Should U16 bra have a love or even sexual subplot?

Ok, this wasn't as 'immature' as I thought this thread might had been, should Bra have a love story? Possibly, and depends how it's handled, and I get it that violence and fighting is all there on the pages but sexual content is a little different. 

I dare say Bra has pocketed Asura some money at the Paris convention, given that was all he was asked to draw, and it comes down to how confident members of the DBM team like Ouv are. And how it's depicted, a wed release of Bra and whoever going hands on with each other followed by a two page break to friday with a repeat of the following would be...weird.

They could have 'next day' and Bra is seen leaving apartment of a different universe or vice versa. Knowing there is a relationship is often better then 'showing' And again depends what should be shown.

I'm not against it given the story is at a stage where it's no longer treating itself as a 'faithful sequel' to dbz, we are long past that.

DBM is one arc taking place over the course of a few days so I don't think there's much time in-universe to develop a love story. In DBZ, they mostly happened during timeskip after the characters met in a certain arc.

There's also the problem that all eligible love interests are in other universes and the organizers probably wouldn't allow anyone to return to a universe that isn't their own. I remember the novel implied that Uub had feelings for U18 Bra which makes more sense since he'd have a chance at a relationship with her after the tournament is over.

A great question, because it can help illustrate the creative process in the shadows.

let’s review your points in order :


Asura loves drawing sexy girls and sexy versions of his favorites female characters outside of the main story (he’s french, what did you expect ?!).
While Bra is one of his favorite, Phipsil and Videl are catching up lately
He even drew a sexy young Baba 


That’s right.

First, let’s go back to the beginning of DBM, 13 years ago :
While Salagir decided to ignore DBGT in order to write a sequel to the manga, he kept some influences form GT : adult Trunks and Goten being childish, Uub being small and the possibility of a romance between Son Bra and Uub (I might have missed some other influences, but these are the ones that comes to my mind right now).
As you all now know : when writing such a long story, a writer has to know where the story is going, the big steps on the way and some potential development for the important characters.
But while the pages get drawn, some new or better ideas, some turn of event happen, and you can use the room between the main goals to improve your story and character development. Or sometimes, to alter them in drastic ways.

So yes, Salagir had planned some interest between Uub and son Bra.
Why ? Because of GT. That was it. And since Uub wasn’t really a focus of the team until his fight against Goku, it stayed that way.
It was supposed to be shown first at the end of the Battle Royale, where Uub would learn to magic-heal Son Bra thanks to Zen-Buu mentoring.
And during the Uub Vs Goku fight, Uub was to show some further interest in Son Bra.

But the Team finally decided to kill any potential development between those two because of two things that weren’t planned when DBM started :
- The Battle Royale and Majin Bra happened. She killed a lot of Uub’s friends, his adoption family and he saw that through Zen Buu’s visions. So while Uub is a nice guy that doesn’t have to have a grudge against her, him giving the impression of falling for the murderer of his dearest friends simply felt wrong.
- Anji happened.
Anji was a childhood friend that was only created to serve as a vessel for Zen Buu mental manipulation.
But the character clicked with the readers and the team. In the context of DBM as of now, and in Asura own words "if Uub should have any romantic feeling for a girl, it's Anji."
- Salagir decided to kill once and for all any romantic interest between Uub and Son Bra based on the facts that :
It's too late to introduce romance in DBM. If romances where to happen, they should have been introduced much earlier in the story.
Toriyama sucked at romance. There is no romance in DB. Pairings just happen, or you learn about them long afterwards.
There are still a lot of things to be told in DBM, and those things are way more interesting that who could sleep with whom.
The few things that were kept from GT are limiting the characters in DBM. So let’s get rid of them if possible (you had an exemple with Uub starting as a very little person, and his recent sudden growth, which can be either explains in-story as a side effect of the Kaioken, or to reflect Uub growth as a person, since Toriyama himself changed the characters body sizes and shapes depending on their state fo mind. But in reality, it was just the Team freeing DBM Uub from his GT influence).


We came to a similar conclusion : While at first sight, the idea of romances between characters of different universes seems interesting, it led to developments that weren't aligned with where DBM is going. Not that such development cannot be interesting. But they would turn DBM into something it doesn't want to be.



To me, Kakarotto’s wording was an example of dialogs done right : Salagir intention was only for Kakarotto to mean « You know what I did to little human girls In my universe ? I killed them. ». But yes, you can interpret his words on the pages in much more sinister ways, which is great, because there are no more terrifying horrors that the ones that the readers can come up with.
But Salagir already told in a Twitch that « While Kakarotto is a ruthless killer, this is DB. While there can be room for sexual jokes and (incompetent) perverts, there is no room for rape in DB or DBM. None. That’s not what DB is about»


The novel is a strange beast. It elaborates on a lot of things, which is great, because it can, and so it should. To a certain point. But if it mentions something that is not in the manga, one should not extrapolate too much out of it.


