What if Dragon Ball was made in today's society?

[dbboxkaifan]

I find it so difficult to imagine what Dragonball would be like if it was made today, as the landscape for Anime and Manga only is what it is because of Dragonball. I can't imagine how 20th Century Shonen would have turned out if not for the highly influential combination of Dragonball and Yu Yu Hakusho.

What about Saint Seiya? It was like a mix of Dragon Ball Z, Yu Yu Hakusho and the Greek mythology.

I'd have liked to have heard what it'd be Pegasus Fantasy Dragon Ball Z edition. ^_^

[Adamant]

The most that's happened is the 2010 Tokyo "Anti-Manga\Anime" Bill that I'll let those reading do the research on. But it doesn't seem to have affected a whole lot.

It's resulted in certain works not being reprinted, and probably some editorial choices, but in essence, as long as a work isn't both aimed a children and appears to severely glorify incest and/or pedophilia, it's considered to be acceptable.

[B]

People wouldn't be as accepting of its many issues as some are today.

It would seem, by and large, people are not if posts like this are being made to begin with.

Toriyama is such a special case it's hard to tell if things would be drastically different. He's a comic author to begin with because he needed the money and has never been over-the-moon-passionate about it. He drew what he thought people wanted to see, so perhaps people are right that a modern DB would be filled with tropes and stereotypes you see today.

[Polyphase Avatron]

I find it so difficult to imagine what Dragonball would be like if it was made today, as the landscape for Anime and Manga only is what it is because of Dragonball. I can't imagine how 20th Century Shonen would have turned out if not for the highly influential combination of Dragonball and Yu Yu Hakusho.

What about Saint Seiya? It was like a mix of Dragon Ball Z, Yu Yu Hakusho and the Greek mythology.

I'd have liked to have heard what it'd be Pegasus Fantasy Dragon Ball Z edition. ^_^

Or Fist of the North Star

[Rocketman]

It could be a YuGiOh! or Pokemon imitator, actually.

[Blade]

It could be a YuGiOh! or Pokemon imitator, actually.

I think Pokemon would have happened without Dragonball, as it started life as a game and only then went onto conquer other media formats due to its popularity. YuGiOh, on the other hand, started life as Shonen manga, so it's hard to say whether it would have turned out like it did had it not been for the influence of Dragonball on the genre.

[dougo13]

I find it so difficult to imagine what Dragonball would be like if it was made today, as the landscape for Anime and Manga only is what it is because of Dragonball. I can't imagine how 20th Century Shonen would have turned out if not for the highly influential combination of Dragonball and Yu Yu Hakusho.

So you say BUT I'm doing scans of covers for anime mags from 1980 - 1990 and Toriyama's work appears on none of them. Even looking at the mags from 1990 - 2000 his work appears on almost none of those as well. Things like Mobile Suit Gundam, The Five Star Stories, Patlabor, Dragonar are all over the New type mags I just picked up. Nothing Toriyama in the lot. Even his early game development work was overshadowed by Buichi Terasawa who started with computer drawing way before I ever saw anything with Toriyama's work. Maybe it's a combination of things that end up in results from a much later period rather than any one creator. Miyazaki has had a huge influence, especially on theatrical productions, as did Tezuka before him. Toriyama, not so much...

[Attitudefan]

Welp, considering the stuff To-Love-Ru apparently got away with (to the point that, even though it would surely be a big hit as a high profile current-ish Jump title, hasn't been licensed and probably never will be), I'm not sure how much would change concerning the sex jokes. *Maybe* the jokes concerning gays, specifically General Blue, would be softened a bit.

But yeah, it's a given that a Dragon Ball anime produced today would contain not as much bloodletting as there actually was in DBZ (still, anybody who exaggerates how much blood was in DBZ hasn't seen Fist of the North Star, which I heard had trouble getting episodes to air because of the intense bloody fights).

Yeah, I wonder what a DBZ anime produced today would be like, maybe if they remade it---oh.



Now if you want to talk about a manga that would NOT be drawn today under any circumstances, feel free to consider Devilman...which ran in a shonen magazine even though it had scenes with kids getting decapitated and eviscerated by demons, rampant nudity, oceans of blood, etc.

At least I THINK it would never get drawn today...not in a mainstream mag.

Davilman and its sequelViolence Jack. I mean, you actaully see the guts in full detail as they get cut by weapons and children getting shot right in the head!!! Elfen Lied looks like Lucky Star in comparison

[cpuguy18]

mr popo would look different.

[The Desert Bandit]

Akira Toriyama is quite stubborn. If you look it up, there were times where he would threaten to discontinue DB if his way wasn't met. I.e. I recall an associate of his (I forgot said associate's name), insisted that Goku should marry Bulma instead of Chi-Chi, however AT denied it to the point where he threatened to stop working on his manga if his associate continued.

I'm confident DB would still be the same, if not similar to how it is now, were it to be released in modern society. However, I'm sure the shows would just air on Toonami. Simple as that.

[FoolsGil]

We all know that a lot has changed since 1984, and some things in Dragon Ball (and a hell of a lot of things in other works of their time) would now be considered politically incorrect or unsuitable for the target demographic, but were completely acceptable back then.

If Dragon Ball were a modern series would the "Master Roshi perv moments" be more timid? Would there be black Saiyans? Prominent female Z-fighters who never get married or have kids?

