Unpopular DB opinions

[JulieYBM]

Daima is a perfect example of world building being useless if the television series that it is written for is not actually a well-made television series. Not allowing other writers to take Toriyama's ideas and really make plots out of them is ultimately what harmed the series.

This is the biggest issue I have with Daima as well. On one hand, it's clearly the most Toriyama's been involved with Dragon Ball since the original manga, but on the other hand, there were still major plot points that were in desperate need of an expansion. We were told that Gomah's magic was terrifying, but we never saw it; we were told about Arinsu and Glorio's relationship, but we never saw it; then of course everything that had to do with Ssj4. The plot points were there; all they had to to was elaborate on them. The problem is that everyone was so afraid to change or add anything to Toriyama's work during this revival that everything just feels undercooked. I'm not even saying they should've introduced completely new ideas not present in Toriyama's draft, but rather just expand on what was there.

This is what happens when you have an undisciplined producer, like Iyoku Akio, trying to create a series that can be marketed as being "the most the original creator has ever contributed to a series!"

What's funny is that DB & Z regularly expanded and changed elements from the original manga back then, and more often than not, the changes improved the story.

Yup, yup, yup.

You gotta treat this shit like, say, Pocket Monsters. The world building notes from Toriyama have to be a used like a bible for other writers to build properly dedicated scripts around and then flesh out. Oh, the overall story is about Pansy, Glorio, Duu and Kuu eventually going from these positions to these positions? That's where you do one-off episodes to build on those ideas without trying to fully copy the notes like they're a checklist. Dragon Ball Super understood this, it's why you can feel a more natural progression and flow between the scenes in each episode.

I'm really curious to see how things pan out for The Galactic Patrol. Hopefully a good series director is brought on and Tomioka and the other Dragon Ball Super writers return and get to continue in the same vein of what they were doing in the Tournament of Power arc.

[Koitsukai]

I always thought Daima was left unchanged, even with its glaring flaws, out of respect for Akira's passing.

In a regular situation, you wouldn’t have two separate introductions to SS4 that step on each other; a character arc as undercooked as Glorio’s, whose relationship with Arinsu is never properly established, making his betrayal carry no real weight and making it obvious from the start that he’ll eventually side with Goku; or a useless and stupid character like Degesu, who makes some of the dumbest decisions a cartoon could possibly make. And then there’s Gomah’s magic, which is literally just like the little Yakuza guy from The Simpsons. How many times can we be shown a gun that’s never fired?

Now, all of this is extremely obvious. The only explanation I can come up with is that they chose to leave the work as close to Toribot's vision as possible.

[angeldreamZ004]

To me, the 1986 movie is a much better way to experience the beginning of Dragon Ball. The Pilaf Arc being a arc I have great issues with because I think the villains are too silly, and the arc in overall being too centered in comedy, which is something I can understand as Toriyama intended it to be a gag + adventure manga initially, but we all know how that changed as the series progressed, making that first arc feel too distinct from the tone that the series adopted later, and it's something that Toriyama later repeated with Daima, which I also had issues it, so I'm not a fan of that.
Definitely not saying that Dragon Ball should be serious ala the Cell Saga from the beginning, but I think the Pilaf arc emphasizes too much the joke side, which contributes to me preferring the 1986 movie over it, the tone of that movie being much more in align with the rest of the series, it has many comical scenes but it also emphasizes very dramatic and serious moments just like any other story that came later.

The moment where Shenlong is introduced also being much better in my view, as it has the main villain defeated in one of the most unique ways in the entire franchise, with Shenlong being summoned from inside his stomach, and I also prefer the wish that Pansy makes in order to save her village a lot more than the joke wish that Oolong makes to stop Pilaf's plan.

If the series went in a direction with its tone closer to the latter I would have no problem with it, but it did the opposite, which for me is much closer to the tone of the former. So for me it shows how Toei could make a much better beginning for the series than Toriyama himself did, which ended up being a big contrast with the rest of his manga.

The only problems with that movie is that it's only double the length of a episode of the anime, so you can feel how the character introductions are rushed. Also, having no Pilaf Gang, Chichi and Gyumao creates a conflict for the future stories in the series as they become important again later on.

I would've fixed that by having the Pilaf Gang as minor villains before Goku and others face Gurumes' army. Also, have Chichi and Gyumao replace Pansy and her parents. Gurumes would be responsible for the fire in Gyumao's castle, the fire being supernatural in nature would somehow connect to Gurumes' curse which transformed him in a monster and the story of the wizard also being related to that, then in the end Chichi would wish for Shenlong to erase the curse, leading to the fire stopping and Gurumes going back to his normal self.
Then the story closes and proceeds to the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai. (Maybe the only conflict would be Bulma, Puaru, Oolong and Yamcha already being aware of Goku transforming into a Oozaru)

This + giving more time for the characters to be introduced would've been perfect in my view. I would also replace Kuririn and Lunch's introductions with Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle, only because I think the whole adventure on Devil's hand was really cool, but that whole thing can be seen as filler, also, Bulma and others returning for that adventure creates conflict with the idea of Goku not seeing them again prior to the tournament.

I think the 1996 movie is a much better take on the beginning as well, but it borrows too many Red Ribbon arc characters and elements, leading to some kind of fusion between Pilaf and RR arcs, so I pick the 1986 movie for its original characters and having more space for Chichi and Pilaf to not be left out from the story. But both movies have much more interesting stories than what Toriyama came up with in those first 22 chapters of his manga in my view, the only loss being Oozaru.