What are your favourite logos for the series?
Moderators: General Help, Kanzenshuu Staff
- LoganForkHands73
- Advanced Regular
- Posts: 1364
- Joined: Wed Feb 12, 2020 8:54 pm
What are your favourite logos for the series?
I've been reading up on branding and graphic design lately, and just now, I was thinking about how many rebrands Dragon Ball has undergone, particularly with its many logos.
You have the original manga logo, depicting a playful, chibified Shenron snaking around the bolded text and taking a bite into the one-star Dragon Ball that makes up the 'o'. Although many associate this iconic design with the "early years", it persevered for a very long time and was still consistently used by the Saiyan arc.
Alongside that main logo, a blocky back-up logo would also sometimes appear. This design inspired the logo for the original anime, which added another cartoon Shenron in a ring.
Some darker, more simplistic titles are sometimes interspersed between these two main ones, usually to complement the appearance of a powerful new enemy.
Around the time of the Namek arc, the Shenron logo starts to get phased out in favour of more minimalist designs, most notably the two-toned, block-capitals logo which also persists for a good few years. This naturally marks the series' shift to a darker tone, though there's a Star Wars flavoured boldness to it.
As we move into the subsequent arcs, this already simplistic logo slowly starts to be replaced by even more minimalist fonts. Completely gone is the whimsical flourish of the older logos, replaced with a stark, black, angular "DRAGONBALL". There's a quiet confidence to it. The cute animals and boob jokes may be missed by some, but Toriyama (and his editors) know what you're really here for: raw, distilled, fist-pumping, skull-popping, planet-busting ACTION.
As soon as we move into the fledgling Great Saiyaman arc, the logo once again shifts back to a more bubbly, cartoonish look with jumbled characters and thick black outlines. Hey, it started to look more like an actual logo again! The plain black title fonts intermittently reappear for the especially dramatic chapters like Vegeta's sacrifice.
Moving back to the anime world, Shenron pokes his head out again for the Dragon Ball Z logo. The contrast between the fun, blocky "Dragon Ball" and the harsh, angular "Z" must have struck a chord with people.
Following the big revival of the franchise in 2013, we see much more consistent logo branding across the board for most Dragon Ball projects, including movies, comics, and anime. It obviously owes a lot to the DBZ logo, with almost the exact same font, though the characters are more squished together, creating a streamlined look. Many subtitles have been slapped next to this one, including Z, Super and the upcoming Daima. Honestly, I really like it.
Which are your favourites? Do you think Dragon Ball needs consistent branding, or do you prefer when Toriyama and the gangs experiment with the designs?
You have the original manga logo, depicting a playful, chibified Shenron snaking around the bolded text and taking a bite into the one-star Dragon Ball that makes up the 'o'. Although many associate this iconic design with the "early years", it persevered for a very long time and was still consistently used by the Saiyan arc.
Alongside that main logo, a blocky back-up logo would also sometimes appear. This design inspired the logo for the original anime, which added another cartoon Shenron in a ring.
Some darker, more simplistic titles are sometimes interspersed between these two main ones, usually to complement the appearance of a powerful new enemy.
Around the time of the Namek arc, the Shenron logo starts to get phased out in favour of more minimalist designs, most notably the two-toned, block-capitals logo which also persists for a good few years. This naturally marks the series' shift to a darker tone, though there's a Star Wars flavoured boldness to it.
As we move into the subsequent arcs, this already simplistic logo slowly starts to be replaced by even more minimalist fonts. Completely gone is the whimsical flourish of the older logos, replaced with a stark, black, angular "DRAGONBALL". There's a quiet confidence to it. The cute animals and boob jokes may be missed by some, but Toriyama (and his editors) know what you're really here for: raw, distilled, fist-pumping, skull-popping, planet-busting ACTION.
As soon as we move into the fledgling Great Saiyaman arc, the logo once again shifts back to a more bubbly, cartoonish look with jumbled characters and thick black outlines. Hey, it started to look more like an actual logo again! The plain black title fonts intermittently reappear for the especially dramatic chapters like Vegeta's sacrifice.
Moving back to the anime world, Shenron pokes his head out again for the Dragon Ball Z logo. The contrast between the fun, blocky "Dragon Ball" and the harsh, angular "Z" must have struck a chord with people.
Following the big revival of the franchise in 2013, we see much more consistent logo branding across the board for most Dragon Ball projects, including movies, comics, and anime. It obviously owes a lot to the DBZ logo, with almost the exact same font, though the characters are more squished together, creating a streamlined look. Many subtitles have been slapped next to this one, including Z, Super and the upcoming Daima. Honestly, I really like it.
Which are your favourites? Do you think Dragon Ball needs consistent branding, or do you prefer when Toriyama and the gangs experiment with the designs?
