Series character designer Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru says a Dragon Ball remake is possible

[CodeOfMe]

I remember the first time I watched Dragon Ball. It was specifically the first series, and I was watching it dubbed on some awful, now-defunct pirate site. I greatly enjoyed the first fifty episodes, and I still possess some fondness for the original Funimation dub of Dragon Ball despite its numerous flaws because of that. But here's the thing: around episode 50, I dropped the series. Why? Because the pacing was absolutely awful. It had been slow before that, but those pirate robot episodes were so boring that I just fell off the show altogether for a few years.

Now, I have gone back and watched the full series at an older age and been able to, well, persevere through the padding; but the pacing still remains an issue for younger fans — especially in this day and age where fast-paced content reigns supreme.

A new remake would be able to address this problem and other problems. While many are fine with old animation and the 4:3 aspect ratio of DB, Z, & GT; there are also those who won't give any series made before a certain era their attention. If you are Toei/Shueisha/Capsule Corporation Tokyo, then it's clear that to gain appeal with this subset of fans who are put off by old animation, you will need to produce a newly-animated remake. Whether the new fans it'll bring it will be worth the cost is a question that I'm sure the Dragon Ball higher-ups have already discussed.

Now that Daima has given new voice actors to some of the characters' younger selves, it seems likely that this could continue. And a remake gives the perfect opportunity to recast everyone and bring in new, younger talent. I wouldn't want to see some of the current Japanese cast go, but there's a risk involved as they grow older and older. And recasting is a much better option than AI voice cloning, that's for sure.

I don't really think a new remake is that likely, but I definitely support the idea. Perhaps I might, in the future, make my own list of how many episodes I think a potential remake should have, and what chapters those episodes would cover. But that would certainly take lots of time. In addition, I wouldn't mind if some of the racier parts of the series were censored. A sense of humorousness can still be retained in the show without including some of the more risqué jokes. You can still have Roshi be a pervert who collects dirty magazines, but you don't have to keep him a sexual deviant who bribes a sixteen-year-old girl to let him touch her boobs. "Jokes" like those aren't funny in the slightest, and have no reason to be in a series made for children.

[sangofe]

Have you actually tried to speed it up before saying it's stupid? I vary between 1.15 and 2x speed. Mostly at 1.80. I Was surprised it works so well but it really does.
Stupid is not. It works great for me. I hear and get everything what's said. Slow it down when the animation is faster.

It is disrespectful to all of the artists working on television and film projects to view their work as speeds they did not create it at.

Yeah, I agree. It's like watching them in PAL speed-up (which speeds up video in 24fps by approximately 4%), which is common for European broadcast TV (and maybe Australian broadcast TV).

Disrespectful. Wow. Those are big words. It's not like I've not seen the show before and read the manga 3 times. And to me this is way more entertaining than watching at normal speed or watching Kai so this is how I will rewatch Dragon Ball. In addition to buying and reading Dragon Ball full color in french.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

One Piece took off six months—and is coming back 05 April—after producing Episodes #892-1122 (2019.07.07 through 2024.10.23) without seasonal breaks. There was still a large number of weeks off thanks to recap episodes, but they were still producing a huge number of high-quality shots during that time—to say nothing of One Piece Film Red and some specials.

That being said, if they just plan a new Dragon Ball series out properly they could in fact do 104 consecutive episodes or whatever to adapt the original comic again.

Fair enough but could they still do the same whilst also sharing resources with an over 100 episode DB series?

I think it would make sense for them to remake DB once OP manga finishes and they're caught up, snce it seems the conclusion might finally be on the horizon.

They did the majority of Daima while One Piece was still airing, after all. Planning and staff is really key. Is it likely that such a production would happen? Perhaps not, but it's not impossible if everyone agrees, "Hey, let's plan even more wisely than we did for Daima!"

Daima example does not work it was only a 20 episode series (if rumours are to believed not even planned to air on TV), you are proposing a 100 episode weekly series. What I am saying unless they do the remake seasonally or wait until OP is finished there is absolutely no way they could do a 100+ weekly series remake without some episodes being poor.

I think a seasonal approach like Daima would be the way to go.

