Dragon Ball GT
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 Before the dark era of SpongeBob SquarePants, there was this.
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Dragon Ball GT (Japanese: ドラゴンボールジーティー Hepburn: Doragon Bōru Jī Tī) is a Japanese anime series based on Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball manga. Produced by Toei Animation, the series premiered in Japan on Fuji TV on February 7, 1996, spanning 64 episodes until its end on November 19, 1997.
It is a sequel to the previous Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z anime series, and was the only series in the Dragon Ball franchise not based directly on the original manga by Akira Toriyama until the release of Super Dragon Ball Heroes. The show was poorly received by fans of both Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, and is considered to be one of Toei Animation's biggest flops. As a result, it has since been declared non-canon to the entire Dragon Ballfranchise.
Plot
Ten years after leaving his friends and family to hone his skills, Goku has become helpless against the mystical power of the Dragon Balls when a wish accidentally made by his old enemy Emperor Pilaf - that Goku become a child again - comes true. Despite this setback, Goku teams with his granddaughter Pan and Capsule Corp. President Trunks to go into outer space to find the missing Black Star Dragon Balls. Unknown to Goku and his team, the balls have a deadly secret: If they are not collected within a year, the Earth will be destroyed.
Not-So Grand Qualities
- The main problem for this show is that Akira Toriyama didn't really have that much involvement in the show, other than creating the logo for this show, making the character designs and approving some of the shows episode concept, which led to GT lacking what made the original Dragon Ball and Z animes great.
- Goku gets turned back into a child in the first episode and stays that way for the rest of the show, pretty much ruining his character development. This was a cheap attempt at bringing back the old charm of the original anime and manga and to pander towards a younger audience.
- Speaking of which, the only time we see Goku as an adult is when he transforms into a Super Saiyan 4 and at the tail end of the series. His Super Saiyan 4 state also only makes him an adult temporarily until he shrinks back down into his child state.
- The Black Star Dragon Balls serve as nothing more but contrived plot devices to shove in the nostalgia of the original anime and manga. In an attempt to create stakes, these artifacts are designed to destroy the Earth if not collected within a year's time, not to mention the usage of these balls causes them to scatter across the universe instead of well-hidden locations on the planet just because they have unlimited power. This logic not only makes no sense even by science-fiction standards, but is also very stupid. Who would create such artifacts whose downside is blowing up their homeworld?
- Since Piccolo is somehow connected to the Black Star Dragon Balls, he is killed off to ensure their permanent destruction, which feels like the writers only did this to kill off a character they no longer deemed useful.
- The characterization is rather lackluster compared to the other Dragon Ball series.
- The Pilaf Gang only appear as plot devices to run the entire series. Pilaf of all people is responsible for making Goku turn into a child again, which is an embarrassing reason why he and his companions went looking for the Black Star Dragon Balls in the first place. After that, Pilaf and his minions are all but forgotten about, despite being responsible for the whole series.
- Pan is a really, really annoying character, especially for a new character in the franchise. While she was introduced at the end of the manga and Dragon Ball Z, she was changed here from a sweet, adorable kid to a whiny, insufferable idiot/brat who constantly abuses her "best friend" Giru, mouths off at Goku and Trunks, and thinks she's better than everyone else.
- In the final arc, she was eventually reduced into a "dumbass in distress" who always needs to be rescued by Goku.
- She never gets punished for her actions, making her a Karma Houdini.
- This proves that Gohan and Videl are bad parents.
- Most of Dragon Ball Z's heroes, such as Vegeta, Gohan, Good Buu, Bulma, Videl, Krillin, Goten and Piccolo get sidelined in GT in favor of Goku and Pan. It's no surprise that the show ended up getting the nickname of "Dragon Ball: Goku Time".
- Bonus points for Piccolo being absent for most of the series, only to get killed off in an incredibly stupid way at the end of the Baby Saga. Then, he is shelved in a permanent but unceremonious fate by having become Hell's unofficial guardian, even then, since practically nothing new happens to him, it'd be a moot point for him to handle the likes of let's say a dead Baby or even Cell, which is another stupid way for the writers to dispose of him.
- This was also a problem that began in the Majin Buu saga.
- Gogeta is portrayed as an idiotic goofball and not as the pragmatic badass he was in Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn and Dragon Ball Super: Broly.
- In fact, he acts more like Vegito and Gotenks when you think about it, making the same mistake of planning a goal before finishing the enemy quickly.
- As said above, the appearance of Gogeta attempts to connect the DBZ series to the movies, only to end up even more confusing.
- Vegeta is reduced to a "Megward the Wizard"-type character who gets routinely humiliated by the villains, which was a problem that started in the Cell Saga.
