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Published by 09 February 2025, 1:00 PM EST1 Comment

The official Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle social media account and Bandai Namco have announced a forthcoming Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle 10th Anniversary Original Sound Track set for release 28 May 2025 in Japan:

This “Limited Edition” release will have a specific pre-order period of 08 February 2025 to 04 March 2025. The 8-CD set containing over 350 individual tracks will retail for ¥9,980 (tax included) and will come packaged with a 12-page special booklet.

The set is available for pre-order via a variety of online stores in Japan — Amazon Japan is available as an option for international orders.

Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle has received a small batch of specialized soundtrack releases in Japan which have been given away via lottery to registered participants. This forthcoming 10th Anniversary Original Sound Track marks the first instance of the full collected batch of music being available for standard sale.

Announced back in September 2014, Dokkan Battle — an action/puzzle game — was the first of a modern-era smartphone app initiative for the Dragon Ball franchise. The game eventually made its way worldwide, including a full English localization. The game is available on the iTunes and Google Play stores.

The game regularly participates in April Fools’ Day, with its “Saibai Battle” reskin from 2017 being a particularly notable one. In 2021, Bandai Namco celebrated 350 million downloads of Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle.

Published by 07 February 2025, 5:39 PM ESTComment

In a press release and social media posts shared this week, Bandai Namco announced that Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO has sold five million copies worldwide:

DRAGON BALL: SPARKING! ZERO SELLS MORE THAN 5 MILLION UNITS WORLDWIDE
Long Awaited Sequel in the BUDOKAI TENKAICHI Series Becomes the Fastest Selling DRAGON BALL Console Game Ever

Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe S.A.S. today announced DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO, the first sequel in more than 15 years in the legendary DRAGON BALL Z: BUDOKAI TENKAICHI series, has surpassed a total of 5 million units sold worldwide since its launch. After releasing to critical acclaim this past October, the title is now the fastest-selling DRAGON BALL console game to-date. DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.

Developed by Spike Chunsoft, DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO pushes the envelope for gameplay and features in an arena brawler. Harnessing the power of Unreal® Engine 5, the game delivers stunning true-to-the-anime visuals and genre-defining features with lightning-paced combat and large destructible environments. Players embraced the game for its action-packed gameplay modes including online and co-op multiplayer, Episode Battle mode where players can re-live storied battles from the globally beloved DRAGON BALL anime series, and Custom Battle to create, play, and share UGC battles using a robust selection of available characters, stages, and unique items.

More recently, the game released the “Hero of Justice” DLC pack, adding 11 new fighters to the expansive roster of 182 characters, such as Gohan Beast, Cell Max, Gamma 1 and Gamma 2.

These features and modes along with frequent downloadable content updates and official sanctioned tournaments have helped make DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO one of the most critically acclaimed game titles in the globally beloved anime franchise.

Sparking! ZERO‘s five million sales (in its first four months here) can be placed in context with the sales of other recent games:

  • Back in 2018, Dragon Ball FighterZ shipped two million copies in its first week, which Bandai Namco claimed at the time made it the franchise’s “fastest shipping” release for the franchise.
  • Back in 2020, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot sold — not just shipped — two million copies in its first two months.
  • In May 2023, Bandai Namco announced that both Dragon Ball FighterZ and Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 had independently shipped and sold (written differently in the same announcement) ten million copies each.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO released on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (via Steam) 10 October 2024 in Japan, and 11 October 2024 internationally. As opposed to the completely separate Dragon Ball Z (“Budokai”) series developed by Dimps which came before it, the Sparking! series — developed instead by Spike — featured 3D arenas with an over-the-shoulder camera angle. The new game’s title of Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO falls more in line with the original trilogy’s naming scheme in Japanese. The three Sparking! games — the original, NEO!, and METEOR — hit the PlayStation 2 over the course of 2005 to 2007, with the Nintendo Wii also receiving ports of the second and third games. The game series was released numerically under the “Budokai Tenkaichi” moniker internationally. A fourth games — Tag Vs. in Japan; Tenkaichi Tag Team internationally — was released on the PlayStation Portable in 2010. Spike (as Spike Chunsoft) later went on to also develop the crossover fighting games J-Stars Victory VS in 2014 and Jump Force in 2019.

Published by 07 February 2025, 5:23 PM ESTComment

In a brief post on social media this morning, the official Dragon Ball television series account announced that Dragon Ball Daima will receive a home video release on Blu-ray and DVD in Japan:

No specific details — such as a release date, pricing, etc. — were noted in the announcement; readers are instead urged to stay tuned for future announcements.

