Would DB still be popular if it came today?

[Yellow Flower King]

https://youtu.be/IOeHRAARVDI


Megaranger is so good. And that's not the last Sentai to feature black people either.

[Tian]

Megaranger (series that got adapted as Power Rangers in Space) had a black and causasian employees working at Inet, the company responsible for creating the Megarangers powers and arsenal. Speaking English and everything. Don’t recall them appearing much after the first couple episodes but pretty sure they had sporadic appearances throughout.

That series also started airing around the time GT was wrapping up.

I only watched the Super Sentai series from the 2000s and 2010s, so I didn't know about those employees from Megaranger. Thanks for the info!

Ike Nwala was a regular character in Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger (2018), playing the role of Director Hilltop and Kenneth Duria played Mr. J in Kamen Rider 555 (2003).

This is to say nothing of the adult-aimed Kamen Rider Black Sun featuring two black side characters who got some of the coolest scenes in the series: Nick (Jua) and Oliver Johnson (Moctar).

It's honestly really cool when a project goes out of its way to stretch like that and give a different side of Japanese entertainment and life. If you only ever watch one or two projects from Japan, you wind up having such a limited scope of what kind of art gets produced.

This is one of the things I really like from the Tokutatsu shows, that they are the ones where you're likely to see actors from other ethnicities.

For Caucasian examples, I remember Shinkenger (Samurai) had this wannabe ranger played by Italian actor John Kaminari and Kyoryuger (Dino Charge) had Ramirez, who ironically was played by the late Canadian actor Robert Baldwin.

I have no idea if it already happened (I'm gonna check later) because as I told MasenkoHA above, I only watched Super Sentai series from the 2000s and 2010s, but it would be really nice to find out that a Latino actor or actress participated in Super Sentai.

[MasenkoHA]

https://youtu.be/IOeHRAARVDI


Megaranger is so good. And that's not the last Sentai to feature black people either.

It’s not my favorite Sentai (that would be Dairanger) but definitely a lot of fun and pretty underrated. I think it’s one of the few series where it’s Power Rangers adaptation gets more attention.

[JulieYBM]

https://youtu.be/IOeHRAARVDI


Megaranger is so good. And that's not the last Sentai to feature black people either.

It’s not my favorite Sentai (that would be Dairanger) but definitely a lot of fun and pretty underrated. I think it’s one of the few series where it’s Power Rangers adaptation gets more attention.

MegaRanger also one of the few Super Sentai which has all of the members be high school students, likely as a reaction of sorts to Power Rangers.

Since we're already on a Super Sentai tangent, I want to reiterate my opinion that a live action Dragon Ball series done in the same pipeline as modern Super Sentai and Kamen Rider would look sick as hell: https://xcancel.com/BattyWanderer/statu ... k3lhw&s=19

[Tian]

It’s not my favorite Sentai (that would be Dairanger) but definitely a lot of fun and pretty underrated. I think it’s one of the few series where it’s Power Rangers adaptation gets more attention.

I think adapting Dairanger completely (besides the Sixth Ranger) would've saved Saban from many headaches.

Hell, there were a lot of opportunities where they could've done the pass to Dairanger as some sort of upgraded powers but of course, they had to stick to Zyuranger stuff for three seasons even though they have already used all the "adaptable" footage back in S1.

Since we're already on a Super Sentai tangent, I want to reiterate my opinion that a live action Dragon Ball series done in the same pipeline as modern Super Sentai and Kamen Rider would look sick as hell: https://xcancel.com/BattyWanderer/statu ... k3lhw&s=19

That looks amazing. I had no idea how much Super Sentai evolved in coreography and special FX since Zyuohger (the last Sentai series I watched).

Too bad that no future Sentai series will be adapted since the Power Rangers franchise will be rebooted... likely into another boring Mighty Morphin / Zyu based installment.

[MasenkoHA]

https://youtu.be/IOeHRAARVDI


Megaranger is so good. And that's not the last Sentai to feature black people either.

It’s not my favorite Sentai (that would be Dairanger) but definitely a lot of fun and pretty underrated. I think it’s one of the few series where it’s Power Rangers adaptation gets more attention.

MegaRanger also one of the few Super Sentai which has all of the members be high school students, likely as a reaction of sorts to Power Rangers.