- Most of the villains (minus the Para Para brothers) fall into the "For the Evulz" trope.
- The worst example of this trope is Super Android 17, whose only purpose is to make Android 17 completely irredeemable by having him murder Krillin in cold blood.
- Uub, supposedly the most powerful being and the next defender of Earth due to being Kid Buu reborn as a human, was wasted as both a character and a warrior, being completely ignored after fusing with his good counterpart in favour of his teacher Goku.
- On top of that, Chi-Chi is still unlikable, being the same overprotective and nagging house wife.
- Goten was heavily flanderized as he went from being an innocent, intelligent, hyperactive and mischievous child; to a womanizer addicted to dating who thinks about it more than his relatives (although, it improves a little after Baby Saga)
- While nowhere near as annoying as Pan and is still likable, Goku himself has reverted back to his childish personality minus his ruthlessness, which is a step backwards to his character development like mentioned above. His hunger issues also somehow worsened and has a fear of needles, which is only filler not from the manga. The Funimation dub (and to some extent the original version) also portrays him once more as a discount Superman instead of a battle-hungry country hick. In addition, he seldom shows his usual ecstacy of fighting strong opponents, a far cry from his usual character. We don't even see him train apart from the first episode.
- General Rilldo was completely wasted; despite being said to be stronger than Buu, he was immediately killed off two episodes later.
- Frieza and Cell were treated like jokes and last season villains with hardly anything new around them. To add insult to injury, they get the slapstick-themed end of the twig when they end up being taken away by Hell's inhabitants, still frozen in ice.
- In one instance of the show, Super Saiyan 4 Goku swallowed the Four-Star Dragon Ball to prevent Omega Shenron from taking it. While he did mean well, it was an incredibly dumb idea that could've resulted in him being killed.
- The Funimation soundtrack from Mark Menza (no disrespect to him) is nothing but generic American rock music, much like the Ocean/Saban dub of Dragon Ball Z
- The Black Star Dragon Balls Saga and the Super Android 17 Saga are often considered by fans to be some of the worst story arcs in Dragon Ball history.
- When Dragon Ball GT first aired in North America on Toonami, the entirety of the Black Star Dragon Balls Saga was skipped over in favor of starting in the Baby Saga because it was more action-oriented like Dragon Ball Z and in its place was a Funimation-exclusive recap episode to show Goku turning into a child and having Goku, Trunks, and Pan being involved with the Machine Mutants. Some of the missing episodes were later released as "lost episodes".
- Super Baby Vegeta, Super Android 17 and Omega Shenron all have evil counterparts of the Spirit Bomb as their ultimate attacks, which shows pure laziness from Toei.
- The show's lore placement is inconsistent; it makes references to filler episodes from Dragon Ball Z and the movies, such as the Tuffles, their war with the Saiyans and Gogeta's appearance (the one from the non-canon movie Fusion Reborn). Despite these films being considered side stories, GT tries to connect them with the Dragon Ball Z main continuity to tiresomely confusing results. The Dragon Ball Z Kai edit omits most of the filler, so people who either watch that version or don't like watching filler will be confused when watching this show.
- Many characters from these films also make cameos, and moves like the Dragon Fist are utilized despite being never used nor heard of in the main show itself.
- Even more so, the later series Dragon Ball Super makes no references to these films and filler episodes as it continues where the manga left off. Anyone who is new to that show will be confused.
- Poor character designs from series creator Akira Toriyama that are a huge step back from Z, with Vegeta and Cell being especially bad. It is pretty sad since Akira Toriyama is known for making very good character designs.
- No-one bothers to use the Earth Dragon Balls, or even the Namekian Dragon Balls for that matter, to turn Goku back into an adult, which REALLY could've been useful. In later Dragon Ball media, the Pilaf gang are turned into children by the Earth Dragon Balls, which makes this show's logic more incoherent.
- In fact, during the first episode, Goku actually says that he likes being a kid again and doesn't want the Dragon Balls being used to make him an adult again.
- Related to the above, nobody even uses Senzu beans during their fights on Earth, which is important to crucial events like using Fusion or an instant full-power boost. Thus, Korin and Yajirobe are completely absent throughout the run except for two cameos.
- The Blue Water dub, despite retaining the original Japanese soundtrack, is even worse than the Funimation dub.
- The original Funimation intro attempted to be "hip" and "modern" by using a rap verse, which strayed from the type of genre Dragon Ball was supposed to be. It even tries to sound "epic" by using metal guitar riffs.
- While it is a badass-looking transformation, some of the physics behind Super Saiyan 4 make no sense, for example, how did Goku somehow grow his pants, or regenerate his clothes after the form wears off?
