What happens when you are hailed as one of the Best Bakery in the World; use some of the best ingredients for making a cake …
But instead it ends up blowing up in your own face, because you delivered something like a messy cake; complete opposite of what you expected …
That appears messed up, no matter which angle you look at it from.
So, you must be wondering what could go wrong for an anime like DBS? It had some of the best staffs, voice actors, storyboard writers, animators of TOEI (a big name in the animation industry) working on it.
Not to leave out the fact
...
that it’s a sequel to the most prestigious and coveted Anime of the 90s that so many grew up with.
Well, to be honest, that’s the root cause to exactly where it all begins to falter …
Unwarranted Expectation: To some extent, we fans are to somewhat take the blame for this. I mean, let’s face it. Just because it’s predecessor Dragon Ball was such a successful name (well, atleast to a chunk of people), you can’t expect it’s sequel to be just as good or even surpassing the bar set by it’s predecessor.
Not just Super, mind you … Boruto is a good recent example for it as well.
You just can’t pull off a Clannad: After Story from it’s prequel like Clannad for every other random anime. That was a masterpiece for an example.
So, my point is … due to this unwarranted expectations that was put on Super, and when it failed to deliver; it left a bitter taste in our mouth. Well, that was inevitable!
Not many do bother how bad Mars of Destruction was or care much … but they do when it comes to a franchise like Dragon Ball.
Too many cooks spoil the broth: Well there are many theories and reasoning behind why Super so faltered, and here’s what I believe is one of it’s original cause.
That line I used there is a pronounced adage. Something similar does happen with Super.
I didn’t know of it until recently I came across some facts that long running series especially one like Super has a different team of Storyboard/writers, animators, supervisors for every single episode. Yeah, that piece of info had me totally blown away.
Contrary to popular misconception, the entirety of Super ain’t wrtten by Akira Toriyama. Yes, you read that right.
Toriyama himself said that, he initially prepares a draft/flowchart of the events that are to happen in Super. From then on, those drafts are handed over to various writers who prepare the scripts/story for every single episode. Toriyama doesn’t write them; though he supervises them sometimes.
Just to name few, and if memory serves me right there are some 8–10 writers in all, in the Super cast. Now, this is not a bad thing, but my point is, this practise serves as a breeding ground for glaring plot-holes and inconsistencies that have stymied DBS.
Episode 115 says one thing and episode 121 has some scene that completely contradicts that event in episode 115. (Just citing an example, but there are lot of such scenarios)
I am not gonna list every plot-holes over here, sure any DBS watcher can spot them if they dig a little deep. What I mean to say is, despite having a strong team of writers, due to an unplanned co-ordination and clash of opinions, the execution is not as effective as it’s supposed to be.
A single writer can do a much more effective job, in my opinion. (But hey, that’s just me and it’s an opinion )
Unwanted Arcs (A Bitter Start): TOEI brings out two movie, one in 2013 - The Battle of Gods and the other in 2015 - Resurrection F.
And then TOEI plans to start an anime series based on seeing the unprecedented popularity of the fandom and seeing it’s potential from it’s revenues off the movie alone. Well and good … no issues there!
But then when the anime starts, you spent some 32 weeks in retelling the same story over and over again. Gosh, that was such a turnoff! It was totally unnecessary and rushed.
And then you escalate things further, by somehow dishing some poorly animated/worked episodes. The movies were atleast better …
Fanservice: Now, we all hear this term a lot. And as an anime watcher, it sometimes seriously puts one off from the presence of fan service in an anime.
But when you hear the word ‘fanservice’, you have the image of something like this in your mind … right? (Desu?)
So, you must be wondering how does Super and and the term fanservice even co-relate. But boy, will you be surprised!
Dragon Ball Super is an example of fan-service at it’s finest …
And why do I say so?
Just look at it for yourself, TOEI knows exactly which age-range forms the chunk for DBS target audience. As an appeal to that group, they just change the colour in their pallet's and introduce various forms and transformation.
Well, you name it … yellow, blue, red, green, pink … they will change the colour pallet and give it, that hardly has any originality or appeal to it …
Besides fanservice, one of the main reasons they do it because it forms the basis of toys, figurines, merchandise they can sell off …
Characters like Ribrianne and all are just montages to different anime shows like Sailor Moon and magical girl, etc …
As much as people claim to hate GT, but they overlook some of the simplest of the facts.
