The fifth collected volume of Toyotarō’s Dragon Ball Super manga — originally and currently serialized on a monthly basis in Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine — officially hit Japanese shelves 02 March 2018 for ¥400 + tax. Spanning 192 pages, the volume covers chapters 25 through 28. The volume takes its title of “The Decisive Battle! Farewell, Trunks” (決戦！さらばトランクス Kessen! Saraba Torankusu) directly from chapter 26 itself.
The main cover artwork is sourced from a composition originally created for a bonus poster included with the January 2017 issue of Saikyō Jump (released 02 December 2017):
In addition to two pages of brief character biographies and a table of contents, the volume features a new title page:
Per the norm (to offset the odd number of pages per chapter), Toyotarō has included fun drawings between chapters. In one drawing, Pilaf works on a time machine of his own, proclaiming that he will save his future self, and next time starts the “Future Pilaf arc”!
Unlike the previous volume, no chapters are expanded with additional pages in the fifth collected volume, and likewise no bonus interview material is included. The two-page 2017 Jump Victory Carnival attendee booklet bonus chapter is included, however.
The print edition of the fifth volume is available for purchase via CDJapan and Amazon Japan. A digital release was made available the same day as the print release.
The first collected edition saw its release in April 2016 covering the series’ first nine chapters, one spin-off chapter, and a special interview between Toyotarō and original author Akira Toriyama. The second collected edition saw its release in November 2016 covering the next six chapters, one more spin-off chapter, and a special interview with Toyotarō. The third collected edition saw its release last June covering the next five chapters. The fourth collected edition saw its release last November covering the next four chapters and a follow-up special interview been Toyotarō and Toriyama.
The Dragon Ball Super “comicalization” began in June 2015 as a promotional tie-in for the television series. The manga runs monthly in Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine, with the series’ thirty-third chapter printed last week in the magazine’s April 2018 issue. Illustrated by “Toyotarō” (in all likelihood, a second pen-name used by Dragon Ball AF fan manga author and illustrator “Toyble”), the Dragon Ball Super manga covered the Battle of Gods re-telling, skipped the Resurrection ‘F’ re-telling, and “charged ahead” to the Champa arc to act as further promotion for the television series. Viz is currently releasing free digital chapters of the series, and began their own collected print edition early last year. The third collected volume is due out in English from Viz in July 2018.
The Dragon Ball Super television series airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 a.m. on Fuji TV in Japan and is set to conclude with the series’ 131st episode this month. The series receives weekly simulcast streams on services such as Crunchyroll. FUNimation has also announced their American streaming and distribution license for the series, with the English dub beginning earlier this year on Cartoon Network, while the home video release also kicked off last year.