature than these "villains" Daima gave us to waste our time.
Besides, it takes an adult Goku as a Super Saiyan to handle them, while we now know that the obstacles in Daima were easily handled if the Z-Fighters were still adults. And the Gendarmerie Force were easily taken care of by a kid Vegeta in base form.

Edit: updated the image, the one from the Dragon Ball WIki, just like that site, was problematic.

Onluy two things:
1)That looks too much like dragon quest. There would be fuss about it.

2) Maybe since Toriyama passed away they could not completely develop the characters the way they should have done it...I don't know how much of Toriyama there was in the gendarmerie, but it was decent to me.

[Luso Saiyan]

2) Maybe since Toriyama passed away they could not completely develop the characters the way they should have done it...I don't know how much of Toriyama there was in the gendarmerie, but it was decent to me.

If nothing else, he designed them. I also don't have a problem with the design, and "rehashing the Ginyu Force" is a matter of characterization, not alien design.