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Gundam or Dragon Ball: Which is the bigger franchise ?


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Ktimene's Lover



Joined: 23 Apr 2005
Posts: 2242
Location: Glendale, AZ (Proudly living in the desert)
PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 7:05 pm Reply with quote
Though I read Pokemon is like $30+ billion franchise, that's Japan's biggest anime franchise off a video game series. From a manga and just anime, I'd say the 2 (3 if you choose Yugioh) biggest are Gundam and Dragon Ball, of course. But which is bigger: Toei's (the most famed Japanese anime studio) masterpiece of Dragon Ball or Sunrise's (the ruler of mecha series) life work of Gundam?

[EDIT: Fixed your spelling of Dragon Ball. -TK]
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blind_assassin



Joined: 07 Aug 2006
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 7:22 pm Reply with quote
From my uninformed point of view I'd say Gundam is probably bigger in sheer terms of material. It has like 50 different series and probably a decent bit of movies. Dragonball/Z/GT only has 3 (albeit very long) series and more than a dozen movies.

Most people I know watched both Gundam Wing and Dragonball Z as kids but most remember DBZ the most. I think I liked Gundam more at the time but DBZ has managed to make quality video games of late so I like the DBZ franchise more than Gundam.
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DragonsRevenge



Joined: 15 Nov 2004
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 7:55 pm Reply with quote
Gundam is the oldest and most influencial.

DB/Z/GT/XYZ is probably the bigger merchandise powerhouse. At least in the US.
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Mikoto Nakadai



Joined: 30 Jan 2007
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 8:26 pm Reply with quote
It's pretty easy to see when SEED is dominating right now, while Dragonball hasn't seen anything new in at least a decade.
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DragonsRevenge



Joined: 15 Nov 2004
Posts: 1150
PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 8:31 pm Reply with quote
Mikoto Nakadai wrote:
It's pretty easy to see when SEED is dominating right now, while Dragonball hasn't seen anything new in at least a decade.


Not exactly. The original DB is from what.. 1989? It didn't come out in the US till like 94-95. DBZ didn't start airing here till 97, and they were half way through GT in japan by that point, I believe. Either way, it didn't realy become big till like 1998/1999.

My point is, DB became a runaway smash in the US even though it was all but finished in Japan at that point.
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Nagisa
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Joined: 19 Aug 2003
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 9:21 pm Reply with quote
In Japan and overall, Gundam tops Dragon Ball by a mile. There's still a very high demand for Gundam across several age brackets (from very young children craving SD Force to young teens starved for SEED to older otaku and businessmen eating up the new UC novels and manga anthologies like candy), and it was even in high demand for nearly a decade before Dragon Ball ever hit the scene. Not to say Dragon Ball wasn't a runaway phenomenon or a lasting, classic, highly beloved franchise—it was, and still is—but its time in the sun has waned, to the point that the only real demand to see Dragon Ball live on is in children's amusement park exhibits, nostalgia junkies' DVD collections, and video game fans wanting fun, brainless fighting games. It's a certified anime legend, while Gundam is a certified anime mainstay, which will probably ocntinue on undaunted for as long as anime continues to exist on this planet (along with Lupin, the Matsumotoverse, and Doraemon).

In the US, however, Bandai's ridiculous mismanagement of Gundam following Gundam Wing's success saw it crash and burn, while Dragon Ball (or at least the Z portion of it) continues to live on, albeit all while not shining as brightly as it once did. We likely won't even see every Gundam anime coming into this country in ours or our children's lifetimes, but for every one that has, we'll probably see three separate incarnations of the same DBZ episodes being re-released on X, Y, and Z media formats.
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DragonsRevenge



Joined: 15 Nov 2004
Posts: 1150
PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 9:27 pm Reply with quote
Nagisa wrote:

In the US, however, Bandai's ridiculous mismanagement of Gundam following Gundam Wing's success saw it crash and burn, while Dragon Ball (or at least the Z portion of it) continues to live on, albeit all while not shining as brightly as it once did. We likely won't even see every Gundam anime coming into this country in ours or our children's lifetimes, but for every one that has, we'll probably see three separate incarnations of the same DBZ episodes being re-released on X, Y, and Z media formats.


