"Always recommend the manga" - Dragon Ball fans' discussion on original series proves why it needs a remake in Toriyama's honor

By Kevin Tanza

Modified Jul 29, 2024 21:30 GMT

Dragon Ball fans discuss the issues of the original anime (Image via Toei Animation).

Dragon Ball is an all-time classic in anime and arguably the most prominent franchise in the medium, but younger fans have pointed out the issues with the original adaptation by Toei Animation. That is because those were the days when anime was made weekly all year round and not in seasons, so the pacing was often quite slow.

This is an issue that the Dragon Ball anime suffered from, with moments such as Frieza's "Five Minutes at Namek" turning into a running meme in the anime community because of how long those five minutes were. It isn't a problem of the franchise or even anime as a whole, but rather the approach of the industry at the time, and a remake might be good for the series moving forward.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the series. Any opinion expressed here belongs to the author and the people quoted and not Sportskeeda as a whole.

Dragon Ball fans point out the pacing issues of the original anime

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While the original anime adaptation of author Akira Toriyama's manga was instrumental in popularizing the medium all over the world and has some stellar animation moments throughout, there is no denying that pacing is a glaring issue. That is a natural result of anime being weekly back in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, which is a different approach to the seasonal ones that younger generations are used to these days.

Furthermore, while many series tended to add fillers to give the manga time to publish more chapters of canon material, they also had the bad habit of stalling a lot of moments. This anime was no different, with moments such as Frieza's "Five Minutes at Namek" turning into a running meme because said five minutes lasted for a lot of episodes.

That is one of the reasons that a lot of the newer fans tend to go to the manga, where the pacing is much more fluid, and also suggest Toei Animation to come up with a reboot. The idea of the reboot has been mentioned throughout the years, but there is no information at the moment that it is going to happen.

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It is not uncommon for Dragon Ball fans to suggest reading the manga because the pacing is not only better but also due to the art and Akira Toriyama's approach to paneling. A lot of people have praised the author's way of drawing action sequences and the distinct art style he always displayed, making him one of the most influential mangakas of all time.

While the anime had a lot of great moments, such as the voice acting, the music, and how certain fights were animated, such as Goku vs. Cell, there is also the fact that it was a product of its time. That isn't a bad thing by any means and is still worth watching, but there is an argument to be made that younger generations are not used to this approach.

"you can completely skip this issue by reading the manga," someone said.

"OG DB was nowhere near as bad with this as DBZ was once they reached Namek," another person said.

"It’s why I always recommend the manga. Also, if pacing is the main reason you can’t recommend OG DB, then I don’t see how you can recommend DBZ. I know it’s just kind of a meme now but it still blows my mind that they made Freeza’s 5 minutes into 10 f... episodes," someone else said.

It is fair to say that a Dragon Ball remake would be fitting to celebrate Toriyama's legacy and his work.

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Edited by Gayatri Chivukula