If DragonBall was animated...

[Fantastische Hure]

My estimate was based on just that. Factoring in dramactic build ups, we need only look at Kai's 153 episode run as a benchmark (though give or take a few episodes due to Kai leaving in a lot of filler after the Saiyan Arc). With that still as a factor for DB, it'd still easily be over 100 episodes, so with dramactic extensions of scenes it'd be roughly 250 episodes.

Really? I had the impression from some people that if studios really wanted to they could cover multiple chapters in 1 episode. And DragonBall had over 500 or so chapters, so yeah you're probably right now that I think about that.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

It really depends on the amount of content onscreen, as even though DB has less average pages per chapter than the standard manga, you have to take into account dialogue time as well. For instance, Baki the Grappler adapted the exact same amount of volumes as the DB manga into 48 episodes, but that's mainly because the later events are pure action with almost no dialogue for large portions of time. I guess you could use FMA:B as a more comparable benchmark, with 28 volumes condensed into 64 episodes (or 63 considering the 1st one's anime exclusive content), but even there, it's mainly due to omitting some of the earlier events, such as not introducing Yoki until after he becomes Scar's ally.

 

[PorchMaster]

Yeah, DB usually has a fair amount of dialogue (not as much as DN or Conan but yeah) except for action-heavy chapters like the ones on Namek or chapters like Kid Boo vs. Vegeta (which is why those events took forever in the anime as they had to adapt what would be 50 seconds per chapter if purely animated without filler)

 

[Fantastische Hure]

...without any any filler/padding at-all. How long would that be? I'm also talking about no next episode hype or having to end on a cliff-hanger. Just animate without any of that in mind.

Something like that...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN_fhgysUIU

That's where I got the idea from, l0l.

 

[withheldforprivacy]

I think animes would be more interesting if they were created after the respective mangas were over, so that they could be created without any pressure to slow down and keep up with the original comic magazine creation.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

Sometimes it's necessary. They probably want to do that when it's still running so they can promote each-other and also to capitalise on the popularity.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

I think animes would be more interesting if they were created after the respective mangas were over, so that they could be created without any pressure to slow down and keep up with the original comic magazine creation.

There are quite a few, actually. Not the majority, but there are plenty of examples of older series getting adaptions in the modern era. Some examples include:

* Legend of the Galactic Heroes - The OVA series began a year after the novel series ended, had excellent pacing for what it covered and was a thorough adaption that only cut out minor world building details that had little bearing on the plot. Still the best anime ever made.
* JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - Technically not complete, but most of its parts are and it has nearly a 2 decade lead on the anime, allowing it to have decent pacing and minimal filler.
* Ashita no Joe 2 - Was animated almost a decade after the manga's ending.
* Saint Seiya: The Hades Chapter - Adaption of the manga's run in the 90s, made into an OVA series in the early 00s.
* Kaiji - Adapted the first two arcs of the 90s manga into a 2 season anime from 2007 - 2008 and 2011, with the ending being conclusive enough it didn't need to adapt the other parts which are pretty mediocre by comparison.
* Kiseijuu - An 80s manga that got an anime adaption in 2014.
* Banana Fish - Manga published from 1985 - 1994 that got an anime adaption in 2018.
* Karakuri Circus - Manga was published from 1997 - 2006 and got an anime in 2018.

That's not even including full-on remakes of older anime/manga, such as Uchu Senkan Yamato 2199 or the Berserk Golden Age trilogy (though beyond the 3rd movie, the latter isn't really a positive example).

 

[Fantastische Hure]

I know I'm bumping this again. Sorry.

But I was thinking about it and to be honest I don't think DragonBall would really even get close to 100 episodes if there was absolutely no filler. I mean thinking about it there are 519 chapters, 42 volumes. Does one chapter really need a minute (even-though I might be wrong since I haven't looked at the manga in a long time)? I could absolute maximum see 2 minutes for one chapter. Taking longer than that is probably stretching the chapter. I mean this is no HxH where one page'd probably need 10 minutes because of exposition.

So if we take 519 chapters and were to go by 1 chapter = 2 minutes:

519 chapters = 1,038 minutes

If each episode is 20 minutes long that'd be about 52 episodes (no opening or ending, no episode recap and stuff).

That's only looking at it really maxed-out, I could see one chapter going a minute or so, so no need for 2 minutes (IIRC). Which'd make it half so about 26 episodes. Can one episode really not do an entire volume? 42 volumes

Didn't the third episode of DragonBall Kai do 5 chapters or so?

Unnecessarily long post I know.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

I wouldn't say that would really be feasible when taking into account DB still has a fair bit of dialogue and quite a few panels per page on average, with some being stills that would necessitate extension in animation. As I previously used as an example, JoJo's first 4 parts are about the same length as the whole DB manga and that was brought down to 113 episodes. Whilst having slightly more dialogue than DB, JoJo has far more single page panels that would only require 1-5 seconds of screen time, plus even for that figure JoJo had to cut out a lot of content at certain points, so that's not even what the full number should be.

