Now, I know what you're thinking. "You can't defend GT! It's such garbage! Ugh why would you even try! You're not a true Dragon Ball fan if you like GT! You have terrible tastes!" Well sit back, you raging butthurt fanboy. Sit back, listen to what I have to say, and I'll hopefully show you how GT is better than you think....and better than the current Dragon Ball Super. As for the more mature or curious of you, I hope you enjoy.
I'll do a sort of skipping around, showing why GT is good as well as defend some of the points that people point at when crying about the series. Does it have it's problems? Oh absolutely. But let's take a look at the other side of the coin....
1. The Pacing of Dragon Ball GT
Let's take a moment to think about it. How well paced is GT in comparison to Super and Z? Well, what's usually pointed out is the first 13 episodes or so of GT is sort of dragging, and while I agree, it still sets up more story. In episode 1 alone, we are reestablished with the characters, and are given a clear objective to go for: Goku once again venturing as a child.
Now, once we hit 14 or 15, the story picks up more with the Machine Mutants, etc. etc. The Super 17 Saga of GT was a mere 7 episodes long. You could argue that it set up the Shadow Dragon Saga, but it did what it set out to do: tell the story of the return of Android 17, show his dominance, his fight with Goku, and bam. Done. We've moved on.
Now, let's compare that to Dragon Ball Z: using Funimation's ordering of Sagas, the Frieza Saga alone is 33 episodes. Yes, for episodes 75 through 107, the final bits of the Frieza story dragged on, and on, and on....that's not even counting the Saiyan, Namek, and Captain Ginyu Sagas, which alone account for the first 74 episodes. Say what you will, but there's no denying that Dragon Ball Z had godawful pacing.
Now, on to Super. Dragon Ball Super is the latest in line, and ongoing, so I'll only be judging this based on what we've seen so far. How is Super's pacing? Well, we spent a few episodes doing nothing but showing filler, such as Goku being a farmer, Goten and Trunks going after a present for Videl, and then we spent over 30 episodes recounting (terribly, but more on that later.) material we had already seen before. Also terribly paced, at least for what we've seen up to this point.
The Concept of Super Saiyan 4
Super Saiyan 4 is something of a hotly debated topic, some love it, some hate it, and I'm going to objectively show you why it's great like a smug asshole. Super Saiyan 1 is without a doubt THE most iconic of the franchise, and definitely a great and useful transformation, as we've seen it used effectively many, many times. The concept of Super Saiyan 2 was fantastic, until it was ruined by the useless and poorly designed Super Saiyan 3....but that's a story for another day.
What I'm here to talk about is Super Saiyan 4, it's significance to the franchise, and why it made GT great. Designed by the very talented Toei Studio designer Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, Super Saiyan 4 debuted in episode 34 of Dragon Ball GT, during the Baby Saga and was billed as the ultimate Saiyan transformation.
The writers of GT did in fact do their homework, as the way to achieve a Super Saiyan 4 transformation is a callback to Dragon Ball Z. The way you become a Super Saiyan 4 is by first turning into a Golden Great Ape, or a Golden Oozaru, a concept introduced to us by Vegeta.
In episode 66 of Dragon Ball Z, Vegeta mentions the first known Super Saiyan, who, "could only hold his power in a transformed state." This could be misconstrued to mean Super Saiyan 1, and that would be understandable, however there is more evidence to support the idea of Golden Great Ape being what Vegeta referred to.
In Volume 1 of the "Dragon Ball GT Perfect Files", there reads a blurb that states,
"Incidentally, the Super Saiyan legend has a passage saying that they "love destruction and slaughter", but in actuality everyone retains their reason. However, if you'll remember, there was a form where even Goku became extremely violent!! That's right, when he transformed into a Golden Oozaru!! Surely this brutality, destructive power, and large scale are a sign of the legend that tells that they will "love destruction and slaughter"!! One can think of the Golden Oozaru form (which includes Oozaru Baby too!!) as perhaps fit to be called the true Super Saiyan!!"
