Line #47 WhatCouldHaveBeen/DragonBall


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5	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/early_dragon_ball.png]]
6	[[caption-width-right:350:''Very'' early designs of Bulma, Goku, and Oolong, after the prototypes but before ''Dragon Ball''.]]
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11	''Dragon Ball'''s creator Creator/AkiraToriyama and the staff of Creator/ToeiAnimation came with many ideas that were shot down. Here is a compilation of all of them.
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13	----
14	!!Manga
15
16	* The original pilot for the manga, and for the series as a whole, was called "Dragon Boy". Its hero, Tanton, was a boy with bat wings that would evolve into the monkey-tailed Goku. The pilot interestingly featured an artifact called a Dragon Ball, but it was pretty useless (all it did was release a puny dragon). The story was also much more heavily based on ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'' than the actual printed ''Dragon Ball'' was/is, and had Tanton escorting a princess that strongly resembles Bulma back home to her country. When the story ends, the heroes still had nine-tenths of the way to go. Just think of all that could have been here...
17	* During the early days of the manga, Kazuhiko Torishima, Toriyama's editor at the time, expressed interest to have Goku and Bulma fall in love with each other. This was mentioned in an omake at the end of a chapter in ''Manga/DoctorSlump''.
18	* Toriyama didn't plan on Goku being an alien. His Great Ape transformation was supposed to be something like that of a werewolf and chalk it up to OurWerebeastsAreDifferent, and a nod to ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest''. He also didn't plan Piccolo as being an alien either.[[note]]Funnily enough, the Funimation dub of Dragon Ball calls King Piccolo an extra-terrestrial in a closing narration of one of the episodes, in a point before Toriyama decided that Piccolo was an alien, due to the fact Funimation dubbed these episodes while they were dubbing the Cell saga and thus knew about this in advance.[[/note]]
19	* Androids 19 and 20 (the latter of whom was always intended to be Dr. Gero, with the earlier claim of having "killed" him [[ThatManIsDead being figurative rather than literal]]) were originally meant to be the {{Big Bad}}s of the Android saga. But almost immediately following the release of their introductory chapter, Toriyama's former editor, Kazuhiko Torishima, got in touch with him just to basically laugh at him for making the new and much-hyped villains be a fatso and an old geezer. Which resulted in Toriyama creating Androids 17 and 18... which Torishima ''also'' didn't like on account of being brats, prompting Toriyama to create Cell... Which his then-current editor, Yuu Kondou, didn't like the design of, making him push Toriyama into giving Cell the ability to transform... However, Kondou thought Cell's second form just looked moronic, so he pressed Toriyama into quickly unveiling Cell's cooler, perfect form.
20	* Gohan was slated to become the protagonist after the Cell Saga. However, Toriyama later decided against it, believing he wasn't fit for the role. There were ''several'' instances where the story could have been drastically different. [[https://www.kanzenshuu.com/intended-end/boo/ This page]] goes into more details about what could have been.
21	* One of Toriyama's concept sketches for Super Saiyan 3 Goku in the 30th Anniversary ''Super History Book'' shows him with shorter hair, while another shows him with his tail grown back.
22	* Gogeta was originally supposed to be in the manga and the anime, but because the writers behind the movie ''[[Anime/DragonBallZFusionReborn Fusion Reborn]]'' came up with the concept before he could unveil it, Toriyama came up with Vegito instead. Gogeta would later make a TV appearance in ''Anime/DragonBallGT''. Gogeta would later make his debut in a Toriyama-written piece of media in ''Anime/DragonBallSuperBroly''.
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24	!! Post-manga movies
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26	* In the scriptwriter's original treatment of the ''Battle of Gods'' movie, Beerus was supposed to be a [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent lizard character]], TheVirus (hence his name) and responsible for turning the Saiyan race evil in the first place, giving the Super Saiyan God subplot an immediacy and relevance to the God of Destruction besides him just wanting to fight someone strong. He would have even turned Goku's friends against him, forcing him to reflect on "what makes a hero" and so on. Akira Toriyama didn't like this concept, however, and reworked the plot into something much more lighthearted, with the goofy, fun-loving, purple cat-god (inspired by one of Toriyama's cats) we now know. He also thought that Beerus was named after beer, and decided to give all Gods of Destruction and attendants [[EdibleThemeNaming alcohol theme naming]].
27	* Before the party in the film became Bulma's birthday, scriptwriter Yūsuke Watanabe first thought of Krillin and Android 18's wedding as the setting for the story.
28	--> '''Yūsuke Watanabe''', '''DVD & Blu-ray Vision, issue #4, March 19, 2013''': "I thought I would do a story where the enemy appears at a party on Earth when Goku is not there, and there would be big trouble. In the original plot, I wrote Krillin and Android 18's wedding, but in the story that came back from Toriyama-sensei, it had changed to Bulma's birthday party. I think, with regards to Krillin and Android 18's wedding, it is probably something that he wants all the fans to imagine for themselves."
