Ask John: Will Dragon Ball Kai Continue?

Question:

I was wondering if Toei would ever renew their interest in adapting the the Majin Buu Saga of Dragon Ball Z into Dragon Ball Kai. The director’s cut version of Dragon Ball Z ended with the Cell Games Saga in March 2011, and now has been replaced by Toei’s adaptation of Toriko. It feels like the series is unfinished with Buu portion of the series left out and even the Japanese voice actors have even stated their hope that Toei will adapt this part of the story, but in your opinion will Toei ever do it or will it remain an exclusive to the original Dragon Ball Z.

Answer:
I’m of the “Han shot first” school of thought, so I’ve long believed that Dragon Ball Kai was entirely unnecessary and entirely a publicity stunt and marketing effort by Toei, which has long used its Dragon Ball franchise as a cash cow. Keep in mind that Toei continued the Dragon Ball anime franchise with 1996’s Dragon Ball GT series after Akira Toriyama divested himself of creative input in the anime franchise, created short Dragon Ball Z (with One Piece & Kochikame) movies screened exclusively at the Fuji TV headquarters building in Odaiba, Tokyo, in 2003 and 2004, and again resurrected the Dragon Ball franchise in 2008 for the “Ossu! Kaette Kita Son Goku to Nakama-tachi!!” short movie. Toei had 13 years between the end of Dragon Ball Z and the premiere of Dragon Ball Kai to announce a revision of the Dragon Ball Z series but never did so until Hollywood showed interest in producing a Dragon Ball movie. I firmly believe that Toei put Dragon Ball Kai into production in 2009 solely to capitalize on the anticipation building around the American Dragonball: Evolution motion picture. I think that Dragon Ball Kai commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Dragon Ball franchise was due to coincidence rather than planning. Furthermore, while viewers may claim to appreciate the quickened pacing of Dragon Ball Kai, the revised series also introduced censoring, editing shots of graphic violence that appeared in the original 1989 incarnation. So while viewers got updated credit sequence animation, new incidental animation, and a brisker pace, they also got cropped and censored footage.

According to widely circulated wisdom, which may or may not be true, Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama originally planned to conclude his Dragon Ball manga with the “Cell saga” before his Shonen Jump editors convinced him to prolong the series. The emerging prominence of Son Gohan and the death of Son Goku may be seen as bearing out this theory. If Dragon Ball Kai is legitimately a version of Dragon Ball faithful to Akira Toriyama’s original vision of the story, ending the anime series at episode 97 and the end of the Cell saga may be more appropriate than continuing into the Great Saiyaman and Majin Buu story arcs.

With rare exceptions like Gintama, popular shonen anime television series don’t take long breaks between installments. Observation of general trends applicable to shonen anime TV series suggests that if Toei had serious plans to apply the “Kai” revision treatment to the Great Saiyaman & Majin Buu story arcs the Dragon Ball Kai series would not have ended at episode 97 broadcast on March 27, 2011. Toei Animation certainly could resurrect the “Kai” franchise in future months. However, considering that episode 97 ended at a natural stopping point, launching a new season of Dragon Ball Kai that begins with the beginning of the Great Saiyaman saga may seem rather arbitrary. My personal suspicion is that Toei launched Dragon Ball Kai in response to Hollywood’s Dragonball: Evolution, and Toei continued the “Kai” series well past the short-lived Dragonball Evolution bandwagon for as long as the “Kai” series was deemed viable and worthwhile. I don’t think that Toei will perform the “Kai” treatment on the remaining 96 episodes of the original Dragon Ball Z television series. However, the very fact that Toei does periodically revive the Dragon Ball anime franchise leaves the possibility open for the future.