Dragon Ball Daima — currently up to its 17th of 20 total episodes — was first revealed at New York Comic Con in October 2023 by way of a trailer and comment from original franchise creator Akira Toriyama. The “Daima” in the series’ title is a made-up term, though the individual kanji that make up its spelling would be 大魔; in Toriyama’s own words, …”in English would be something like ‘Evil.'” The series debuted 11 October 2024 on Fuji TV in Japan (with multiple worldwide streaming options), and features an original story by series creator Akira Toriyama, character designs by Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, script/composition by Yūko Kakihara, and series co-direction by Yoshitaka Yashima and Aya Komaki.

Published by 27 January 2025, 10:42 AM ESTComment

Roughly every month, Toyotarō provides a drawing of a Dragon Ball (or related…!) character — as well as an accompanying comment — on the official Japanese Dragon Ball website. Following up on the wealth of characters already drawn, for his January 2025 entry, Toyotarō has drawn Captain Chicken from the end of the original Dragon Ball series:

CAPTAIN CHICKEN

One of the participants in the 28th Tenka’ichi Budōkai! He says that he is a defender of justice in the animated series, so he might be working as a hero just like Saiyaman X!

Toyotarō is referring here to a filler scene from the 291st (and final!) episode of Dragon Ball Z, in which Knock and Captain Chicken attempt to escape from the tournament. Knock pretends he needs to pee, while Captain Chicken pretends to hear a cry for help.

This drawing and comment set has been added to the respective page in our “Translations” archive.

Published by 23 January 2025, 4:24 PM ESTComment

The Internet is terrible right now. Clickbait headlines, intrusive advertisements, slow loading times, incomplete information, incorrect search snippets, AI hallucinations… it’s an absolute nightmare.

That’s where Kanzenshuu comes in! We are already your #1 source for Dragon Ball information, and now we have even more answers for the exact questions you have with our new FAQs section!

Think of this new section as a complement to the other resources on our site, such as the “Rumor Guide” and our “Translations Archive” — curated answers with pinpoint accuracy and sourced documentation.

To start things off, we have a whopping twelve articles ready to go! These are broken down into sub-sections (focusing on things like manga, movies, characters, transformations, etc.), so hopefully you can easily find what you’re looking for.

Learn a little bit more about the thought process behind this section over on our Patreon (and consider joining while you’re there!), and otherwise…

Published by 22 January 2025, 5:27 PM ESTComment

As detailed in this week’s March 2025 issue of V-Jump, the previously-announced paid downloadable content packs for Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot adapting the currently-airing Dragon Ball Daima series will be split into two parts. Newly revealed, however, is that the first Daima pack (and seventh overall thus far) will specifically cover the first eight episodes of the series.

The release date and price of the DLC pack(s) is still yet to be formally announced.

A sidebar on the page promotes the availability of the previous six DLC packs, noting that the game has sold 8 million copies thus far.

Developed by CyberConnect2 for Bandai Namco, the action role-playing game released 16 January 2020 in Japan and 17 January 2020 internationally on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC (via Steam). A Nintendo Switch edition came later in September 2021.

Two season passes worth of content — with six individual packs in total — have come out since the game’s release. In the first season pass, the Battle of Gods and Resurrection ‘F’ DLC entries were much shorter with a focus on boss fights and level increases, while the third entry — that of Trunks’ future timeline — told a comprehensive, multi-part story. The second season pass includes entries for the original 1990 Bardock television special, the 23rd Tenka’ichi Budōkai, and the 28th Tenka’ichi Budōkai.

Reviews of the base game, Trunks DLC, Bardock DLC, 23rd Tenka’ichi Budōkai DLC, and 28th Tenka’ichi Budōkai DLC can be found on episodes #0481, #0490, #0497, #0505, and #0509, respectively, of our podcast.

Published by 18 January 2025, 12:36 PM ESTComment

The Dragon Ball Official Site states that an official soundtrack for the Dragon Ball Daima television series — featuring music by composer Kosuke Yamashita — will be released as a 2-CD set spanning “about 70 songs” and will also see digital distribution.

The announcement says to stay tuned for a formal release date reveal in the future.

