"Dragon Ball Super" Series Official Announcement & Discussion Thread

[TheMikado]

The problem for me is that I doubt those merchandise sales really correspond with the shows ratings, meaning it's not.

They do. Having a tv show is like a weekly reminder of the franchise reaching the millions of people watching it, considering Super has been one of the most watched (and recorded) series ever since the first episode. It keeps the franchise and those characters beloved and popular among kids, their parents and older fans in general.
And while i think that should be obvious, believe me, older fans by themselves or an "avid fanbase" don't support great sales - that's the whole reason Bandai has been often trying to push Gundam for newer generations.

The new movies gave Dragon Ball a boost, a new tv series gave it an even bigger one. That's what the facts tell us, it's how it works, and undoubtedly, how the people behind the franchise read this scenario, too. So it really doesn't matter what you think, in the end.

I'm not saying the show isn't doing well, but for it to be beating everyone out in merchandise but not the top show means it's more appealing on merchandise than the actual show. Versus taking something like Pokemon where it was both winning in its time slot and merchandise and it wasn't even contested. If I remember correctly Super barely breaks the top 5 which would be extreme unusual for any kids cartoon to be number one in toys and not ratings but we see it with tons of other merchandise first franchises which I feel like Super is.

[Xeztin]

Well, for now at least it doesn't seem like they have any troubles getting Toriyama to crank out another story arc. Without weekly manga-drawing hectic schedule, I doubt he will get tired of his current job fast

He said he can't leave DB alone so he'll probably get us to 100 episodes at least but when he steps down I'm sure Toei will continue in his footsteps instead of doing their own thing like they did with GT.

So no Kid Goku, no overly childish tone like GT's 1st arc & most importantly, Vegeta will still play a main role in the story.

I think the Champa arc was really his last, and they just tweaked the end to continue on. He'll keep cranking it out and even when he runs out of ideas, Toei will make something up and get his green light so they can say he was involved to boost ratings. I've said it a million times but I honestly think Dragon Ball will never end again, with or without Toriyama. Also on a different matter, for those of you that want to series to end so early why? The show's just getting started, we've only had one real arc since the first 2 were retellings. Dragon Ball isn't a novel like Game of Thones that needs to end at a certain point, it's a comic book and here in America comic books never end. (Batman, Superman) After the way Naruto, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Hunter X Hunter, and Dragon Ball has been resurrected, I think Japan has adapted our style with milking the hell out of it. Here's to looking forward to a future filled Dragon Ball for many years to come as a good sign of faith with these numbers!

[Noah]

So no Kid Goku, no overly childish tone like GT's 1st arc & most importantly, Vegeta will still play a main role in the story.

I think I giggled a little, I mean if we compare GT with Super in terms of maturity, Super is not even close of, they made Goku dumber than ever just for the "fun", also Masterchef Vegeta

[Nejishiki]

Well, for now at least it doesn't seem like they have any troubles getting Toriyama to crank out another story arc. Without weekly manga-drawing hectic schedule, I doubt he will get tired of his current job fast

He said he can't leave DB alone so he'll probably get us to 100 episodes at least but when he steps down I'm sure Toei will continue in his footsteps instead of doing their own thing like they did with GT.

So no Kid Goku, no overly childish tone like GT's 1st arc & most importantly, Vegeta will still play a main role in the story.

I think the Champa arc was really his last, and they just tweaked the end to continue on. He'll keep cranking it out and even when he runs out of ideas, Toei will make something up and get his green light so they can say he was involved to boost ratings. I've said it a million times but I honestly think Dragon Ball will never end again, with or without Toriyama. Also on a different matter, for those of you that want to series to end so early why? The show's just getting started, we've only had one real arc since the first 2 were retellings. Dragon Ball isn't a novel like Game of Thones that needs to end at a certain point, it's a comic book and here in America comic books never end. (Batman, Superman) After the way Naruto, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Hunter X Hunter, and Dragon Ball has been resurrected, I think Japan has adapted our style with milking the hell out of it. Here's to looking forward to a future filled Dragon Ball for many years to come as a good sign of faith with these numbers!