Yeah, I’ve seen MegaRanger called “MMPR done right”’which is pretty accurate.

Ironically, if I remember right its actual Power Rangers counterpart had already graduated the Rangers in the previous season or something. So even when they were adapting the Sentai plots pretty closely (the evil Rangers arc was a damn near shot for shot remake) they still veered away from the high school stuff.

Since we're already on a Super Sentai tangent, I want to reiterate my opinion that a live action Dragon Ball series done in the same pipeline as modern Super Sentai and Kamen Rider would look sick as hell: https://xcancel.com/BattyWanderer/statu ... k3lhw&s=19

I’ve always said Dairanger is as close as we’re gonna get to a live action 90s tokusatsu Dragon Ball show produced by Toei.

Hell if Toei had made live action Dragon Ball in 1994 or 1995 you just know they would have painted Ryuseioh green and made him Shen Long and re-use the Dairangers staff as Son Goku’s Nyoibo

[JulieYBM]

Yeah MasenkoHa, Power Rangers Turbo had both versions of the team graduate high school, if memory serves. Then the next handful of seasons kept the working adult angle for all of its casts until Dino Thunder brought it back.

Koichi Sakamoto's directing really made Power Rangers' original fight scenes work, so seeing how his directing evolved with the higher budgets of Super Sentai and Kamen Rider when he moved back to Japan after 2009 was really interesting. His episodes almost always feature cool civilian form fights.

It’s not my favorite Sentai (that would be Dairanger) but definitely a lot of fun and pretty underrated. I think it’s one of the few series where it’s Power Rangers adaptation gets more attention.

I think adapting Dairanger completely (besides the Sixth Ranger) would've saved Saban from many headaches.

Hell, there were a lot of opportunities where they could've done the pass to Dairanger as some sort of upgraded powers but of course, they had to stick to Zyuranger stuff for three seasons even though they have already used all the "adaptable" footage back in S1.

Since we're already on a Super Sentai tangent, I want to reiterate my opinion that a live action Dragon Ball series done in the same pipeline as modern Super Sentai and Kamen Rider would look sick as hell: https://xcancel.com/BattyWanderer/statu ... k3lhw&s=19

That looks amazing. I had no idea how much Super Sentai evolved in coreography and special FX since Zyuohger (the last Sentai series I watched).

Too bad that no future Sentai series will be adapted since the Power Rangers franchise will be rebooted... likely into another boring Mighty Morphin / Zyu based installment.

Yeah, Toei's action directors are really upping their games lately. Kamen Rider Gavv was also going really wild with the action scenes. It makes me wonder how a Dragon Ball Henshin Hero series would fair.

[Adamant]

Ike Nwala

Yeah... Might want to look up why you don't see him around much anymore...

[Bloodthroe]

In this day and age. No. It wouldn't be possible for this to come out today.

Why not?

Probably, the lewd jokes.

[funrush]

They could always turn him blue again.

I thought that for a while they tried to avoid Popo but Daima brought him back. Perhaps his new horns are a way to make him less humanoid? He always did look different from how other black people are portrayed, such as General Black.

When they showed his horns I was hyped to potentially see a whole a group of Mr. Popo people in the Demon World. Unfortunately it didn't happen although maybe that's a good thing considering Popo's resemblance to caricatures lol.

Can you imagine if there's different like classes to Mr. Popo's race like there are for the Nameks (eg. healers, warriors, etc.) Imagine a 10 foot tall Mr. Popo that's more ripped than Nappa, that woulda been insane

[JulieYBM]

In this day and age. No. It wouldn't be possible for this to come out today.

Why not?

Probably, the lewd jokes.

I mean, yeah, but you could also just never include lewd jokes. That kind of discussion would alwaya happen at the editorial level.

[MasenkoHA]

Why not?

Probably, the lewd jokes.

I mean, yeah, but you could also just never include lewd jokes. That kind of discussion would alwaya happen at the editorial level.

Indeed my whole issue with this hypothetical is it completely ignores that Dragon Ball as it existed in the 1980s simply would not have ever made it to the printing press today. Toriyama’s editor would have straight up told him “this is a comic for children you can’t do that” there would be no “canceled by today’s audience for lewd content” it never would have gotten that far.


