‘Dragon Ball Super’ Director Reveals How ‘Broly’s Production Schedule Differed

Dragon Ball Super is one of anime’s most-talked about series, and the franchise is expanding with its manga these days. Soon, fans will be able to bring the anime’s first feature film home, and a recent interview with its director is breaking down how its production schedule went.

And, as it would turn out, the schedule for Dragon Ball Super: Broly put the TV’s plan to shame.

Recently, director Tatsuya Nagamine did an interview to prepare for the release of Dragon Ball Super: Broly on home video. It was there the former TV anime director got real about the projects’ varying schedules, and Nagamine is a clear fan of how his film went.

According to summaries by fan-translator Deem, Nagamine felt entirely too crunched when he worked as a series director on Dragon Ball Super‘s television series.

“Since Nagamine joined the production, he was fixing the storyboards to the point that his right hand got broke. [He] even asked for another series director to work with him so he can just focus on fixing the storyboards.”

However, once the director was brought on to oversee the anime’s film, Nagamine found himself pleasantly surprised with how Toei Animation handled its workload.

“He was extremely happy with the schedule of Broly that he was working on it comfortably…. Nagamine said that before Broly, Toei didn’t put any effort to do anything to help the quality of Super, just saying ‘do your best’ to the staff,” the summary reads.

“But in [Broly’s] case it was different. There was a proper budget and schedule and those two are the main keys that will bring enthusiastic animators to you.”

With the anime finished both on the big and small screen, there is no production schedule haunting Dragon Ball Super these days. However, fans do hope the title will return sooner rather than later, and they’re crossing their fingers Toei Animation has learned a lesson from the show’s originally cramped scheduled.

So, do you think other Dragon Ball Super projects will get this kind of prep time moving forward? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!

Dragon Ball Super: Broly is out now. Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami block Saturday evenings. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release is available to stream on FunimationNOW, VRV, and Crunchyroll.