CrunchyrollDragon Ball can’t end… can it? Creators are panicking over the potential end of the franchise, with its editor admitting what we already knew about the controversial Dragon Ball GT.
Hardened anime fans will know GT isn’t exactly the most beloved part of the franchise. The late Akira Toriyama wanted to end Dragon Ball with Gohan defeating Perfect Cell, but that’s not what happened.
GT aired between 1996-1997, and the TV show leaned more towards kiddy-style humor than the more serious style of Dragon Ball Z. Even almost 30 years later, fans are still unsure if it’s even worth watching – and in a way, its creators feel the same.
Thanks to Japanese podcast Torishima interviewing three former editors of the Dragon Ball manga, we’ve finally got the truth about why GT even happened in the first place… and it’s the answer we knew was true all along.
Dragon Ball GT definitely wasn’t a passion project
Instead of Dragon Ball GT being something Toriyama wanted to do, it happened because of pressure that came from its broadcasting channel. Why would it want its hit show to end when it could just carry on, regardless of what the creators actually want for their work?
CrunchyrollAs listeners were told in the podcast episode, Kenji Shimizu, the current president of Fuji Television, oversaw numerous shows including Dragon Ball Z. He was heard saying “Dragon Ball can’t end. It just can’t” at an awards party around the same time Z was thought to end.
There have never been specific end dates given to Dragon Ball projects thanks to uncertain bigwigs who don’t want to let go… and that gave us GT.
The concept itself was simple enough. GT stands for “Gran Turismo,” but this was quickly mocked. Why? It was a commercial and critical failure, being dubbed “Goku Time” for focusing too much on Goku and not enough on its wealth of other characters. Even worse, Japan used “Gomen, Toriyama-sensei” to apologize to Toriyama over just how bad it seemed to be.
Really, this follows on from what we’ve known about Toriyama all along – he never wanted to draw manga, but needed the money. Dragon Ball was nearly never made because he missed a Weekly Shonen Magazine deadline, but thanks to a later callout, our favorite anime came to be. All of this was doubled down on in a speech he made just a few years before he died.
ToeiFans aren’t quite as harsh on GT now as they were then, but that doesn’t mean the series is now beloved. Even Akio Iyoku, an executive producer of the Dragon Ball franchise, revealed GT actually served as inspiration for the franchise’s latest iteration, DAIMA.
The idea was for DAIMA to target now grown-up fans of GT… and evidently, there are enough. Thankfully, Dragon Ball shows, including GT and DAIMA, are all available to stream on Crunchyroll.
If you love Goku and the Z-Fighter’s adventures, check out our ranking of the best Dragon Ball villains and the best Dragon Ball Sagas.
