Akira Toriyama on the Upcoming Dragonball Movie

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According to ANN, this is what Dragonball-Z creator Akira Toriyama thinks about the upcoming Hollywood production Dragonball Evolution:

As the original creator, I had a feeling of “Huh?” upon seeing the screenplay and the character designs, but the director, all the actors, the staff, and the rest are nothing but “ultra” high-caliber people. Maybe the right way for me and all the fans to appreciate it is as a New Dragonball of a different dimension. Perhaps, this might become a great masterpiece of power! Hey, I look forward to it!!

Mike’s Take: this is clearly code for “I really, really don’t like it, but I’m too nice to say otherwise.” Notice he avoids saying anything about the quality of the production itself except to say “Huh?” and that maybe it’s a “different dimension” rather than genuinely related to his work? You can have a cast and staff of “ultra high-caliber people” with a power level over 9000 and still make a crappy movie, after all. It makes his comment about the “great masterpiece of power” seem like the tongue-in-cheek comment that it almost certainly is.

Further info reveals that the movie will be released in Japan before the US. Now that’s interesting–they seem to be expecting it to do well there. The Japanese trailer also seems to promise a Japanese song as well. I’m not sure what to make of that. Did the Wachowski Bros. version of Speed Racer do well in Japan too?

I eagerly await a similar note from Shinichiro Watanabe when he reads the first draft screenplays for the Cowboy Bebop live-action, Keanu’d movie.

Author: gendomike

Michael lives in the Los Angeles area, and has been into anime since he saw Neon Genesis Evangelion in 1999. Some of his favorite shows include Full Metal Alchemist, Honey and Clover, and Welcome to the NHK!. Since 2003 he has gone to at least one anime convention every year. A public radio junkie, which naturally led to podcasting, he now holds a seminary degree and is looking to become Dr. Rev. Otaku Bible Man any day now. Michael can be reached at mike.huang@animediet.net. You can also find his Twitter account at @gendomike.

15 thoughts on “Akira Toriyama on the Upcoming Dragonball Movie

  1. Oh dear, a crappy anime made into a Hollywood action film. Can’t wait.
    Oh dear, a crappy anime made into a Hollywood action film. Can’t wait.
    Oh dear, a crappy anime made into a Hollywood action film. Can’t wait.
    Oh dear, a crappy anime made into a Hollywood action film. Can’t wait.
    Oh dear, a crappy anime made into a Hollywood action film. Can’t wait.

  2. Cant wait to watch the next dragon ball anime rather than the movie…….why doesnt Akira Toriyama continue making dragon ball or let anyone continue it after GT ………dying to watch it.Can anyone ask toriyama to give millions of DB fans what they want(((Episodes of new DB!!!!!!!))))))).plzzzzzzzzzzzzz
     

  3. while it’s hardly fair on his part to denounce, and in the process deny millions of db fanatics out there a chance to bear witness to kakarot’s resurrection, it’s clearly a classic case of the machine devouring the engineer, where the machine grows large enuff to overshadow the entity called creator. now that a movie is being made, irrespective of it’s quality of serious worth, i think the dragonball legend can finally look forward to some progression.

  4. Please….dig out my eye with a rusty spoon and bring a blue whale to skull**** my gaping socket. I would prefer that than to ever suffer seeing this movie again, i am a fan of the series, DB.DBZ.DBGT(well  gt not so much i watched it but it felt a tad rushed) i own all the original mangas (2 of every one 1 for reading 1 for collection) it was a quirky funny series… there was NOTHING wrong with its story line. with the budget he was given he could have done a far better job, he left out THREE main characters Puar,OOlong,Krillin….how the HELL do you leave out KRILLIN ???  just too many things left out, his tail, his being way to fkin old, you cant tell me you cant cgi this shit in…. Wong needs to crawl in a hole and stay there

  5. why doesn’t he just make more series of dragon ball Z and GT (tell him to add Krillin in GT) mabey make a new shows. here’s some sugggestions.Made these series up my self  (SOME OF NAMES BASE ON DRAGONBALL AND DRAGON BALL Z.) Owlball, Owlball Z, and Owball 3. Or create a whole new series all his own.

  6. i want  akira to  continue dragonball after episode 291    
    (276) of dbz(sorry but i cant recognise dbgt as a part of dragonball history.the original dragonball series are db and dbz which were written by toriyama.dbgt was produced by toei animation because toei wanted to gain more money and also dbgt is not based on the original manga)

  7. why dont akira just continue where it left off on in dbgt. cant wait if it happens.

  8. Toriyama didn’t do GT (he was consulted, but it was made by the Man for the fans, not by Toriyama) , and he thought DBZ got out of hand, it went too far from the plot.  It’s best for something good to come and go, if you drag it out, it gets crappy.
    The movie was much better than I had thought.

  9. the movie suck!!!! They did not stay true to the manga or the amine. It was a big disappointment. I just  waste  ten buck  watching that no good  movie.

  10. You stupid that movie was all right in my book
    You have to give them a little credit to James Wong and His Actors and Crew just respect them for what they tried to do for you and the fans of DBZ and themselves and me

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