There was a time where such things were supposed to happen to a few characters, but since then, the consensus in the team is that our resources are limited so we need to make choices, and there are much better and bigger things to tell than romances*.



*Of course, we should never say « never ». Maybe in 8 years, and 1000 pages further down the line, things will suddenly move to a point where a love story between two characters might bring a great story development. But it will have to happen naturally. That’s really not where the focus is right now**.


**The focus right now is on the tournament flowing organically into… what comes next, if something comes next

Once again, thanks you all for your following and your questions !

Solus brings a lot of good points, mainly if it has a purpose and of course there are differences between romantic and sexual.

Either could work and would depend if it's needed, then where it should be. 

Had DBM stood firm on the line of content, without that line bending to enticing fan service there wouldn't be any space for consideration of anything sexual, that has since  crept in, in part of the site's own artwork of Hanasia, flip side to offering little bit of realisim is why was it only applicable to Hanasia, and quite frontal about it. (I'm not bothered about male genitalia, a lot of my art skills were honed in at life drawing classes for crying out loud. Nudity is nudity) If you apply nudity to one, then it should be to the applicable to the other. 

The same can be said on Majin Buu Bra drawing, you can be too self-indulgent into fan service before fans start asking 'Why not take it further?' And recently that has been more notable, I had offers, Asura had offers (because i asked if he been getting some 'offers' of late and even last twitch was people chatting about pairings.


Is there a growing need to see more intimate content? Maybe, should it be catered to? I don't see why not if within reason, ie: applicable to the story, and is genuinely about realtionship and character. Romance is used for that, even sexual context, and it doesn't even have to be that, a lot of mainstream shows and animation usually deal with this well without alarming censors. 

If it's pulled off there's no harm and may help things to make DBM stand out more on it's own, romance and intimacy don't have to be 'adult' only and help reveal bit of the character, trust bonding etc. That dosen't just because violence is a bit on the nose that the romance should be as well.

The concern is it doesn't pull off well then it can be seen as cheap power fantasy and can backfire, also it wouldn't appeal to anyone if Asura wasn't drawing it.

As it's been said, who knows in the future, maybe there will be something, but there are plots that are sooner, and of more importance to contend with.

I feel like we are a bit too far into the storyline to set up a romantic thread. Between the "redemption" arc and future Vegito goes nuts arc Bra has enough on he plate that I feel the use of a new subplot would be best served to another character.

Salagir is friendlier than most, in how he addresses the criticism. He plays it cool, instead of getting into heated back-and-forths. His responses are almost a bit like Akira Toriyama's, in how self-deprecating and affable he is.

But, and here's the important thing... "Friendly" and "Receptive" are two very different words. Salagir receives criticism with a smiling face, and makes a few jokes at his own expense...but then quietly does what he'd already decided on.

He'll veto his own translators, for example, when they explain that sentences like "Bra isn't a tenth of my level. No one can" don't make grammatical sense.



The only adjustment he DID make, AFAIK, wass...to make this side-comic making fun of Bra's detractors:

Huh... Sounds like those streams are pretty interesting. I'll stop pushing the "he's stubborn" thing, on account of that.

Regarding the grammar thing, I remember there being a splash page in the "Vegetto's Heir" special (after Vegetto vs Broly) giving exposition that was changed a few times. The first one was something like...

1) "Vegetto isn't entirely white, his blood boils for a challenge".

Later, that was changed to...

2) "Vegetto isn't entirely pure, his blood boils for a challenge."

...But then it mysteriously reverted back to the meme-worthy "Vegetto isn't a white man" reading. Stuff like that, and the "Ah ah ah!" laughs still persist... so it's hard to tell where his mind's at on past grammer snafus like those.

In relation with Salagir, I can verify (given I have worked on some planned mini comics) in that he's quite open to ideas, and edits. 

One example being one part of the mini comic was to cover 2 pages, I gave a draft showing benefit of it extending to a third page and it got approved.

There are some text that was pointed out and amended with no issue. 

Although at the same time I don't have as much text to work on, and if I were to work on a special in the future I may ask about number of words in each panel and offer solutions, but from the eight months I worked with him, he's fine with ideas as long as there is evidence it works. 

It's not been perfect, but he has been useful with planning.

I do know some topics have been a thorny issue to mention but I approached with them no problem and just finalizing on a second document regarding feedbact towards a future event, which is my second as he was happy with my previous one.

Still hasn't changed from the one on his personal website which is: multiverse@salagir.com

Make sure you start the subject email with DBM (and then add the topic)

If you wish, say you were from this forum (or even the name of this thread!) Obviously go into detail who you are, what you can bring and if he's after anyone.

I will say the biggest issue is the time between communication, he is quite busy and on average I've been waiting 10-12 days for a reply. But he generally does answer most questions.