#141 ·
Brandon Kim96 said:My apologies if this topic has already been brought up—I certainly wouldn't want to clutter the boards by repeating something that’s already being discussed!
I honestly don't even know where to begin with this one. Let me try to frame it like this: I am a massive dragon ball fan—it was actually the very first anime I ever watched—and I've always felt it had such a compelling story and a huge cast of genuinely great characters. So, seeing someone just talking absolute major league bullshit about such an absolute classic... it really rubs me the wrong way.
First things first—if you haven't had a chance to check it out yet, you really ought to go watch the trailer:
I’ve been spending quite a bit of my downtime revisiting some of the older discussions around the series—specifically looking back at how certain adaptations handled the core essence of the source material—and I stumbled upon this video again. It really brings back a flood of specific memories regarding the massive gap between what we expected from the legendary work of Akira Toriyama and what actually made it to the big screen. When you look at the sheer scale of the original vision—that sense of cosmic stakes and the internal growth of characters like Goku—it becomes painfully obvious why certain cinematic attempts felt so hollow. It wasn't just a matter of poor special effects or questionable casting; it was a fundamental misunderstanding of the soul of the story. You can't just take a masterpiece and strip away its heart, expecting the audience to stay engaged. It felt less like an adaptation and more like a complete departure from everything that made the fans fall in love with the journey in the first place. It’s one of those things where, even years later, you find yourself reflecting on the missed opportunities. There was such potential there, yet it somehow managed to miss the mark entirely. It’s a fascinating, if somewhat frustrating, case study in how *not* to approach a beloved franchise.
I don't know about all of you, but if you ask me—personally—I’m convinced this movie is going to be nothing more than some major league bullshit.
Here are just a few reasons why Dragon Ball could never be adapted into a live-action movie and still actually feel like Dragon Ball:
1.)Akira Toriyama And then there’s his art style—truly a subject all its own.
I’ve come across this specific debate all over the internet more times than I can count—it seems like everyone has an opinion on whether it was a mistake to cast a white actor as Goku instead of someone of Asian descent. Personally, I just can't bring myself to agree with that line of thinking. When you look at the source material, Akira Toriyama didn't exactly design him to fit into any specific human racial category—after all, Goku isn't even human, he's a Saiyan! At the end of the day, Akirin's unique art style doesn't really lean into specific earthly ethnicities, so trying to apply those real-world labels to his character feels a bit misplaced to me.
Another thing worth noting when we discuss Akirin's unique artistic style is Goku's hair—it’s just such a defining characteristic of his entire look. Honestly, trying to replicate those gravity-defying styles in a live-action film is a massive uphill battle; you simply can't capture that specific aesthetic on screen without it looking ridiculous, and since those hairstyles are essentially the soul of his character design, it's a huge hurdle to clear.
2.)Goku.
It’s honestly such a shame that they cast someone so completely wrong for the lead—someone who should have been cool and brought that specific sense of humor to the role, yet ended up being totally out of place. To make matters worse, the movie actually has Goku attending high school... High school! Seriously?! How on earth could Goku ever function in a classroom setting? The guy is essentially a lovable dummy—and frankly, that simple-mindedness is exactly what makes him so iconic and complete as a character. In the film, he’s already quite grown up while training under Master Roshi, but anyone who has actually watched the anime or read the manga knows he was just a little kid during those sessions. Out of pure respect for Dragon Ball, that certain flamboyant actor from this movie just doesn't feel like Goku to me at all.
3.)Bulma.
There are some guns in the movie—honestly, I don't even think I need to elaborate further on that point... (and before anyone asks, no, the hair color has absolutely nothing to do with it either).
4.)Dragon Ball..
If I caught everything correctly from that trailer—and I usually do—it seems like those Dragon Balls were actually forged by about seven sages or some kind of ancient council to act as a defense mechanism for the country against an invasion??? 😕 This was never actually mentioned—not in the manga and certainly not in the anime—but the truth is that Kami is the one who created the Dragon Balls.
5.)So, I have to ask—has anyone actually seen Krillin lately?
It’s honestly such a shame—where on earth is Krillin? You have this guy who has been fighting right alongside Goku through the entirety of both Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, yet he’s nowhere to be found in this movie. It’s a massive oversight. On top of that, they left out Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu too... just completely missing those core characters. And then there's the decision to include Master Roshi—who, if I'm being perfectly honest, bears absolutely no resemblance to how he actually looks in the series.
So, I’m curious—what are your actual thoughts on this movie? What are you looking forward to, or more likely, what are you dreading? To be perfectly honest, back at the start, I was actually holding out hope that they would just never make it—that it would remain unfilmed forever. But unfortunately, it looks like that day is coming, and we'll all have to face the reality of seeing that absolute disgrace of a film playing in theaters across America.😢
Look, if you really want to wrap your head around the details of what I just mentioned, you should probably just listen to this information and go to Wikipedia, or honestly, just hop online and search for the "Dragon Ball Evolution FAQ" to get the full story.
Regarding Bulma, I’ve always felt that giving her green hair just wouldn't have made any sense from a realism standpoint. As for the argument that the movie isn't faithful to the original source material, well, that's a whole different conversation; if they had stuck strictly to the script, it probably wouldn't have been nearly as engaging, especially since fans like us know every single tiny detail of the anime by heart. It's the same logic applied to Goku's hair color—it simply wouldn't look realistic otherwise. And I really need to set the record straight for those people claiming Goku wiped out Buu right here on American soil. Honestly, that's just not true at all. Buu and Goku—along with Majin Fat Buu, Vegeta, and Mr. Satan—were actually fighting on the Supreme Kai planet. Goku had completely run out of steam, so they ended up asking the people back in the States to lend him some energy for the Spirit Bomb. After that, Dende called upon the Eternal Dragon to restore Goku's strength, which allowed him to transform into SSJ 1 (not SSJ 4, for heaven's sake!) and that's really the end of the story.
To be honest, I’ve basically been raised by Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z since I was about three years old, catching every episode on Cartoon Network or local cable channels back in the day, and now I find myself right back in that same loop, sitting at my PC rewatching the Remastered DBZ seasons 🙂