29	* Super Saiyan God was meant to look different according to Creator/TadayoshiYamamuro. [[https://www.kanzenshuu.com/translations/okstars-interview-vol-249-tadayoshi-yamamuro/ According to the interview, ]] Super Saiyan God was meant to look more sturdy than Super Saiyan and with a cape. Toriyama rejected it and came up with the slender and simple design.
30	--> I handled the roughs for Super Saiyan God. It was “a being that surpasses everything” so I drew a character more built than Super Saiyan, with a cape, but then illustrations with a completely different feel came back from Toriyama-sensei… It was too different from my own internal image, so I tried suggesting the more sturdily-drawn character one more time, and then Sensei told me that it really was all wrong.
31	* Many storyboarded scenes were cut for time. Among them was a scene of the supporting cast coming to Goku's aid when he finds himself in a pinch, despite being fully aware of how outclassed they are against Beerus.
32	* The script Toriyama originally wrote for ''Anime/DragonBallSuperBroly'' would have resulted in a three-hour movie, but the final product cut out reportedly 70 minutes of content, including a fight with Raditz, Vegeta, and Nappa.
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34	!! Dragon Ball Super
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36	* According to an interview with Toriyama and Toyotaro in the fourth volume of the ''Super'' manga, Vegito wasn't supposed to appear at the climax of the Future Trunks saga, since to Toriyama it was very improbable Vegeta would fuse again after the Majin Buu Saga. Toyotaro's suggestions, however, allowed him to appear in order to make the conflict more meaningful. Furthermore, Fused Zamasu was supposed to be much weaker than he was presented in the anime, where two Super Saiyan Blues would be able to defeat him.
37	* Toppo's role at the beginning of the Universe Survival arc was initially planned for Jiren, given that he appears in the preview trailer of that arc rather than Toppo and that his name was accidentally left unchanged by ''Shounen Jump'' when they released the summary for episode 82. An interview expanded on this stating Jiren was meant to have Toppo's personality, but this was rejected by Toriyama.
38	* It's implied that before Akira Toriyama suggested the creation of Caulifla, her role of serving as the moral support for Kale would have been taken by Cabba. Scrapped information on Toei's website even states that "Cabba is too rough on her". Furthermore, due to their similar designs, it's very likely Kale was meant to be Renso's sister, not Caulifla.
39	* According to Toyotaro in an interview, he originally made the god of destruction Belmod and his assistant Marcarita act [[OfficeRomance like they were lovers]], but Toriyama disliked the idea since angels are meant to be more professional than that. Marcarita also referred to the Grand Priest as "papa", but it was changed for the more formal "father" in the final version.
40
41	!! Dragon Ball GT
42	* It is heavily implied that Ledgic was originally supposed to make future appearances.
43	* At one point, Toriyama and Toei planned the series to be an interquel set within the timeskip between the battle with Buu and the epilogue to ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. Eventually, that idea ended up being used for ''Anime/DragonBallSuper''.
44	* Statements by Toriyama imply Pan was supposed to go Super Saiyan at some point, but he was unable to think of how it would work and so he never drew a design for her. If she had been able to, she would have been able to use some kind of form or power unique to her as a Super Saiyan. The idea would eventually get RefittedForSequel come ''Anime/DragonballSuper'' with Caulifla and Kale.
45
46	!! International dubs
47	!!! Funimation
48	* In [=FUNimation=]'s dub, Creator/LauraBailey auditioned for Android 18 before Meredith [=McCoy=], a good friend of hers, got the role instead. Laura later beat out Meredith to voice Kid Trunks and Kid Chi-Chi, and has since gone on to a very, very successful voice-acting career. Also, Creator/SeanSchemmel says he auditioned for Captain Ginyu and Piccolo, and was surprised when he was cast as Goku because he felt that Ginyu was his strongest audition. Stephanie Nadolny also says she auditioned for Bulma, Frieza, Chiaotzu, Android 18, Videl, and Goten at different points, but admits that the director thought her voice was too distinctive to voice anyone other than Kid Goku and Gohan. Tiffany Vollmer (Bulma) also says she auditioned for Frieza and Chiaotzu, and Creator/LindaYoung (Frieza, Baba, Arale, Fasha, Piiza) says she also auditioned for Krillin, Gohan, and Bulma. Also, at one time, [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2000-08-17/freddie-prinze-jr-may-do-dbz-voice FUNimation was in talks with Freddie Prinze Jr]] about voicing Teen Gohan.
