With a new one Dragon Ball Super movie currently doing big business at the box office, it’s hard to believe there was a long period of time when there were no new ones Dragon Ball anime in production. The original series Dragon Ball premiered on February 26, 1986, and became an overnight hit, laying the groundwork for many shounen anime tropes used to this day. On April 26, 1989, that series got a sequel called Dragon Ball Zwhich became an even bigger hit and has since been regarded as one of the greatest action cartoons of all time!
That series ended on January 31, 1996, just months before its premiere on American TV stations on September 13, 1996. Dragon Ball Super is the official sequel to Dragon Ball Z and takes place before (and later after) the events of the final episode of Dragon Ball Z (there is even a case to make that) Dragon Ball Super is a repeat of the events at the end of the previous series). But did you know that this is not the first time that there is a sequel to Dragon Ball Z was made? That there was another anime that continued the adventures of Goku in 1996, and that series is still available everywhere for fans to watch? The question you may have is what is this series and is it worth watching?
What is Dragon Ball GT?
Dragon Ball GT was the original sequel to Dragon Ball Z which premiered in Japan on February 7, 1996 (one week after Dragon Ball Z concluded). Unlike the previous two shows, the series was not based on a manga created by series creator Akira Toriyama. In fact, Toriyama himself had little to do with this series, other than approving some storylines and designing a few villains. At this point, Toriyama had written and worked on Dragon Ball for 11 years, and he felt it was time to put down his pen and get some well-deserved rest. The point was that the series was still a huge success and Toei Animation wanted to continue the franchise.
They convinced Toriyama to let them make their own sequel called Dragon Ball GT (which stood for Grand Tour), and they would continue the series where Toriyama ended it. Because of this, the story of Dragon Ball GT would continue the story of Goku who was accidentally wished back as a child by the Black Star Dragon Balls. This prompts him, Trunks, and his granddaughter Pan to travel the universe in search of the Black Star Dragon Balls so that he might grow up again. Along the way, Goku and his friends will fight new enemies, discover new power-ups and the series would end with a touching final episode.
The series would eventually run for 64 episodes and would make for an infamous game for the Sony PlayStation. Though the run was short, Dragon Ball GT was for a time famous on internet bulletin boards as the only Dragon Ball series not (as of that point) legally available in America, and it sparked a lot of discussion among fans about the quality of the series.
Is Dragon Ball GT any good?
While questions like these are a matter of personal opinion, most people think the answer is… no, it’s not a very good one. There are many reasons why, but common ones include that the series is too uneven in tone, has a rough start that tries (and fails) to replicate the more humorous aspects of the original Dragon Balland battle scenes that aren’t very exciting or interesting to watch. The fact that Goku was a kid again also caused controversy among fans who had watched him grow into a man.
Complaints about largely forgettable villains were also a thing (although it should be noted that Baby was a major exception to this rule). One aspect of the series that was praised was the music, with many taking note of the opening track Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku by Field of View to not only get the best opening of the Dragon Ball franchise, but one of the best anime openings of all time. The ending numbers Hitori Ja Naic and Do not you see? were similarly loved and are still covered by a variety of JOp stars to this day.
Overall, reception has been mixed at best over the years, and the series itself struggled in ratings from the start. It is even said that the series would have ended sooner if a video game hadn’t been in production at the time, and the studio kept the series going long enough for the game to be released first. While we normally have to hold back quality judgments about shows in regards to marketing, the fact that the series was delayed long enough for one more product to sell speaks volumes about the love and care the show itself received from the producers and showrunners.
Is Dragon Ball GT worth watching?
Dragon Ball GT has been officially decanonized with the release of Dragon Ball Superand from the perspective of many fans this is fine as that series is considered to be of much higher quality than Dragon Ball GT. That said, now that Dragon Ball GT isn’t the last word on the series, fans of the franchise no longer seem to despise it the same way they used to. Many will still say it’s bad, but given a better option down the road, it’s easier to look at Dragon Ball GT with more relaxed emotions, and see what the franchise would look like if the creator wasn’t in the driver’s seat of the car.
Like the recently discovered lost American pilot Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball GT can now be seen as a novelty series that doesn’t really hurt anyone. It has the reputation it has for a reason and there’s no reason why you should feel like you NEED to watch the whole thing, but these days it doesn’t hurt to watch a few episodes, see what it’s about going and being able to stop knowing there will be no long term consequences for the main sequence! If you like it, great, more Dragon Ball to enjoy! If you don’t like it… well, that’s what Dragon Ball Super is for!
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