We also have to ignore Dragon Ball restructured itself to be more like Fist of the North Star because that’s what was hot circa 1985. Dragon Ball today would be following uhh Demon Slayer?

[JulieYBM]

Probably, the lewd jokes.

I mean, yeah, but you could also just never include lewd jokes. That kind of discussion would alwaya happen at the editorial level.

Indeed my whole issue with this hypothetical is it completely ignores that Dragon Ball as it existed in the 1980s simply would not have ever made it to the printing press today. Toriyama’s editor would have straight up told him “this is a comic for children you can’t do that” there would be no “canceled by today’s audience for lewd content” it never would have gotten that far.


We also have to ignore Dragon Ball restructured itself to be more like Fist of the North Star because that’s what was hot circa 1985. Dragon Ball today would be following uhh Demon Slayer?

I haven't engaged with Kimetsu no Yaiba yet, but it would be so interesting to see Dragon Ball through that lens given how popular it is with young people now. A Dragon Ball guided by an editor through a lens of being attractive to modern readers and viewers would be really different from the audience that Dragon Ball currently draws, which I think it mostly just hold-overs from the the 1990s and early 2000s.

[Yellow Flower King]

One thing people arent mentioning here is that sometimes, simplicity CAN BE the selling point. Sure it would get eaten alive if it was released today. But ONE of the reasons Dragon Ball has always endured as a brand is that it is a fun, simple kids adventure, even at its bleakest.

[GurixDr34]

Many Dragon Ball fans havent even seen the Original Dragon Ball Anime so i dont know if it could be a success like Demon Slayer maybe not i highly doubt that Dragon Ball would have had the same amount of fans if Dragon Ball Z had never existed

[jjgp1112]

Many Dragon Ball fans havent even seen the Original Dragon Ball Anime so i dont know if it could be a success like Demon Slayer maybe not i highly doubt that Dragon Ball would have had the same amount of fans if Dragon Ball Z had never existed

Dragon Ball was already a mega hit before anybody knew what a Saiyan was.

And of course, Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z are the same thing. Like yeah, of course a show isnt going to be as popular if it...ended earlier than it originally did.

[PhantomSaiyan]

Many Dragon Ball fans havent even seen the Original Dragon Ball Anime so i dont know if it could be a success like Demon Slayer maybe not i highly doubt that Dragon Ball would have had the same amount of fans if Dragon Ball Z had never existed

I get what you mean but it's kinda silly when you consider that DB and DBZ are part of the same continuous story in the manga, no title difference, just one story.

It's like saying "I doubt Dragon Ball would have had the same amount of fans if Dragon Ball had never existed" like yeah... no shit.

And like it's been said alread, it's not like the og portion of the manga wasn't successful. After the first Tournament Arc, dragon ball was already a hit, it just kept getting more and more popular after that.

[GurixDr34]

Many Dragon Ball fans havent even seen the Original Dragon Ball Anime so i dont know if it could be a success like Demon Slayer maybe not i highly doubt that Dragon Ball would have had the same amount of fans if Dragon Ball Z had never existed

I get what you mean but it's kinda silly when you consider that DB and DBZ are part of the same continuous story in the manga, no title difference, just one story.

It's like saying "I doubt Dragon Ball would have had the same amount of fans if Dragon Ball had never existed" like yeah... no shit.

And like it's been said alread, it's not like the og portion of the manga wasn't successful. After the first Tournament Arc, dragon ball was already a hit, it just kept getting more and more popular after that.

Dragon Ball became popular worldwide because of Z to the point that many Dragon Ball fans dont bother watching the Original Dragon Ball and havent even seen any episodes and i can understand that in the Original Dragon Ball Vegeta Gohan dont appear there are no transformations for Goku but its really worth watching if you are a Dragon Ball fan i even feel that the new generation of fans have only watch Super and dont even watch Dragon Ball Z and the Original Dragon Ball completely

[PhantomSaiyan]

to the point that many Dragon Ball fans dont bother watching the Original Dragon Ball and havent even seen any episodes

In American this is definitely a more prominent phenomenon. In my country they aired the original first, and this is much less of an issue.

And now with Super, newer generations are even skipping both the OG and Z, despite how huge Z was.

[JulieYBM]

It's a thirty-five year old cartoon, of course people are skipping Dragon Ball Z lol

A complete second adaption of the series really would revitalize the fan base lol