[JulieYBM]

It is disrespectful to all of the artists working on television and film projects to view their work as speeds they did not create it at.

Yeah, I agree. It's like watching them in PAL speed-up (which speeds up video in 24fps by approximately 4%), which is common for European broadcast TV (and maybe Australian broadcast TV).

Disrespectful. Wow. Those are big words. It's not like I've not seen the show before and read the manga 3 times. And to me this is way more entertaining than watching at normal speed or watching Kai so this is how I will rewatch Dragon Ball. In addition to buying and reading Dragon Ball full color in french.

*Shrrugs* I'm not the one suggesting watching a series sped up.

Fair enough but could they still do the same whilst also sharing resources with an over 100 episode DB series?

I think it would make sense for them to remake DB once OP manga finishes and they're caught up, snce it seems the conclusion might finally be on the horizon.

They did the majority of Daima while One Piece was still airing, after all. Planning and staff is really key. Is it likely that such a production would happen? Perhaps not, but it's not impossible if everyone agrees, "Hey, let's plan even more wisely than we did for Daima!"

Daima example does not work it was only a 20 episode series (if rumours are to believed not even planned to air on TV), you are proposing a 100 episode weekly series. What I am saying unless they do the remake seasonally or wait until OP is finished there is absolutely no way they could do a 100+ weekly series remake without some episodes being poor.

I think a seasonal approach like Daima would be the way to go.

Again, I did specify planning better and planning ahead to be able to sustain a better series. That would require finishing most of the series before beginning broadcast, which is perhaps not likely Because Capitalism, but not impossible if the production committee pulled their heads out of their asses. Dragon Quest: Dai no Dai-Bouken (2020) wound up having 24 or so episodes finished by the time Episode #1 aired and it lasted for 100 episodes with a really strong production. Pocket Monsters used to have episodes being key animated five months before they aired, too.

[sangofe]

Yeah, I agree. It's like watching them in PAL speed-up (which speeds up video in 24fps by approximately 4%), which is common for European broadcast TV (and maybe Australian broadcast TV).

Disrespectful. Wow. Those are big words. It's not like I've not seen the show before and read the manga 3 times. And to me this is way more entertaining than watching at normal speed or watching Kai so this is how I will rewatch Dragon Ball. In addition to buying and reading Dragon Ball full color in french.

*Shrrugs* I'm not the one suggesting watching a series sped up.

They did the majority of Daima while One Piece was still airing, after all. Planning and staff is really key. Is it likely that such a production would happen? Perhaps not, but it's not impossible if everyone agrees, "Hey, let's plan even more wisely than we did for Daima!"

Daima example does not work it was only a 20 episode series (if rumours are to believed not even planned to air on TV), you are proposing a 100 episode weekly series. What I am saying unless they do the remake seasonally or wait until OP is finished there is absolutely no way they could do a 100+ weekly series remake without some episodes being poor.

I think a seasonal approach like Daima would be the way to go.

Again, I did specify planning better and planning ahead to be able to sustain a better series. That would require finishing most of the series before beginning broadcast, which is perhaps not likely Because Capitalism, but not impossible if the production committee pulled their heads out of their asses. Dragon Quest: Dai no Dai-Bouken (2020) wound up having 24 or so episodes finished by the time Episode #1 aired and it lasted for 100 episodes with a really strong production. Pocket Monsters used to have episodes being key animated five months before they aired, too.

Yeah and so? It's quite obvious you're not suggesting it... I don't understand why you need to point that out?

[Yuji]

It varies wildly by where in the story you are. I think especially early on, doing a bunch of chapters per episode would be disastrous, considering how much of the first arc is just episodic hijinks that honestly feels like it would benefit from more fleshing out... Perhaps not quite as much as what was in the 80s anime, but a lot of the scenarios that happen in early DB feel like they very naturally lend themselves to being a full episode. To say nothing of the bits where it felt like Toriyama himself skipped out on character building, like how fast he blew through Gohan's training with Piccolo for instance.