The way comic are handled in North America is quite different than how they're handled in Japan. Now, I'm not implying it needs to end, but it's interesting that you think only certain mediums DO need to or can end. In the context of Dragon Ball, its main story has ended and not too much fuss has been made about all of its sequels. However, Super is a story that takes place in-between a finished product, if that makes sense to you, and some may want it to end so that they can rest easy knowing all of the gaps have been filled and there's nothing more to the story. If say, a continuation that didn't revolve around Goku's story had occurred, I think most would be able to accept it running as long as it may as it's not directly involved with the original story. That's only my theory, of course.

[Rozay]

Future Trunks back: yay! He's back!

Dark Goku: I just hope it isn't any sort of fanfic-y "evil clone". But it could be cool if it's something like an evil resurrection of the Future Goku or something a little more complex. Then again, hoping for complexity in Dragon Ball is ill-advised.

[Xeztin]

I think the Champa arc was really his last, and they just tweaked the end to continue on. He'll keep cranking it out and even when he runs out of ideas, Toei will make something up and get his green light so they can say he was involved to boost ratings. I've said it a million times but I honestly think Dragon Ball will never end again, with or without Toriyama. Also on a different matter, for those of you that want to series to end so early why? The show's just getting started, we've only had one real arc since the first 2 were retellings. Dragon Ball isn't a novel like Game of Thones that needs to end at a certain point, it's a comic book and here in America comic books never end. (Batman, Superman) After the way Naruto, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Hunter X Hunter, and Dragon Ball has been resurrected, I think Japan has adapted our style with milking the hell out of it. Here's to looking forward to a future filled Dragon Ball for many years to come as a good sign of faith with these numbers!

The way comic are handled in North America is quite different than how they're handled in Japan. Now, I'm not implying it needs to end, but it's interesting that you think only certain mediums DO need to or can end. In the context of Dragon Ball, its main story has ended and not too much fuss has been made about all of its sequels. However, Super is a story that takes place in-between a finished product, if that makes sense to you, and some may want it to end so that they can rest easy knowing all of the gaps have been filled and there's nothing more to the story. If say, a continuation that didn't revolve around Goku's story had occurred, I think most would be able to accept it running as long as it may as it's not directly involved with the original story. That's only my theory, of course.

When I was talking about other works that need to at one point end (I've never watched or read Game of Thrones but I thought it was a fair example since it's so popular) I meant that it's a comic book, a children's comic book and a children's show. If they wanted to magically poof Cell back alive without an explanation or Dragon Ball's I mean it's a type of thing where anything could happen and a author like Toriyama is certainly the type to do it without rhyme or reason. Because he doesn't take his own work serious like the canon thing for example. A book like Game of Thrones, If a character died and the author poofed this character back for no reason at all people would flip because from what I hear it's a serious book. I'm not really sure how to explain it, Cell coming back for no reason I mean no one but us would probably complain about it and Toriyama wouldn't give a poo. A character doing so or breaking the laws and boundaries that is set in the Game of Thrones world, because it is this serious book, the fans would probably flip eggs. If Dragon Ball went on forever with Goku staying the same age even though years are passing, I mean it's expected, it's a comic book after all, a mythical world where anything can happen and it's not bound by laws and boundaries especially with an author like Toriyama. I think the author of a serious novel would receive tons of backlash for this if it broke his or hers laws and boundaries that they have set for their world. My comparison of American and Japan comics was more or less me guessing Japan is adapting Americas style with milking the hell out of a franchise. (Batman never ending, countless reboots)

[Skar]

The problem for me is that I doubt those merchandise sales really correspond with the shows ratings, meaning it's not. It because they have a humongous viewing audience but because they have an avid fan base who will buy every new transformation and costume change...

