MistareFusion's Dragon Ball Dissection! (Updated 3/16/26!)

[jcogginsa]

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that this movie has done irreversible damage to anime in Hollywood. This movie was so bad, so disliked, that Hollywood just never attempted to bring anime to life again, despite being known for attempting something multiple times before giving up on it. This one movie made them go "nope, never again". Your movie has to be a special kind of bad to not just kill any potential in your franchise, but every franchise from Japan. I do realize that we've gotten small projects here and there, but nothing on the level of current comic book movies.

What are you talking about? There have been multiple big budget attempts at live action anime since Dragonball Evolution

[Vegeta th3 4th]

What are you talking about? There have been multiple big budget attempts at live action anime since Dragonball Evolution.

I meant in a way that would be taken seriously; something on the level of what's done with Marvel and DC properties where the best of the industry is brought on and given some of the biggest budgets in Hollywood.

[Scsigs]

Spoiler:

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that this movie has done irreversible damage to anime in Hollywood. This movie was so bad, so disliked, that Hollywood just never attempted to bring anime to life again, despite being known for attempting something multiple times before giving up on it. This one movie made them go "nope, never again". Your movie has to be a special kind of bad to not just kill any potential in your franchise, but every franchise from Japan. I do realize that we've gotten small projects here and there, but nothing on the level of current comic book movies.

In a world where we have movies such as Avengers Infinity War and Avengers Endgame, I do believe that Dragon Ball in live action can work, but pulling it off wouldn't be easy. As far as tech goes, the advancements made since 2009 make it possible to pretty much bring any anime or book to live action now, so that's no longer a concern. Finding the right talent shouldn't be too difficult either, as a good actor can play any role given to them, assuming of course they fit said role. With these two out of the way, here are the three issues that I believe make it difficult to bring Dragon Ball to the big screen:

1- The director: It's one thing to find a talented director, it's another to find one who also understands Dragon Ball as envisioned by Toriyama back in the 80s and 90s. Considering how little the people in-charge of the franchise itself in Japan don't understand it, I don't know how likely it is to find a Hollywood director who does, much less one talented enough to bring it to life.

2- The budget: A series as action-packed as Dragon Ball would not be cheap to make, and considering how basically every anime project from Hollywood has either under performed or outright failed, I don't know how likely it is to find a studio willing to invest upwards of $200 million in any anime movie. Even the best directors need money to work with, so without it, their talent and knowledge of the franchise will only take them so far.

The marketing: Dragon Ball as a brand has been severely diluted thanks mostly to its three sequels: GT, Super, & Daima. If Dragon Ball as a franchise was only its original manga and its anime adaption (DB & Z), then I think the marketing team would have an easier time convincing people to go see it in theaters. Considering how front and center trash like Super has been, chances are that's what someone will think of or find when they hear "Dragon Ball", which will instantly kill their interest in the movie.

Oh god. Now you have to come into THIS thread & spew your dumb shit?

[Vegeta th3 4th]

Oh god. Now you have to come into THIS thread & spew your dumb shit?

You seem to have difficulties handling opinions that don't line up with yours.

[coola]

What are you talking about? There have been multiple big budget attempts at live action anime since Dragonball Evolution.

I meant in a way that would be taken seriously; something on the level of what's done with Marvel and DC properties where the best of the industry is brought on and given some of the biggest budgets in Hollywood.

To be fair, it still did little better than Speed Racer (2008) with had budget of $120 million and $93.9 million box office. While Evolution had $30 million budget and earned $56.5 million

Like i said in my topic talking about first teaser (featuring Albino Piccolo) you knew it's gonna suck from that teaser alone, that's why not too many people saw it, so it was harmless overall.

[Vegeta th3 4th]

To be fair, it still did little better than Speed Racer (2008) with had budget of $120 million and $93.9 million box office. While Evolution had $30 million budget and earned $56.5 million

Like i said in my topic talking about first teaser (featuring Albino Piccolo) you knew it's gonna suck from that teaser alone, that's why not too many people saw it, so it was harmless overall.

It's fun to think about where anime in live action (specifically Hollywood) would be now if Evolution managed to make $150-200 million on that budget. Despite not being good, the success of Funimation's original dub of Z back in the day (alongside Pokemon, Gundam, & Sailor Moon) paved the way for anime in general to be brought over, so would Hollywood have tried again with bigger budgets and maybe even more series like Naruto which was popular at the time ? With how well One piece is doing on Netflix, I'm surprised no one's talking about a live action Dragon Ball series.

[jcogginsa]

What are you talking about? There have been multiple big budget attempts at live action anime since Dragonball Evolution.

I meant in a way that would be taken seriously; something on the level of what's done with Marvel and DC properties where the best of the industry is brought on and given some of the biggest budgets in Hollywood.

