How well did BSDB emulate the first Hunt for the Dragon Ball arc?

[Pocket-Gog~]

It's no big secret that Black Star Dragon Balls was trying to recreate the tone and feeling of the first arc of Dragon Ball, down to regressing shrinking Goku down into a more nostalgic child form, and outright copying the whole hunt for the Dragon Ball's but on a universal scale. Did it do a good job for you?

It did a terrible job for me. By trying to emulate the first arc so closely BSDB ultimately falls short in everyway. Pan, Goku, Gill and Trunks barely have any dynamics with each other, with the only real exepctions being Pan and Gill. I do blame this on everyone having no real connection with each other (Pan basically had never met Trunks and Goku before this arc had even began.) And no one having any real negative traits besides Pan. It wasn't like the first arc where the only pure hearted character was Goku, the whole entire crew is Goku here. It makes it significantly less interesting to watch.

The mini stories were meh, the only real standout one was Imegga on account of being longer than an episode, and actually doing some worldbuilding.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Extremely poorly. The main appeal of the Hunt for the Dragon Balls Arc was that it's main cast were a parody of the altruistic heroes in legends; instead a bunch of primarily selfish individuals after their own gain and those painted as the villains (eg. Yamcha and Pu-erh, Pilaf's gang) having more comradery than the heroes of the story, not to mention the crude yet original gags allowed it to stand out as a work those of a varied age range could enjoy. It also had a lot to offer in that not only did each of the main cast gain some sort of development towards the end (except maybe Goku and Pu-erh) but it's climax was a team effort.
The Ultimate Dragon Balls Arc has none of that, with it instead having bland good guys as the main cast and the only one with even a shred of character development being Pan (and not until the end of the arc), with the villains all being bland caricatures or knockoffs of previous villains. It also had nowhere near as much tension as not only was there no reason to suspect treachery when the only questionable element was Gill (and not until the beginning of the next arc) but the villains weren't even that threatening when Goku could've just used SS2 to steamroll even the likes of Lood.

There's very little praise I have for GT's ripoff of the original story, with it cementing it's place as one of the worst arcs in the franchise. Still better than most of Super at least.

 

[Let's Go Fearless!]

It was shit. Not only that, it could be one of the best arc had they pick the characters right. The whole hunting the BS DB is a great idea but it should be with Goten, Trunks and Goku which is more interesting and shouldn't try to recreate the magic of DB first arc IMO.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

I also saw they literally did the same joke of Goku dressing-up as a girl to be sacrificed to lure-out a monster that's been terrorising a place, only this time it was Trunks.

 

[Pocket-Gog~]

I also saw they literally did the same joke of Goku dressing-up as a girl to be sacrificed to lure-out a monster that's been terrorising a place, only this time it was Trunks.

That was Zunama, which was just a repeat of Oolong.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

I also saw they literally did the same joke of Goku dressing-up as a girl to be sacrificed to lure-out a monster that's been terrorising a place, only this time it was Trunks.

That was Zunama, which was just a repeat of Oolong.

Yeah, that's what I meant. I think I forgot that the monster was actually Oolong though, but now that I think about that yeah I do remember I think.