This of course gives Super Saiyan 4 as a transformation a much, much deeper and more meaningful significance than most others (especially 3), presenting it moreso as a refined and bettered version of the original Super Saiyan, a form much much closer to Saiyan heritage. On top of that even, it's design is just fantastic, and has a much more primal feel to it.
The Setting of Dragon Ball GT
Now, this isn't exactly a comparison to Z or Super in terms of location, just the vast and interesting locations in which GT spans, and thus giving it a wide sense of space. In the Black Star Dragon Ball Saga alone, we get to see (obviously) Earth, deep space itself, Planet Imecka, and Planet M-2, and learn a bit more of each of them.
Next, in the Baby Saga, we get the history of the planet of the Tsufuru-Jins (Tuffles). In the Super 17 Saga we got a look at Hell, and the Shadow Dragon Saga features even more wonderful cityscapes etc. My point being, all of these locations are so well designed, and so appealing that it's really hard to hate the worldbuilding they did, as the effort is monumental.
The Techniques of GT
Now, this may be tangential, but c'mon. Everybody loves regular well known stuff like the Destructo Disc and Special Beam Cannon, but how can you not love fan service-y type moves like Baby's Revenge Death Ball, Kamehameha x10, Super Dragon Fist, or even Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta's amazing and quite impressive Big Bang Kamehameha x100? They were a "blast" to watch in action....okay, sorry, sorry.
The Soundtrack
The soundtrack to GT, composed by Akihito Tokunaga is, for lack of a better term, simply magical. Now, I mean the Japanese soundtrack solely, of course. The English soundtrack, with it's low, grungy sound is......eh.....far too late '90s for it's own good. But the Japanese? Whew. Brilliantly composed, fun, and just flat out Dragon Ball! A great example is the ending theme, titled "Blue Velvet". Give it a look!!
The Designs For GT
GT has some quite interesting character designs (both good and bad, but interesting none the less), alot done by the previously mentioned, and brilliant, Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru. From Super Saiyan 4 (Gogeta included), Super 17, Baby, the Shadow Dragons, the setting (as mentioned before), all of it is very unique, and the bad ones are few and far between. Which brings me to....
Trunks may have bad fashion sense in GT (and the tendency to get hurt in car accidents), but no one tops Vegeta's "middle age Dad" appearance, with flat top and mustache. "Hurdy hurdy hur defend that one!!!" Oh, trust me fanboy. I don't intend to. But, I WOULD like to hear you admit that that's a design done by Akira Toriyama himself.
OH, YES. THATS RIGHT. COMPLAIN ALL YOU WANT ABOUT HIM "NOT HAVING INVOLVEMENT". OH, HE DID. HE DID. HE GAVE YOU MUSTACHE FLAT TOP VEGETA. Oh, and he gave us the set-up for the Tsufuru-Jins, but more on that in a second.
The Brilliance of Baby
Baby, or "Bebi" in Japan, is quite possibly the most well developed and multilayered villain in the whole franchise. Why? Well, referring to the Super Saiyan 4 portion, the GT writers did their homework. Hardcore. In a Dragon Ball Z filler episode during Goku's first tenure on King Kai's planet, Kai explains that Planet Vegeta (the homeworld of all Saiyans) used to be known as Planet Plant, and was inhabited by peaceful people known as the Tsufuru-Jins (Tuffles).
The Saiyans arrive, wage a war, and wipe out the Tsufuru-Jins and establish themselves as the rulers of the planet. This episode, this random filler, provided the GT writers with enough information to bring us Bebi. It's explained that during the Saiyan/Tuffle War, the Tuffles were in the process of developing perfect warriors (where have we heard that before?), parasites, with one sole purpose: Destroy all Saiyans. Spread across the whole universe, these weren't heard from again until GT.
