Dragon Ball canon (+ re-edits/re-adaptations)

[crixus]

I would really like to see a reedited version of the anime what could be considered as "canon". Head canon is good and all but especially that they are keen to countinue the franchise it would be wise to lay down what is existing in the story / lore and what is just a side story
Few guidelines how it should be done:
- separate manga canon and anime canon, leave the manga be its own thing,
- no reeboot, no adding or changing characters, events, techniques or dialog and so on,
- base of the rework should be the core of the original bragon ball anime, dragon ball kai anime with adding only a few fillers from the original z and dragon ball super without a few filler episodes.

What should be removed (Keep in mind, I'm only talking about the anime)
Dragon ball (1 - 153 episodes):
1. Pilaf and the first Tournament saga:
- Goku goes to the moon with the rabbit gang, inconsistent with the rest of the series cause of the great ape transformation

2. Red Ribbon army and Baba saga:
- the enviroment in penguin village should be represented consistent with the rest of the series, no laughing sun or moving mountains.

3. Tien tournament saga:
- Terror and Plague, Demon land filler episodes should go out, since they undermine the demon king piccolo arc

4. Demon king piccolo saga:
- the darkness should go out as a personality. Its a nice choice to get goku go through a trial in the ice maze and show him overcome the easy way to get to the divine water instead just get it from Korin but the darkness as an entity and its disappearence after the these episodes make it being to much as an addition

5. Piccolo tournaments saga:
- the timetravel episode of the filler should go. it contradicts everything thats coming later with the Trunks arc
- the last few episodes should be removed. i think it undermines the weight of the appearence of grandpa gohan earlier in the Baba arc


If you people are interested in the topic will countinue with DBZ/Kai

[VegettoEX]

The problem with the underlying proposal of creating a "new" version of the "canonical" story is that you'll always have the (very understandable) base position that, well, the original manga already is the existing canon, and nothing can or will ever supplant that, even if the original author tells you that it does.

That said, I can understand us being nearly 40 years removed from the original source material's humble beginnings and looking for a new adaptation that skews closer to that vision. The series is older than a lot of the newer fans coming into it.

As a rather old person myself, though, I don't exactly have that problem... and I also think the original manga is exceptionally timeless in production values and overall readability. Sometimes old things are old, and it's OK for them to stay old.

I think rather than re-adapting the story, t would be infinitely more valuable to have updated prestige editions of the manga always in print in every worthwhile language. I don't have nearly as many qualms as certain folks do with certain aspects of the Viz translation, but it's undeniably worthy of a revision if contemporaries like Sailor Moon can get multiple ones (and there's nothing wrong with cutting all ties with Gerard Jones' work).

[Adamant]

What a lot of western anime viewers struggle somewhat with getting is that anime series are for the most part not intended to be a standalone product. They're meant to air on TV to drum up interest in the brand as a whole, which is centered around the actual source material. In the case of Dragon Ball, that's the manga.

Neither Toei nor Shueisha just don't really have a whole lot to gain by readapting the manga. Kai was a commercial failure despite being a much cheaper production, while Super and the pre-Super theatrical movies did a much better job pushing the brand while also introducing all kinds of new stuff they could sell merch of.

[crixus]

I get that the manga is the core of the series but since they are doing things differently with super i don´t think it would be unreasonable to separate manga and anime.

And like i said the problem with the anime is that the story gets really inconsistent, what makes it hard to write a genuine story in the future. A story what makes sense.
A re-editing would not be a hard task since they really just had to fix some badly animated parts and remove the inconsistent parts of the series, what are 99% filler parts.

With that said, compared to the manga, the anime has really well done fillers, like Gohans training at the beginning of z what really adds to the development of the character. Or the filler where kid Goku is trained by Popo/Kami. These parts for example add to the story, to the characters, they deserve to be parts of the official story.

[Adamant]

I get that the manga is the core of the series but since they are doing things differently with super i don´t think it would be unreasonable to separate manga and anime.

The question you should be asking is WHY they would want to do this. How can they make money off this proposed series of yours?

[crixus]

The question you should be asking is WHY they would want to do this. How can they make money off this proposed series of yours?

I do not know the cost of a reworked series but it would surely cost far less than doing straight up a new one. And with that said if the marketing is smart it could be even released as netflix series arc after arc like every 2 month. Most fans would watch it i belive. Marketing words like "canon" "re-animated" and so on could help.

