The Dragon ball animated franchise is the gift that keeps on giving, every time its creator Akira Toriyama plans to end the series, the show’s and Goku fanbase comes alive on social media and fans send messages to his studio about how they would like to see another new character arc. This has been both a blessing and a curse for Toriyama who is probably ready to use his creativity on new and different projects.
The original Dragon ball was based on Toriyama’s manga of the same name. The animated show made its debut in Japan in 1989 and ran until 1996 with 291 episodes. The original show depicts an alien landing on earth as a baby via a small space craft. An old man finds him, and over the course of his childhood-trains him in martial arts.
The character, Goku, had no idea he was an alien. He just thought that he was a human with a tale growing from his body. The show depicts his interactions with Bulma, who at the time was a teenage technology wizard, and the adventures that she and Goku experienced. Both the manga and the animated series were popular in Japan. The animated series made its debut in the United States in 1996.
While American audiences were enjoying the original Dragon ball, the Japanese audiences were watching Dragon ball Z-which depicts an adult Goku and his quest to slay the monster that destroyed his home planet. The title of the show has a “Z” in it because it is supposed to be the final chapter.
When Goku avenges his Saiyan ancestry by destroying Freeza, Toriyama meant for that to be the end of the manga and the animated series. However, due to extreme interest by the fans the show continued to come back in new forms.
During the next saga of Dragon ball Z androids, including the ringleader Cell, were manufactured in a laboratory and given the objective to kill Goku in battle. Toriyama decided to kill off Goku in this saga and maybe the fanbase would realize that this is the end. However, that back fired because it made the Cell saga more interesting with Goku in otherworld (or heaven), as he was able to deliver messages to his son on how to combat and ultimately defeat Cell, which his son Gohan did with an injured arm and a lot of bruises.
After Cell was gone, the characters already assembled all the dragon balls and they were going to summon the dragon and wish for Goku to return to earth, but Goku sent them a message that the world would be safer with him staying in otherworld rather than returning to earth where mercenaries would continue their quest to defeat him. In the Cell saga, Goku made it to the otherworld when he transports Cell to a different location when he attempted to self-destruct and destroy the earth.
The fans wanted more, and Toriyama was pretty serious about doing one last Dragon ball Z saga. It was the Majin Buu saga which depicts a beast that sleeps for a thousand years, wakes up and takes over planets before falling back to sleep. As Dragon ball Z went on, Toriyama tried to keep some of the humor that was present in the original Dragon ball, but Dragon ball Z had a lot more combat and was much more dramatic than the original series.
He even tried to keep the humor in the design of Majin Buu, a big puffy pink warrior that had the ability to turn living creatures into candy. Goku ultimately makes a return from otherworld to defeat Majin Buu, and he requested to the gods that Buu would one day be re-incarnated so that Goku can train him to be a protector of earth.
Dragon ball Z ends with the latest martial arts tournament featuring a young fighter named Uub, which Goku knew was the re-incarnation of Majin Buu. Goku offers to train him, Uub agrees and they both fly off together to get started on their training. That was supposed to be the absolute end of Dragon ball Z and it was for a while until the release of Dragon ball GT, which is the first series that Toriyama was not directly involved. Because of that, many fans do not consider Dragon ball GT to be canon.
Somehow, Toei Animation and Fuji TV encouraged Toriyama to come back with a new series. After he was away from the show for a while, he probably felt more comfortable to return. They launched Dragon ball Super in Japan, which is supposed to take place before the end of Dragon ball Z.
Dragon ball Super made it to America in 2018. Now the Japanese audiences are watching Dragon ball Heroes, and the fans in other territories are waiting (and sometimes trying to illegally stream) for it to broadcast on their television services. The show is available in Japanese on Crunchy Roll, a streaming video service for anime. Many people watch it with English subtitles and also many are waiting for an official release in their country.
Toyotaro, a designer and animator for Dragon ball Super, will be a guest at Jump Festa 2021, which will stream online due to Covid-19. The artist took to Twitter to indicate that there will be Dragon ball Super and Dragon ball Heroes content at the event. The fanbase is ecstatic, does this mean there will be two different shows airing concurrently? Or will they turn each project into a feature film? There are many possibilities and millions of viewers will be excited about whatever news is shared at the event.