There Should Be a Dragon Ball Super Movie Series
The most recent Dragon Ball films have done well for Toei Animation and Funimation Crunchyroll, shown by their critical and fan receptions and box office numbers. Dragon Ball Super: Broly was a visual splendor upon its release in 2018 (in Japan) and 2019 (outside the country), the box office result for which surprised a bunch of analysts. It was only slightly less of a surprise when the recent release of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero garnered an even better initial reception in the worldwide box office and specifically the United States. Even if the result was front-loaded, the opening numbers were good enough to make it one of the highest-grossing anime films released in the country.
One takeaway from this is that anime movies do numbers, something that analysts who tend to favor Hollywood’s tentpole films should have noticed by now, but are unlikely to thanks to this being a perpetual blind spot. Super Hero did these numbers despite Crunchyroll’s lackluster ad campaign. It was nice of them to spend more on increasing the availability in multiple theaters, the power of having access to Sony Pictures’ arms. But they apparently left them will little money to spend on advertising outside online spaces already frequented by fans. But the power of Dragon Ball combined with the current dreary theatrical movie output made that less of an issue.
This is why Toei and Crunchyroll should keep this good thing rolling at a steady pace. It’s time for them to make a plan to release multiple Dragon Ball movies in theaters, perhaps on a biannual basis.
First, though, they should come with good concepts, story ideas guaranteed to ritualistically bring a bunch of Dragon Ball fans back to theaters. I’m not, to be more specific, saying they need to adapt the current manga arcs in movie form, some of which have come with divisive story twists. Manga artist and story writer Toyotaro is a man of several talents, mimicking original creator Akira Toriyama’s style being at the top. But he sure hasn’t been on par with Toriyama regarding coming up with solid ideas. The newer ones he’s come up with are, to put it succinctly, Dragon Ball AF.
There is a reason why the newer anime movies have danced around the manga arcs that take place before and after the Tournament of Power saga. Toriyama is fortunately the one still coming up with ideas for the anime content, including the movies, and he might have a few more that would make for an enjoyable time to watch. The new ideas those he should focus on for the movies, while adaptations of the Galactic Patrol Prisoner and Granola the Survivor sagas can wait for when the TV series returns. That is, assuming they won’t exclusively stick to theatrical releases in the near future there.
The animators should use the style that’s easiest for them for future films. Broly’s hand-drawn content was some of the best seen in Dragon Ball, with a little CG mixed in. Super Hero, however, relies almost entirely on 3DCG work. Granted, the trailers (I have not seen the movie yet, if that wasn’t already clear) imply that it’s some of the best 3DCG anime work around, impressions matched by those who’ve seen it, though some understandably prefer 2D animation.
Hopefully Toei is in the middle of drafting a solid plan to release Dragon Ball movies on a regular basis, as they have to be impressed by Super Hero’s numbers. If, or when, they do, it’s not too big of an ask to say they should provide better advertising campaigns for future films, and release them simultaneously worldwide. The wait for Super Hero wasn’t long, a movie in which the Japanese release was previously delayed due to Toei being hacked. But the releases should be closer for a brand that’s popular around the world.
Regardless of what happens: It’s clear that Dragon Ball will never die. And that’s more than fine for some of us.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
