As an avid anime fan, I know live action projects are always met with a healthy amount of skepticism on its quality. This healthy trepidation is the result of a collection of not good adaptations, from a fan's perspective, but it looks like it’s not just the fans who want to forget a bad adaptation. Even the actors sometimes feel the need to make up for a bad adaptation. Such is the case for James Marsters and his role in Dragon Ball Evolution.
Marsters, best known for his role as Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, appeared on Michael Rosenbaum's podcast Inside of You. Marsters reflected on his role in the 2009 live action movie, an adaptation was met with a lot od negative reception, including CinemaBlend's two-star Dragon Ball Evolution review. The actor spoke about distancing himself from the adaptation, and that he became aware of the fact it wasn’t going to do well after the very muted response from those who watched the screening in Japan for the world release. He said:
It was just this slow dawning, sinking feeling that it was just really horrible.
Marsters talked about feeling embarrassed when he was approached by fans at conventions who asked him questions about the movie, to the point where we would rather not acknowledge his involvement. Years later, when he was approached to be the voice of the character Zamasu for the english dub of Dragon Ball Super, he chose to omit his name from the credits:
The point is that I was tired of catching guff at conventions for this film, so when I got the chance to be on Dragon Ball Super, I was like – let’s do this little trick and let’s use a fake name. It is so I can go to conventions… and tell [fans] that I am Zamasu and it’s an apology for that film.
Marsters explained his thinking, as he wanted to surprise the real fans of the Dragon Ball franchise, and not bring attention to his involvement because he didn’t want it to overshadow the release of the show. He isn’t the only person who worked on Evolution who has come out in past years to usher an apology for the movie’s less than favorable release. Writer Ben Ramsey has come out in past years to apologize for Evolution's presentation. So thankfully, fans aren’t the only people that are disappointed in Evolution.
Luckily, Dragon Ball fans have plenty of actual good content that has been coming out over the last few years to offset Evolution, including the new series Dragon Ball Daima. So fear not, Evolution is not the only thing at our disposal, as it’s highly recommended to take James Marsters advice and not watch the film. You’d find more enjoyment reading a review.
Good content for the Dragon Ball franchise is definitely out there, despite the recent tragic passing of Akira Toriyama, the Dragon Ball creator. The franchise has been trying to navigate and find its footing without its creator, but fans are hopeful for the future, despite the fact that the manga itself is on a hiatus.