Even further, what if it were subject to current American standards rather than Japanese ones? Would there be a single case of Master Roshi doing something pervy before he spent the rest of the series in prison, and all the other characters commented on how much of a horrible person he is? Okay, that isn't actually a serious suggestion, but you get the idea

Edit: Oh, I also forgot to mention, how do you think certain character designs might have changed? Perhaps Popo would have had the lizard-like appearance from his earlier design stages, or something like that

-United States ethics are different from the Japan ethics. If anything, Master Roshi's antics would be increased.
-Wait, people are clamoring for Black Saiyans? Why is that a thing? Not Black Earthlings? Anyways maybe if Toriyama in this hypothetical universe was willing to put more time into things, sure different characters would be different shades of brown and yellow and white.
-Not a lot of shonen series give female characters enough justice. It could be as bad as Naruto, or as good as One Piece. I would want Toriyama to be similar to the latter.

What would change would be that Dragonball would perhaps be better planned out with a tight, small cast. It seems likely that Yu Yu Hakusho would have taken point if Dragonball wasn't made in the 80's. YYH was tightly woven, and less main characters meant more meat to their roles, and future Manga and anime would take inspiration from this. It could be possible that Goku, Bulma, Yamcha, Krillin, Puar, Oolong, and Master Roshi would be the only main characters, from beginning to end, no matter what opponent was faced, no matter the content.

[Attitudefan]

I disagree about the female thing. Most current anime feature badass females with one single male as the main cast. It is the girls today who fight and the men sit and complain.

The days of masculinity and muscular men are over.

[sintzu]

What if it were subject to current American standards rather than Japanese ones ?

Everything will have to be politically correct.

The story : It'll be a brain dead kid's comedy.

The characters : Everyone will be Gay/Lesbian.

The art and animation : It'll be on a 10$ budget like the Simpsons.

The fights : There won't be any cause that'll corrupt the innocent children.

Thank god for Japan cause they're the only source for quality animation nowadays.

[Nex Carnifex]

Probably suck like the new movies

[Nex Carnifex]

What if it were subject to current American standards rather than Japanese ones ?

Everything will have to be politically correct.

The story : It'll be a brain dead kid's comedy.

The characters : Everyone will be Gay/Lesbian.

The art and animation : It'll be on a 10$ budget like the Simpsons.

The fights : There won't be any cause that'll corrupt the innocent children.

Thank god for Japan cause they're the only source for quality animation nowadays.

Only good that has come out of American television is Breaking Bad, everything else can burn

[dougo13]

What if it were subject to current American standards rather than Japanese ones ?

Everything will have to be politically correct.

The story : It'll be a brain dead kid's comedy.

The characters : Everyone will be Gay/Lesbian.

The art and animation : It'll be on a 10$ budget like the Simpsons.

The fights : There won't be any cause that'll corrupt the innocent children.

Thank god for Japan cause they're the only source for quality animation nowadays.

Only good that has come out of American television is Breaking Bad, everything else can burn

You should watch Daredevil...

[rereboy]

Only good that has come out of American television is Breaking Bad, everything else can burn

Are you serious? There's plenty of great recent stuff from American TV. It's even said that is has been going through a sort of "golden age" these last 10 or 15 years.

[MCDaveG]

It is like asking about What if Lord of the Rings was made in today's society?
It is question wrong in itself, because Dragon Ball is to shonen genre what LOTR is to fantasy genre.
Tough not as complex, DB has popularized all of the shonen clichés we see today. It inspired a generation of shonen creators after that.
Without it, there would be no Naruto or One Piece as we know it.

DB and Saint Seiya are proto-modern shonen for me.

[Deathbringer]

Only good that has come out of American television is Breaking Bad, everything else can burn

The way you word that without the word "recently" makes it look like you think nothing has ever been good on american TV for decades...even recently we've had Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Arrow etc etc, stop going outside, you should be in watching some great TV!

Anyway on topic, I'm pretty sure they might change the child nudity first, some parts in old DB felt like it was trying very hard to find new inventive ways to show Goku's dick, like when his clothes got burnt off, of course it was meant to be innocent but now it's a bit weird (can't say I know what Japan's current viewpoint on that sort of thing is though) also kid Chi-Chi's costume would be changed because no one else was dressed like that. All that I've said so far relates to sexuality and I'm also judging it by western standards, I'm not sure what would change for Japan.

There are parts of old Dragon Ball that are basically an excuse to show of something sexy (like Ran Fan at the tournament) and yes a culture where fan service is okay would have trouble mixing with a culture where all that sort of thing used to happen (see: the old Bond films/Carry On films) but not so much anymore because it's seen as degrading (see: the modern Bond films).

The violence is acceptable to most, hell, they actually did broadcast Dragon Ball Z in the 90s and if I'm not mistaken they have loosened the censorship guidelines since then.

And if we're onto more aesthetic things then the technology would be different, the scouters are cool but they have that bulky 80s sci fi look to them so everything could look different potentially, it really is hard to tell.

[bleed0range]

It's not really the times of the culture so much as the people in charge. There were high standards of censorship in America that shows like Animaniacs and others skirted around to get their joke in because the people in charge were a bit more edgey and youthful. I think these days Dragon Ball has less of a problem with having to meet new higher standards of censorship and more of a problem with the fact that the people in charge are all older and generally as you get older you lose that "wouldn't it be cool if Freeza ripped his arm off" mentality. You can see it in Speilberg's decision to change guns and rifles in E.T. to walkie talkies. Or how Lucas changed Greedo to shoot first. They got old and lost their edge. All the man people in charge of DB now are older and thus likely are dumbing it down because of that.