...While there are absolutely sections of the story that can and should be paced like an episode of Jojo (where they do indeed cram five chapters or more into one episode on a regular basis), I feel like a properly paced, full re-adaptation of the entire manga should be at least 150 episodes, though realistically closer to 200. Making cuts where necessary but also expanding on stuff Toriyama himself may have skimped on, possibly reintegrating some of the filler content from the original series where appropriate, like, I honestly would not mind keeping a few Saiyaman hijinks episodes, even if the "Videl sees through Gohan and gets him to reveal himself instantly" scene was itself also funny.

Honestly? I'm perfectly fine with how the anime chose to adapt things from the Pilaf stuff until around the arrival of the Ginyu Force. That's when the pacing slowly starts to erode. They did bounce back with the Buu saga though - the anime version of that arc is legitimately better than the manga

It is, but not because of the pacing. That arc's pacing in the anime isn't spectacular.

[Hugo Boss]

95 episodes feels like a reasonable target. I absolutely agree that a Dragon Ball remake could land that much while still reintegrating some filler scenes where they add value. There are a lot of episodic adventures that would benefit from a bit more fleshing out, so rushing through multiple chapters per episode might not work well in all situations. On the other hand, some arcs could be paced faster, condensing things without losing impact. If handled properly, I think it could strike a balance, tightening up the pacing while keeping the heart of the story intact.

[sangofe]

95 episodes feels like a reasonable target. I absolutely agree that a Dragon Ball remake could land that much while still reintegrating some filler scenes where they add value. There are a lot of episodic adventures that would benefit from a bit more fleshing out, so rushing through multiple chapters per episode might not work well in all situations. On the other hand, some arcs could be paced faster, condensing things without losing impact. If handled properly, I think it could strike a balance, tightening up the pacing while keeping the heart of the story intact.

95 episodes, for an adaptation of the original Dragon Ball manga that is 519 chapters?

[JulieYBM]

95 episodes feels like a reasonable target. I absolutely agree that a Dragon Ball remake could land that much while still reintegrating some filler scenes where they add value. There are a lot of episodic adventures that would benefit from a bit more fleshing out, so rushing through multiple chapters per episode might not work well in all situations. On the other hand, some arcs could be paced faster, condensing things without losing impact. If handled properly, I think it could strike a balance, tightening up the pacing while keeping the heart of the story intact.

95 episodes, for an adaptation of the original Dragon Ball manga that is 519 chapters?

Hell, 91 episodes would be even better. Each chapter doesn't need fifteen of the twenty-three minute episode runtime to be adapted, especially if you re-work scenes and dialogue to be more effective.

[Hugo Boss]

Some manga chapters could be condensed or even cut entirely:

1. Filler-Like Chapters: Subplots involving Boss Rabbit and Lunch. While funny, these are skippable in a streamlined adaptation.

2. Extended Tournament Build-ups: Preliminary Matches and Post-Tournament Parties. They don’t contribute much to the story and could be trimmed significantly, focusing time only on key moments.

3. Redundant or Overextended Fights: The crossovers with Dr. Slump are fun, but unnecessary in a modern adaptation. The Baba Tournament is already somewhat filler-esque, and the fights are more comedic than impactful.

[sangofe]

Some manga chapters could be condensed or even cut entirely:

1. Filler-Like Chapters: Subplots involving Boss Rabbit and Lunch. While funny, these are skippable in a streamlined adaptation.

2. Extended Tournament Build-ups: Preliminary Matches and Post-Tournament Parties. They don’t contribute much to the story and could be trimmed significantly, focusing time only on key moments.

3. Redundant or Overextended Fights: The crossovers with Dr. Slump are fun, but unnecessary in a modern adaptation. The Baba Tournament is already somewhat filler-esque, and the fights are more comedic than impactful.

I really wouldn't like manga content to be cut.

[MasenkoHA]

Some manga chapters could be condensed or even cut entirely:

1. Filler-Like Chapters: Subplots involving Boss Rabbit and Lunch. While funny, these are skippable in a streamlined adaptation.

2. Extended Tournament Build-ups: Preliminary Matches and Post-Tournament Parties. They don’t contribute much to the story and could be trimmed significantly, focusing time only on key moments.

