Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball series has been a cultural touchstone that revolutionized the Shonen series. For over four decades, the franchise has appealed to the fans. This is due to a long list of characters, an emotionally resonating narrative, and carefully choreographed high-octane action scenes that make it so epic.
Over the years, the franchise has dropped numerous additions such as series, movies, live-action films, and merchandise that have kept it so relevant. Despite being such an alluring work, the franchise has featured Dragon Ball GT, which is a controversial addition on its own.
Aside from the subpar animation of the work, it is a highly debatable series, especially because of how the open ending has kept the viewers debating over Kakarot’s fate.
Dragon Ball GT: The ending that has kept fans wondering about Goku’s fate
Without a shadow of a doubt, Dragon Ball GT is the most hated series from our beloved franchise. The show started to air right after Dragon Ball Z, continuing the story of Goku and the Z-Fighters. However, without Akira Toriyama’s creative direction, the show often strayed away from what the mangaka had in mind when he created the show in the first place.
As a result, much of the work was left for interpretation by the fans. Unlike the other series GT, which featured only 64 episodes, the final episode’s ending has left the fans bewildered, leaving them curious about the fate of the Saiyan.
The final episode titled “Until We Meet Again” was aired on November 19, 1997. The episode featured how after defeating Omega Shenron, the evil dragon was created by the overuse of the seven mystical orbs. However, defeating him did not conclude his adventures.
Following the battle, Shenron appears without being summoned and informs them that he will no longer be able to grant their wishes to the Z-Warriors. This was due to him losing his wish-granting abilities from overuse in such a short span of time. Gladly, he convinced Shenron to revive everyone dying at the hands of Super 17 and the Shadow Dragons before departing with him to restore the orbs’ power, leaving Vegeta as the protector of Earth.
On his way, he met everyone for the last time. Goku, feeling tired, lies down on Shenron’s back, the Dragon Balls revolving around his body with the Four-Star Ball merging into his heart. Shenron roars for the last time before he vanishes from Earth.
The ending was nothing like the other series, which has made the fandom scratch their heads, thinking about the fate of Goku. However, interpreting from the scene, it can be assumed that Kakarot merged with the Dragon Balls and the four-star orb became his heart.
GT’s screenwriter interprets Goku’s fate at the end
While every viewer has their own interpretation of the series, Atsushi Maekawa, the screenwriter of Dragon Ball GT, gave his take on what exactly happened or what might be the case that has left the fans debating for 28 years.
During an exclusive interview via Kanzenshuu, he mentions how a “big change” can be noticed in our protagonist. He described after taking Xing Long’s attack, Kakarot “sinks to the bottom of a deep hole” that ultimately became a turning point in the series, where he was cloaked “in an aura” that protected him from attacks coming towards him. He added,
It might be that he died there, or it might be that he became something else entirely. I’ll leave that decision to the imaginations of everyone who watched. However, the Goku up to that point that everyone knows clearly does not appear after that.
Maekawa-San clarified how he wanted to do something different from Toriyama-Sensei’s preconceived vision of death. This meant he did not want characters to be revived repeatedly, or to appear with a halo over their heads.
The screenwriter wanted the fans to picture “death” and, in one way, wanted them to feel sadness. Thus, introducing a major change towards Kakarot. Nevertheless, he did imagine how Goku would show up at Chi-Chi’s place from time to time to meet his family, which would be unexpected to him or the viewers of the 1996 show.
Dragon Ball GT can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