That said, a direct adaption of the DB Manga being any less than 120-150 episodes is pretty unfeasible.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

I wouldn't say that would really be feasible when taking into account DB still has a fair bit of dialogue and quite a few panels per page on average, with some being stills that would necessitate extension in animation. As I previously used as an example, JoJo's first 4 parts are about the same length as the whole DB manga and that was brought down to 113 episodes. Whilst having slightly more dialogue than DB, JoJo has far more single page panels that would only require 1-5 seconds of screen time, plus even for that figure JoJo had to cut out a lot of content at certain points, so that's not even what the full number should be.

That said, a direct adaption of the DB Manga being any less than 120-150 episodes is pretty unfeasible.

I agree with the stills but they can't be taking too long. The dialogues aren't that long though or I don't remember them being that long anyway. Then there's also that there's a-lot of fighting. Would dialouge and stills really take one chapter to over 2 minutes? I honestly can't see that. Also didn't Hajime no Ippo do the whole chapter-episode ratio even better despite there also seemingly being quite a-bit of talking?

 

[Captain Cadaver]

I agree with the stills but they can't be taking too long. The dialogues aren't that long though or I don't remember them being that long anyway. Then there's also that there's a-lot of fighting. Would dialouge and stills really take one chapter to over 2 minutes?

It'd be a case by case basis. Using JoJo as an example, the difference in dialogue length isn't that different, yet it still required at least 113 episodes to cover the same material as DB's entirety. Choreography would also be something to consider. The later fights in Z would take less time on average due to their simplicity, whereas the martial arts of Part 1 would take significantly more time.

Also didn't Hajime no Ippo do the whole chapter-episode ratio even better despite there also seemingly being quite a-bit of talking?

It did, though Hajime no Ippo chapters have even less pages on average and adapting a similar amount of material to the DB manga's entirety still brought it above 120 episodes despite its fast pacing and lack of filler.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

Hajime no Ippo has less pages? I thought I saw last time it was just average like 19 or so pages. Maybe I didn't look right.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

It might have increased lately, though the average was only around 10-12 pages most of the times I checked, at least for the ones focusing on fights.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

About JoJo though. I know they adapted the series as well as they could and came-out great apparently but there'd still be some extensions/stretching or filler in it, right?!

 

[Captain Cadaver]

About JoJo though. I know they adapted the series as well as they could and came-out great apparently but there'd still be some extensions/stretching or filler in it, right?!

There is some stretching out of scenes of increased dramatisation, though only by enough to make the impact of conveying the emotions the scene was meant to for the audience be brought out to their full extent and wouldn't say the compiled amount of these extensions for Parts 1-4 would come to any more than 1-2 episodes. The most drawn out it got prior to Part 5 was the Sun Arc being made into 2 episodes out of about 1-1.5 chapters.

The only filler scenes were a few momentary pieces of subtle foreshadowing for Part 4 within Part 3 as well as Part 4 being an extended epilogue featuring about 3 minutes of anime-only content. In fact, a lot of parts of the manga got cut for various reasons, such as the Wang Chen fight being cut from Part 1 in a probable attempt at squeezing the first two parts into a 26 episode seasonal anime, or various pieces of dialogue and interactions that would've amounted to a few minutes of extra time being cut from Parts 3 and 4. A more manga faithful adaption of Parts 1-4 would probably be slightly longer than the 113 episodes we got.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

I understand it needs dramatisation. Anime and Manga are different mediums. What works in a manga as epic doesn't necessarily come-off the same in the anime if done frame-for-frame, like Goku vs Freeza being five minutes in the manga it probably felt closer to 5 minutes where-as the anime stretched it ridiculously to make it more epic I guess (but ruined it) or how fights are shorter but they have the same impact as they have in the anime. Even transitions are different because what might seem OK in a manga might seem jarring in an anime. That's why chapter/page orders sometimes get mixed-around.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

OK. OK.

After some time of thinking I have come to the conclusion that CC is probably right. Covering 3/4 chapters per episode seems reasonable. The second DragonBall Kai episode which is very exposition heavy IIRC did 3 chapters so that's around the maximum. The episode afterward which is more action heavy did 4 though so it varies.

So dividing 519 by 3/4:

~130 - 173 episodes

However when you take away the Opening, Ending, Episode recap, Episode preview it can be perhaps extended by a chapter or so to about 5 chapters per episode, if I'm thinking right. Can't be bothered to go check how much time all that takes.

 

[Pinocchimon]

Way less than where boruto anime is heading

 

[Fantastische Hure]

I tried editing the first chapter of the Boo saga and you gais were right. First chapter alone took like 7 minutes even with a-lot of cutting and no opening or anything. The anime did add a little bit but at best seconds.