3. Redundant or Overextended Fights: The crossovers with Dr. Slump are fun, but unnecessary in a modern adaptation. The Baba Tournament is already somewhat filler-esque, and the fights are more comedic than impactful.

Eh I understand skipping Boss Rabbit but I’m not sure about omitting Lunch and making the story more of a sausage fest than it already was.

The preliminary fights are kind of necessary as an early showcasing of how strong the characters become and also show how a Strongest under the Heavens tournament would be narrowed down to eight people. I don’t see why you would cut it. The post tournament celebration at the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai leads to Krillin’s death and really can’t be cut. The celebration after the 21st isn’t strictly necessary to the plot but why cut a fun little coda?

The Baba tournament drags a bit, the anime version at least, but the climax leads to one of the most memorable parts of the pre-Piccolo series, Goku being reunited with his Grandpa. So no I wouldn’t remove it.

[Hugo Boss]

It’s not so much about removing these moments entirely, but making sure they don’t overstay their welcome in a modern adaptation.

Lunch disappears from the story fairly early. If she’s kept, maybe her introduction could be streamlined to fit more naturally.

I agree preliminary matches help establish power levels early on, but some of them could be condensed. Not every single one needs full panel time if the goal is a faster-paced adaptation.

I definitely wouldn’t cut the aftermath of the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai since it leads directly into Krillin’s death. My thought was more about tightening up parts that don’t add much to the overall flow, like the full banquet scene after the 21st.

My issue with Baba Tournament is more with the earlier fights, which could be sped up while still keeping the emotional weight of the final battle intact.

[JulieYBM]

Some manga chapters could be condensed or even cut entirely:

1. Filler-Like Chapters: Subplots involving Boss Rabbit and Lunch. While funny, these are skippable in a streamlined adaptation.

2. Extended Tournament Build-ups: Preliminary Matches and Post-Tournament Parties. They don’t contribute much to the story and could be trimmed significantly, focusing time only on key moments.

3. Redundant or Overextended Fights: The crossovers with Dr. Slump are fun, but unnecessary in a modern adaptation. The Baba Tournament is already somewhat filler-esque, and the fights are more comedic than impactful.

Eh I understand skipping Boss Rabbit but I’m not sure about omitting Lunch and making the story more of a sausage fest than it already was.

The preliminary fights are kind of necessary as an early showcasing of how strong the characters become and also show how a Strongest under the Heavens tournament would be narrowed down to eight people. I don’t see why you would cut it. The post tournament celebration at the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai leads to Krillin’s death and really can’t be cut. The celebration after the 21st isn’t strictly necessary to the plot but why cut a fun little coda?

The Baba tournament drags a bit, the anime version at least, but the climax leads to one of the most memorable parts of the pre-Piccolo series, Goku being reunited with his Grandpa. So no I wouldn’t remove it.

Yeah! The fun part of not following the comic panel-for-panel would be getting to change the overall use of characters. There really isn't more reason why Lunch, Blooma and Chi-Chi combined couldn't be more involved in the story.

Anyway, I got bored and wrote this outline for an first episode that covers the events of the first four chapters of the manga lulz

Spoiler:

Episode #1: “Son Gokuu & Blooma”
Chapters Adapted: Chapters #1-4
Pre-Opening Credits: A young girl named Blooma drives her jeep through the mountains. Stopping near a cliff to get a better look at the geography and find her barings, Blooma spots a young boy defending a sea turtle from a giant bandit. The weight of Blooma’s jeep so close to the cliff’s edge causes the cliff to crumble, taking Blooma and her jeep with it. The jeep takes the bandit by surprise and hits him, knocking him unconscious before he can swing his sword at the boy.
Opening Credits: The sea turtle thanks the boy for protecting him, but the bandit immediately picks himself back up and begins attacking the boy. In an incredible display of speed and strength, the boy overwhelms the bandit with his speed and strength and knocks him unconscious just in time for the Opening theme music to end.
Pre-Title Card: Blooma, luckily, has managed to avoid being crushed by the landslide or by her own jeep, but still cries about landing on her ass. The young boy—confused—looks back at the sea turtle, also confused by the unexpected arrival. The young boy points his staff at Blooma, wondering if she also wants to eat the sea turtle, but Blooma confirms that she’s not interested at all—she’s just looking for the nearby Dragon Ball! The scene ends on another shot of the boy looking confused before cutting to the title card.
Title Card:
A-Part: Back at the boy’s house, the boy introduces himself as Son Gokuu. ‘Son-kun’—as Blooma shadily calls him—lives by himself after the passing of his grandfather, and studies martial arts. Blooma’s ‘Dragon Radar’—which can track the unique energy signature of the Dragon Balls—signals to her that the Dragon Ball she has been looking for is right here in Gokuu’s house! Gokuu unveils the treasure left to him by his grandfather, the Four-Star Dragon Ball. Blooma explains what the Dragon Balls are to Gokuu and the sea turtle…and then realizes that she has no idea what the heck the sea turtle is doing all the way out in the mountains! The sea turtle reveals that he got lost on his way home from a trip, which Blooma finds to be a bit of a stretch considering how way, way, way off course he is, but decides to keep the plot moving along by returning to asking Gokuu for his Four-Star Ball. Gokuu doesn’t want to part with his Dragon Ball, but agrees to help Blooma find the remaining Dragon Balls, because he’s ready to travel the world and meet new strong people who can challenge his martial arts prowess. Blooma—sneakily—plots to herself a way to get Gokuu’s Dragon Ball to herself once they’ve collected the remaining Dragon Balls. The sea turtle mentions that his master, the Kame-sen’nin has one of those funny little orange star balls, and offers to take Gokuu and Blooma to go meet him!
B-Part: A little while later, Gokuu and Blooma are waiting on a beach. Blooma’s growing impatient for the sea turtle to return—and even wonders aloud if they didn’t get trolled by the sea turtle into wasting their time! Gokuu—half-distracted by the sensation of jogging on sand for the first time—reasons that the sea turtle was on the up-and-up. With the sun setting, Blooma unveils a Hoi-Poi Capsule house, a special technology created by her and her father, and then gloats to Gokuu that even though she is sixteen, she’s the smartest girl on the planet! Gokuu, of course, just shrugs. Night falls eventually and the duo go to sleep after Blooma introduces Gokuu to the modern wonders awaiting inside of the Capsule house. In the middle of the night, a mysterious figure enters the Capsule house and reaches for Blooma with their hand. Gokuu—sensing the new presence—wakes up mid-sleep and attacks the figure, but is repelled. The force of Gokuu being knocked into Blooma’s head finally wakes her up and the teenage girl turns on the lights to shout at her intruder! It’s an old and…accompanied by the sea turtle?! Blooma demands to know why they didn’t ring the doorbell, but the sea turtle explains that they rang it three times, but nobody heard, and it would be bad luck to ring the doorbell a fourth (shi; death) time! Blooma—wearing a funny, annoyed face—groans and complains about dumb puns that only make sense in Japanese and won’t play to the international audience. The old man introduces himself as the Kame-sen’nin, also known as the Muten Roushi! Gokuu recognizes the title of the ‘Muten Roushi’ as the man who taught his grandfather martial arts, which would explain how he was able to so effortlessly repel him, but the Muten Roushi explains, “Naw, you kinda just suck,” but the Muten Roushi is fond of Son Gokuu’s moxy—it reminds him a lot of his grandfather’s, Son Gohan, so the Muten Roushi invites Son Gokuu to become his student. Gokuu explains that he’ll have to finish helping Blooma collect the Dragon Balls, first, but he will afterward! Blooma—ever the selfish—inquires about the Dragon Ball that the old man supposedly has. The Muten Roushi asks which one of the two brats saved his sea turtle friend and the creature—unfortunately unwise to the truth of the matter—admits that the girl’s jeep did in fact ‘drive her jeep’ into the bandit trying to kill him and Son Gokuu-kun. Shrugging, the Muten Roushi hands over his Three-Star Dragon Ball to a jubilant—and damned lucky—Blooma. In addition to the Two-Star Ball she found in her basement and the Five-Star Ball that she found ten days ago in a northern valley, she and Son-kun now have four of the seven Dragon Balls! At dawn, Blooma and Gokuu bid the sea turtle farewell outside on the beach. The sea turtle turns to the Muten Roushi and asks him to bequeath to the young boy the Kinto-un, since he himself can’t ride it anymore. The Muten Roushi begrudgingly acquiesces and presents Son Gokuu with the rideable cloud, which only the pure of heart can ride. Blooma—suspicious of the Muten Roushi—asks him why he can no longer ride the cloud, only to be told in response by the old man that, “We’re not having that conversation in a children’s anime.”
Ending Credits: Three quick shots of Gokuu and Blooma bidding the Muten Roushi and the sea turtle farewell as the former rides the latter home. After these shots, the proper stock footage ending animation plays for the credits.
Post-Ending Credits: In the desert, a mysterious bandit and his two small partners ambush a Red Ribbon Army convoy traveling back to headquarters. Using heavy artillery, the bandit catches the convoy off guard and destroys all of their vehicles before searching amongst the rubble for any treasure. A small pig boy discovers the Six-Star Ball among the rubble, and in its reflection we see his greedy grin.

