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

[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.)

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.

They're gonna have to wait awhile then because with her health Nozawa could easily continue this role into her mid 90's at least. Which if she can handle it and still wants to work I'm all here for it.