The Dragon Ball franchise is one of the most loved and watched franchises worldwide. Son Goku’s journey has always brought smiles to the faces of countless individuals. But it does not mean that the franchise is all about success. Akira Toriyama’s masterpiece did suffer from failure, and it was so bad that it forced the mangaka to come out of retirement and get back to his studio.
Akira Toriyama announced his retirement after the completion of Dragon Ball Z. For a long time, things stayed that way until the American fans started to long for a Dragon Ball live adaptation movie. Everything was working fine, and 20th Century Fox acquired the movie rights. However, what happened next made Toriyama pick up his pen again.
Dragon Ball: Evolution Made Akira Toriyama Forget About His Retirement
Dragon Ball: Evolution came out in 2009 after being under development since 2002. The movie was indeed an evolution, where the franchise evolved from a super successful one to a failed one. The Dragon Ball franchise made its way to America much later after its initial release. After enjoying the anime, they wanted to have a Hollywood-style live adaptation movie. It was revealed that 20th Century Fox would be doing a series of live-action Dragon Ball movies.
The first movie would focus on Demon King Piccolo, and the second would feature the Super Saiyan transformation. After seven long years, Dragon Ball: Evolution was released on the big screens. Rather than loving it, the fans absolutely despised it. There was nothing to love about the movie. None of the characters behaved the way they were designed to behave. Justin Chatwin’s Son Goku shocked everyone. Overall, the movie was a disaster.
Even Akira Toriyama did not like the movie. It was so bad that the movie forced the veteran mangaka out of retirement. In the 30thAnniversary Dragon Ball Super History Book, he said,
“I had put Dragon Ball behind me, but seeing how much that live-action film ticked me off, and how I revised that script for the anime movie and complained about the quality of the TV anime, I suppose somewhere along the line it’s become a series I like too much to ever leave alone.”
Every aspect of the movie fell short of its expectations, and the further sequels were snubbed. The movie had become the worst-rated live adaptation movie ever. Dragon Ball projected great martial arts fight sequences, but the actors could not bring out any emotion behind their actions. Hollywood ruined the film, but the fans got back Akira Toriyama.
Dragon Ball: Evolution Pushed The Franchise Upwards
The Dragon Ball franchise was at the peak of its career when Akira Toriyama was involved with the franchise. After he left, Shueisha persuaded him to write another series, but Toriyama rejected it. Toei Animation gathered the anime staff along with Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru to begin working on Dragon Ball GT. The series failed to live up to everyone’s expectations. Everyone could feel that the franchise’s graph was going downward.
After Dragon Ball: Evolution’s failure, there was no going back. Seeing the disaster, Toriyama took over the helm of the franchise. After that came Dragon Ball Super, which brought the series back on track. Akira Toriyama passed away On March 1, 2024. Right before his death, he was working on the upcoming Dragon Ball anime, DAIMA, scheduled to release in October 2024. With it being his last work, the entire anime fandom is waiting for its release.
Dragon Ball is currently available to watch on Crunchyroll.