49	* When Funimation began dubbing the original ''Dragon Ball'' in-house beginning in 2001, they ran polls on their website to determine some of the voice cast, complete with sound clips. For Kid Goku, Ceyli Delgadillo (who had voiced the role in movies 2-3 and some brief flashbacks in ''Dragon Ball Z'') was on the poll alongside Stephanie Nadolny (the voice of Kid Gohan), with the latter winning out. Also, Creator/MikeMcFarland almost reprised Emperor Pilaf after voicing his cameo in movie 3, but he lost to Creator/ChuckHuber (who had previously voiced Garlic Jr and Android 17).
50	* Creator/LindaYoung was supposed to return as Frieza for ''Kai'', and even recorded his brief laugh in Episode 1, but the role was recast with Creator/ChrisAyres (according to Young, they just wanted to take the character in a different direction). Young has continued voicing Fortune Teller Baba and other characters though.
51	** On a similar note, Meredith [=McCoy=] was asked to return as Android 18, but was unavailable, so Creator/ColleenClinkenbeard filled in instead (Meredith is back voicing 18 in recent movies and ''Super'').
52	** Allegedly, Christopher Sabat attempted to get Creator/ScottMcNeil from the Ocean dub to voice Piccolo, since he wanted to lighten his load of characters. But Scott was too expensive, so Sabat continued to voice Piccolo.
53	* Before Funimation replaced the Vancouver cast as a cost-saving measure, there was a plan in place that Pioneer, Funimation's home video distributor, would produce an uncut, far more accurate dub of the ''Dragon Ball'' franchise alongside the unfaithful TV dub Funimation and Saban were producing, using the same Vancouver cast as Funimation and Saban were making use of. We got a taste of what this would have been like in the form of Pioneer producing dubs of the first three ''Z'' movies, still to this day considered a gold standard of Dragon Ball dubbing. Sadly, when Saban decided to drop ''DBZ'' from their syndication lineup and Funimation moved to broadcasting on Toonami, Funi decided to sever ties with Pioneer. And to this day, even after the "Remastered dub" re-recorded several lines and redubbed the previously-Saban-dubbed first two seasons with Funimation's in-house cast, their dub of ''Z'' is still just as unfaithful to the source material as when they were originally dubbing it with Saban in 1996.
54	* Creator/TravisWillingham saw ''DBZ'' while in college and, having met Laura Bailey in another job, desperately begged her to try and get him on the show in some role. She claimed that she genuinely forgot to put his name forward and that she didn't deliberately ignore the request, but by the time Travis joined Funimation the show had long since ended. To make matters more amusing, the two would go on to work together and get married. Travis ''would'' get to voice some extra characters in the Ultimate Uncut redub of the Saiyan and Namek Sagas years later plus some extras in ''GT'' and ''Broly - Second Coming'', and filled in for Dameon Clarke as Cell in several video games.
55	* Creator/SeanSchemmel was called in to redub his characters (Goku, King Kai, and Nail) for the Ginyu/Frieza Saga "remastering", but was unavailable. This may or may not have played a strong role in why most of the "remastered" dub after Season 3 i.e. the Frieza Saga remained exactly the same as the original due to the main actor not returning.
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57	!!! Ocean
58	* When Funimation first began dubbing ''Dragon Ball'' with the Vancouver cast, they originally chose to use the names that Harmony Gold had used in their short-lived dub a few years prior ("Zero" for Goku, "Lena" for Bulma, "Zedaki" for Yamcha, etc), but later decided against this.
59	* [[https://dbzu.3gkai.com/opinions/gfukunaga.html Apparently,]] Funimation had someone else in mind to play Vegeta, but the unconfirmed actor couldn't commit to a full schedule, so Creator/BrianDrummond was cast instead. There was also talk of apparently replacing Drummond once the Namek Saga started being dubbed, but for better or worse, it never happened.
60	* Lalainia Lindbjerg claims she almost wasn't brought back as Bulma for ''Dragon Ball Z'' after recording the Vancouver dub for ''Dragon Ball'' episodes 1-13, and had to re-audition with a slightly older-sounding voice to keep the part.
61	* After the Vancouver cast had come back, under Ocean studios and Westwood media, to dub the rest of ''DBZ'' (save for the 54 episodes following Funimation dropping the Vancouver cast), they were then geared up to dub ''GT'' too. The original Japanese score would be used, the scripts would be very faithful translations, and aside from a couple of shots of nudity in the early episodes, it was to be produced uncut. Sadly, just like when Pioneer were going to do this with the Vancouver cast for all three series, cost-saving got in the way; Ken Morrison, head of Ocean, ordered ''GT'' to be moved to a new low-budget "Blue Water" studio in Calgary with a new cast of actors under a union with less strict rules, allowing them to be paid a lot less than their Vancouver counterparts. While the dub did still end up being a very accurate dub with something of a cult-like status in certain corners of the fandom for its superiority to Funimation's dub in the area of faithfulness of script and tone, the poor acting from the Calgary cast gives it a somewhat infamous reputation in other corners, and [[https://twitter.com/rogerrhodes/status/950557131991756800 even people who worked on this dub are somewhat disappointed with the end result]].
