Tidbits of Information

1. Question
Is Dragonball AF real? There are so many rumors about it. And along the same lines, some sites say that there is a Dragonball AW which has Super Saiyan Goku 5 in it. Is this true?

Answer
I've never heard of anything called "Dragonball AW." There is an image floating around the internet called "Dragonball AF," though. While some sites will mistakenly still call Dragonball AF a rumored new series, trustworthy sites including Planet Namek.com and even the official FUNimation Dragonball Z homepage has conclusively confirmed that Dragonball AF is nothing more than Japanese fan art and is not official and not a "new series." According to FUNimation, Toei Animation has officially announced that there are no plans for any new Dragonball animation to be created in the future.

2. Question
Is there a such thing as Dragonball GT. If there is tell me about it.

Answer
Directly after Dragonball Z aired its final episode, a new TV series began titled Dragonball GT. The series begins when Pilaf, Mai and Shu, villains from the original Dragonball series, return and accidentally use the "black dragon balls" to revert Goku to the body of a child. The black dragonballs then disperse themselves to different planets all across the galaxy. If they're not retrieved within 12 months, Earth and the other planets they were spread to will be destroyed. Goku, teen-age Trunks and Goku's grand-daughter Pan then travel the universe looking for the Dragonballs. The series eventually changes from an adventure series to a Dragonball Z style fighting series first as a new super villain called Baby takes over Vegeta's body. Then Android 17 returns as the evil Super Android 17. Then finally the dragon balls themselves turn into super powerful enemies whom Goku and friends must defeat.

Dragonball GT also had one hour long TV special set far in the future and starring Pan's grandson, Goku Jr.

Dragonball GT was made without the involvement of Dragonball creator Akira Toriyama, and while Dragonball GT did occasionally manage some entertaining episodes, it's a far inferior series to both of its predecessors and was ended on episode 63, less than half the number of episodes that Dragonball ran, and not even a quarter of the number of episodes that Dragonball Z lasted for.

3. Question
I`m totally at a loss to understand how anyone can find Dragonball Z enjoyable, let alone how it`s become so enormously popular. The plots are paper-thin and very predictable, the characters are one dimensional, the "battles" are mostly all talking on and on with a few drops of flickering "action" which takes whole episodes to play out. Despite this, however, there is a definite cult following to DBZ. Why is such a poor excuse for anime as popular as it is? This is a serious question; I am not just writing to express my own dislike for it, but am genuinely curious about why it`s found such a following.

Answer
It`s not my intention to bash Dragonball or unduly elevate it. I am a Dragonball fan, primarily of the first and second series. I`d seen over 100 Dragonball Z episodes before original Dragonball ever premiered in the US, but I`m also not going to defend the series as the greatest thing to ever happen to animation. I think you`ve actually already mentioned the reason for the immense popularity of Dragonball, mainly Dragonball Z. The one dimensional characters are actually the primary strength of the Dragonball series. Akira Toriyama`s art and character design are unique, but by no means exceptionally good. His storytelling, as you`ve mentioned, is formulaic, slow and repetitive, yet I think these are exactly the things that make Dragonball Z the sensation it is. The very simplicity of Dragonball Z makes it totally accessible, and the relative superficiality of its characters makes them unusually easy to empathize with. In Dragonball Z, the bad guys are bad, until they turn good, and the good guys are good. In a broad sense, no one in Dragonball has ulterior motives or complex characterizations. What you see is what you get. Dragonball is to anime what Superman is to American comic books. The simplicity of Dragonball, and the diversity of its cast allows anyone, young or old, to instantly feel right at home watching the show. A viewer can come into the show at any time and immediately know what`s going on and instantly find a character to like and a character to dislike. Some credit must be given to Akira Toriyama for creating a cast of characters that viewers can care about. And that is the heart of Dragonball. The spectacular fights are the immediate draw of Dragonball Z, but keep in mind that Dragonball succeeded on Japanese television for years before introducing its trademark martial arts battles. The Dragonball story is the life story of Son Goku, from his childhood until the time he`s a grandfather. And like Superman, who Goku was, in part, based on, (a child sent away from a dying planet and reared in the country to be a good boy who helps others), Goku is a near perfect character in the regard that he is so easy to relate to. He is the character that so many viewers would like to be, and he is the near epitome of the traditional Japanese hero. Goku is friendly and personable, kind and whimsical, a good father and husband, and at the same time superhumanly strong and powerful. Yet, in keeping with the traditional Japanese warrior`s code, he is always sportsmanlike and fair, always offering his opponent an opportunity to back down. To use the Superman analogy again, Goku represents the ideal man, especially to Japanese viewers, the same way Superman provides a role model for Westerners. But while Superman is the "big blue Boy Scout," Goku, and Dragonball itself, taps into a more primal vein. Dragonball uses violence, and doesn`t hesitate to kill characters, in exactly the opposite way Superman does.

