Mumbling Kitsune: Toriyama's (Brief) Return to Dragon Ball Z

Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball series has been a staple in manga and anime since the '80s. Most North Americans didn't gain familiarity with Goku and his buddies until the '90s, but he made a huge impact, so to speak, through the English dubs of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. In fact, Goku is a rare instance of an anime character who transcends generations: twenty-and-thirty somethings who grew up with the spiky-haired hero are now producing children who are latching onto anime and manga's best-known shonen adventures. Goku's longevity stands to extend further now that Toriyama has decided to re-visit the Saiyan race with a short 35-minute film. This is exciting news, though some skeptical anime fans are a little nervous about what the finished product will be like.

 

It's been a bit of time since Toriyama left behind the cast of Dragon Ball Z. He had some input on Dragon Ball GT, though he wasn't always at the forefront of that anime. His special glittery touch was noticeably absent in GT; the series had its moments, but played out like a weaker Dragon Ball Z story arc.

 

Granted, even Dragon Ball Z was dragging its tail by the time it flopped over the finish line. The anime in particular felt bogged down by the Majin Buu story arc, full of listless tournaments and training sequences (sometimes ten-minute training montages are welcome) before going up against an enemy who amounted to a glob of pink spat-out bubble gum.

 

 

Memories of GT and the end of Dragon Ball Z have some fans worried that this new work from Toriyama—which features Vegeta's younger brother—may likewise lack energy. Not much is known about the plot yet, though the fact that it stars Vegeta's brother is suspect. Just how many Saiyans survived their home planet getting blown up?

 

(Though to be fair, it's logical that Vegeta's bro might have been sent to another planet, much like Goku. Given the habits of royalty, it's not unlikely that this mystery Saiyan was of illegitimate birth and therefore sent away like a commoner.)

 

Pop culture site Topless Robot has a valid concern: “Despite being written by Toriyama, this sounds exactly like the plot of one of the many terrible DBZ movies.” Yes and no. Again, we don't know much about the plot...and honestly, some of the Dragon Ball Z movies, though a bit empty plot-wise, were still kind of cool to sit through with popcorn.

 

 

Skepticism aside, there are a few very strong reasons to get excited about this little piece of work:

 

1) It's being written by Toriyama after a long break from the Dragon Ball franchise. He wanted to end Dragon Ball Z after the Freiza Saga...then after the Cell Saga...etc, etc, but his editors requested that he keep going. It's probably not a coincidence that the series peaked with the Cell Saga. If he's going back to Dragon Ball Z on his own terms, we could be in for some good times.

 

2) Reportedly, the film will be 35 minutes long. This means there's almost no chance of precious time being wasted on hour-long power-up scenes. Anyone familiar with the Dragon Ball Z manga knows that Toriyama is very capable of packing a lot of story into a few pages, but since North America is more familiar with the anime and its hours and hours of filler, they could be forgiven for being scared of manly screaming contests and bulging muscles.

 

3) Maybe, hope beyond hope, this signals the start of a new Dragon Ball Z story arc. More likely it's a one-shot project, but it would be nice to see what Toriyama could do with his franchise after a long rest.

 

4) Whatever happens, it can't possibly be worse than the upcoming live-action movie.

 

As it stands, there's no word of this short film coming to America. It'll be shown at the Jump Super Anime Tour. With the worldwide popularity of Dragon Ball, however, it's hard to believe that it won't be picked up and dubbed somewhere, somehow. Let's hope so, because when Toriyama has fun, we have fun.