- How Goku got this transformation is nothing short of a deus ex machina; he looks at the floating planet Earth, then he can suddenly go Great Ape because the planet can somehow reflect Blutz Waves despite that this wasn't even brought up before, making it an asspull.
- It also goes against Akira Toriyama's general rule of "keeping it simple"; the addition of pants, eye shadow, the wild hair and coloured irises make this form a little difficult to draw.
- The show's villains are mediocre at best, and serve mainly as big strong monsters of the week for Goku to deal with while all the other supporting characters were demoted to extras. In other words, "Diablo ex Machinae."
- Baby himself has a couple flaws. For starters, he somehow wakes up after Dr. Myu uttered "Saiyan", then there's him utilizing an evil version of the Spirit Bomb.
- Despite being considered to be stronger than Buu, General Rilldo is killed off just after being possessed by Baby.
- Dr. Myu is an obvious, blatant clone of Dr. Gero with basically no unique personality except the generic mad scientist with an evil monster creation. To add insult to injury, he teams up with Gero himself, then gets killed by non other than Android 17.
- Super 17 was only conceived as a way for the Android to be painted as the bad guy. He can also somehow make portals to other worlds, before this ability is no more mentioned.
- The Shadow Dragons apart from Syn and Nouva are all shallow one-off villains who get killed off in the end out of plot contrivance, that is to obtain the Dragon Balls they hold.
- Syn Shenron himself is just another "For the Evulz" type of villain Goku must stop.
- The show's presentation is even worse than Dragon Ball Z's. The color palette takes on an even darker and washed-up hue, to the point where even daytime scenes look unnaturally dimmer than they should be.
- Plot holes littered around the series, some of which contradict established lore from the original story;
- After Planet Vegeta's restoration and all the Earthlings get transported in light of the Earth blowing up, Mr. Satan can somehow walk on its surface just fine, despite the fact that this world is ten times normal gravity which is impossible for even Mr. Satan to withstand, let alone Goku before King Kai's training.
- Trunks can somehow sense Android 17's energy for some reason, despite the fact that the Red Ribbon Androids are undetectable due to their artificial nature.
- Krillin stating that the reason 17 hates Gero is due to being imparted with "human emotions", which directly contradicts the fact that both he and 18 were once human, and that the real reason he hates the doctor is due to his transformation into a cyborg.
- Unless the rule was lifted, Uub dressed as "Papayaman" is not disqualified despite wearing headgear in his costume.
- The villains that escaped hell somehow no longer sport halos, and just like the Dragon Ball Z fillers, still retain their bodies despite their villainy.
- Frieza and Cell having survived after being shattered in a block of ice, which contradicts Goku's statement in the original story that once a dead body has been killed twice, he does not come back.
- Krillin getting revived for the second time using Earth's Dragon Balls, despite the fact that a person can only be revived once with the Balls, so using the Namekian Balls would've made more sense.
- Its depiction of Hell is once again changed. In the previous anime's filler, Hell is depicted as a backwater landscape with an orange sky. Here, it's a generic spooky, empty dark realm with nothing but dark haze.
- The second and third arcs are partial rehashes of earlier Dragon Ball stories.
- The Baby saga in particular is the big offender, as it recycles the premise of a robotic Tuffle creation (Hatchiyack and Baby), planning to wipe out the remaining Saiyans.
- The show shares the same artstyle inconsistencies as Dragon Ball Z, in which the characters may look ugly or perfectly detailed depending on the animator in charge.
- While still awesome and gritty, the fight scenes felt a bit less entertaining compared to the previous anime, as the characters, such as Goku, have a tendency of using their special techniques in battle over and over.
- The premieres of Battle of Gods and Resurrection 'F', and later Dragon Ball Super, hurt this show's lore even further. For starters, these films and the new show contained changes in the main continuity of the franchise that are not acknowledged in this show.
- King Kai now has his planet back while remaining dead, whereas in this show, he still lives with Grand Kai on his world.
- Kibito Kai was split back into Supreme Kai and Kibito using the Namekian Dragon Balls. Here, they remain fused.
- This show does not acknowledge the expanded universe of the franchise (such as a multiverse of eleven universes, Gods of Destruction and their angels, Lord Zeno, etc.) at all.
- The Super Dragon Balls are introduced as the strongest type of Dragon Ball, which is not acknowledged here.
- The Pilaf Gang are children in those films and Dragon Ball Super, whereas here, they are very old. Based on calculations, if the de-aged Pilaf Gang grew up by the events of this show, they would be much younger than they are now.
- Also, Trunks and Mai are currently in a relationship, which is not acknowledged in GT.