I found out that "Toys and Hobby Business" doesn't include video games so that seems to be the major source of Bandai's DB revenue. If we subtract the 12 billion yen from the overall 34.9 billion then I would assume the majority of the remaining 22.9 billion comes from video games. The source of revenue seems to differ from each franchise. For example, Toys and Hobby Business makes up over 80% of the overall revenue for Kamen Rider and Yokai Watch and 100% for Pretty Cure while it's barely 35% for Dragonball. I'm not sure how much of that 22.9 billion comes from Xenoverse and Heroes but I would guess most of it since those were the two biggest recent titles. For Dragonball to continuously have these numbers I believe they're going to need a major game to sell as well as Xenoverse and Heroes every two years or so.

I think a common misconception in business is that huge sales for a year or two guarantees long-term success. If sales skyrocket over one year then it's important to consider what caused it. Something like that is usually temporary because it's difficult to replicate whatever caused it to jump that high. For example, Yokai Watch has sales of 55 billion yen in 2015 and it was 3rd place but it dropped to 13 billion yen and 6th place in 2017. I don't know much about that series but whatever helped it reach 55 billion yen in 2015 didn't happen again in the following years. On the other hand, Mobile Suit Gundam seems to have been #1 for a few years so it's been repeating what it made it successful. DBS is new and the first Dragonball series in almost 20 years so of course it's going perform well in the first few years. That doesn't guarantee that the next few sagas are going to generate the same sales. It jumped to 18 billion yen in 2008 and I believe that was mainly due to BT3 being the first or second best selling DBZ game of all time. After that it dropped until 2015 which was when Xenoverse sold almost as much and a new series was announced. I would like the series to perform well since that could lead to higher budget games and movies. I'm just pointing out that we have to wait to see if +30 billion yen every year is the new norm or if it's only a temporary spike.

I keep saying it repeatedly but I'd rather a good story that gets cancelled early than a mediocre one that drags on for the sake of selling merchandise.

I feel the same way to be honest. I'm sure sales were still strong after the Buu saga but Toriyama felt it was a good place to end it so he did. Imagine if any famous author just kept writing sequels forever until people stopped buying their work. I think any series that drags on just to make more money will rely more on fan service (well more than now) than an actual story. When your motivation to write a sequel is money then you're going to play it safe and throw as much fan service as you can to attract as many fans rather than take a risk and come up with something new. I'm sure we've all familiar with Hollywood franchises that have been doing that for years. There are only a few series I can even name where I thought the sequel added something worthwhile to the franchise and didn't feel like a cheap cash grab. I still enjoy them for the fan service but I can never compare them to the best that franchise had to offering.

That's why I always wonder what fans want to see from DBS if it did continue for several more sagas. After this Future Trunks saga, the following saga will probably be about the next Multiverse tournament. It's going to involve the strongest in each universe since the Gods of Destruction are likely going to pick their best regardless if they're good or bad. Where would we go from there? If there's anyone stronger than these contestants and the Omni-King then that person is either not born/created yet or currently sealed. We could see something like the Cell saga with powerful artificial constructs built after the tournament followed by another sealed monster being released but what about after that? That could be why there have been so many fanfic cliches used in Super. I'm not defending them just saying that there's probably not much left to add without retreading old ground or using an idea that millions of fans have already come up with. I rather the series end with a big epic tournament than continue on unless whatever comes after it is actually something new.

[Chuquita]

Part of why I like most of the slice of life episodes is because they don't have to worry about inventing stronger and stronger opponents. Last weekend was more of a "Sitcom Beerus" episode, but I'm looking forward this weekend's episode because as much as I wanted a sweet "Piccolo and Pan" episode, a comedic "Babysitter Gokû" episode is equally welcome to me. Just the premise alone of "Gokû you accidentally destroyed this house so now we're trusting you to take care of a small child." seems like a "Gohan and Videl why would you do that?" situation, but luckily Pan is super-powerful.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

I'm not assuming out of belief, though. I'm using Toriyama's statements. It's true we don't know when Toei told him about Super but I don't even need to go there to make a logical conclusion.

Since he stated he had no idea for the plot of "the next movie" then we know he had no story ideas. When he got one, it was about Freeza. This is enough.

We are both purely assuming. We know he didn't have any story ideas before he figured he would use Freeza. After that, we have no idea what he had in his mind. We can only assume when he came up with Super Saiyan White & changed it to Super Saiyan Blue, Goku Black, etc.

If he then thought about Goku Black or any other enemy there'd be no reason to still not introduce White in the movie and then come up with Blue when the color-clash would be relevant, right? That's basically my stand.

I don't think he is planning to introduce a new form in this story arc. He said that he doesn't plan having Goku & Vegeta surpassing Beerus yet, and introducing 3 new forms (SSG, SSB, SSW?) that are close, yet still below Beerus doesn't sound like a good idea. The way he also said that he would save white for later sounded like he doesn't plan on using it yet (though that could have been intentional in order to not spoil anything, but then again he could have avoided mentioning it at all).

[sintzu]

For those of you that want to series to end so early why ?

DB was originally a story based manga with a beginning, middle & end so I think they don't want it to become like yu-gi-oh or Pokemon where the story becomes an afterthought in favor of getting as many characters and forms on screen as they can to sell merchandise.

I think there's a lot that can be still done with the franchise, especially under Toriyama's watch so I want it to go on for as long as he wants to write it but after he's done I think they should at least take a break for awhile before moving on with a new writer.

I'm sure sales were still strong after the Buu saga but Toriyama felt it was a good place to end it so he did.

That's why I always wonder what fans want to see from DBS if it did continue for several more sagas.

They were at their strongest but Toriyama said that he decided before the Buu arc began that it would be the last arc.

I think fans want to see their favorite characters every week and how big the DB world can get.

[Skar]

Part of why I like most of the slice of life episodes is because they don't have to worry about inventing stronger and stronger opponents. Last weekend was more of a "Sitcom Beerus" episode, but I'm looking forward this weekend's episode because as much as I wanted a sweet "Piccolo and Pan" episode, a comedic "Babysitter Gokû" episode is equally welcome to me. Just the premise alone of "Gokû you accidentally destroyed this house so now we're trusting you to take care of a small child." seems like a "Gohan and Videl why would you do that?" situation, but luckily Pan is super-powerful.

Slice of life episodes were my favorite episodes of Super so far. I wouldn't mind seeing an entire series like that where it's just day-to-day problems like a sitcom and not having to fight a super strong villain. If Toei and Bandai are hoping the series helps to sell merchandise then they're probably expecting new transformations and villains. Any new transformation is probably either going to be another recolor or have a crazy different hairstyle. I know we've had many transformations in the manga but that shouldn't mean that trend has to continue forever. With a name like "SSJ God", I was hoping that would be the final transformation and then the series would focus more on techniques, teamwork, etc instead of continuously transforming.

They were at their strongest but Toriyama said that he decided before the Buu arc began that it would be the last arc.

I meant it as an example of an author deciding to end their story regardless of sales. If the author feels that the character's journey is over then they shouldn't be expected to continue just because it can make more money.

[Kuririn Fan]

Dragon Ball is nothing like the American comics, it's a Japanese comic done by 1 guy and it needs to have and has an ending. Super is set before that ending and doesn't change anything.

[theArcosian]

http://i.imgur.com/0dNhvcg.jpg

found this on 2chan (on Super Section) i know that in the Interview/Scan that Daisuke Nishio is saying something about:

アニメ一シヨン凄。『ドラプンポ』シリーズのチーフデイし勹ターを担当。のちに『プリキュア』シリーズの 元

This Anime is One Billion terrible? Responsible for Chifudei to after of "Dorapunpo" series. Later "Pretty Cure" series of the original Script.
And that he is Angry being Fired from toei Animation and thats why he is so "negative" or do i understand it wrong?