Which has happened multiple times since Dragonball Evolution. Just off the top of my head there was Ghost in the Shell and Battle Angel Alita

[Vegeta th3 4th]

Which has happened multiple times since Dragonball Evolution. Just off the top of my head there was Ghost in the Shell and Battle Angel Alita.

Those aren't exactly mainstream like Dragon Ball, but you're right; I honestly didn't know about them. Battle Angel did well, making roughly three times its budget, so it's a shame it didn't get a sequel, or inspire more mainstream anime projects to get off the ground. I remember one studio talking about a Naruto movie years ago, but nothing came of it.

[Gaffer Tape]

Also, the serendipity that a band named after Marty McFly and Mr. Fusion from Back to the Future would be involved in something DB related. Though, McFly I think was tapped because they were in a shitty Fox movie 3 years earlier & Fox liked them enough to ask them about it.

There are no coincidences. Clearly it was meant to be!

Minor translation nitpick, but I think "Xian" is basically just the Chinese equivalent of "Sennin". So, they actually did a pretty straightforward translation/adaptation with his name. "Turtle Fairy", while technically correct, wouldn't be a very good English translation.

I figured that might be the case, but since multiple auto-translations spat out "fairy," and I don't know anything about Chinese, I decided I had to defer to it! If that's the worst I did with Chinese in this video, I will happily take a victory lap!

You spent an hour and a half watching this movie, thirty minutes talking about it, and god knows how long writing the video's script. Someone get this reviewer a Senzu bean...two Senzu beans.

It certainly feels like the videos I've done this year have required so much more prep work than in the past! I think I'll take three Senzu!

Considering how front and center trash like Super has been, chances are that's what someone will think of or find when they hear "Dragon Ball", which will instantly kill their interest in the movie.

Putting aside my own complex feelings about Super, I doubt that would be any kind of hindrance. A general audience isn't going to understand the distinction in the first place. And there seem to me to be plenty of fans who loved Super and are dying for it to continue. And for established DB who don't care for Super specifically, unless that branding is attached to a movie, I doubt it would scare them off.

[Vegeta th3 4th]

It certainly feels like the videos I've done this year have required so much more prep work than in the past! I think I'll take three Senzu!

Your upcoming Battle of Gods review is one I'm really looking forward to. Do you plan on reviewing Super and Daima the way you did GT, or will they be more of an overall review taking up one episode each ?

[Gaffer Tape]

Your upcoming Battle of Gods review is one I'm really looking forward to. Do you plan on reviewing Super and Daima the way you did GT, or will they be more of an overall review taking up one episode each ?

I literally just finished rewatching BoG (for the first time in probably a decade), and I'm happy to say I still enjoy just as much as I did when it was new!

Handling Super et al will be more in line with how I covered previous DB series. They will be in multiple parts.

[JulieYBM]

God, I need to do a full series re-watch. I think I fell off watching during the Majin Buu arc?

Are you going to be doing the Toriko × One Piece × Dragon Ball Z crossover?

[Gaffer Tape]

God, I need to do a full series re-watch. I think I fell off watching during the Majin Buu arc?

I definitely wish you would fall back on!

Are you going to be doing the Toriko × One Piece × Dragon Ball Z crossover?

I hadn't planned on it. I'm always open to hearing a justification for covering something I hadn't planned to, though. I hadn't planned on doing the '97 Slump crossover, but it ended up being so much more substantial than I had assumed it was that I ended up slotting it in at the last minute. Based on a synopsis, I don't think I'd be interested, but if you think I should, let me know why!

[jcogginsa]

Unless you plan on picking up One Piece or Toriko I don't think there's much reason for you to watch the crossover.

[JulieYBM]

God, I need to do a full series re-watch. I think I fell off watching during the Majin Buu arc?

I definitely wish you would fall back on!

Are you going to be doing the Toriko × One Piece × Dragon Ball Z crossover?

I hadn't planned on it. I'm always open to hearing a justification for covering something I hadn't planned to, though. I hadn't planned on doing the '97 Slump crossover, but it ended up being so much more substantial than I had assumed it was that I ended up slotting it in at the last minute. Based on a synopsis, I don't think I'd be interested, but if you think I should, let me know why!

It's not substantial at all, outside of being, like, really bad, but I suppose there's other places to do an essay on how cross-franchise crossovers under capitalism are doomed to be terrible because they aren't willing to be substantive pieces to develop characters.

I'll try to fall back on soon.

[Vegeta th3 4th]

Are you going to be doing the Toriko × One Piece × Dragon Ball Z crossover?

I don't think I'd be interested, but if you think I should, let me know why!

