Shueisha will return to the “Full Color” edition of the Dragon Ball manga in January 2016 with the “Boyhood Arc” (少年編; shōnen-hen) of the series.

Four volumes of the “Boyhood Arc” will be released 04 January 2016, each for ¥600 + tax. The story material will cover from the first chapter up through the 21st Tenka’ichi Budōkai. The four volumes are available for pre-order via Amazon Japan.

The “Full Color” version of the Dragon Ball manga began back in June 2009. Over a five-month period, Shueisha released — for free, in both Japanese and in English with Viz’s existing translation — the first 23 chapters of the series. After this abrupt end, things fell silent for nearly three years. In late 2012 the company released the original black-and-white/monochrome version of the manga to digital retailers, and then a print version of the Saiyan arc in the “Full Color” format. Soon after, the full digital strategy was laid out with them going back to the beginning as digital-only, and eventually they released the entire series in a colorized digital format, with the “Z”-portion also receiving a print release.

Viz initially released the Saiyan arc in their digital Weekly Shonen Jump publication before exclusively moving to print for the series. The three-volume Saiyan arc has been the only release thus far from Viz, with the Freeza arc finally seeing the light of day in Spring 2016.

Thanks to all who sent along the heads-up!