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I felt my previous thread on the characterization in Super involving certain characters has been a bit... negative, so I decided to make a more open-ended thread on the characterization and since Super is Toei's canon cash-cow, I feel this is necessary as I feel Dragon Ball is one of those series where only the author can truly nail down the characters though some exceptionally talented writers can do them just as well if not better than Toriyama-sensei himself.
Starting off with my man Vegeta... at first, they seemed to have made him too grumpy and Goku-obsessed but as they progress further, they actually gave them really nice character development later on. We had Vegeta with a personal connection to the God of Destruction Beerus as shown in a flashback where he expressing emotion for someone other than himself for the first time in his life showing his Pre-Cell Saga self wasn't completely irredeemable, his reaction to Bulma getting slapped was more tense than the BOG version, and that scene in episode 14 where Vegeta catches Goku when he comes falling down after the fight with Beerus. His relationship with Bulma has some nice chemistry which we never got from the actual series bar filler.
Kudos to Toei for actually doing my favorite character justice...
On the other hand, I feel Toei has played up Goku's "battle-obsessed idiot" side of his character too much. Granted, Goku was always battle-obsessed and shit, but he was also knew when to get serious which is even shown in the original Battle of Gods. However, in Super that really seem like the case... his only characteristic seems to be him being a "battle-obsessed idiot". He can't keep promises (he promised to visit once in a while but doesn't show up to Bulma's birthday party). He casually destroys the property of a man he works for, hardly ever does his job (tries to hand it off to anyone who comes by), is lazy as fuck, and even endangered the security of his home and family over a dick-measuring contest. it's kinda hard to root for such a one-dimensional character.
There's also Mr. Satan... surprisingly, they got him right. I mean, they easily coulda exaggerated him for the sake of shitty gags to waste more time but they didn't. In fact, he's easily one of the best things about Super right now which funny considering he debut in DBZ as a one-note annoyance but he's come a long way since even as far as the Majin Boo Saga. From the moment he handed Goku that money cuz he felt Goku deserved it more than him acknowledging Goku was the real hero, is a loyal friend to Mr. Boo who tries to keep out of trouble even though the pink blob treats him like shit, and he came through for everyone in the end.
But Muten Roshi is not safe... so far he's only ever shown as the perverted old man and what's more, the jokes revolving around it is plainly forced and stale. In the original series, whenever he acted perverted he was tactful in his actions and it was genuinely funny. Not to mention even when he couldn't contribute he still could share his words of wisdom and knew damn well when to be serious. I know in Resurrection F, Roshi goes back to being the badass old martial artist master from OG Dragon Ball but I have a feeling that Super would shoehorn in lame pervert gags.
Another character they got right was Bulma.... even though she's easy comic relief for Toei they still manage to accurately capture Toriyama's original characterization for her as that spunky, self-centered, and slightly obnoxious but good-hearted woman. Also like I said before, her relationship with Vegeta has some nice chemistry which we never got from the actual series bar filler.
But then the other side of the female coin... Chi-Chi. She's an interesting case despite being easy comic relief like Muten Roshi as she seems to depend on the writer. Whenever writer Yoshifumi Fukushima handles an episode involving her, he only seems to bring out the absolute worst in her (always yelling, seemingly perpetually angry, bossing everyone around, spending larges sum of money in a week, etc.)... pointing her at almost Sakura Haruno-level awful and it seems to get worse each episode but when in the hands of a different writer, she isn't too bad... still a bit one-note but not a character that's dreadful to have on-screen. If they can get Bulma right why not Chi-Chi?
And there's Mr. Boo... the less said the better...
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Spoiler: click to toggle</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">Imagine Eric Cartman without the charisma or irony then make him only think about food</div>
Same for Gohan...
Overall I think the characterization in Super does a lot of things right but also a lot of things wrong. It could be a lot worse (as shown with GT) but I feel it's either more based around Toei's own characterization, hugely influenced by the opinions from a subset of the fanbase (Vegeta x Bulma is the most romantic thing in DB, Goku is nothing more than a battle-obsessed idiot, Goku x Chi-Chi does not exist, Gohan is a loser nerd, etc.), or too focused on telling jokes and not enough on actual character development.