There's an interesting historical context behind it, as it was one of the first times something like that was done. Both Jump and Toei were hoping that Dragon Ball, which just returned to the big screen in Battle of Gods, and One Piece would help push Toriko. Bleach's sales in Jump were on a downward trajectory, while Toei was hoping to make Toriko their next big series after DB and One Piece. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, it just didn't work, resulting in the Toriko anime getting cancelled less than a year later in 2014. The manga continued for an additional two years, ending in 2016. The author seemingly had bigger plans for the series, but it just never took off the way the higher ups were hoping it would. If you want my thoughts on it, I'd say give it a shot and see if you like it enough to justify a review. It's only two episodes long.

[nineko]

I hadn't planned on it. I'm always open to hearing a justification for covering something I hadn't planned to, though. I hadn't planned on doing the '97 Slump crossover, but it ended up being so much more substantial than I had assumed it was that I ended up slotting it in at the last minute. Based on a synopsis, I don't think I'd be interested, but if you think I should, let me know why!

Well, if anything, it would help you postpone your venture into the Super era
And it would give you a chance to tangentially talk about Cross Epoch, something you explicitly said you didn't want to do per se, but it might find 3 minutes of space into a broader video since One Piece is involved.

Jokes aside, I'm happy to see that you're going to tackle Kami To Kami. After all, it's still technically a "Z" movie, and it's good to complete the lineup (assuming that the resurrection of Freeza is next).

[Scsigs]

Oh god. Now you have to come into THIS thread & spew your dumb shit?

You seem to have difficulties handling opinions that don't line up with yours.

No, that's not it at all. How I've seen you tend to discuss media is in a weird way that doesn't really lead to a lot of great discussion & more often than not, a thread gets derailed a lot of the time when you're in it. I've had arguments with you over certain things before because of that. I have no problems discussing alternate viewpoints or opinions to my own if I can at least understand where the person is coming from & I believe I've disproved some of yours before, to which you've pivoted at times to still try to keep to other points rather than conceding the points. And you accuse me of not handling other opinions? I've had multiple good & productive conversations on here as I've been on here for years before you were, so don't make accusations of things you know nothing about.

There are no coincidences. Clearly it was meant to be!

I recommend McFly if you've never listened to them before. I've seen the Beatles mono CD box set in the backgrounds of some of your videos. They take a lot of influence from them, particularly on their second album. They're such a good band.

Considering how front and center trash like Super has been, chances are that's what someone will think of or find when they hear "Dragon Ball", which will instantly kill their interest in the movie.

I hate this. Outside of some general problems Super has had like Toriyama not being directly involved passed writing the arc outlines & some jokes, certain characters being flanderized because the writers don't know how to handle their characterizations (things Toriyama struggled with in the later arcs of DB after he overcorrected from the Toei staff making Goku a bit more heroic in the anime & badly wrote parts of the Buu Arc just to make certain parts of the plot happen), a failure to properly capitalize on the themes & narratives Toriyama was introducing, the genuinely bad animation quality in some episodes due to the rushed production (although not the only DB anime to have this problem, as Z had some really badly animated episodes & even some of the Z movies, mind you), & pacing at points (which Z had worse problems with & even the manga did in places), Super is fine. It's not to the level of the first 2 animes or the manga, but it's perfectly fine. It's far from the worst shonen anime or the worst out of the last decade+ of reboots, continuations, & new entries into franchises that have come about. I'd also gladly rewatch it over GT because it at least had a sense of its own identity & tried to introduce new exciting elements rather than retread the past while using some old characters in new ways that tried to excite fans rather than lean on the nostalgia baiting, the Baby arc aside, & doesn't have to rely on its ending being 1 of the best parts of it to try & save it.

Also, I genuinely think you honestly smell your own farts too much with how much you think the general fandom of DB hates Super. Super did very well in the ratings everywhere it came out in & I'm pretty sure drove up a lot of merch sales. The fandom at large that aren't to the level of us here on this forum like Super to the point where people wanna see a continuation of the show. A lot of people even gave Daima a chance & most people like that, continuity problems aside (which, those kind of problems aren't new for Dragon Ball things separate from the original manga). Calm it down & take a step back here. You're WAY overthinking how many people in the fandom actually don't like Super. Just because you hate it & think it's trash doesn't mean other people have to as well, Doug Walker. This is exactly the kind of shit I was talking about up top with you derailing conversations in these threads with your own dumb shit. Get over yourself.

Putting aside my own complex feelings about Super, I doubt that would be any kind of hindrance. A general audience isn't going to understand the distinction in the first place. And there seem to me to be plenty of fans who loved Super and are dying for it to continue. And for established DB [fans] who don't care for Super specifically, unless that branding is attached to a movie, I doubt it would scare them off.

