If Akira Toriyama created Dragonball GT…
Anyone who watches anime knows the most famous work of Akira Toriyama – Dragonball franchise – spanning 11 years in the making to 519 chapters collecting into 42 volumes, dozens of movies, video games and a devoted fanbase that still exists even after the ending of the manga.
Dragonball and Dragonball Z have been the most popular of all of Toriyama’s works. In response to the popularity of the DBZ universe, Toei Animation created Dragonball GT; based on the characters Toriyama created – he was involved with the character designs for the series, but not the storyline.
Growing up watching Dragonball and DBZ this seems rather disappointing since the series was the vision of Toei Animation and not Toriyama himself. But as a fan, decided to watch in hopes that it followed in GT’s predecessors’. Sadly; it did not live up to the expectations as the previous series. Toei Animation took plot from Dragonball and DBZ and incorporated it into this series; which seemed unnecessary. GT should have been a “Grand Tour” but really only a look back into the past as old villains who were defeated where brought back into play. It makes fans wonder “what if Toriyama created GT?”.
In my opinion; Toriyama would have been successful in GT. Instead of bringing back old rivals he would have created new villains that would top Cell or Majin Boo. Also it feels the concept of the Black Star Dragonballs was too weak; Toriyama might have had just the regular Dragonballs turn into the black Star balls, which would develop the concept of the Dragonballs, since we always knew them as just them being scattered across the world to collect and grant a wish when all collected. This would have a hidden trait of the balls yet unknown to the viewers.
Most importantly the companions Goku was travelling with would have been carefully thought out and put together. I feel that having Pan and Trunks along for the adventure is just a ridiculous mess of a Toei Animation not knowing if Goku should have been travelling alone or not. It would also seem unlikely that Gohan and Videl would have let Pan travel to unknown worlds. Vegeta might have been a good choice; I doubt he would just sit by as Goku travelled around the galaxy fighting and becoming stronger them him. Another possible choice could be Piccolo; who would not want to see the trio of rivals coming together travelling for the sake of the world?! – Then again this is just one fan’s point of view.
Had Toriyama been involved in the concept and production of GT there is not doubt that fans would have seen this as a successful story to the Dragonball timeline. With his years of experience, Toriyama is able to know when to further develop the story and when it should end. Fortunately with all the success of Dragonball and Dragonball Z he was able to the manga on his own terms; which is not often seen with highly praised works. For over 4 and a half decades Toriyama has proven to be one of the great mangaka’s of all time, by expanding out of manga by helping with character designs to videogames, continuing manga beyond Dragonball and following the dream that many upcoming and amateur mangaka’s hope to achieve.