- Magnificent Ponta
- OMG CRAZY REGEN
- Posts: 900
- Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2020 2:25 pm
- Location: Not on Tumblr, I guess
Re: What are your favourite logos for the series?
For the interested, it's worth noting in this vein that KBABZ did a full Manga Logo Catalogue once upon a time, which includes some pretty unique offerings, and is worth checking out.
I am partial to the Shenlong Dragon Ball logo; it's a neat design which visually foregrounds a key aspect of what the series is about in an effective way, while incorporating a certain amount of charm and whimsy that I find appealing. I appreciate things that communicate Dragon Ball's more playful side. But I also do like to see different styles mixed in - particularly the unique pictorial title logos; they look like they were fun to do, and they're fun to look at, too.
I am partial to the Shenlong Dragon Ball logo; it's a neat design which visually foregrounds a key aspect of what the series is about in an effective way, while incorporating a certain amount of charm and whimsy that I find appealing. I appreciate things that communicate Dragon Ball's more playful side. But I also do like to see different styles mixed in - particularly the unique pictorial title logos; they look like they were fun to do, and they're fun to look at, too.
Re: What are your favourite logos for the series?
Dragon Ball Kai, well, mostly the way "Kai" is stylized. And Dragon Ball Online, in a poster it looks great.
Experiment with new, other designs. We're bound to have bland ones, but we will get some cool ones eventually.LoganForkHands73 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 6:40 pmDo you think Dragon Ball needs consistent branding, or do you prefer when Toriyama and the gangs experiment with the designs?
Re: What are your favourite logos for the series?
personally, out of the manga ones listed here, I personally like the Shenlong Straight, Shenlong Shuffle, Boo/Buu Arc Shuffle, Shuffle Sweep, and Shuffled Shadow, with my favorite "serious" logos being Two-Tone, and Gadgetron Lean (I remember seeing this one in digital color once (I think it was Vegeta's sacrifice chapter?) and I liked the orange-yellow they used for it. Looked really good. I do also like the iconic horizontal DBZ logo, and also the Episode of Bardock's take on the logo.
I like the overall experimentation we get and have gotten over the years. Variety is the spice of life, after all!LoganForkHands73 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 6:40 pm Do you think Dragon Ball needs consistent branding, or do you prefer when Toriyama and the gang experiment with the designs?
Re: What are your favourite logos for the series?
My favorite logo is definitely the ones with the dragon in the circle. He's so silly and loveable.
- GokuDaimao
- Not-So-Newbie
- Posts: 79
- Joined: Wed May 11, 2011 2:16 pm
Re: What are your favourite logos for the series?
The manga logo (which was also used in things like the French dub and the Blue Water Studios English dub of the OG series) is the clear cut winner.
The Dragon Ball Z logo shown in the Japanese version is a close second, and the Japanese GT logo being the 3rd.
All the others, are kind of hackneyed if I'm being candid. FUNimation's GT logo sucks. The international Dragon Ball Z logo is serviceable but you could easily do better, and the Japanese Dragon Ball logo, with the Blue and Red colors, just no. Keep that. It looks so much like a lazy bootleg offering compared to everything else. I'd probably use FUNimation's Dragon Ball logo, but only as a substitute for the manga logo.
So, in summation:
Manga logo > Japanese anime Z logo > Japanese anime GT logo, that's it.
EDIT: FUNimation's Dragon Ball logo and the two logos that Viz created (although I do resent them splitting up the manga strictly for marketing purposes) are decent as well. Those 3 lie in between the 3 I said I liked, and the 3 I said I didn't like. XP
Dragon Ball Kai's logo is actually really good, but of course it's a moot point with how Dragon Ball Super just rehashed the international Z logo and got rid of the Z, the part that people recognize the most. Genius.
The Dragon Ball Z logo shown in the Japanese version is a close second, and the Japanese GT logo being the 3rd.
All the others, are kind of hackneyed if I'm being candid. FUNimation's GT logo sucks. The international Dragon Ball Z logo is serviceable but you could easily do better, and the Japanese Dragon Ball logo, with the Blue and Red colors, just no. Keep that. It looks so much like a lazy bootleg offering compared to everything else. I'd probably use FUNimation's Dragon Ball logo, but only as a substitute for the manga logo.
So, in summation:
Manga logo > Japanese anime Z logo > Japanese anime GT logo, that's it.
EDIT: FUNimation's Dragon Ball logo and the two logos that Viz created (although I do resent them splitting up the manga strictly for marketing purposes) are decent as well. Those 3 lie in between the 3 I said I liked, and the 3 I said I didn't like. XP
Dragon Ball Kai's logo is actually really good, but of course it's a moot point with how Dragon Ball Super just rehashed the international Z logo and got rid of the Z, the part that people recognize the most. Genius.