Dragon Ball: The Live Action Series Thoughts?

[the_abberration]

I knew it was bound to happen. The U.S. is finally getting on board with anime to live action series adaptions. It was recently annouced, that Starz was in the process of adapting Noir into a live action series. FUNimation recently acquired distributer rights to the animated version. Now, if the live action proves successful, it would stand to reason that other anime shows might make this jump. So hypothetically speaking: Since DB has been FUNi's cash cow for so long, as well as Dragon Ball Kai being out there now, does anyone think that a viable version of the DB series could be made into live action? If money is involed, I'm sure they will try to work something out if at all possible.

Personally, I feel that concessions would have to be made, where the fireball attacks and mid air fighting would be concerned. But if they were to focus on the hunt for the balls and more physical martials arts fighting during the tournament parts, it might make it. The problem would come in during the part where Raditz arrives (and going) though.

What are your thoughts on it? Could it work? And if so, how could they get away with less focus on the fireball attacks and such? What are your ideas on how they could pull this off? How would some of you adapt the anime in a workable budget live version?

[B]

No. A truly authentic version if the series in live-action would look incredibly stupid. Heavy "reversioning" would need to be done, but then that wouldn't be Dragon Ball. It's lose-lose. I don't want to see Goku without his hair, but I also don't to see some actor with a terrible wig.

And that's just aesthetics; dialog probably wouldn't carry over well either. Bulma and Goku's first meeting would just come off strange if it were in live-action.

[The Time Traveller]

Smallville wasn't anything like the source material, it could work just like that.

[JulieYBM]

My quick answer is...no. I'd rather see all that money put into animating new OVAs. Although maybe a J-Drama about Gohan's high school life would be awesome. Espicially with a mix of Tokusentai.

Smallville wasn't anything like the source material, it could work just like that.

Smallville has a dozen continuities to draw on. It can be all of them and none of them at the same time. A potentional Dragon Ball show only really has one, unless we count Dragon Ball animation-only content.

[SHINOBI-03]

Seriously... has American media ran out of original ideas for movies or TV shows?! It's bad enough the majority of recent movies are adaptations of anime (Speed Racer, Dragon Ball, Avatar), old cartoons (Alvin and the Chipmunks, Transformers, Yogi Bear, Vicky The Viking, Underdog), Comics (Marvel's, DC's), old TV shows (Get Smart, The A Team), video games (Street Fighter, Tekken, Mortal Kombat, Tomb Raider, Prince Of Persia, Dead Or Alive), sequels to older movies (Ghost Busters 3, Cats and Dogs 2, Aliens VS Predators) remakes (The Karate Kid, Spaiderman)... and now they want to make TV shows based on anime?!

LET THAT ANIME ALONE!!!

[TripleRach]

Smallville wasn't anything like the source material, it could work just like that.

Smallville has been horrible for most of its run.

Ideally, I'd want to see Toei do a tokusatsu series. It would be corny and ridiculous, but at least it would be close to the source material in spirit. And they're not afraid of bright colors, daylight, or monstrous villains. The special effects in the modern series are improving a lot, too.

[Budogenkai]

I don't why theres a need to just say NO and leave it at that.

Anything, if properly handeled, can turn out really well. Sure, the chances of a proper live action Dragonball TV series working out is slim to none, but it can happen.

[Ahiru77]

It could work, but only if they can find a little kid who is a good-looking martial arts prodigy and can act as well.

Bulma, Yamcha and Mai would be an easy cast. Shu would be a guy in costume and they can make a CGI Oolong, Puar & Pilaf. That way they can make the funny anime faces to keep kids entertained.

I could totally see this happening.

[SonEric84]

Even with all the special effects in the world, live action just never looks right with this kind of stuff. haha The thread title had me worried that this was already announced. Scary.

[Taku128]

Live action Dragon Ball could work, there'd just have to be some changes made for adapting it into a live action show. Some characters' hairstyles, a few of the characters' designs that would be hard to pull off on a television budget or would just look ridiculous, mostly just aesthetic stuff so it wouldn't look ridiculous to the average viewer. They'd also condense the series since a five hundred episode show would take like thirty years to finish.

[Kaboom]

At the very least, a live-action series, even a limited one, would require much less plot-condensing than a movie. In that way, more attention to detail and "faithfulness" would be almost a given.

[The Time Traveller]

Smallville wasn't anything like the source material, it could work just like that.

Smallville has been horrible for most of its run.

The only episode I've seen is the JSA one for Stargirl, Dr. Fate, Hawkman and Green Lantern and it was a big disappointment...

And I'd expect a live action DB series to do bad anyway, I'd rather see a Live-Action Gundam or Ghost in the Shell series actually since there's less chance for it to piss off a large-ish fanbase and do bad.

[Tweaker]

To me, Dragonball Evolution set the stage for what I expected mainstream media to do with a live-action Dragon Ball adaption--arbitrary changes out the ass, bad casting choices, a complete annihilation of the original series' direction... a complete disaster, basically. I have absolutely no faith that a TV-series would treat it any better.

Even then, look at the Chinese live-action movie! It was way more faithful than Evolution and it just made itself look way too silly and over the top. It's not something that really translates well to a live-action format.

[Hellspawn28]

I feel like Dragon Ball could have been the next Transformes or Spider-Man at the box office. I think a 100 million doller big budget movie based on Saiyan saga would be awesome if it is done right since thats the story that people are fimilar with the most.

A Live action TV series won't be bad neither if they make it similar to Ultrman Max for example.

(Speed Racer, Dragon Ball, Avatar),

Avatar: TLAB is not a anime, and I wish people would stop calling it a anime.

[nathantheguitarist]

This could actually work. I like to think positively though, sometimes to the point of naivete, like with DBE... but I liked Mortal Kombat Konquest. So if it was like that, and was just a badass martial arts show, I could totally enjoy it.

Goku would probably have to be made older, I suppose, but I could see it being alright. It'd get canceled so fast though...

[Patient-mental]

(Speed Racer, Dragon Ball, Avatar),

Avatar: TLAB is not a anime, and I wish people would stop calling it a anime.

People only think Avatar: The Last Air Bender is anime is because they're too retarded to recognise that it is made by nickelodeon... So frustrating.

[Hellspawn28]

If another Live action Dragon Movie was made then do a opening credits montage detailing with Goku's origin story similar to how they did it in 1998's Godzilla and 2008's The Incredible Hulk.

Since everyone wants a Asian actor so badly for Goku, then I think Aaron Yoo (2009's Friday the 13th) would be a good idea as Goku since Goku was in his early 20's when DBZ first started, and Aaron Yoo seems like a good choice to play as Goku during the Saiyan saga.

[Makaioshin]

Something like that could work. Dragon Ball Kai also started like that.
However, the story doesn't have to be exactly the same, it could start with the Red Ribbon arc with Goku as a young adult if it was executed well.
Right before I saw this thread I read Donnie Yen's wikipedia page which said he plans to work on a Dragon Ball film. There's no source given and its more than likely fake but still, live action Dragon Ball with him working on it would be awesome.

[Bardo117]

This is awesome news! I think it can work, if they do it Smallville style.

[Kaboom]

This is awesome news! I think it can work, if they do it Smallville style.

It's... not actual news. A series has not been announced or anything. It's just a discussion of the idea.