The cast of Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball is the most diverse one. Different characters have joined the cast to build a legacy that can be hardly matched by any other Shonen franchise. Fans have fallen in love with the mangaka’s humble characters, who have redeemed themselves from vicious villains to allies that Goku can always count on.
One such name is Piccolo, who is not only a close friend of Kakarot, but also a reliable mentor of Gohan. While the Namekian has been part of some of the major battles in the series, he was sidelined in the non-canon series, Dragon Ball GT. This decision felt vague, which added to the long list of problems in the series.
However, it turns out that Atsushi Maekawa, the writer of the show, had a special idea that made him put the character on the sidelines till the very end.
Dragon Ball GT’s writer had a vague idea behind sidelining Piccolo
For the most part, in Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball, Goku has been portrayed as one of the strongest, if not the strongest mortal, in all of Universe 7. Time and again, he has played the role of a fool who puts their planet in danger and then saves the day with one of his many iconic transformations.
Contrary to the protagonist, Piccolo is one of the smarter characters, who is often overlooked by the viewers. However, the OGs know his contribution to DBZ, playing a key role in multiple arcs of the narrative. Hence, it felt quite bizarre to see him not taking any part in the non-canon series, Dragon Ball GT.
In an exclusive interview via Kanzenshuu, Atsushi Maekawa, the scriptwriter, explained how the connection roots back to Dragon Ball Z, where different characters appear in relation to each other.
He said,
Because of connections going back to Dragon Ball Z, if Vegeta is a character who appears in relation to Goku, then Piccolo is a character who should appear in relation to Gohan. In parts, there were those sorts of scenes where Gohan and Piccolo interact with each other, but GT comes to focus around the story of Goku and Vegeta.
Maekawa-San continued that if speaking “hypothetically,” the series marched forward with Gohan as the main point of focus; Piccolo would have had more screentime and epic fights.
So, hypothetically, if GT had gone forward with Gohan being depicted as the focus, it might have become a story where Piccolo had a flashy, big role to play. (laughs)
Nevertheless, just like the canon series, Gohan was sidelined in GT as well, because of a major creative decision that dates back to the original series by the mangaka.
Dragon Ball GT dodged more criticism by not reviving a canon character
There’s no denying that the non-canon show has been part of immense criticism, where Otakus finds almost everything about the work to be immensely wrong. From the subpar intro to the gradual degradation of the animation quality, the very existence of the work boiled the blood of the viewers.
The show currently sits at a mere rating of 6.8/10 on IMDb, but the ratings could have dropped even more. In the same interview via Kanzenshuu, Atsushi Maekawa reflected on how they would receive criticism if they revived Android 17 at the end. He said,
At the time of the TV broadcast, in the midst of everyone coming back to life, I received the criticism from many fans, “It’s mean not to have No. 17 come back!”
Despite the scene not being featured in the episode, due to “screen time constraints,” it was present at the “scenario stage.” He added,
Certainly, while it was cut due to screen time constraints and wasn’t in the episode, at the scenario stage that scene was in there, complete with dialogue! If any of you were bothered by it, please understand it that way. (laughs)
Well, some might say that the show has tarnished the legacy of the Godfather of anime; the project’s creative decision to stray away from the original work brought something new to the iconic franchise that every fan would agree to.
Dragon Ball GT can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
