Is the series only meant merely as an ad/commercial..?

[GodVegetto91]

Is it true that for Toei an animated series (or perhaps more specifically dragon ball super) is only meant merely as an ad/commerical/promotional tool (you get what i mean) to get people to buy more merchandise??? (The real meaning behind the series)
Is it proper to look at it that way?
What do you guys think?

Because this would also explain how they don't seem to even care about the animation of this series.. (Hence Ep 5 and 24)

[successoroffate]

Is it true that for Toei an animated series (or perhaps more specifically dragon ball super) is only meant merely as an ad/commerical/promotional tool (you get what i mean) to get people to buy (the real meaning behind all this) more merchandise???
Is it proper to look at it that way?
What do you guys think?

Because this would also explain how they don't seem to even care about the animation of this series.. (Hence Ep 5 and 24)

Not true, there is nothing from Super to come up with such conclusion. Some small flaws in Animation mean nothing.

[GodVegetto91]

Is it true that for Toei an animated series (or perhaps more specifically dragon ball super) is only meant merely as an ad/commerical/promotional tool (you get what i mean) to get people to buy (the real meaning behind all this) more merchandise???
Is it proper to look at it that way?
What do you guys think?

Because this would also explain how they don't seem to even care about the animation of this series.. (Hence Ep 5 and 24)

Not true, there is nothing from Super to come up with such conclusion. Some small flaws in Animation mean nothing.

It's just a theory. Hence why i asked.

[Theophrastus]

I'm sure the individuals responsible for the actual creation of the series are more passionate about it, but on a corporate level...yes. The big companies like Shueisha and Bandai are funding it so they can have something airing on TV every week that will entice kids to buy the toys/video games/manga.

[Chuquita]

Toei's just kind of a mess right now.

Z was used to merchandise too, but back in the 90's Toei wasn't piling more work onto their plates than they could handle and could afford bigger budgets and also higher skilled animators existed back then.

Toei's eyes are bigger than their stomachs atm.

The biggest difference is though imo the lack of a weekly serial in Jump. Monthly isn't the same at all, so once we hit the next arc we'll really be flying blind.

[Kendamu]

The reason Kai was pulled for Toriko was because, while it got good ratings, it wasn't moving merchandise. So, yes, moving merchandise is,very important to the continued success of TV anime like Dragon Ball in Japan.

In addition to that, series such as Dragon Ball Z, which was following a manga, are more or less meant for generating interest in the manga, too. In the US, thet anime is treated more like the main product and the manga's treated like, "Yeah, that's there, too, but whatever."

[Hellspawn28]

Dragon Ball always been like that. In the 90's, the movies was nothing more then a cash grab to have fans of the TV show and manga to go out and watch them. GT had SSj4 which was probably made to help boost up ratings and merchandise sales.

[precita]

The original Dragonball manga (and anime) were just intended to be a writer wanting to make a fun story. This continued along as DBZ came along until he finally ended.

Everything post Buu saga is basically an ad/commercial to continue the franchise. GT, Kai, Super, the videogames, etc....are all essentially commercials. That's why they're of lower quality of what came before.

Both the manga and anime should have ended with Buu. What we're getting now is an attempt to run the money train into the ground.

[MozillaVulpix]

Technically, yes. Or rather, at this point, new stories are also being created with toy sales in mind. I don't really know what the merchandise scene was like in the 80's and early 90's, but it seems unlikely his editors would force him to come up with new characters/forms in order to sell more toys. It might have been the case. I don't know for sure.

[Araki]

Tv anime IS a long commercial. That's the truth, sorry but they don't do it for art reasons. It was this way back then, before GT, it's the same way now. If it's airing, it has the purpose to sell something: toys, manga, games, merchandise in general, novels, cds, dvd/blu-ray, seconds for advertisement, etc. This is all even more evident with mainstream animes, although not limited to them.

And episode 5 had nothing to do with 'they don't care', it was simply lack of time, the episode was aired unfinished. If they didn't care at all, they wouldn't fix it for dvd/blu-ray.

That said, compared to typical merchandise-driven shows, Dragon Ball is pretty light. Those series are planned to follow a strict schedule, where toys hit the shelves at about the same time they're first featured on tv, and the writers have to work around it.

[Hellspawn28]

The series was view as a toy commercial when it was on TV in the US. Just look back when you could find DBZ stuff almost everywhere. The series is not as toy driven compare to Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, Yokai Watch, Transformers, He-Man and TMNT, but it's still made to sell merchandise.

[JulieYBM]

If it's on TV it is a commercial. It's a commercial you may or may not like, but it is a commercial. Shueisha needs to sell more books and licenses and Bandai needs to sell more games, figures, and cards. It's why they fun TV series or films. This is the industry in general.

[Hellspawn28]

You don't need to be a obvious toy commercial to be one. Jurassic World was a 124 minute toy commercial since a lot of the Dinosaurs added in the movie was there to sell toys. JW has a toy line where you can mixed and build your own dinosaur and in the movie, the scientist create their own Dinosaur.

[precita]

Everything after the Buu saga and Movie 13 has been done to make money off a series that should have ended when the manga did.

[Lord Beerus]

Everything after the Buu saga and Movie 13 has been done to make money off a series that should have ended when the manga did.

All of the DBZ movies were glorified adverts and cash-ins too, you know.

[TripleRach]

The original Dragonball manga (and anime) were just intended to be a writer wanting to make a fun story. This continued along as DBZ came along until he finally ended.

I don't remember which ones off hand, but there are interviews from the early 80s where Toriyama bluntly states that he just draws things for the money.

If anything he's probably had more fun after the series ended, now that he can do whatever he wants whenever he wants.

[sintzu]

Everything after the Buu saga and Movie 13 has been done to make money off a series that should have ended when the manga did.

Let me ask you this from 2 points of view :

As a company would you let you're biggest $$$ making franchise die ? Company's want to make as much $ as possible so it makes sense to continue it from this point of view.

As a fan would you want to see you're favorite franchise dead ? If the new products are good then that's more quality material added to an already great franchise and if not then nothing's lost cause you'll always have the old material to watch so for fans there isn't anything to lose by getting new material.

[precita]

Well what do you think TOEI did from 1997-2008 when no new Dragonball series was airing or made? They still made tons of money in foreign markets along with the videogames and toys when the series was "done" and they were fine with it.

I mean you guys act like there wasn't already a decade long gap of the series being dormant without any new material being made for the hell of it.

[KameRule]

No matter how many people enjoy the series, the fact is that realistically, Toei aren't going to make enough money off of Dragon Ball Super alone. The manga and merchandise are what really matter financially, and Dragon Ball Super is primarily for selling those products to the consumer. So in that sense, yes, it is.

[Basaku]

Tv anime IS a long commercial. That's the truth, sorry but they don't do it for art reasons.

That's a generalization.

Let's get first thing out of the way - EVERYONE in the world sans very few wants to earn money, lots of it. And there is nothing wrong with it, we all want a good living. The main difference between people is between those who are passionate about their chosen way of earning money and those who are not. Those who do something just as much for artistic/idealistic/passion reason as much as the desire to earn for their living and those who perform their jobs, often competently, but have no genuine interest or passion about it.

When it comes to current Toei executive team, it appears very much that they don't really care a lot for the art of animation and storytelling, spreading the company's financial resources too thin which negatively impacts all of the creative teams involved, hoping they can have as many 'ads' for toys running simultaneously as possible. This doesn't mean it will be like this forever or that every CEO/exec at various anime companies in Japan was, is or will be the same.