Earlier today, Fuji TV announced news that a new Dragonball Z TV series would premiere this July. Titled Dragonball Super, it’s going to be set after the events of DBZ (and completely ignoring the non-canonical Dragonball GT series) and would seem like everything an anime fan could want. There’s just one problem.


The problem is that we’ve already gotten a new, canonical, post-DBZ anime, which was titled Battle of Gods and was a much-plugged movie release in 2013. Just as Dragonball Super is doing, Battle of Gods touted that Dragonball creator Akira Toriyama oversaw the story. It all sounds pretty good, especially when you compare it to DBGT, which Toriyama had no involvement with whatsoever, and was a godawful project that occasionally rose to heights of mediocrity.

The Battle of Gods movie may not have fallen to GT’s lows, but neither did it surpass GT’s mediocrity. It was a boldly unnecessary movie, one whose placement in the canon was needless, as it added nothing to Goku’s story except yet another fight — a fight that didn’t really have a winner at that.


Earlier this month, a second DBZ movie was released, earning a massive box office and marginally better reviews. However, Resurrection F (as it will be known in the U.S. when it’s released later this year) did this mainly by bringing back Frieza, Dragonball’s most iconic and popular villain, and turning Goku’s hair, which famously turns blond when he powers up to Super Saiyan, blue to indicate and even more powerful mode. Old villain, new hair color, and pretty much nothing else. It’s no wonder that Japanese fans enjoyed it, but if you’re looking for proof that Dragonball Super might be anything more than a rehash of DBZ’s greatest hits (so to speak), you won’t find it in Resurrection F.

I’m actually a big Dragonball Z fan — I ran home from school to watch the anime, and this was when I was in college, mind you. I have a lot of affection for Goku and the Z Warriors and the myriad grunts that make up the English dub as well as the wonderful weirdness of the manga and the anime. But just like I wasn’t excited by Dragonball GT, which was created solely to continue to make money off the franchise after Toriyama stopped making the comic, I find it almost impossible to be excited by this. Dragonball Super is still the same companies trying to continue to wring money out of the franchise. Yes, Toriayama may be somewhat involved, but as the movies have proven that doesn’t mean that the new TV show will be good. Is there really that much of a difference between DBGT and Super, besides certain anime executives telling us this one is “official”?

I don’t blame them; I just think that the golden age of Dragonball has passed, and all the revivals in the world won’t change that fact. Maybe if these executives actually bring together the seven Dragonballs and have Sheron grant them a wish, then maybe. But at seems at that point they could simply wish for big piles of money, and let Goku and Vegeta and the rest live in peace.

[Via Anime News Network]