[Shaddy]

Re: censorship

Nothing a new adaptation of Dragon Ball does can properly be called "censorship", because censorship is about the exercise of power over someone else. Toei's adaptation is their work, if they have differences in content from the manga or previous TV versions, that is a matter of their vision and nothing else.

That said, I think content changes would have to be taken on a case-by-case basis. To my tastes, I wouldn't remove almost any of the violence, because Dragon Ball is an action series and frankly it problematizes showing the real consequences of it's violence in the first place. As for the racier humor, there are plenty of okay jokes I'd keep. Yamcha getting brainalyzed accidentally seeing Bulma's boobs isn't that big a deal to me, since it's an accident and nobody really gets hurt. You'd probably be best off aging up...wow, the entire cast for a lot of it. I suppose there's no overt problem with most of the shit/piss jokes, even if I don't like them. Roshi and probably Oolong are the big sticking points. I'm all for shifting Oolong towards self-interest that's not being a sexual predator, and Roshi I think just needs boundaries. Like he's a guy that Krillin brings porn to in exchange for punching lessons, and watches aerobics videos with his nose pressed up against the screen, but if you want me to think he's one of the good guys, he can't be groping and harassing the girls, especially since Bulma's not even 18 at the start. I'd almost respect him if he's just a weird non-predatory pervert in the comfort of his own home.

Re: what to do

I do not want a new, faithful readaptation of Dragon Ball's manga from beginning to end. Toei's old adaptation is perfectly decent at providing that. A re-refresh along the lines of "Kai but better" is all I'd really need. The tools to create the perfect 90s television version of Dragon Ball are already close to being available to us fans, and they're definitely available to Toei. Especially with the advent of their progression in compositing, replacing whatever animation they need could be relatively simple if they were to actually commit to it.

"Commitment" is really the key word here. If we're doing an all-new shiny full remake of Dragon Ball's story, I expect them to reconstruct it piece-by-piece with the best aesthetics, a story and progression of characters and pacing that feels consistent and doesn't drag along story beats or characters after they stop being important, and updates to the structure and world that prioritize cohesiveness as a narrative. Dragon Ball's sense of escalation and time is important, but that's in conflict with it being constructed on the fly. I personally don't see the point in remaking a series if you're not going to do it with the benefit of 40 years of hindsight.

But what that means is cutting stuff that's not important or that hurts the series, even if it's in the manga. It means expanding or altering ideas that didn't work (see: giant chunks of the Cell and Buu arcs). And it means doing stuff that the "aura and hype moments" crowd doesn't like. I don't doubt Toei's talent or resources. This could happen if they wanted it to. But they're a giant company run by executives, and thus they will interpret "what people want" as "more of what someone already likes".

[JulieYBM]

They should age up the entire cast and then make the series for NSFW, of course.

[Shaddy]

They should age up the entire cast and then make the series for NSFW, of course.

I'm pretty sure we can leave the sex fucking to the doujinshi artists. I do think there should be some change in copyright legislation that allows people to profit from fanworks, though.