- The introduction of the Super Saiyan God forms and Ultra Instinct as the strongest transformations made Super Saiyan 4's existence seem insignificant, as this show supposedly takes place after the end of the Z series.
- In addition, the appearances of Zeno, Beerus and other beings as well as the Super Dragon Balls make the villains, and other elements of this show seem less impactful and/or insignificant if it is placed on its continuity.
- Frieza was restored to life after Team Universe 7 won in the Tournament of Power, restoring his empire afterwards. Here, he remains dead.
- Unlike the other Dragon Ball shows, most of the jokes in here fall flat and can be unfunny like:
- The aforementioned scene where Super Saiyan 4 Goku swallows the Four-Star Dragon Ball in order to stop Omega Shenron from getting it.
- "I SHAVED MY MOUSTACHE, YOU IDIOT!"
- The inappropriate running gags of Goku stripping himself in some ways.
- Most of the Funimation jokes doesn't really work at all, since it also falls flat and also unfunny.
- Though the Funimation dub is still decent, for some reason, the voice actors that reprised their roles sound more phoned-in than usual, especially Stephanie Nadolny, Sean Schemmel, and Chris Sabat. Even Sean Schemmel as Super Saiyan 4 Goku sounds kinda tired and slow.
- Even the original Japanese voice acting sounds very phoned-in and bored as well as if they just wanted to leave production already.
- As emotional as the ending is, it also is stupid, contrived and ridiculous, as Goku, at Shenron's behest for some ambigous reason, has to leave his friends and family again just to disappear in the sky after the Dragon Balls somehow magically enter his body, only to reappear 100 years later as an adult after all of his beloved ones except Pan are dead.
- As a result of the show's failure, it nearly killed the Dragon Ball franchise, which didn't produce another anime series until Dragon Ball Z Kai aired.
- It also considered to be 100% filler to the Dragon Ball franchise, as events from it were not mentioned ever again, making it completely non-canon.
- The tie in game on the PS1, Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout was terrible and even worse than the series itself.
Grand Qualities
- Awesome soundtrack in the original Japanese version, especially the opening theme "Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku" (DAN DAN 心魅かれてく) by Japanese rock band Field of View. The English version of the theme by former voice actor Vic Mignogna is also awesome.
- The Super Saiyan 4 transformation is still well-regarded, even by the show's detractors, and the design looks pretty good.
- On top of that, some of the designs are passable enough like Pan, Trunks, and even Goku.
- The final episode ("Until We Meet Again") is very emotional and serves as a fitting conclusion to both the show and (at the time) the entire Dragon Ball franchise.
- The Latin-American theme song "Mi Corazón Encantado" (My Enchanted Heart) is amazing and very nostalgic for latino fans.
- Some of the villains still manage to be awesome, such as General Rilldo, Baby and Nuova, Eis and Syn/Omega Shenron.
- Despite the mediocre voice acting, the Blue Water dub was at least more faithful to the Japanese version, because it kept the original score and was produced almost uncut.
- Continuity was actually much more consistent in this series than the previous two.
- Even some of the show's detractors admit that GT has great concepts (e.g., Baby and the Shadow Dragons), but they were poorly executed.
- Passable animation and art style, just like any other Dragon Ball shows.
- There are some likable characters such as Trunks, Vegeta, Uub (despite their bad character designs and them being sidelined) and, as mentioned before despite minor character derailment, Goku.
- The generic Funimation soundtrack can be catchy at times.
- Many fans consider that the Baby Saga is THE BEST OF ALL GT
- Some fans of the Dragon Ball franchise may enjoy it.
- The tie in game on the Game Boy Advance, Dragon Ball GT: Transformation is pretty decent and a massive improvement over Final Bout
Reception
The show received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics, audiences and Dragon Ball fans alike. It is considered by many to be the worst installment in the Dragon Ball anime series. However, there are still some fans who like it, though not all of them.
Trivia
- After the show ended, it technically and inadvertently spawn an urban legend within the Dragon Ball GT subtype of the Dragon Ballfandom, with a rumored sequel to GT (not confused to Dragon Ball Super, the real sequel to the Dragon Ball franchise, but not for Dragon Ball GT chronology as stated above), named Dragon Ball AF (either "After Future" or "April Fools" in some versions), where it supposedly was (or somehow still, as some still believe it's gonna happen, despite previously stated it, it didn't happen) in the works, due of alleged concept art of Goku, powering up to "Super Saiyan 5", when it was a fanart. Which since, itself spawn several fan-made or unofficial sequels of this mythical sequel, over the years.
External links
- DBGT: A Grand Tour of Disappointment on DeviantArt.
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