If Dragon Ball Super Returns to TV Soon, Please Drop the CG Animation

Rumors are starting to swirl about a potential return of the Dragon Ball Super TV anime series following a juicy tease from the producer of the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie, but it should really ditch the CG animation before that happens. Akio Iyoku revealed in a special message to fans on the official Dragon Ball Super website that there might be more to look forward to from the franchise besides the new movie hitting Japan this Spring. This has sparked all kinds of debate over whether or not the anime is actually returning, but that’s not where the debate should lie.

Development first began on Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero before the release of Dragon Ball Super: Broly, and Toei Animation wanted to differentiate this next project by fully diving into new CGI technology that the studio and staff has been touting from the very moment the new movie was announced. They’ve been able to develop all of this while working on a ton of other projects (that former members of the Dragon Ball Super anime staff have moved onto), and thus starts to make one wonder whether or not a full TV anime run for the series would be sporting the same look. 

There’s honestly a lot of excitement for the full CGI look for the franchise in the upcoming movie because the brief looks at it through promotional materials have been pretty stellar thus far. It’s likely it will provide a key evolutionary look for the franchise that excites for the future, but the problem with the full CG look is that we’ve already gotten to see what the peak of Dragon Ball Super could look like in the events of Dragon Ball Super: Broly. Sure it’s safe to argue that Super Hero’s CG won’t be as wonky as it was in the previous film (especially given that director Tetsuro Kodama is very experienced with CG animated projects), but it’s hard to forget the 2D animated spectacle we’ve already gotten. 

Dragon Ball Super: Broly’s action has been brewing in fans mind for going on four years at this point, so it’s likely that this would be the look that many more fans would want than a CG continuation. Then there’s the argument over the stability of such a continuation as well. The anime won’t be able to maintain the same level of quality entirely throughout with either style of animation, but rougher edges would be easier to pick out (and pick on) with CG animation. It’s just a matter of wondering what the workload is like for the staff at Toei Animation.

At the end of the day, a new Dragon Ball Super anime would be exciting whether it’s 2D or 3D, but let’s all be honest with ourselves. No matter how good the CG style of the new movie is, if the full anime came back with that same look it’s clearly going to strike the wrong chord with the fans. We’ve all been dreaming about the kinds of 2D animated peaks seen before, and that’s what the majority of us is hoping comes back. 

What do you think? Would you want to see Dragon Ball Super returning with 2D or CG animation? Would you be happy to just get new anime episodes in general? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!