Evan Mullicane is the senior editor and founder of Screen Rant's anime section. Having started as a writer for the Comics Team at the beginning of the Pandemic, Evan was swiftly promoted from writer to editor, and then from editor to lead of Screen Rant's newly established anime vertical.
Dragon Ball is often thought of as the king of anime. Across its multiple series, the Dragon Ball franchise has established itself as nothing short of iconic, helping codify trope after trope whose influence can be felt even in series made thirty years after Dragon Ball Z ended.
This is why it's so surprising that, based on every piece of available information fans have, that Dragon Ball's two newest anime, Dragon Ball Super: The Galactic Patrol and Dragon Ball Super: Beerus are taking notes from a new-gen masterpiece. It's the end of an era for Dragon Ball, as the franchise's new direction officially passes its crown to a new king. Dragon Ball Super's Old Formula Was Killing It Since the premiere of the first Dragon Ball anime in 1986, the anime franchise based on Akira Toriyama's beloved series has primarily relied on the weekly episode release model. Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, and Dragon Ball Super all ran their episodes on a weekly basis.Dragon Ball's filler episodes, meant to tide fans over between canon events, have pretty mixed results. The weekly release model also notably hurt the first few arcs of Dragon Ball Super particularly hard, leading to poor animation and fan backlash. The franchise more recently switched to smaller batch releases with Daima, and that led to more uniform quality. With its two new anime, Dragon Ball has hinted that the smaller batch releases are here to stay, confirming that Toei Animation appears to be taking cues from Demon Slayer. Dragon Ball's New Releases Crown Another Anime As King Demon Slayer is far from the first big shonen anime to do seasonal releases as opposed to weekly ones, but it is the biggest. Ufotable's anime made a name for itself by making each individual season feel monumental, giving each their own subtitles to make them feel distinct. This appears to be the tactic that Dragon Ball is now adopting. Instead of doing Dragon Ball Super season 2, as many fans had assumed the anime would, it is instead returning with The Galactic Patrol, meaning that there is unlikely to be filler or too much anime-original material.This also seems to be what Toei is doing in remaking Dragon Ball Super. It's possible, and maybe even likely, that Beerus is just the first of many releases, and that a new remake of Dragon Ball Super's arcs will be released once a year. Subscribe to the newsletter for insights on Dragon Ball's new era Join the newsletter for deeper takes and context on anime shifts like Dragon Ball’s new direction, plus focused coverage that helps you understand how major franchises evolve and why those moves matter. Subscribe By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. If that does happen, then it's clear that Dragon Ball Super: The Galactic Patrol is taking notes from Demon Slayer. Hopefully, that will help the series avoid some of the big problems that plagued more recent anime like Dragon Ball Super.Powered by Expand Collapse
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