Just imagine releasing the first arcs re-worked of the original dragon ball like up to the end of the red ribbon army saga before the super hero movie. I do not see fans not giving attention.

[Adamant]

I do not know the cost of a reworked series but it would surely cost far less than doing straight up a new one. And with that said if the marketing is smart it could be even released as netflix series arc after arc like every 2 month. Most fans would watch it i belive. Marketing words like "canon" "re-animated" and so on could help.

Just imagine releasing the first arcs re-worked of the original dragon ball like up to the end of the red ribbon army saga before the super hero movie. I do not see fans not giving attention.

The thing is, this is basically what they did with Dragonball Kai. Did "most fans" watch Dragonball Kai? Yes, it was one of the most watched anime series on TV at the time (which was not entirely unrelated to the fact that it aired alongside One Piece as a one-hour programming block). But those fans responded by purchasing what I think was actually an all-time low amount of Dragonball merch, which made it pretty clear that old-grounds Dragonball material airing on TV may cause fans to tune in to watch, but it's not going to make them go out and spend money on the brand... which is what the people involved are most interested in.

If a recut Red Ribbon arc was to air on TV as a lead-in to Super Hero, it would probably make people watch it, but it probably WOULDN'T make them go buy more Super Hero tickets.

[WittyUsername]

I get the impression that the average Japanese fan doesn’t particularly care about whether or not there’s a cohesive continuity for the Dragon Ball universe, and I don’t think Toei or Shuiesha care either.

[MasenkoHA]

The question you should be asking is WHY they would want to do this. How can they make money off this proposed series of yours?

I do not know the cost of a reworked series but it would surely cost far less than doing straight up a new one. And with that said if the marketing is smart it could be even released as netflix series arc after arc like every 2 month. Most fans would watch it i belive. Marketing words like "canon" "re-animated" and so on could help.

Just imagine releasing the first arcs re-worked of the original dragon ball like up to the end of the red ribbon army saga before the super hero movie. I do not see fans not giving attention.

I think you overestimate how much the average consumer actually gives a shit about canon.

[crixus]

The question you should be asking is WHY they would want to do this. How can they make money off this proposed series of yours?

I do not know the cost of a reworked series but it would surely cost far less than doing straight up a new one. And with that said if the marketing is smart it could be even released as netflix series arc after arc like every 2 month. Most fans would watch it i belive. Marketing words like "canon" "re-animated" and so on could help.

Just imagine releasing the first arcs re-worked of the original dragon ball like up to the end of the red ribbon army saga before the super hero movie. I do not see fans not giving attention.

I think you overestimate how much the average consumer actually gives a shit about canon.

That is just sad. Cause that means that people don't care about the story just the flashy scenes.

[MasenkoHA]

I do not know the cost of a reworked series but it would surely cost far less than doing straight up a new one. And with that said if the marketing is smart it could be even released as netflix series arc after arc like every 2 month. Most fans would watch it i belive. Marketing words like "canon" "re-animated" and so on could help.

Just imagine releasing the first arcs re-worked of the original dragon ball like up to the end of the red ribbon army saga before the super hero movie. I do not see fans not giving attention.

I think you overestimate how much the average consumer actually gives a shit about canon.

That is just sad. Cause that means that people don't care about the story just the flashy scenes.

???? Weird takeaway but sure

[ZodaEX]

I do not know the cost of a reworked series but it would surely cost far less than doing straight up a new one. And with that said if the marketing is smart it could be even released as netflix series arc after arc like every 2 month. Most fans would watch it i belive. Marketing words like "canon" "re-animated" and so on could help.

Just imagine releasing the first arcs re-worked of the original dragon ball like up to the end of the red ribbon army saga before the super hero movie. I do not see fans not giving attention.

I think you overestimate how much the average consumer actually gives a shit about canon.

That is just sad. Cause that means that people don't care about the story just the flashy scenes.

Why can't people care about both? Why does it have to be one or the other?

[Saiya6Cit]

You should continue it so at least you can take it off your chest and it would be up there somewhere, that is the reason why I sometimes post on DA too...

I don't think the investment on resources and time that a re-adaptation would take would not provide a Return of investment and they sort of already tried that with Kai. Whoever is interested on avoiding fillers could simply read he manga.