Continuing onward from the Kōzō Morishita interview, our latest translation comes from the the Dragon Ball GT Dragon Box’s “Dragon Book” yet again in the form of a story-focused Q&A session with script writer Atsushi Maekawa.

Maekawa was the most prolific of writers during Dragon Ball GT‘s run, handling 28 episodes and the television special himself. In the Q&A, Maekawa shares some of the story points that ultimately went undeveloped in the series, such as a series of episodes that would have focused on Gohan’s return to the battlefield:

For instance, in Gohan’s case, there was apparently so much as an “Ultimate Gohan” concept in Dragon Ball Z, where he was a super-warrior with might surpassing Goku, but in GT, he’s a scholar who’s given up fighting almost entirely. But for someone who had given up fighting like that to return to the front lines, I thought that naturally there needed to be quite a bit of drama involved.

Around the Super 17 arc in the animation, he came back as a super-warrior all of a sudden, but actually, I personally wanted to put in a heroic episode telling the reason he started fighting again. For instance, people he loved, like Videl, had been hurt, and when in the depths of anguish, he happened to open up his wardrobe, inside was his dōgi from fondly-remembered times. Together with the line, “To think there’d come a day I’d wear this again…”, he brushes off Chi-Chi, who in tears is trying to stop him, and makes a shocking, lightning entrance on the battlefield. Considering the status of the character, I wanted to spend one or two episodes showing that level of resolve, and I recall having even written the plot for it. But it’s a subplot that diverges from the main story, I guess you could say, so due to various circumstances, it never came to fruition, and it ended up stopping at the level of, he takes off his glasses, and takes on the eyes of a warrior. (laughs)

Maekawa also details the thought process and direction behind the very end of the Dragon Ball GT television series, addressing whether or Goku died during his battle with Yi Xing Long and his departure with Shenlong:

To be honest, in GT episode 63, just before the final episode, a big change comes over Goku. Those who watched carefully might have noticed, but… In that episode, Goku, who takes Yi Xing Long‘s attack, sinks to the bottom of a deep hole. That is the turning point. Afterward, Goku still continues the battle, but what’s different from before is that he’s cloaked in an aura that won’t let any attack near him.

It might be that he died there, or it might be that he became something else entirely. I’ll leave that decision to the imaginations of everyone who watched. However, the Goku up to that point that everyone knows clearly does not appear after that.

Our “Dragon Ball GT Ending Analysis” has been updated with some of this information, as well as tidbits from the Morishita interview. This Q&A has been archived in our “Translations” section.

Our latest translation for the archive comes courtesy of 2005’s penultimate Dragon Box release in Japan: the Dragon Ball GT television series.

In a special “GT Back Then” interview, producer Kōzō Morishita speaks about the sequel series’ original concepts, gradual transitions, and simultaneously treading of both new and old ground.

In light of recent products like Battle of Gods, Resurrection ‘F’, and Dragon Ball Super, it may be interesting to hear that the original idea for Dragon Ball GT was also to exploit the large gap of time seen in the original series between the defeat of Boo and the 28th Tenka’ichi Budōkai:

The last chapter of the original manga is set ten years after the battle with Majin Boo, so initially the idea was to have anime-original stories depicting the events of those ten years, and various such stories were planned out. Content-wise it was thought that the plot would revolve around the exploits of characters such as Pan or Trunks; in other words, the next generation of children.

Equally interesting in light of the current Universe Survival arc in the Dragon Ball Super television series, Morishita speaks to the idea of an ever-growing universe and cast of characters:

When it came to the problem of a sense of scale, outer space was better than the Earth, and the worldview of the original manga was vast enough to allow any sort of character to turn up there. If we could continue it out there, then the series could keep on going for another 10 or 20 years (laughs). With all that in mind, we made space the setting.

Morishita also candidly speaks about the series’ sometimes divisive response among fans and critics and its inevitable comparisons to Toriyama’s original work:

There were many fans who valued it for the way that it took the “anything goes” plot progression of the original manga and went even further with it. At the same time, there were those who said it took the “anything goes” attitude too far. There were fans who wondered “why are you ruining the original?” and also those who thought that the “ruined” parts were what made it interesting. Perhaps Dragon Ball GT pushed away some of those who had been fans from the very beginning of the manga’s run, but it also created many new fans, and maybe Goku has been very important to them too. Thinking about it now, perhaps Dragon Ball GT appears separate from the sense of security of a “Akira Toriyama work”.

This interview has been archived in our “Translations” section. Some suggested reading after checking out this 2005 Morishita interview:

• Our “Production Guide” here on Kanzenshuu in general, but most specifically the Dragon Ball GT sub-section of the “Toriyama’s Contributions to the Anime” page.
• Akira Toriyama’s personal introduction (and Super Saiyan 4 Son Goku sketch!) for the Dragon Ball GT Dragon Book.
• The joint interview with Akira Toriyama and Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru in the 2003 anime guide book Son Goku Densetsu.
• Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru’s “Dragon Ball Back Then Vol. 3” interview from the 2010 art book The Golden Warrior.
• Masako Nozawa’s long interview from the second Dragon Ball GT: Perfect File book.

Stay tuned for additional (old!) translation work in the near future, including (perhaps…?!) more from the Dragon Ball GT Dragon Box release.