Forum - View topicThe popularity of Dragon Ball/Z/GT in Japan
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blind_assassin
 Posts: 755 |
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After an argument on GameFAQs I was wondering how big the Dragon Ball series was/is in Japan. In the argument I took the stance that Gundam is significantly more popular and is at the very least, the Japanese equivalent to Disney in terms of the mark it made in history. The person I was arguing with held the opinion that DBZ was at least as iconic in Japan and was still incredibly popular. I'm reasonably sure that DBZ is very popular but that in 50 years it will be something pretty outdated while something like Gundam will probably still be running with new material. Am I really off base or pretty much correct?
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Blazer1991
 Posts: 1 Location: UK-England-Bristol |
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Well, I reckon they both have potential to continue, but to be honest, I would say that Gundam has a far better chance of being more popular in the future than DBZ would.
I mean, the GT series wasn't that interesting, and rather boring if you ask me. |
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Bl00dHoUnD
Posts: 95 |
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From what I've read, I'm not even sure Anime is so popular in Japan; and I'm almost sure that it's success cannot compare to that of Disney in the US.
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sailorspazz
 Posts: 195 Location: Portland, OR |
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Well, Gundam keeps making new series while the Dragonball anime and manga has been complete for about a decade now, so it may be likely that in the future people might remember Gundam more easily. However, I get the impression that both are already considered classic series, so it's hard to say which one will be considered more significant. Both franchises are already over 20 years old, and both are still well-known and well-loved in Japan.
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Goodpenguin
Posts: 457 Location: Hunt Valley, MD |
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Either series compared to Disney is apples/oranges. One is a production studio, the others are notable genre shows. Pound for pound, the Gundam franchise has much longer 'legs' than the Dragon Ball franchise. Many, many moons ago when the Dragon Ball franchise was running it may have had more eyes on it, due to the fact it's aimed at the wide viewer-ship young teen/tween market. Gundam, however, is a flagship series in the Japanese fanboy's genre version of chocolate N' peanut butter. Giant mecha + Angsty High schoolers/soldiers + ultra-rightwing Japanese militarism (or 'anti-war' themes as the Japanese call it)= die-hard, loyal, merchandise buying market. It's still a niche genre, most Japanese anime fans are not mecha watchers, but it does attract fans who stay with the show/material for quite a long time. |
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Haohmaru Of The Wind69
Posts: 39 |
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Gundam has more variety and is more fan crazed in japan than dbz. America doesnt like gundam except for the elitists who understand war. Dbz died when dbgt came out and Gundam is flourishing in japan. America still shows reruns of dbz to please kindergardeners. True full blooded japanese folk in Tokyo love gundam and hate dbz.
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Westlo
 Posts: 1684 |
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DBZ dvd volumes were selling at a 20k avg recently, iirc I read that the introduction of Trunks DBZ had a 22.1% tv rating or something (Naruto pulls 5-6% for comparison).
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Haohmaru Of The Wind69
Posts: 39 |
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Dbz lacks depth, good animation and the music in the original just plain sucks. The new uncut dub is a joke. Everything after the Frieza saga never happened. It was to end with piccolo watching over gohan. The garlic jr saga and cyborg frieza sagas are not canon. Only the first 3 movies of dbz counts since goku is the only ssj in those movie. Goku is the legendary Super Saiyajin.
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Westlo
Posts: 1684 |
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You're posting opinions I'm posting facts.
^ = Opinion
^ = Fact Here's a hint the quality of the shows themselves have nothing to do with the question. |
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Raven Shinobi
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Toei just recently began releasing the original DB on DVD and they premiered in the top 5, which was pretty impressive for an old series, especially when compared with the newer titles in the market. This showed that the series is still respected there and that its popularity hadn't died over the years.
When comparing DB with Gundam, I second that Gundam is and will always be more popular than DB/DBZ -I won't ever approve of GT since it wasn't based off Toriyama's ideas- unlike DB that relied on continuity, the Gundam franchise can always continue on for decades with different plots/protagonists/characters that take place in alternative universe which gives each series a some-what feeling of newness. |
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Westlo
Posts: 1684 |
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I'm pretty sure DBZ outrated every gundam series over the course of 291 episodes. Oh found it Dragonball Z Highest rating: 27.5% Lowest rating: 12.1% Average rating: 20.5% I believe this was posted on gunota when they where showing SEED ratings, this outrates MSG/Zeta/ZZ by quite a bit and every other gundam series easily. Todays "DBZs" in Naruto and Bleach are only doing 6-4%, One Piece does around 8-9. Also lol @ the gundam = the disney of japan comment. Disney of Japan is Ghibli. |
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blind_assassin
Posts: 755 |
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I obviously didn't mean it literally. I was speaking in terms of the fact that both played revolutionary parts on animation and that they'll always be around with iconic status. They built a freaking life-sized model of a Gundam in Japan, I'd say that definitely means that it's pretty important culturally.
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BrothersElric
 Posts: 1996 |
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Actually I would consider more acurately that Gundam is probably more like the Star Wars or Star Trek of Japan, given all of it's alternate storylines and tons of series over the years while DB/DBZ would be the Superman of Japan because like how Superman inspired a whole new genre in Superhero comics, DB/DBZ inspired a whole new genre in shounen, which is a genre I would consider to be the Superhero comics of Japan.
That said I'd say Gundam is probably the bigger franchise, but DB/DBZ is probably the more groundbreaking one. |
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Raven Shinobi
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I forgot to mention this in my earlier post, but about a year ago, I was doing some shopping in the JP amazon to buy the oldest Gundam, since the R1 version is dubbed-only and when out of curiosity I did a search on the other Gundams to compare the ratings that they received to see which one is the most and least popular, I was quite shocked by the low ratings (2.5 stars and less) that all the SEED titles received.
I mean, SEED wasn't my cup of tea, but I had no idea until then that the Japanese also hated it -which now as I remember makes me wonder if the Gundam franchise will continue to be accepted and popular there beyond SEED. |
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Nagisa
Moderator
 Posts: 6128 Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh |
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Not exactly. Dragon Ball was certainly an influential work, but most of that influence simply extends to the shounen manga/anime genre and people like Kishimoto and Kubo, with Dragon Ball more or less defining how the genre would be approached from that point on. Gundam, however, had a far-reaching effect across just about all anime genres. Sure, it's credited with creating the "real robot" genre of more plausible robots in anime, and that was in itself incredibly influential, but Gundam was also one of the first major pioneers of the sort of intense character development and writing that's become commonplace in anime of all genres to this day. Actually writing characters as characters and not simply half-hour heroes and mascots only really took off when Gundam became incredibly popular doing it (and was firmly established when Evangelion followed suit in the 90s), which reaches far beyond a single genre.
False. SEED was an absolute phenomenon in Japan, and continues to be, even enduring beyond the fact that the Japanese do generally consider Destiny to be a disappointment like we do. And ratings on Amazon don't mean jack, because if you look at our own Amazon, most of the people who rate things are morons and shut-in nerds who seldom speak for the population at large. Fact is, SEED remains a top-selling, well loved property in Japan, and both TV series garnered some of the higher TV ratings among all the Gundam series currently out, only really being eclipsed by some of the very first Universal Century series (Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeta, possibly ZZ). |
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