Dragon Ball Super Rumored to Get Anime Remake, And That’s a Terrible Idea

Rumors of a potential remake for Dragon Ball Super‘s anime are starting to pick up speed with fans, but that’s such a terrible idea for the future of the franchise. Dragon Ball is currently stuck in an uneasy situation as following the death of franchise creator Akira Toriyama, the rights for the franchise are in flux as those behind the scenes are debating how to proceed forward. It’s not something that can easily be done following the death of the creator, so kicking the can down the line is also starting to sound reasonable.

Rumors of a potential remake for Dragon Ball Super have been swirling with even more fervor ahead of Dragon Ball’s 40th anniversary livestream event coming later this weekend (to the point where some of the series’ stars have been asked to chime in), and while these are far from accredited or anything close to something confirmable, it’s just a bad idea in general. It’s the kind of rumor that’s really only to point out that remaking Dragon Ball Super is only further putting off dealing with the problem now.

What Does a Dragon Ball Super Remake Even Look Like?

If Dragon Ball Super were to get an anime remake only a few years after its original debut, the first major issue is that there wouldn’t be much of a return from it in terms of how to update it. The initial arcs of the TV series were already remakes of Dragon Ball Z films Battle of Gods and Resurrection F, and those visuals have since been adjusted following divisive debuts. So a remake trying to push its visual fidelity even further just wouldn’t be as big of a jump as what fans would hope to see from a remake in general.

It’d be better served for a remake to go all the way back to classic Dragon Ball or even Dragon Ball Z so fans can actually see a difference before trying to remake Dragon Ball Super. It’s also the question of what a remake for this iteration of the franchise can even accomplish. Dragon Ball Super released a manga iteration of its events long after the anime began, so the anime is technically the fully canonical source. Regardless of whether or not fans liked a given episode, they still happen within Goku’s story.

It’s not a situation like Dragon Ball Z Kai where Dragon Ball Super just created original anime materials to give the manga’s story time to develop, and thus a remake can streamline the adaptation to just what Toriyama had in the manga. The anime is technically the canon version of the story, so everything that happened there “really” happened to Goku and the others. Even if fans prefer how things went down in the manga, like with the Tournament of Power, the anime’s version of the events is what’s set in stone.

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Dragon Ball Super Remake Still Doesn’t Address the Biggest Problem

Ultimately, Dragon Ball Super’s anime is still facing a huge issue when it comes to both the manga and anime. There are still two major arcs of the manga that have yet to make it to the screen as the story was continued far beyond the events of the Tournament of Power arc that ended the TV series. This would have been fine if they stayed exclusive to the manga, but Toriyama then returned for a brand new anime feature film that took place after those two manga arcs.

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero takes place after the events of the Galactic Patrol Prisoner and Granolah the Survivor arcs seen in Dragon Ball Super‘s manga, and even extends the anime’s story further with an epilogue. This is the final spot on the current Dragon Ball timeline, and it’s where the franchise needs to figure out how to advance from. But if the team decides to just remake Dragon Ball Super instead, this is really only pushing this issue down the line. Fans will just wait to see what’s next after the remake ends its own run.

If a Dragon Ball Super anime remake does happen, and for example, decides to adapt everything as it happened in the manga story, then it will be different enough from the original anime to entice fans. But even after it gets to its own ending point, it’s still not looking ahead to the future of Dragon Ball. Goku and the others’ stories will be remaining in stasis long after this hiatus first began, and probably goes against what those behind the scenes are hoping to accomplish.

If they want to prove there’s a future with Dragon Ball after Toriyama’s death, the worst way to go about it would be to dig up the past instead. What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!