Dragon Ball Daima — currently up to its 14th of 20 total episodes — was first revealed at New York Comic Con in October 2023 by way of a trailer and comment from original franchise creator Akira Toriyama. The “Daima” in the series’ title is a made-up term, though the individual kanji that make up its spelling would be 大魔; in Toriyama’s own words, …”in English would be something like ‘Evil.'” The series debuted 11 October 2024 on Fuji TV in Japan (with multiple worldwide streaming options), and features an original story by series creator Akira Toriyama, character designs by Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, script/composition by Yūko Kakihara, and series co-direction by Yoshitaka Yashima and Aya Komaki.

The most recent music release for the Dragon Ball franchise was the official soundtrack for the 2022 theatrical film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero as composed by Naoki Satō.

Published by 17 January 2025, 2:46 PM ESTComment

Though there have been countless rumors and even chat out of international dubbing partners, Hulu’s listing of Dragon Ball Daima episode 20 — set to premiere 28 February 2025 — as the “Finale” seems to finally (and publicly) confirm the series’ episode count.

Episode 14 of the series aired earlier today.

UPDATE: Following this news post, Hulu’s website as linked and screencapped above removed this specific listing.

Dragon Ball Daima was first revealed at New York Comic Con in October 2023 by way of a trailer and comment from original franchise creator Akira Toriyama. The “Daima” in the series’ title is a made-up term, though the individual kanji that make up its spelling would be 大魔; in Toriyama’s own words, …”in English would be something like ‘Evil.'” The series debuted 11 October 2024 on Fuji TV in Japan (with multiple worldwide streaming options), and features an original story by series creator Akira Toriyama, character designs by Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, script/composition by Yūko Kakihara, and series co-direction by Yoshitaka Yashima and Aya Komaki.

Published by 10 January 2025, 11:03 AM ESTComment

The September 2021 issue of Shueisha’s Saikyō Jump magazine kicked off a “Dragon Ball Super Gallery” series in commemoration of the Dragon Ball franchise’s upcoming 40th anniversary. The celebration aims to have different artists all contribute their own spin on the original 42 tankōbon covers, with the images and an accompanying comment published as the magazine’s back cover.

Following the previous forty-one entries, this month’s February 2025 issue brings us the final drawing and comment combo with Eiichiro Oda (One Piece) and their take on the series’ 42nd collected volume cover.

Oda commented:

Back when I was in elementary school, I kept on buying the collected volumes of Dragon Ball right when they first released, starting all the way back in Volume 1, but the truth is, I actually don’t have Volume 42. I had read all of its contents in Jump. I knew when it came out, I went to my bookstore, saw the cover, but then didn’t buy it. I’m really thankful for having been given this opportunity. I just wish I’d gotten the chance to show this to Toriyama-sensei back when he was alive!!

Though Dragon Ball and One Piece have been thrown together in countless video games and even special animation projects, Toriyama and Oda directly collaborated with each other back in 2006 for the special manga chapter Cross Epoch.

As announced back in conjunction with Jump Festa, these drawings will be repurposed as double-covers for a new complete set of the 42-tankōbon run of the Dragon Ball manga in Japan.

Saikyō Jump is currently a monthly magazine published in Japan by Shueisha under the “Jump” line of magazines. The magazine began as a quarterly publication in 2012, went monthly in 2013, went bimonthly in late-2014, and returned to a monthly format in 2021 (including a digital release for the first time). The magazine’s focus is spin-off and supplementary manga series aimed at a young audience, while also including game promotions, news coverage, and more.

For calendar year 2019, Shueisha reported Saikyō Jump‘s circulation down at 130,000, with readership as 58.5% upper elementary school, 28% lower middle school, 11% middle school, and 2.5% high school or older.

Published by 01 January 2025, 3:26 PM ESTComment

Let’s set the stage: You’re having a wonderful conversation, and then *BOOM* — you’re hit by a fellow fan with what appears to be a quote from original Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama that completely, thoroughly, and conveniently “debunks” everything you just theorized. A new entry in our “Rumor Guide” tackles this very scenario! While it is impossible to catalogue every single last “fake interview” that fans have concocted over the years, we can at least share a few of the most notable ones that still make the rounds… sometimes even multiple decades later, and on an entirely new group of unsuspecting fans.

The “Rumor Guide” has been a consistent favorite of staff and visitors alike here at Kanzenshuu — the entries are a blast to put together, and they each act as an authoritative, one-stop-shop with verified original research and (generally!) definitive answers. Enjoy!