[JulieYBM]

They should age up the entire cast and then make the series for NSFW, of course.

I'm pretty sure we can leave the sex fucking to the doujinshi artists. I do think there should be some change in copyright legislation that allows people to profit from fanworks, though.

If anything can fix copyright law, it'll be porn.

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

Re: censorship

Nothing a new adaptation of Dragon Ball does can properly be called "censorship", because censorship is about the exercise of power over someone else. Toei's adaptation is their work, if they have differences in content from the manga or previous TV versions, that is a matter of their vision and nothing else.

That said, I think content changes would have to be taken on a case-by-case basis. To my tastes, I wouldn't remove almost any of the violence, because Dragon Ball is an action series and frankly it problematizes showing the real consequences of it's violence in the first place. As for the racier humor, there are plenty of okay jokes I'd keep. Yamcha getting brainalyzed accidentally seeing Bulma's boobs isn't that big a deal to me, since it's an accident and nobody really gets hurt. You'd probably be best off aging up...wow, the entire cast for a lot of it. I suppose there's no overt problem with most of the shit/piss jokes, even if I don't like them. Roshi and probably Oolong are the big sticking points. I'm all for shifting Oolong towards self-interest that's not being a sexual predator, and Roshi I think just needs boundaries. Like he's a guy that Krillin brings porn to in exchange for punching lessons, and watches aerobics videos with his nose pressed up against the screen, but if you want me to think he's one of the good guys, he can't be groping and harassing the girls, especially since Bulma's not even 18 at the start. I'd almost respect him if he's just a weird non-predatory pervert in the comfort of his own home.

Re: what to do

I do not want a new, faithful readaptation of Dragon Ball's manga from beginning to end. Toei's old adaptation is perfectly decent at providing that. A re-refresh along the lines of "Kai but better" is all I'd really need. The tools to create the perfect 90s television version of Dragon Ball are already close to being available to us fans, and they're definitely available to Toei. Especially with the advent of their progression in compositing, replacing whatever animation they need could be relatively simple if they were to actually commit to it.

"Commitment" is really the key word here. If we're doing an all-new shiny full remake of Dragon Ball's story, I expect them to reconstruct it piece-by-piece with the best aesthetics, a story and progression of characters and pacing that feels consistent and doesn't drag along story beats or characters after they stop being important, and updates to the structure and world that prioritize cohesiveness as a narrative. Dragon Ball's sense of escalation and time is important, but that's in conflict with it being constructed on the fly. I personally don't see the point in remaking a series if you're not going to do it with the benefit of 40 years of hindsight.

But what that means is cutting stuff that's not important or that hurts the series, even if it's in the manga. It means expanding or altering ideas that didn't work (see: giant chunks of the Cell and Buu arcs). And it means doing stuff that the "aura and hype moments" crowd doesn't like. I don't doubt Toei's talent or resources. This could happen if they wanted it to. But they're a giant company run by executives, and thus they will interpret "what people want" as "more of what someone already likes".

The big question for me if a Dragon Ball reboot gets made is will Toei recast Masako Nozawa? Because she's always been treated as the sacred casting, (even more so after Toriyama's death) and she was the only legacy actor who wasn't recast in Daima. (Even Takeshi Kusao and Mayumi Tanaka who voiced Trunks and Kuririn at every stage of their lives like Nozawa did for Goku were recast.) Maybe they did that to keep a sense of familiarity in viewers. That let them have it both ways. They get to test the waters to see if the audience would accept similar, but different voices coming out of the mouths of these iconic characters, while still being able to say: "hey Goku has the same voice so everything's still okay. You'll feel right at home."
I wouldn't be shocked if this line of thought is why she voiced Bardock, to keep a sense of familiarity in the audience after being thrown off the deep end into a new cast of characters. Or, maybe I'm looking too deep into it and they casted her because "Bardock looks like Goku so he needs to have his voice."
To me it feels like Toei might be afraid to pull the trigger, whether it's what's best for a potential reboot or not. Even I would be afraid to recast her despite her voice sounding strained when she did the child voices for the Son boys in the last few video games. (Although she did deliver in Daima whenever it counted so there's that.)

