Dragon Ball is one of Japan’s most successful anime and manga franchises. With over 260 million manga copies sold worldwide and a massively popular anime spanning decades, it seems unstoppable. And yet, there was a time when Dragon Ball stumbled badly on the global stage. The 2009 movie Dragonball Evolution, starring Justin Chatwin as Goku and James Marsters as Piccolo, was a colossal failure with fans, critics, and at the box office. Even worse, it reinforced the perception that live-action adaptations of anime could not be done well—a sentiment that only began to shift with Netflix’s successful One Piece series in 2023.