Has Dragon Ball gotten too big for its own good?

[Vegeta th3 4th]

The major issue with the series is that Boruto himself doesn't have a good character arc and focusing on Sarada would have been a lot more interesting.

Sarada had way more potential for an interesting arc than Boruto did, and for awhile it seemed like they were setting her up for said arc, but so far they haven't followed up on it. It kind of reminds me of Sakura who started out really strong at the beginning of Shippuden, only to fade into the background as time went on. I was hoping they'd avoid that with Sarada, but that doens't seem to be the case.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

The similarities end there. I know Toriyama was a big SW fan, but I don't think the two should be compared.

Star Wars' concept of The Force is also based on the East Asian idea of Qi, in Dragon Ball we see the same thing with characters use of Ki (which is Japanese for Qi) energy.

Akira Toriyama was also not only a huge fan, but his first submission to Shueisha was a Star Wars parody, which couldn't be published because it was copyrighted content, but Kazuhiko Torishima seen his talent and told him to send more.

So in a roundabout way without Star Wars there would be no Dragon Ball.

[GhostEmperorX]

Star Wars' concept of The Force is also based on the East Asian idea of Qi, in Dragon Ball we see the same thing with characters use of Ki (which is Japanese for Qi) energy.

Among tons of other things the franchise has taken from East Asian cultures (and cinema) without starring almost a single person of that background in it for the longest time...

[JulieYBM]

Star Wars' concept of The Force is also based on the East Asian idea of Qi, in Dragon Ball we see the same thing with characters use of Ki (which is Japanese for Qi) energy.

Among tons of other things the franchise has taken from East Asian cultures (and cinema) without starring almost a single person of that background in it for the longest time...

The Nazis who complain about Star Wars on the internet will shit bricks and try to swat you if you tell them that, too.

[GhostEmperorX]

The Nazis who complain about Star Wars on the internet will shit bricks and try to swat you if you tell them that, too.

Reactionary amnesia (if not just plain ignorance) is a mind-boggling phenomenon for sure.
Well, looking at it this way, if they want to claim SW, they can't say that Rings of Power was doing anything wrong (since they exploded over that too).

(Of course, all this is besides DB, so I'll be on my way shortly.)

I'll say though that even DBE, for all the criticism it got for whitewashing, at least actually starred some people of Asian descent long before SW did.

[JulieYBM]

The Nazis who complain about Star Wars on the internet will shit bricks and try to swat you if you tell them that, too.

Reactionary amnesia (if not just plain ignorance) is a mind-boggling phenomenon for sure.
Well, looking at it this way, if they want to claim SW, they can't say that Rings of Power was doing anything wrong (since they exploded over that too).

(Of course, all this is besides DB, so I'll be on my way shortly.)

I'll say though that even DBE, for all the criticism it got for whitewashing, at least actually starred some people of Asian descent long before SW did.

Fandom has this insane approach to media where they view any kind of variety and having to learn something new about the real world that they live in as an attack on their comfort. It's a disgusting effect of capitalism intentionally attacking the education system and turning the act of learning into a chore and a discomfort, which then lets White Supremacy come in an butter up the under nourished minds of people who live in relative privilege or seclusion from others and fill their minds with garbage to turn them against anyone who isn't white.

Anyway, all that to say, if Dragon Ball ever did get more progressive in its type of characters and stories, you'd see a similar reaction with it, I'm sure. A big part of the reason why these white fans flock to Japanese cartoons is because they can avoid thinking about race or diversity, because so few modern anime and manga actively tackle the subject and have mostly stylized depictions of a singular race/ethnicity. This is a big part of why Nazi anime fans exist.

Anyway, I still need that Kale and Caulifla anime spin-off, Toei!

[Skar]

I'm not really interested in jerking off capitalism, but it's hardly going to matter what Dragon Ball is about when the IP holders inevitably decide to move on from Gokuu and do a multi-year series focused on a main character other than him. It'll happen eventually, after all. That's just how these franchises are.

Anything could happen eventually but this seems like one of the least likely fan predictions to be honest. In the 40 year history of the franchise, there have only been short manga spinoffs and one or two movies not focusing on Goku. I would be surprised if we ever get an animated spinoff with a new main character lasting one cour before expecting a multi-year series.

GT and Online had a similar ending with a major timeskip after Goku died or left. Online continued but the story didn't get a conclusion. When those characters were incorporated into Heroes, they used time travel to have those antagonists face a version of Goku in the same timeskip as Super instead of taking place in Online's +100 year timeskip with new main characters. That was only a limited web series. Daima incorporated ideas from the other sequel GT but even shorter and also set before EoZ.