62	** While the scripts weren't as faithful as ''GT'', and it was afflicted with censorship baked in from the European video masters they were given, this cast would also go on to dub the original ''Dragon Ball'' series afterward. Naturally, if Ken Morrison hadn't moved the work to Calgary, we would have got the Vancouver cast dubbing this too.
63	** There is a kind of happy ending to this in that the Calgary and Vancouver casts would later unite to dub ''Dragon Ball Z Kai''. By 2011, the Calgary-based Blue Water studio had matured a lot, and while the majority of the cast were still Vancouver-based, roles as key as Tien Shinhan were cast from Calgary.
64	* AB Groupe had the rights to distribute the Ocean and Blue Water dubs on [=DVD=] in the UK. But after how poorly their [=DVDs=] of the "Big Green" dubbed movies sold, they never bothered to put out any further home video of ''Dragon Ball'' in the UK. [[note]]It's a common misconception that AB Groupe actually produced the Canadian dubs. It's worth noting that AB only distributed them, in European territories. However, since they were working with the company actually producing these dubs, Westwood media, AB provided the video masters for ''Dragon Ball'', ''GT'', and the last few episodes of ''Z'', which AB had on hand from the fact they were behind the French dubbing and distribution of the franchise.[[/note]]
65	* Kix UK were assumed by many to be airing Ocean's dub of Anime/DragonBallZKai, but instead they aired Funimation's. Ocean's dub was ready by then. Insiders have claimed that Funimation was, and still is, trying to stop the competing dub from airing, leading some insiders to go as far as to say "This dub will never air."
66	** As it stands, Ocean's dub of ''Kai'' has indeed yet to air, though a company in Canada called Wow Unlimited have given every indication that they're acquiring the dub to air when they get their TV channel up and running... Which hasn't happened yet. And they have no ETA when it might happen because starting up a new TV channel in the current climate is very difficult, and very expensive. So, we can only wait and hope.
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68	!!! International dubs
69
70	* Regarding the Latin American Spanish dub, Creator/MarioCastaneda at first refused to voice adult Goku in 1997 because he was not sure if the fans were going to accept a change of voice to the main character (knowing that in Japan, despite the character growing up, Goku continued to be voiced by Masako Nozawa); but eventually acepted after [[SoMyKidsCanWatch his son insisted that he voiced Goku]]. Given that Castañeda's performance went on to become so well-loved in Latin America that it led to the debacle regarding ''Anime/DragonBallZKai'' in the region,[[note]]He and most of the original cast were replaced for the first 98 episodes of ''Kai'', which led to that particular series to be negatively received in the region, which in turn led to Castañeda and most of the original cast to be brought back for ''Kai: The Final Chapters''[[/note]] this certainly became a huge "What Could Have Been" among the fandom. Said son himself, Arturo Castañeda, would go on to play Whis in ''Anime/DragonBallZBattleOfGods'', ''Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF'' and ''Anime/DragonBallSuper''.
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72	!!! Other
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74	* Harmony Gold had done an obscure and short-lived English dub of the ''Manga/DragonBall'' anime between 1989 and 1990, with many {{Dub Name Change}}s; Goku was named [[MyHeroZero Zero]], Bulma was Lena, Krillin was Bongo... Only the first five episodes (and the first and third movies, merged into a single 80-main film) were dubbed, and the project was axed when test markets failed to hold an audience.
75	** The Mexican dubbing company Video Doblajes would later make a longer-lived Spanish dub partially based in Harmony Gold's dub, known as "'''Zero y el Dragón Mágico'''" (Zero and the Magical Dragon) which lasted for 60 episodes and the merged movie, translating from the original Japanese once they advanced past HG's dub. The dub ended up being canceled when the director quit after refusing to undo the {{Dub Name Change}}s, which were originally ordered by VD before realizing the fans in Europe used the original names. The VD dub, made between 1992 and 1994, predates Cloverway's better-known 1997-1999 dub, which would succeed where the first dub failed and bring the Dragon Ball franchise to Latin America, where it remains popular to this day.
76	* There were originally plans to continue ''Film/DragonballEvolution'' with multiple sequels that would have adapted elements from the Saiyan Saga onwards. However, all plans were scrapped after the film's poor performance with audiences and critics. And with Disney owning 20th Century Fox and little-to-nothing known regarding Fox's ownership of rights for live-action DB films, the future of the franchise in live-action is unknown.
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Context WhatCouldHaveBeen / DragonBall