Dragon Ball GT

Dragon Ball GT
ドラゴンボールGT
(Doragon Bōru Jī Tī)
Genre Adventure, comedy, fantasy[1]
Anime television series
Directed by Osamu Kasai
Written by Aya Matsui
Music by Akihito Tokunaga
Studio Toei Animation
Licensed by
Original network Fuji TV
English network
Original run February 7, 1996 – November 19, 1997
Episodes 64
Anime television film
A Hero's Legacy
Written by Atsushi Maekawa
Music by Akihito Tokunaga
Studio Toei Animation
Licensed by
Madman Entertainment
Funimation
Original network Fuji TV
Released March 26, 1997
Runtime 46 minutes
Dragon Ball franchise

Dragon Ball GT (Japanese: ドラゴンボールGT (ジーティー), Hepburn: Doragon Bōru Jī Tī) is a Japanese anime series based on Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball manga. Produced by Toei Animation, the series premiered in Japan on Fuji TV on February 7, 1996, spanning 64 episodes until its end on November 19, 1997.

It is a sequel to the previous Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z anime series. It was succeeded by Dragon Ball Super which is a prequel to this series.

Plot

Five years after the end of the Dragon Ball Z anime (10 years in the Funimation dub),[2] Goku is turned back into a child by the Black Star Dragon Balls (究極のドラゴンボール, Kyūkyoku no Doragon Bōru, lit. "Dragon Ball of Ultimate") used by his old enemy Emperor Pilaf and is forced to travel across the universe to retrieve them along with his granddaughter Pan and Trunks. The trio go through various adventures in their journey to find the Black Star Dragon Balls, until they encounter the evil artificial Tuffle, Baby, who intends to destroy the Saiyan race.

Baby has the ability to invade other people's bodies and turn them into Tuffles, as well as using a host body to combine its power with his own and become a powerful fighter. After turning practically all of the Earth's population, including the Saiyans, into Tuffles, Baby decides to remain inside Vegeta's body and use it to kill Goku. Goku fights him and is quickly defeated, but, after having his tail regenerated by Kibito Kai and Old Kai, transforms and achieves the power of Super Saiyan 4 (スーパーサイヤ人 (じん)４ (フォー), Sūpā Saiya-jin Fō). In this new form, Goku easily overpowers and destroys Baby, propelling him into the sun with a 10x Kamehameha (１０倍かめはめ波, Jūbai Kamehameha, lit. "10-Fold Kamehame Wave"). Piccolo then sacrifices himself to permanently destroy the Black Star Dragon Balls when the Earth explodes after Goku and the others help the people of Earth evacuate to Planet Plant, which Baby had wished back into existence using the Black Star Dragon Balls.

A year after Baby's defeat, Dr. Myuu (Baby's creator) and Dr. Gero (creator of the Red Ribbon Army androids), create an evil replica of Android 17 and have it fuse with the original Android 17, creating Super 17. Super 17 seems impervious to Goku's attacks, but when Android 18 attacks him for murdering her husband, Krillin, Goku takes advantage of the distraction to penetrate through Super 17 with his Super Dragon Fist (超龍拳, Chō Ryūken) technique, then unleashes a Rapid-Fire Kamehameha (連続かめはめ波, Renzoku Kamehameha, lit. "Continuous Turtle Destruction Wave") that completely eradicates him.

Due to the constant misuse of the Dragon Balls, seven Shadow Dragons are then summoned. All but the most powerful, Syn Shenron, are defeated. Syn Shenron appears to be losing until he absorbs the Dragon Balls and gains tremendous power, becoming Omega Shenron and surpassing even Goku's power. Goku is about to sacrifice himself to destroy the evil dragon, but then Vegeta gains the Super Saiyan 4 transformation, thanks to Bulma's new device, the Blutz Wave Generator. Goku and Vegeta fuse using the Fusion Dance technique to create Gogeta, who uses his immense power to beat Omega Shenron to a pulp. However, after being too confident in his ability to defeat Omega Shenron, he uses up too much time in an attempt to embarrass him. Gogeta then defuses and Goku and Vegeta revert back to their base forms. Eventually, using the energy of every living being in the universe, Goku creates the incredibly powerful Universal Spirit Bomb (全世界の元気玉, Zensekai no Genki Dama, lit. "Energy Sphere of the Whole World") and uses it to destroy Omega Shenron once and for all.

The real Shenron appears to grant Goku and his friends one last wish, and then proceeds to disappear - along with Goku and the Dragon Balls. Several decades later, Goku's great-great-grandson, Goku Jr., competes in the 64th Tenkaichi Budōkai (天下一武道会, lit. "Strongest Under the Heavens Martial Arts Tournament") against Vegeta's descendant, Vegeta Jr., as the now-elderly Pan cheers him on. Pan then sees a rejuvenated Goku and tries to approach him, but Goku quickly disappears into the crowd. Goku then leaves the Tenkaichi Budōkai with a flashback of the events of his timeline. After the flashback ends, Goku then catches his Power Pole and rides off on his Flying Nimbus cloud.

Production

Unlike the previous anime series in the Dragon Ball franchise, Dragon Ball GT does not adapt the manga series written by Akira Toriyama, but tells an original story conceived by the Toei Animation staff using the same characters and universe from the original Dragon Ball manga, and it continues the story where Dragon Ball Z had left off. Toriyama did, however, come up with the Dragon Ball GT name, which stands for "Grand Tour", in reference to the series having the characters travel through the universe, and designed the appearances of the main cast. Toriyama himself referred to GT as a "side story of the original Dragon Ball".[3]

Chief character designer Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru said he agonized over designing Super Saiyan 4 Goku, which was the idea of the show's producers, questioning whether it was necessary to go further with the transformations. Because Super Saiyan 4 is brought about while in a Saiyan's Great Ape (大猿, Ōzaru, lit. "Great Monkey") form, he made the hair more "wild" and covered Goku's body in red fur. There was only a single final draft of the character; although Nakatsuru did consider making the hair blond, he ended up choosing black as it provides more contrast with the red fur.[4]

Music

The music of Dragon Ball GT was composed by Akihito Tokunaga replacing Shunsuke Kikuchi, due to his retirement, although the series uses five pieces of theme music by popular recording artists. Field of View performs the series opening theme, "Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku" (DAN DAN 心魅かれてく), which is used for all 64 episodes. "Hitori Janai" (ひとりじゃない), performed by Deen, is used for the ending theme for the first 26 episodes. Starting at episode 27, the series begins using Zard's "Don't You See!" for the ending theme. Episode 42 marks the next ending theme change, with "Blue Velvet" by Shizuka Kudō being used. "Sabitsuita Machine Gun de Ima o Uchinukō" (錆びついたマシンガンで今を撃ち抜こう), performed by Wands, is introduced as an ending theme in episode 51. It was used as the ending theme for the remainder of the series, except for the final episode which reuses the opening theme.

Localization

Funimation licensed the series for an English language broadcast in the United States. Their English dub of the series utilized their own musical score composed by Mark Menza and aired on Cartoon Network from November 7, 2003 to April 16, 2005. The company's home video release and original television broadcast both skipped the first 16 episodes of the series. Instead, Funimation created a composition episode entitled "A Grand Problem," which used scenes from the skipped episodes to summarize the story. The skipped episodes were later shown on Cartoon Network as "The Lost Episodes" after the original broadcast concluded. Funimation's English dub began re-airing in the US on Nicktoons from January 16, 2012 to December 13, 2012, and rerun until January 2, 2015 (Due to Adult Swim having rights to air Dragon Ball Z Kai through their Toonami programming block.)[5]

AB Groupe (in association with Blue Water Studios) produced an alternate dub for Europe and Canada and was aired on YTV and Toonami UK, which divided the episodes into two seasons while the original Japanese music composed by Akihito Tokunaga is retained in the Blue Water English dub.[6][7] The AB Groupe Dub first ran in the UK from March 3, 2003 on CNX until August 17, 2003.

Home release

First Dragon Ball GT DVD volume, released in Japan by Toei Animation on February 6, 2008.

In Japan, Dragon Ball GT did not receive a home video release until June 15, 2005, eight years after its broadcast. This was a remastering of the series in a single 12-disc DVD box set, that was made-to-order only, referred to as a "Dragon Box". The content of this set began being released on mass-produced individual 6-episode DVDs on February 6, 2008 and finished with the eleventh volume released on June 4, 2008.[8][9]

In North America, Funimation began releasing Dragon Ball GT on both VHS and DVD in edited and uncut formats in April 2003,[10] starting with episode 17, after they made their own clip show episode titled 'A Grand Problem' to bring the audience up to speed with the story. After the final fifteenth volume, they released the first 16 episodes in five "Lost Episode" volumes between July 2004 and February 2005.[11][12] They then released the series in DVD box sets; the first (beginning with episode 17) in October 2005 and finished in November 2007 with the first 16 episodes as a "Lost Episode" box set.[13][14] Two years later, they began releasing the series again in DVD "remastered season" sets that finally put the episodes in proper chronological order; the first on December 9, 2008 and the second on February 10, 2009.[15][16] A Game Boy Advance Video cartridge containing the episodes "A Grand Problem" and "Pan's Gambit" was released on September 7, 2004 by Majesco Entertainment.[17] A complete series DVD box set including the TV special was later released on September 21, 2010.[18] Manga Entertainment began distributing Dragon Ball GT on DVD in the UK on January 20, 2014, which are re-releases of Funimation's 2008 and 2009 sets.[19]

Art books and manga

There are two companion books to the series, called the Dragon Ball GT Perfect Files, released in May 1997 and December 1997 by Shueisha's Jump Comics Selection imprint. They include series information, illustration galleries, behind-the-scenes information, and more. They were out of print for many years, but were re-released in April 2006 and this edition is still in print.[20][21]

In 2013, an anime comic version of Dragon Ball GT began running in Shueisha's Saikyō Jump magazine. It began serialization in the January 2014 issue, which was released on December 4, 2013.[22]

Video games

There have been two video games produced based on Dragon Ball GT. The first being Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout in 1997 for the PlayStation, which received international releases that same year, making it the first Dragon Ball game to be released in North America. The 2005 Game Boy Advance game Dragon Ball GT: Transformation was released exclusively in North America.

Two "GT Packs" were released for the game Dragon Ball Xenoverse on March 10, 2015,[23] and April 14, 2015,[24] respectively. Both Packs can also be obtained through the game's season pass.[25]

Reception

The average audience TV rating in Japan was 14.6% (Kanto region). The maximum audience rating was 19.7% (Episode 2).[26] Its first home release sold 31,696 copies and 21,227 copies when it was re-released. In comparison, both Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z sold less than that.[27]

Ryo Mito, producer of Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2, has stated "GT is popular with fans overseas. In Japan, it’s not as popular."[28]

The English dub of Dragon Ball GT, produced by Funimation, received mixed-to-negative reviews. IGN called it "downright repellent," mentioning that the material and characters had lost their novelty and fun. They also criticized the GT character designs of Vegeta and Trunks as being "goofy".[29] Anime News Network (ANN) also gave negative comments about the anime, mentioning that the fights from the series were "a very simple childish exercise" and that older fans will want to stick with other anime. The series' plot was also criticized for giving a formula that was already used in its predecessors.[30] Although, it did call it "a fun ride when not taken very seriously."[31]

Nowadays, Dragon Ball GT receives the most exposure through the arcade video game Dragon Ball Heroes, which is very popular in Japan and prominently features many elements from GT.

References

  1. ↑ "Dragon Ball Gt". Funimation. Retrieved August 13, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Dragon Ball GT". Funimation. Archived from the original on July 20, 2014. Retrieved August 24, 2016.
  3. ↑ Akira Toriyama message in the Dragon Book included with the Dragon Ball GT Dragon Box DVD set.
  4. ↑ DRAGON BALL アニメイラスト集 「黄金の戦士」 (in Japanese). Shueisha. 2010. pp. 78–79. ISBN 978-4-8342-8413-3.
  5. ↑ "U.S. TV's Nicktoons to Run Dragon Ball GT in January". Anime News Network. December 15, 2011. Retrieved December 22, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Dragon Ball GT episode guide". YTV. Archived from the original on April 5, 2008. Retrieved June 5, 2008.
  7. ↑ "Forum Buzz: New Anime on YTV this Fall". AnimeOnDVD.com. August 18, 2004. Archived from the original on September 27, 2004. Retrieved June 5, 2008.
  8. ↑ "DRAGON BALL GT1 [DVD]". Amazon.com. Retrieved February 16, 2014.
  9. ↑ "DRAGON BALL GT #11 [DVD]". Amazon.com. Retrieved February 16, 2014.
  10. ↑ "FUNimation announces DBGT". Anime News Network. January 18, 2003. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Dragon Ball GT – The Lost Episodes – Reaction (Vol. 1)". Amazon.com. Retrieved February 16, 2014.
  12. ↑ "Dragon Ball GT – The Lost Episodes – Activation (Vol. 5)". Amazon.com. Retrieved February 16, 2014.
  13. ↑ "Dragon Ball GT Volume 1–5 Box Set". Amazon.com. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  14. ↑ "Dragon Ball GT: Lost Episodes Box Set". Amazon.com. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  15. ↑ "Dragon Ball GT: Season One". Amazon.com. Retrieved March 10, 2009.
  16. ↑ "Dragon Ball GT: Season Two". Amazon.com. Retrieved July 23, 2010.
  17. ↑ Dragonball GT Videos, Vol. 1, retrieved November 11, 2016
  18. ↑ Neel, Christopher; Carlile, Jeremy (September 21, 2010), Dragon Ball GT: The Complete Series, Funimation Prod, ASIN B003SPDS7G
  19. ↑ "Manga Entertainment 2013 Q1 Schedule Includes Evangelion 3.33 in March". Anime News Network. November 26, 2013. Retrieved December 22, 2013.
  20. ↑ "復刻版ドラゴンボールGTパーフェクトファイル　vol．1 (Dragon Ball GT: Perfect File vol.1)". Shueisha. Retrieved December 22, 2013.
  21. ↑ "復刻版ドラゴンボールGTパーフェクトファイル　vol．2 (Dragon Ball GT: Perfect File vol.2)". Shueisha. Retrieved December 22, 2013.
  22. ↑ "Dragon Ball GT Gets Anime Comic Series". Anime News Network. October 30, 2013. Retrieved December 22, 2013.
  23. ↑ "Dragon Ball Xenoverse GT PACK 1 - Microsoft Store". Microsoft Store. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  24. ↑ "Dragon Ball Xenoverse GT PACK 2 - Microsoft Store". Microsoft Store. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  25. ↑ "Dragon Ball Xenoverse - Season Pass - Microsoft Store". Microsoft Store. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  26. ↑ "Episode Guide | Dragon Ball GT Episode List". Kanzenshuu. Retrieved 2018-05-03.
  27. ↑ "Anime DVD/BD Sales in Japan". Retrieved October 12, 2018.
  28. ↑ "Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 Producer On Cross Cultural Dragon Ball Development - Siliconera". Siliconera. 2010-07-28. Retrieved 2018-05-03.
  29. ↑ Harris, Jeffrey (November 12, 2007). "Dragon Ball GT – The Lost Episodes DVD Box Set Review". IGN. Retrieved October 3, 2008.
  30. ↑ Bertschy, Zac (June 6, 2004). "Dragon Ball GT DVD 8: Salvation". Anime News Network. Retrieved October 4, 2008.
  31. ↑ Divers, Allen (January 15, 2004). "Dragon Ball GT DVD 7: Annihlation". Anime News Network. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
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