Dragonball Ending (or Why you just can't push a story past a certain point)
Nick
Who here didn't think the ending really sucked?
For those who never read/saw the earlier sections, DB pretty much came to
a climax in kan 27 and 28. At this point:
- Gokuu had fulfilled the legend of the Super Saiyajin and avenged his
people by killing Furiiza.
- Bejiita had admitted defeat.
- The damage done by the Saiyajin attack on Earth had been repaired.
- The Namekkuseijins had been saved, and were living happily on New
Namekkusei.
I'd call that a fairly good and concise ending.
Now, because Dragonball was making whole motherloads of profit, the
publishers/producers/etc wanted to continue it. Toriyama had virtually no
plans to continue it. Whether or not Toriyama was actually forced
(strongly pressured) into it is not entirely known.
Thus, Toriyama used the good old "A old nemesis returns" plot device to
continue it, introducing Betsu no mirai Trunks in the bargain, and coming
up with a series of fairly novel villians, the Jinzouningens. Then came
Cell. Cell looked a lot like Furiiza. Cell acted a lot like Furiiza. Cell
was a lot more powerful than Furiiza. Cell was nowhere near as
interesting as Furiiza however.
At the end of the Cell Game (kan 35), we note ANOTHER Point that would
have made a good and concise ending:
- Gokuu is dead, and has passed the torch to his incredibly powerful son.
- Gohan, with encouragement from his father and a timely distraction by
Bejiita, is able to kill Cell even though his kamehameha was only at half
power.
- Bejiita, with a cool exit of "Kakarotto!! Ore tatakatta" once again
comes to understand Gokuu and co and maybe a little about the universe.
- The Jinzouningen are neutralized as a threat.
- Piccolo is neutralized as a future threat by his merging with Kamisama.
- Dende has taken over as Kami, another torch passing.
- Trunks returns to the future and defeats the Jinzouningen and Cell,
closing off the time loops.
Another darn good place to end.
Now we come to the Majin Buu part of DB.
Lets take stock:
One, its not really as funny as old DB used to be.
The characters are getting uncontrollably powerful
Even the dimpy little kids can become Super Saiyajins, and didn't even
have to work for it.
Gohan has become a grade A loser.
Buruma has a REALLY bad haircut.
Most importantly - the fights aren't as good. All the interesting
choreography has degenerated into "I throw blast you throw blast" etc,
the characters no longer do any kind of trying work to power up, fights
are shorter and a lot more onesided, and Mr Satan is actually an
important character. And the massive Genkidama took only about 10 pages.
Buu isn't an interesting villian. At best he's comical, most of the time
he's annoying.
Characters don't even bother saying attack names anymore for the most
part.
The standard plot devices are absent. In all the previous parts of the
story, you KNEW who was going to eventually just kick this guy's ass.
With Buu, by all Dragonworld logic, Gohan SHOULD have beaten him, but Buu
pulls this lame absorption garbage, stuff he would have been better off
doing earlier....
Panchan was the saving grace of kan 42, and the whole Uubu thing was
fairly stupid.
Now what was the point of all this?
An example.
People are always crying "We want more give us more more more more".
The problem is that each author can only give so much. Toriyama's
Dragonball, Takahashi's Ranma Nibunnoichi (which hasn't been funny since
volume 8 or so), etc. There is a certain point where a story needs to
end, and usually the economics of it don't want it to. Another good
example, Frank Herbert's incredible DUNE. All the sequels started to
really lack something, because he was writing them for the money. And it
got obvious. Like DB, and Ranma, the artist no longer cares about the
work as anything but a money maker. And its sad.
So all artists: Please, for the love of Lum, stand up for your work, I
don't want to see more works just go down the pipes and fall into
pathetic obscurity.
--
Nick aka Mael
--
Proud member, DBZLF. Death to the dub.
--
Sea Wasp
>end, and usually the economics of it don't want it to. Another good
>example, Frank Herbert's incredible DUNE. All the sequels started to
>really lack something, because he was writing them for the money. And it
>got obvious.
Actually, what destroyed DUNE was the fact that after the first
book Herbert wasn't writing under the iron fist of John W. Campbell,
and so Herbert's writing got longer-winded, wandering, and loose.
Herbert's stories written under Campbell's editorial dictatorship were
much better than those written in other circumstances. Herbert's case
isn't unique -- a number of writers slacked off once out from under
editorial pressure -- but he's a particularly good example of how
a writer can go from great to horrid simply because there's no one
left to make him WORK.
As far as DBZ, I think ending it at either the Freezer or Cell
sequence would have been fine. However, the DBGT *could* be really
interesting depending on how they handle it. Most likely, of course,
it will suck.
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