[JulieYBM]

Re: censorship

Nothing a new adaptation of Dragon Ball does can properly be called "censorship", because censorship is about the exercise of power over someone else. Toei's adaptation is their work, if they have differences in content from the manga or previous TV versions, that is a matter of their vision and nothing else.

That said, I think content changes would have to be taken on a case-by-case basis. To my tastes, I wouldn't remove almost any of the violence, because Dragon Ball is an action series and frankly it problematizes showing the real consequences of it's violence in the first place. As for the racier humor, there are plenty of okay jokes I'd keep. Yamcha getting brainalyzed accidentally seeing Bulma's boobs isn't that big a deal to me, since it's an accident and nobody really gets hurt. You'd probably be best off aging up...wow, the entire cast for a lot of it. I suppose there's no overt problem with most of the shit/piss jokes, even if I don't like them. Roshi and probably Oolong are the big sticking points. I'm all for shifting Oolong towards self-interest that's not being a sexual predator, and Roshi I think just needs boundaries. Like he's a guy that Krillin brings porn to in exchange for punching lessons, and watches aerobics videos with his nose pressed up against the screen, but if you want me to think he's one of the good guys, he can't be groping and harassing the girls, especially since Bulma's not even 18 at the start. I'd almost respect him if he's just a weird non-predatory pervert in the comfort of his own home.

Re: what to do

I do not want a new, faithful readaptation of Dragon Ball's manga from beginning to end. Toei's old adaptation is perfectly decent at providing that. A re-refresh along the lines of "Kai but better" is all I'd really need. The tools to create the perfect 90s television version of Dragon Ball are already close to being available to us fans, and they're definitely available to Toei. Especially with the advent of their progression in compositing, replacing whatever animation they need could be relatively simple if they were to actually commit to it.

"Commitment" is really the key word here. If we're doing an all-new shiny full remake of Dragon Ball's story, I expect them to reconstruct it piece-by-piece with the best aesthetics, a story and progression of characters and pacing that feels consistent and doesn't drag along story beats or characters after they stop being important, and updates to the structure and world that prioritize cohesiveness as a narrative. Dragon Ball's sense of escalation and time is important, but that's in conflict with it being constructed on the fly. I personally don't see the point in remaking a series if you're not going to do it with the benefit of 40 years of hindsight.

But what that means is cutting stuff that's not important or that hurts the series, even if it's in the manga. It means expanding or altering ideas that didn't work (see: giant chunks of the Cell and Buu arcs). And it means doing stuff that the "aura and hype moments" crowd doesn't like. I don't doubt Toei's talent or resources. This could happen if they wanted it to. But they're a giant company run by executives, and thus they will interpret "what people want" as "more of what someone already likes".

The big question for me if a Dragon Ball reboot gets made is will Toei recast Masako Nozawa? Because she's always been treated as the sacred casting, (even more so after Toriyama's death) and she was the only legacy actor who wasn't recast in Daima. (Even Takeshi Kusao and Mayumi Tanaka who voiced Trunks and Kuririn at every stage of their lives like Nozawa did for Goku were recast.) Maybe they did that to keep a sense of familiarity in viewers. That let them have it both ways. They get to test the waters to see if the audience would accept similar, but different voices coming out of the mouths of these iconic characters, while still being able to say: "hey Goku has the same voice so everything's still okay. You'll feel right at home."
I wouldn't be shocked if this line of thought is why she voiced Bardock, to keep a sense of familiarity in the audience after being thrown off the deep end into a new cast of characters. Or, maybe I'm looking too deep into it and they casted her because "Bardock looks like Goku so he needs to have his voice."
To me it feels like Toei might be afraid to pull the trigger, whether it's what's best for a potential reboot or not. Even I would be afraid to recast her despite her voice sounding strained when she did the child voices for the Son boys in the last few video games. (Although she did deliver in Daima whenever it counted so there's that.)

Oh, the product committee members are totes waiting for Nozawa to retire to do a second animated adaption of the original comic. There's no reason not to just wait at this point. Of Nozawa is still going in 2034, we're not getting a second animated adaption to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary.