GT had a good conclusion for Goku

[8000 Saiyan]

Regarding what becomes of Goku in GT, I'm assuming that the reason why the Dragon Balls were absorbed into his body was to cleanse the negative energy from them since he's pure-hearted, but I don't think it means he became one with Shenron.

Besides, what did he mean when he said to Piccolo that he would never forget him as long as he lives? Does this mean that he's not immortal like so many have said he was at the end of the episode?

Now, I've warmed up a little to GT's ending nowadays, but Z's ending in my opinion is more in line with Toriyama.

[MasenkoHA]

Now, I've warmed up a little to GT's ending nowadays, but Z's ending in my opinion is more in line with Toriyama.

I agree but GT’s ending works better for the more “heroic” Goku that Toei built up and many Western fans are more accustomed to due to the manga being less popular and Funimation cranking up what Toei did up to 11.

So I’m not surprised GT’s ending is more popular.

[ABED]

Now, I've warmed up a little to GT's ending nowadays, but Z's ending in my opinion is more in line with Toriyama.

I agree but GT’s ending works better for the more “heroic” Goku that Toei built up and many Western fans are more accustomed to due to the manga being less popular and Funimation cranking up what Toei did up to 11.

So I’m not surprised GT’s ending is more popular.

I think Toriyama's Goku would do what they did in GT (i.e., give his life to stop the universal threat), but the overall ending doesn't feel like something Toriyama would've done. It feels too sentimental for him.

[WittyUsername]

I never got the impression that the ending of GT was leaning into Goku as a particularly heroic figure. It’s just meant to be a sentimental conclusion to Goku’s story. It’s probably not something Toriyama would do, though.

[LoganForkHands73]

I never liked GT (besides a few scenes here and there) and that interview just really pissed me off

But when I think about it, GT made everyone completely useless except Goku so I feel how badly GT treated the rest of the cast was also a result of the writers trying to make Goku more heroic.

Super has this issue too with Goku and Vegeta but not as bad as GT. I really felt everyone just felt so ridiculously useless in that series.


But back to the original question I did like the GT ending. I think of all endings though maybe DB had the best. It wasn’t really the ending but Goku marrying ChiChi felt like a nice way to tie up the series before they moved onto the Z portion.

Yeah, I can usually keep a neutral composure when reading outdated viewpoints, but with this, I'm just like... man, what a dinosaur. It just goes to show how painfully out-of-touch many anime producers are.

As for the rest of the gang, yeah, most got a raw deal. There was that other interview where they talked about how they wanted to dedicate an episode to Gohan and focus on his conflicted feelings about returning to battle after so long. I realised that GT is the only series where we see adult Gohan wear kanji on his orange gi, and he wears the same logo as his father, post-Namek. Seeing as Dragon Ball characters typically wear the mark of whoever most recently trained them, maybe Goku retraining Gohan was an element that was left on the cutting room floor? It would've been nice to see a much older Gohan struggle with leaving martial arts retirement.

That said, some of the supporting cast got shining moments well into the series. Goten got a bit of focus against Baby's first form, Kaioshin stepped up to free the population of Earth from Baby's mind control, Uub played a gambit against Baby from inside his body, Android #18 provided the most help to Goku against her brother's rampage, Si Shenron got a somewhat compelling redemption arc. But the characters you'd expect to be strong enough to hold their own in the big battles just weren't.

[8000 Saiyan]

The idea of GT's ending making Goku to be some of heroic figure was only in the dub. In the original, it's just saying that we, the audience, had fun along the course of all three shows because of Goku's fun-loving nature.

[emperior]

It’s definitely a very good ending and emotional/nostalgia-provoking. I have never seen it without having some goosebumps, it’s definitely a very well written ending. It kinda fits Goku but yet it’s a little sad to know that his never ending journey of improvement basically ends there.

Z’s ending is definitely more fitting of Dragon Ball and Son Goku. It is very light-hearted, fun and leaves you wanting more. It may not bring in the same strong emotions as of GT, but it brings out the right emotions for the kind of story Dragon Ball is. When I watch the end of Z I get the feeling that Goku’s journey is truly never ending. And I like that feeling. It’s reinvigorating, -and motivational to see that Goku is still the same as always, reacting with excitement at the thought of fighting some incredible warrior once again.

Even Super’s anime ending leaves me with similar feelings. I think Super has done an excellent job into reinforcing what I would argue is the theme of Dragon Ball, which is that “there’s always someone stronger out there”. Before it felt like after Uub the universe wouldn’t have any more good warriors for Goku to fight. While in Super we saw that, although rare, there are lots of universes who house many strong warriors, some of which we have no idea about because they didn’t participate in the Tournament of Power.
The whole Dragon World has been expanded a lot and that’s for the better.

[90sDBZ]

I've always liked GT's ending, although part of me wonders if it's just a bit too sad for Dragon Ball. It's generally been an upbeat feelgood story, so to have it end in such a way almost feels like too much. It definitely took balls for them to do it though, and those final goodbye scenes with Krillin, Roshi, and Piccolo really resonate.

Z's ending, while completely random, was true to Goku's character and was somewhat happy. Although it's overdramatic how it acts like Goku won't see his family and friends for years again. He can literally teleport to them in an instant, or they could fly to him in minutes if he can't be bothered. At this point flying around the entire planet in minutes is a common feat. They even joked about it with Pan flying around the entire planet 2 episodes prior, so why is she so sad to see Goku leave? Even Chi Chi could take the Nimbus cloud to see him.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Yeah, GT overall was an interesting experiment to see how TOEI's writing style differs from Toriyama, although I think both it's ending and the ending of the manga/Z both have their flaws.

The manga/Z ending makes Goku out to be a jerk for implying he will leave his family and friends for maybe a few years to train a kid, which is a very poor justification when he could just still live with his family and train Uub once a week/ every weekend, or something like that. With techniques like Instant Transmission there's really no excuse. That said it does feel consistent with the theme of everlasting adventures we saw up to that point.

GT's ending is a bit too ambiguous because Dragon Ball is at it's heart a fun, adventure story rather than one where we're meant to question "did Goku die". Although there were some sweet moments like Goku and Krillin remembering old times. It also would've been cool to see another arc or series where our heroes had to protect the universe without depending on the Dragon Balls as a sort of redemption for their overreliance rather than wonder why they suddenly reappeared.

So neither are perfect, but they are both respectable efforts in their own right.

[WittyUsername]

Now that I think about it, I suppose Toriyama’s reason for having Goku “leave” his friends and family at the end is so the series can have an obligatory “the hero rides off into the sunset” ending. In that regard, I guess I understand why it was there, but it’s still weird how everyone makes it seem like Goku is leaving for good.

[Matches Malone]

Now that I think about it, I suppose Toriyama’s reason for having Goku “leave” his friends and family at the end is so the series can have an obligatory “the hero rides off into the sunset” ending. In that regard, I guess I understand why it was there, but it’s still weird how everyone makes it seem like Goku is leaving for good.

I never completely disliked it because I watched GT directly after Z, so it was never an ending for me, but I can see why fans who knew better don't like it, as it's such an odd was of ending things.

[Jord]

Now that I think about it, I suppose Toriyama’s reason for having Goku “leave” his friends and family at the end is so the series can have an obligatory “the hero rides off into the sunset” ending. In that regard, I guess I understand why it was there, but it’s still weird how everyone makes it seem like Goku is leaving for good.

I never completely disliked it because I watched GT directly after Z, so it was never an ending for me, but I can see why fans who knew better don't like it, as it's such an odd was of ending things.

That's a good point.
I think a lot of it depends on how you watched Dragon Ball. Over here, the first episode of GT aired the day after the last of Z so while GT is a new series, the last episode doesn't feel like the ending of the show.

I can imagine it being completely different for those that read the manga.

[90sDBZ]

I also watched GT immediately after Z, so I never really had a period of Z's ending being "The End".

In the UK they began airing promos for GT midway through the Kid Buu saga, and the final episode of Ocean Z had the narrater say "A new adventure called Dragon Ball GT is just beggining!", so there was never a sense of finality to Z's ending for me.

[MrSatan2099]

I had such mixed feelings about GT for years, because unfortunately I let my first exposure be the disastrous first Funimation version. To be honest, the franchise had almost fallen off of my radar by that point anyway, so it really struck me the wrong way. It wasn't until I started randomly picking up the old single dvds on sale at Gamestop that I sat down and watched the original Japanese version and really began to appreciate it's tone. So at 16 I would have said that the ending was a load of crap, but as an adult I really do think it's a fitting conclusion. I'm not sure how I feel about the story having a finite ending, but if it has to have one, I think it suits Goku to go off on a final mysterious adventure like that.

Dragon Ball has always been very cognizant of the flow of time, characters age realistically, the world moves on. It would be interesting to see Dragon Ball with a sliding time line, like say Batman, or The Simpsons where adventures happen for decades, but the characters don't age. Of course that's not the nature of the story they chose to tell, but it would be interesting.

[Matches Malone]

I had such mixed feelings about GT for years, because unfortunately I let my first exposure be the disastrous first Funimation version.

I'm not sure how I feel about the story having a finite ending, but if it has to have one, I think it suits Goku to go off on a final mysterious adventure like that.

It would be interesting to see Dragon Ball with a sliding time line, like say Batman, or The Simpsons where adventures happen for decades, but the characters don't age.

That version is why I ended up liking GT. It's not because it had a great dub, but rather because they skipped those terrible first episodes. To be fair, I don't think the first 5 were bad, but episodes 6-15 are without question what killed GT's potential. Even the writers said they weren't happy with them and decided to course correct, but it was unfortunately too late.

I personally prefer closed endings like that, which is not to say open endings are bad, but I feel that more closure is provided to everything when the door is completely shut.

That's what Super's doing, as we're in its 8th story arc and nothing has changed. For me this is the worst thing about it, as the progression of time was a big part of the original.

[ABED]

Tho

That version is why I ended up liking GT. It's not because it had a great dub, but rather because they skipped those terrible first episodes. To be fair, I don't think the first 5 were bad, but episodes 6-15 are without question what killed GT's potential. Even the writers said they weren't happy with them and decided to course correct, but it was unfortunately too late.

I don't see how it was too late just because there was a bad batch of episodes.

[MasenkoHA]

I also watched GT immediately after Z, so I never really had a period of Z's ending being "The End".

In the UK they began airing promos for GT midway through the Kid Buu saga, and the final episode of Ocean Z had the narrater say "A new adventure called Dragon Ball GT is just beggining!", so there was never a sense of finality to Z's ending for me.

Honestly with information on GT being so easy to find on line (I was reading detailed episode summaries of GT in addition to the Boo saga before the Great Saiyaman stuff even started airing in the US) I understood even with Z coming to a close Dragon Ball wasn’t ending. Though ironically I didn’t see the Kid Boo episodes or GT until years later

[Matches Malone]

I don't see how it was too late just because there was a bad batch of episodes.

You only get one chance to make a first impression. I think what also played into GT's downfall was fans being burned out from the franchise during that period, as well as GT not being from the original author.

[MasenkoHA]

as well as GT not being from the original author.

The same fans who probably enjoyed at least some of the movies and at least some of the anime exclusive plots

[Matches Malone]

as well as GT not being from the original author.

The same fans who probably enjoyed at least some of the movies and at least some of the anime exclusive plots

I'm mainly talking about Japanese fans from back in the 90's during the show's original run. I don't know what they liked or didn't, I'm just speculating with what little information we have.