Essentially, not everything is or should be philosophical or complex or socially relevant. There`s an undeniable pleasure to be found in watching a program that fulfills all of our desire for action and violence. At the same time Dragonball Z carefully paces itself, never going overboard and always keeping viewers wanting more. There`s also an undeniable pleasure to be found in watching a genuinely nice guy go through life, occasionally meeting setbacks and overcoming them while never loosing his optimism and his principles. Dragonball, especially Dragonball Z, is one of the few shows that simply aims to tell a fun, straightforward story, and in that it succeeds like few other shows do.

4. Question
I was wondering why the creators of the Dragonball (Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT) series stopped making it in 1995? Didn't Cartoon Network say that it's "The greatest action cartoon ever made?" It's a big hit everywhere, and I don't really understand why they stopped. Was the series over? Did they get tired and quit, or were there not enough people working there to animate more of it?

Answer
With rare exceptions such as Doraemon and Sazae-san, all good things must come to an end. Akira Toriyama created the Dragonball manga in 1984. It was the story of a young boy with superhuman strength and his quest to make friends, become stronger, and find the 7 mystical dragonballs. Through 42 collected volumes of Dragonball manga, Goku grew, married became a father then a grandfather, and finally ascended into heaven with the great dragon Shen Long, which could be taken as a metaphor for his death. In 1986, Dragonball became a television series and quickly turned into one of the most popular and successful anime series ever made. After 153 episodes, Dragonball changed its focus by introducing an alien origin and the concept of alien invaders and the Saiyan race. To go along with the sudden expansion of the Dragonball universe, the animation, in 1989, changed its name to Dragonball Z. After 293 episodes, and Toriyama having written and drawn the Dragonball manga for over a decade, Toriyama simply wanted to move on to new projects. It was time for Goku to say goodbye. But Toei Animation didn't want to write off one of their most profitable franchises so easily. As a compromise, Toriyama-san drafted character designs and a basic plot direction for a third Dragonball series that returned Dragonball to its roots as an adventure series rather than a "fighting" series. The week after Dragonball Z ended in 1996, Dragonball GT premiered and managed to struggle through an uneven, uninspired 64 episodes and one hour long TV special. Without Toriyama's manga as a guideline, the GT series had no direction and no creative vision. Viewers quickly recognized the struggling writing and lack of direction to the story, and ratings plummeted. While still more watched than many programs of its time, Toei studios recognized that without Akira Toriyama's guidance, Dragonball GT was a mere shadow of former glory. By agreement with Bandai, who was working on a Dragonball GT video game, eventually released as Dragonball: Final Bout, Toei tried to extend the GT series until the video game was completed and released. As soon as that time was within sight, Toei gave up the ghost and ended the Dragonball saga for good on November 19, 1997.

Dragonball premiered on American television in 1995, followed a year or two later by Dragonball Z. Keeping in mind that it took several years for Dragonball Z to really gain the popularity in America that it has now, by the time Dragonball Z was a huge hit in America, it had already been out of production in Japan for several years. And although the Japanese industry is beginning to become more and more aware of the American market and American demand for anime, the anime industry in Japan is still heavily dominated by an attitude of "out of sight, out of mind." A series in Japan that comes to a natural end, either by concluding its story or by going out before it's canceled, rarely comes back into production.