Wishful Thinking: A Dragon Warrior Live Action Series By Saban And Toei In the 90s

With the upcoming Ryuusoulger -- it's hard NOT to think of the Dragon Quest theme playing in my head. I thought weren't there other ways Toei could have reached the international market with Saban? I remembered Saban actually did his own fantasy series called Knights of Tir Na Nog. Sadly, Saban's dubbing of Dragon Quest didn't go so well and lasted for only 13 episodes. But what if they actually decided to co-produce a Dragon Quest live-action series?

So here's what I wish really happened. Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z (which has help from Toei Animation) and the show did get a Saban dub. So why didn't Toei and Saban just decide to team up and create a Dragon Warrior live-action series? Saban and Toei may still need to go over to Squaresoft (now Square Enix) to get the rights to the Dragon Warrior franchise. Then the two could do their parts -- Saban could start getting cast members while Toei may go with the costume design. Then they can start paying royalty fees to Squaresoft for a Dragon Warrior series.

Dragon Warrior (or now better known as Dragon Quest which is the original Japanese title) may be a Japanese production but it's of Western influence. The whole setting isn't medieval Japan but that of European sources. I think it would be good if Saban actually did the casting while Toei did the costume designing for a Dragon Warrior live-action series. Plus, it should be just ONE SEASON based on ONE GAME. A second season should be based on ANOTHER GAME. I think the first game can be used where Erdrick battles the evil Dragonlord. We should be having white actors playing the cast of Dragon Quest because the main characters have European features.

This would have probably been one way Saban wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't doing the legal but lazy approach. If he did this then all he would have let his cast do the filming from scratch. Sure, Toei can go ahead and do the costume designing but Saban should do all the filming. That means there won't be any Japanese footage used. Instead, it'd be Saban actually doing like what he did with the Super Mario Bros. Super Show and Marvel properties -- do everything from scratch without any dubbed carried over footage whatsoever!

Comments