So is he saying something on Super Animation or something else?

[Hellspawn28]

I think Super will likely last up until 2018 at this rate. It could go up to 2020 or 2021 if it still does well. Toriyama seems like writing more than drawing stories now. Also we also have Toyotaro, who may end up writing the series when Toriyama is done with the series. I can see Toriyama passing on the series to him.

Dragon Ball is nothing like the American comics, it's a Japanese comic done by 1 guy and it needs to have and has an ending. Super is set before that ending and doesn't change anything.

There are American comics when it is normally control by one person. Spawn is always been control by Todd for years.

[Cetra]

I think Super will likely last up until 2018 at this rate. It could go up to 2020 or 2021 if it still does well. Toriyama seems like writing more than drawing stories now. Also we also have Toyotaro, who may end up writing the series when Toriyama is done with the series. I can see Toriyama passing on the series to him.

He has achieved the greatest thing a Dragon Ball Fan can dream of, I think. He definitely deserved it.

[GodVegetto91]

Dragon Ball Super has the potential to continue for over 10+ years concidering all the other universes being introduced.

[Low Tone G]

Dragon Ball Super has the potential to continue for over 10+ years concidering all the other universes being introduced.

My opinion is that it hasn't the potential, being that the big boss(Zen'o-sama) has already been introduced and he doesn't to be evil...

[Kuririn Fan]

There are American comics when it is normally control by one person. Spawn is always been control by Todd for years.

I'm not saying there aren't any, but the ones mentioned and the most popular ones are totally different case than Dragon Ball.

[TekTheNinja]

Dragon Ball Super has the potential to continue for over 10+ years concidering all the other universes being introduced.

My opinion is that it hasn't the potential, being that the big boss(Zen'o-sama) has already been introduced and he doesn't to be evil...

They blew their load too soon, is what happened.

It needs to have and has an ending. Super is set before that ending and doesn't change anything.

Another major problem, really. An actual continuation would have been leagues better than this weird midquel.

[sailorspazz]

*Phew* After falling behind on spoilers for approximately the last 6 weeks due to con/vacation/generally being busy, the Future Trunks news inspired me to finally catch up on everything that's been going on Honestly, my first reaction was that it sounds like fanfiction, but I'm really excited anyway! I love me some Trunks (especially sexy future version...don't judge meeeee), and I think it'll be fun to see him interact with the characters in a much more light-hearted environment. Imagine Trunks arriving to Capsule Corp, looking all serious and possibly wounded from his tough battle in the future. He enters the kitchen to find Vegeta wearing a frilly pink apron, cooking taiyaki or some shit It would be a fun callback to the first time he came from the future, when his dad was wearing a pink shirt. But aside from the fun bits, of course I also look forward to what he'll bring to the plot (and I really hope future Bulma's okay...unlike our timeline, death is permanent and sad in his time )

Gokuu Black...still trying to mull over what it could mean. First thought was some sort of evil/possessed version, which, again, reeks of fanfiction (I mean, we've had it happen to other characters, like in the Garlic Jr. filler, but never Gokuu himself). I do trust Toriyama to make it interesting if that is the case, since he likes to go against expectations. But I was also thinking that the way it's written (katakana) plus the order of the words means something. We just had "Golden Freeza", so why would they change up the order to "Gokuu Black"? As others have pointed out, that was done with "Vegeta Baby" before, so it seems like it could be a name rather than a description of a dark/shadow version. People were wondering about a new character named Black, but don't forget there already was a Black in the Red Ribbon Army. And with Trunks involved, bringing up Dr. Gero and all that doesn't seem like too far of a stretch. So what if Dr. Gero used DNA from Black and Gokuu and secretly created another cyborg that's called Gokuu Black? I don't know, this is pretty wild speculation on my part, I'm just trying to think of an alternative to the obvious "evil Gokuu" trope...