Yeah, agreed. I get where that guy's coming from, as Daima was initially bashed by some fans for not being a proper continuation of Super, but as it aired & people were able to take it as its own thing, I'd say a lot of people have warmed up to it. The only real arguments people have with it now (me included) is that it doesn't really fit with the established timeline of events Super previously set up. Ignoring that Super is clearly its own timeline separate from the original manga & events of Z/Kai since it contradicts what was said in the timeskip that Goku's & Vegeta's families haven't seen each other in years (which, doing the math on the timeline present in Super doesn't add up to any sort of scrutiny) & the Earth hadn't seen any threats in the 10 years since the defeat of Buu, the addition of Super Saiyan 4 & Vegeta going Super Saiyan 3 just makes everything a headache since they contradict Super & the last 4 movies heavily just from their inclusion with no answer in sight for how they're gonna fix that if they even intend to or if Toriyama was going to do that. However, just the words "Dragon Ball" in the title of a new entry is enough to garner interest in it. Even if they do a new subtitle, or just simply title a new movie or show "Dragon Ball" with no "Super" in the title & just call it "Dragon Ball: [X]" (which I think they should do, tbh), I think a lot of people will be excited as long as it looks interesting & the writing's good.

I'm a defender of Super, mainly the anime since I haven't read much of the manga (which is probably a good thing because I find some of the manga's decisions baffling, like the million clones of Fused Zamasu spawning after Trunks bisects him for instance), so I'll be the first to point out what I like about it, but I'm not immune to seeing the bad in it either & I pointed them out up top. Hell, there are a lot of fans who're waiting for Toyotaro to end the hiatus with the Super manga since they've gotten invested in it. Super's had its good points. I just also think that people let the bad get in the way of critically analyzing it more positively most of the time & it's lead to this dower cynicism & hatred of it in some places (one of the mods here absolutely detests it for reasons I can't fathom). Which is weird because I don't like GT & feel it's the absolute low point of the franchise, but I'm not gonna say it can't be in the video games or get its own merch like some people will with Super. That's just really dumb since GT had some good things going for it. It's just a victim of franchise fatigue & good ideas, poor executions.

[Vegeta th3 4th]

I've seen you tend to discuss media in a weird way that doesn't really lead to a lot of great discussion & more often than not, a thread gets derailed a lot of the time when you're in it.

You literally pick fights with people you don't agree with by personally insulting them, as you're doing with me right now, yet I'm the one derailing this topic ? Do you think I'm going to insult you back so you can go complain to one of the mods about it ? Simply put, if you don't like what I have to say, you can either block me or not read my comments.

[Scsigs]

I've seen you tend to discuss media in a weird way that doesn't really lead to a lot of great discussion & more often than not, a thread gets derailed a lot of the time when you're in it.

You literally pick fights with people you don't agree with by personally insulting them, as you're doing with me right now, yet I'm the one derailing this topic ? Do you think I'm going to insult you back so you can go complain to one of the mods about it ? Simply put, if you don't like what I have to say, you can either block me or not read my comments.

What are you talking about? I don't pick fights. I disagree with opinions I don't agree with & try to explain my side. Which is what I just did. You accused me of not handling opinions I disagree with, of which I very much disagree with. However, I have the right to argue against opinions I don't agree with here as you are. And, you cherry pick what you respond to & paint it as something it's not rather than actually argue against the more substantive points. As I said, I don't like how I've seen you argue your points & I don't agree with some of your opinions. You've also antagonized me on purpose at least once in another thread to your own admittance, so don't throw stones in glass houses, buddy.

Example of your cherry-picking & changing (at least slightly) of your opinion:
In the Sparking Zero thread:
1. Kaboom says he hates Super & doesn't want it represented in the video games, partly using SZ's lack of content compared to BT3 as his argument (bad argument imo, but that's how he did it) & his own hatred of it to justify the argument.
2. I reiterated that some people don't want Super in the games to you after that because you said something that made me realize you either hadn't read what he said, or did & either chose to ignore it or forgot about it.
3. You say that's not true.
4. Kaboom literally responds to you saying he does.
5. You go silent on that.
6. I later reiterate that because I found it weird how you didn't respond to concede that point.
7. You responded basically saying, "Well, Super's garbage anyways" rather than admitting you were wrong on that point & now you're hating on Super & calling it trash.

You have no integrity when it comes to certain arguments to me, sorry.

Also, I don't read most of your replies because I know you're not worth responding to most of the time. I just also don't like when you enter a chat you were previously not in for reasons I've explained already & make bad faith & just bad arguments. Hell, Mistare Fusion literally refuted what you said about Super not getting people excited for more DB content (despite that being so out of touch with the wider community & reality considering the last 2 movies made bank & were received pretty positively by most people in the fandom) before I did.

Care to argue with my refutations of your opinions on Dragon Ball Super now?