Nothing is flawless, but GT was a lot original but in terms of character designs and storytelling. The idea of negative energy accumulating in the Dragon Balls due to overuse and giving rise to the Ultimate villain out of it was a really appealing idea!
Just look at the character design of SSJ4
People talk about originality, right! Just look at it … it’s the truest depiction of Saiyan heritage to it’s core in terms of a character design!
New Introduced Characters: Of all the plethora of characters introduced in Super throughout, in my opinion, there are only three - Hit, Goku Black & Jiren that has been significant.
Hit: Introduced in the Universal Tournament Arc between 6 and 7, Hit, hands down, is the only character in the entire show that has an original appeal.
The 1000 year old assassin has left quite a mark. Everything about him is a great addition ranging from character traits to his abilities such as Time Skip, time freeze …;
Hit’s a solid plus point in the entirety of Super.
Goku Black: This character was interesting, if I may say so. Also, the fact that Goku Black Arc was in itself was the prime when DBS was it’s peak.
So, naturally a character like Goku Black had to have an appeal. Wasn’t a great fan of merged Zamasu, but Goku Black was fine, really!
His ideals and thought-process was realistic from a God-tier viewpoint and thus it made for a good story.
Jiren: Okay, I will be aptly clear here and be brutally honest! Do you remember playing those games, where you had to beat opponents and go on clearing levels.
And in the final stage, you have a Boss waiting for you. In order to complete the game, you had to beat the boss in the final stage. Well, Jiren was no more than one such final stage boss for you.
Contrary to Hit, Jiren was a one-dimensional plot-point introduced by the writers just for the sake of an obstacle/barrier that Goku and his co has to clear in order to complete the Tournament of Power ….
In other words, Jiren has no character depth. A ripoff of Sasuke or Batman, whichever way to take it … and that too grossly executed.
(P.S - Jiren has surpassed Kirito and Saitama in terms of memes)
And please don’t get me started on Gohan, please …. this thread will be unending in that case. He was and still is one my favourite characters and ……. well, you all saw how we was played out in Super.
Anime over Manga: One of main reasons for Super’s failure stems from the fact that the anime precedes the manga.
Generally, you have the manga written well ahead of manga. What happens due to which is, any inconsistency or plot-holes that rises in the story can then and there be arrested; and thus you can have a filtered version for the anime which is clean.
With Super, though, it’s the opposite. The anime began it’s airing a lot before the manga even started and thus you have the answer. Given the current scenario, the manga is performing better than the anime itself …
The anime could have been better, had they done it that way ….
As of 25th March, 2018, Dragon Ball Super just ended airing with it’s last episode 131. They are most likely going on a hiatus and will likely pick it up somewhere in April, next year.
Now that is it ending? Am I sad? Am I sad?
To be honest, I have mixed feelings about it. As much as I rant about it, but the truth is … over the course of two years, Super kinda grew up on me. At least I had something to look forward to every Sunday … which wouldn’t be the case anymore. Add to that, the childhood nostalgia blast … :)
But, there’s a Super movie coming up this December. And Super’s going nowhere … so
“Farewell Goku! Until the day we meet again”
Thank You!
All (6)FriendsAlso Available atRSS Feeds |
Mar 25, 2018
Dragon Ball Super
(Anime)
add
What happens when you are hailed as one of the Best Bakery in the World; use some of the best ingredients for making a cake …
But instead it ends up blowing up in your own face, because you delivered something like a messy cake; complete opposite of what you expected … That appears messed up, no matter which angle you look at it from. So, you must be wondering what could go wrong for an anime like DBS? It had some of the best staffs, voice actors, storyboard writers, animators of TOEI (a big name in the animation industry) working on it. Not to leave out the fact ... 
Feb 1, 2018
School Days
(Anime)
add
As they say, the most beautiful flower can poison you with the hardest thorn-prick.
Don't be fooled by this seemingly 'innocent' title. 'Coz amidst endless twists, disturbing scenes, betrayals, violence, sex, cheating, the storyline is one which will strongly implant in your head for a long time to come. That being said, the MC might come off as the most the hated character. Well, why not? He had it coming ... Although he got more than what he bargained for... On the brighter end of the spectrum, the characterisation of Kotonoha, in particular, is what caught my attention. That level of dedication & selflessness ... Hats off! Indeed ... |