Yeah, I remember when Gundam Wing broke out. didn't last too long though. Either way, It never became as big as DBZ. Why the hell did it get so popular anyway?
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yagoogaly



Joined: 19 Jun 2006
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 10:48 pm Reply with quote
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slow_moe_504



Joined: 29 Sep 2006
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Location: New Orleans La
PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 11:47 pm Reply with quote
Very Happy I think Gundam is definately dominating DBZ. I mean, you got to look at it like this they can keep coming up with a story for Gundam and people are gonna watch it. DBZ on the other hand, I just can't picture them coming out with another and if they did I think it wouldn't be that good. I think there stories are getting more worse. Gundam can keep coming out and it's gonna do good. The best DBZ are the old ones from Dragonball, and Dragonball Z. I go with Gundam. Very Happy

Last edited by slow_moe_504 on Sat Feb 03, 2007 12:03 am; edited 1 time in total
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LydiaDianne



Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 11:59 pm Reply with quote
Doesn't Gundam have the ability to generate a larger variety of story lines than Dragon Ball?

I'm not at all familiar with the DB story lines but Gundam has focused on a little boy who had no clear understanding what war is truly like, an officer in ground forces who questions himself and what he is doing, a group of pilots out to revenge the murder of a colony leader and various other stories.

So, IMO, Gundam is the bigger franchise.
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psychotim



Joined: 14 Dec 2006
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Location: Indianapolis, IN
PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 12:04 am Reply with quote
Theres no comparison. Theres three series in the dragonball universe. Although its really just one really, really, really long story. Then there is the gundam universe. There is four major "time frames." Theres the "Univeresal Century," "Furture Century," "After Colony," and "Cosmic Era." Not the mention all of the movies, and side stories ( for lack of better word) So I would have do say that the Gundam franchise is bigger.
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fighterholic



Joined: 28 Sep 2005
Posts: 9193
PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 12:06 am Reply with quote
Though I've seen none of Gundam and only a few episodes of Dragon Ball, I'd have to agree that Gundam is the bigger franchise. It's older, has had so many different series, has got a life size doll coming out in Japan, and has a lot more video games out than Dragon Ball.
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digitalkikka



Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 462
Location: Chicago, Illinois
PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 1:02 am Reply with quote
I'll agree with everyone and say Gundam. The possibilities for the story are endless. Dagonball/DBZ just doesn't, IMO, have that ability to branch off or create a new universe within its franchise. Gundam has the variety to keep it fresh and accessible to different age groups. DBZ doesn't.
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firestarter



Joined: 28 Jan 2007
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 1:08 am Reply with quote
I would have to agree that Gudam is a bigger franchise and the oldest, while I will admit DB is the more popular franchise. Burning Gundam was actually my favorite.

Razz DBZ game list
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dragon_Ball_video_games

Razz Gundam game list

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Gundam_video_games
looking at all this gave me sweet memories.
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blind_assassin



Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 755
PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 1:23 am Reply with quote
fighterholic wrote:
and has a lot more video games out than Dragon Ball.


98% of Gundam games are shit though. I think Federation vs. Zeon (or something like that) is supposed to be good but I haven't ever heard of a really good Gundam game.

DBZ has only started making genuinely good games pretty recently (Budokai 3 and Tenkaichi 2 are very solid games) but the franchise has popular and recent games to its name. Even if someone can name a good Gundam game I doubt it'd be very well known.


And about the DBZ universe not being good for side series, I think that is a wildly incorrect statement. If the makers of DBZ would just finally let Goku and company ****ing die then they could easily take the series in a new direction. I'm sure it'd wind up being essentially the same thing because Akira Toriyama sucks balls at innovation (Goku, Goten, spiky hair young Gohan, Chrono, and Hero from DQ8 are all the exact same character) but it has plenty of room to make a new series. At the very least, they could do a "story of the first super saiyan" type thing.
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