Baby comes around, hellbent on revenge, and has a real, legitimate beef with Goku and company. Think about it: these people, the ruthless, bloodthirsty Saiyans, wiped out most of your people for their own benefit. Imagine if a new, stronger race came to Earth, wiped every human but you, and established dominance. Would you develop a hatred deeper than imaginable?
If you were a sane individual you likely would. That's how Bebi feels. In any other story, he would be the hero, as his race of people did absolutely nothing wrong, and it's Goku's race who threatened their existence. And that makes you wonder....who's really right here? Plus, his ability to infest and mind control people in just plain awesome, and kinda scary when you think about it.
Canon Doesn't Matter
There's a whole can of worms I'm opening here, but let's really take a moment to think about it. The most often brought up subject when GT is talked about is, "It shouldn't matter, it isn't canon!!" Let me tell you a little something about Dragon Ball and canon.
Canon is an often debated topic, and generally the point that most fans try to "agree" on is whats canon is what Toriyama himself wrote, ideas and designs and writing that he put to paper. That would seem to suggest only his original manga, right? But, as to be expected, there's a problem with that.
Toriyama has written more than just his manga, dear reader. He wrote the story of Battle of Gods and Ressurection F, so are those canon, or is Super, the official continuation, canon? He wrote concepts for movie villains. Hell, he did a whole page for Cooler. He also put Bardock, Goku's father, into the manga, who is someone else's creation. So does that make the Bardock movies canon?
So what is, canon? Hm? You tell me. Is the main series canon? But then again, what is exactly the "main series"? Only what was presented in Z?? Canon doesn't matter in Dragon Ball, no matter how you split it, and because of that, you shouldn't leap to the "canon" arguments when talking about GT. Judge the series for what it's worth on it's own, not wether it is or isn't part of the franchise.
Animation....Uh Oh
Tell me, in detail, one instance where Dragon Ball GT suffers from poor animation......hm? Oh, you haven't watched it? Move aside, fanboy. I'm asking the sensible readers. Oh? You can't think of any instances either? Sure, it isn't 100% perfect, but when you really look at it, nine times out of ten, GT's animation is consistently solid and quite pretty. The linework is stellar, the colors vibrant, and the shading lovely.
For some reason, fans hold Z up on a pedestal, and worship it as a godlike, untouchable anime that is unmatched by all. Except....some of, okay wait....alot of, the animation is downright terrible. Does it have good animation? Oh, absolutely. If it were constantly bad, no one would like it, right? But, it's not bulletproof. At all. Take a look at the movie Return of Cooler. I love that film, but some of it's animation is godawful. It isn't perfect, people. Here is some bad DBZ animation for proof:
Oh....okay. Super. Dragon Ball Super. I don't need to say much to really prove my point. Allow me to just....show you. I get it, animation is hard. And the story behind Super's animation is best left for another day. But, this still happened....
Mischaracterization
Oh, lord. I've got more important topics to move onto. "Wahhhh they don't train anymore in GT! They're all so weak!". Battle of Gods turned Vegeta into a damned stage show, and Gohan in Super becomes an unbelievable weenie. Bite me.
Plot Holes
Ohhhh my. This is the big one. Plot holes. Firstly, I'm not going to sit here and say that GT DOESN'T have plotholes. It certainly does. As a matter of fact, just to show you I acknowledge them, here are a few:
-Dende, who can heal, grabs a first aid kit for Goku?
-Vegeta's hair changed, when he himself stated a Saiyan's hair never changes from birth in Z.
-Uub wears a helmet at the Tenkaichi Budokai, when it's stated you can't have outside protection.
-It's said Pan can't turn Super Saiyan with only 1/4th Saiyan blood, but Goku Jr. in the movie Heroe's Legacy can...and he's Pan's grandson.
-Trunks gets hurt in a freaking car accident?? Really???