I would mention Goten and Trunks but they're such bland characters that it's not really hard to get them right.... and so many people already tackled Videl (I'm neutral on the demeanor change). And Krillin hasn't appeared enough to get a proper gauge of how he's being handle same with #18.
Starting off with my man Vegeta... at first, they seemed to have made him too grumpy and Goku-obsessed but as they progress further, they actually gave them really nice character development later on. We had Vegeta with a personal connection to the God of Destruction Beerus as shown in a flashback where he expressing emotion for someone other than himself for the first time in his life showing his Pre-Cell Saga self wasn't completely irredeemable, his reaction to Bulma getting slapped was more tense than the BOG version, and that scene in episode 14 where Vegeta catches Goku when he comes falling down after the fight with Beerus. His relationship with Bulma has some nice chemistry which we never got from the actual series bar filler.
Kudos to Toei for actually doing my favorite character justice...
On the other hand, I feel Toei has played up Goku's "battle-obsessed idiot" side of his character too much. Granted, Goku was always battle-obsessed and shit, but he was also knew when to get serious which is even shown in the original Battle of Gods. However, in Super that really seem like the case... his only characteristic seems to be him being a "battle-obsessed idiot". He can't keep promises (he promised to visit once in a while but doesn't show up to Bulma's birthday party). He casually destroys the property of a man he works for, hardly ever does his job (tries to hand it off to anyone who comes by), is lazy as fuck, and even endangered the security of his home and family over a dick-measuring contest. it's kinda hard to root for such a one-dimensional character.
There's also Mr. Satan... surprisingly, they got him right. I mean, they easily coulda exaggerated him for the sake of shitty gags to waste more time but they didn't. In fact, he's easily one of the best things about Super right now which funny considering he debut in DBZ as a one-note annoyance but he's come a long way since even as far as the Majin Boo Saga. From the moment he handed Goku that money cuz he felt Goku deserved it more than him acknowledging Goku was the real hero, is a loyal friend to Mr. Boo who tries to keep out of trouble even though the pink blob treats him like shit, and he came through for everyone in the end.
But Muten Roshi is not safe... so far he's only ever shown as the perverted old man and what's more, the jokes revolving around it is plainly forced and stale. In the original series, whenever he acted perverted he was tactful in his actions and it was genuinely funny. Not to mention even when he couldn't contribute he still could share his words of wisdom and knew damn well when to be serious. I know in Resurrection F, Roshi goes back to being the badass old martial artist master from OG Dragon Ball but I have a feeling that Super would shoehorn in lame pervert gags.
Another character they got right was Bulma.... even though she's easy comic relief for Toei they still manage to accurately capture Toriyama's original characterization for her as that spunky, self-centered, and slightly obnoxious but good-hearted woman. Also like I said before, her relationship with Vegeta has some nice chemistry which we never got from the actual series bar filler.
But then the other side of the female coin... Chi-Chi. She's an interesting case despite being easy comic relief like Muten Roshi as she seems to depend on the writer. Whenever writer Yoshifumi Fukushima handles an episode involving her, he only seems to bring out the absolute worst in her (always yelling, seemingly perpetually angry, bossing everyone around, spending larges sum of money in a week, etc.)... pointing her at almost Sakura Haruno-level awful and it seems to get worse each episode but when in the hands of a different writer, she isn't too bad... still a bit one-note but not a character that's dreadful to have on-screen. If they can get Bulma right why not Chi-Chi?
And there's Mr. Boo... the less said the better...
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Spoiler: click to toggle</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">Imagine Eric Cartman without the charisma or irony then make him only think about food</div>
Same for Gohan...
Overall I think the characterization in Super does a lot of things right but also a lot of things wrong. It could be a lot worse (as shown with GT) but I feel it's either more based around Toei's own characterization, hugely influenced by the opinions from a subset of the fanbase (Vegeta x Bulma is the most romantic thing in DB, Goku is nothing more than a battle-obsessed idiot, Goku x Chi-Chi does not exist, Gohan is a loser nerd, etc.), or too focused on telling jokes and not enough on actual character development.
I would mention Goten and Trunks but they're such bland characters that it's not really hard to get them right.... and so many people already tackled Videl (I'm neutral on the demeanor change). And Krillin hasn't appeared enough to get a proper gauge of how he's being handle same with #18.
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