Now, that's not great, pretty poor as a matter of fact, but wait until I pull out all of the plotholes in it's competition. Ladies and gentlemen, I present only some of the plotholes in Dragon Ball Z:
-Saiyans can and can't breathe in space at the same time, somehow. Bardock and Vegeta do, and Goku does as a kid (when he sent Boss Rabbit to the moon, though this was likely a gag), but suddenly he needs a spacesuit as an adult? Even then, he and Beerus very clearly fight in space later in Super.....huh.
-While training for the Saiyans, Tien, Chiaotzu and Yamcha are told they are being transported to a replication of Planet Vegeta 100 years in the past. This isn't possible because the Saiyan/Tuffle war happened only 40 years prior.
-In episode 14, Goku has a nightmare in which Chi-Chi is attacked by Vegeta and Nappa. However, the only other Saiyan he should recognize at this point is his own brother, Raditz.
-Recoome gets most of his teeth knocked out, only to have most of them present again in later scenes.
-The length of Freeza's (which is the correct way to spell his name) tail never stays consistent, even after it's cut off.
-Freeza also expresses shock when blocked by Piccolo, stating he was unaware any Namekians had survived, when he had known the freaking guy for no less than 10 whole episodes!!
-Mr. Popo uses the Dragon Balls after Kami and Piccolo are revived, which shouldn't be possible since Goku had just been revived one month prior.
And those are just a few. Mind you I chose to leave out the giant holes in both the Cell and Buu Sagas, because I feel like you get the point. Now, onto Super....
-Beerus claims to have ordered Freeza to destroy Planet Vegeta. However, previously, it was stated that Freeza ordered it's destruction because he feared insurrection at the hands of a Super Saiyan. Beerus saying that contradicts the whole point of a Super Saiyan!!!!
-Beerus the walking contradiction also claims to have wiped out dinosaurs on Earth, when Dragon Ball and Z have both shown plenty of dinosaurs still living on Earth
-Despite being outright stated to be older than Goku, Bulma is said to be only 38...which shouldn't be possible, unless she were lying. But that, my friend, is headcanon.
-Earth has continents that match the real world, when the official Dragon World map looks entirely different.
-Need I mention the infamous "Goku shot with a laser" scene?
Is that enough for you??? No?? Alright, well, on to my final point, should you not have, for some reason, believed me by now....
The Ending of Dragon Ball GT
Now here's a topic I'm sure some of you doubting Thomas' out there were waiting for. Since Super has yet to have an ending (it pains me just saying that), I'll only be comparing GT's ending to Z's
For GT's finale, the 64th and final episode, we see Goku kill Omega Shenron and save the Earth one last time. He bids a tearful goodbye to family and friends, absorbs the Dragon Balls (the 4 star ball enters at his heart, symbolic because that's the one his grandpa left him all those years ago.) We are then taken through a heartfelt montage of the whole story, from the original Dragon Ball until now, and greeted with the message, "Until We Meet Again...". Absolutely beautiful for any Dragon Ball fan, and a proper ending to the series as a whole.
Now, for Dragon Ball Z's ending...the 291st and final episode...yeesh.....Goku grabs a kid he just met, says goodbye quickly, and trains with a character whom Super doesn't acknowledge. Good on you!!
So, was that enough to convince you? If not, then hey. You're entitled to your own opinion. I mean, I may have just provided enough evidence to believe otherwise, like a smarmy asshole, but I'll be the first to admit GT certainly isn't without it's faults. For your liesure, I will certainly cite my sources for stuff I didn't quite remember below, and hey, if you still don't like it that's okay!! Just rock on, and continue loving Dragon Ball.
Sources Used:
http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Baby
http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Baby_Saga
http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Black_Star_Dragon_Ball_Saga
http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Super_Saiyan_4
http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Golden_Great_Ape
http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Planet_Vegeta
http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon_Ball_GT
http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_inconsistencies
http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Until_We_Meet_Again
http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Goku's_Next_Journey
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