In conjunction with Dragon Ball‘s ongoing 40th anniversary celebration, a special “Genkidamatsuri” (ゲンキダマツリ) event — a portmanteau and play on Goku’s Genki-Dama attack and the Japanese word for “festival” — will be held 25 January 2026 at the Makuhari Messe convention center outside of Tokyo, Japan.

The event is a follow-up to last year’s “Daimatsuri” event, held back in October 2024 to kick off the 40th anniversary celebration.

This year’s event will showcase Dragon Ball console and mobile video games, card games, figures, toys, snacks, and more. Voice actress Masako Nozawa and Capsule Corporation Tokyo founder and franchise producer Akio Iyoku will be on hand for a two-part “super announcement” regarding “new developments” for the franchise, while singer Hironobu Kageyama will perform live.

The official Dragon Ball video games Twitter account went even further to specifically state:

A new Dragon Ball game project will be unveiled this January during the Dragon Ball Genkidamatsuri event in Japan!

The event will be free to attend, but limited to those invited after completing the corresponding application on the official event website. Lottery periods for these applications will be open first between October 17th and November 3rd, and then again November 7th and November 30th.

Among the 21 recipients of this year’s Person of Cultural Merit Recognition in Japan is Masako Nozawa (Son Goku, et al.). This marks the first time a voice actor has been selected for the award. As part of the award, the selected individual(s) are provided a special government-sponsored pension.

In conjunction with the award, Nozawa issued the following statement:

気がつけばずいぶん長い時間を“声”とともに歩んできましたが、自分なりに続けてきたことで、こんな素敵なご褒美をいただけるなんて、本当に感激しています。

このご褒美は、声優界を代表してお預かりしたものだと受け止めております。先輩方や現役の仲間たち、そしてこれから声の世界に飛び込んでくる若い世代にも光が当たったことを、とても誇らしく感じています。

また、作品やキャラクターを生み育ててこられたクリエイターの皆さま、そして変わらず応援してくださるファンの皆さまに、心より感謝申し上げます。皆さまの存在があってこそ「文化」が育まれ、私たち声優の歩みも支えていただいてきました。

元気だけが取り柄ですので、これからも全力で”声”を届け、少しでも文化への恩返しができたらと思っております。

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When I thought about it, I realized I had walked this path alongside my “voice” for quite a long time, and was able to do it in my own way, so I am deeply moved at receiving this marvelous reward.

I humbly accept this reward in the name of all voice actors. I feel very proud to be able to shine a light on the work of those that came before and inspired me, those that are currently taking on that work, and on the future work of all the young actors and actresses that will step into the world of the “voice” from now on.

Furthermore, I am also incredibly grateful to all the creators that shaped such incredible stories and characters and to all of their fans. It is because of all of you that “culture” can flourish, and it is all of you that support our path as voice actors.

My vitality is my lone saving grace, so I will give it my all to continue delivering my “voice” and give back to the culture, even if just a little bit.

Announced on social media and later shown off in this week’s November 2025 issue of V-Jump, Toyotarō has drawn new artwork of the character Mikazuki Augus from the 2015-2017 television series Mobile Suit Gundam IRON-BLOODED ORPHANS coming to a new card in Bandai’s Gundam Card Game:

The level 4 “Pilot” card allows the player to choose both one of their own and one of their opponents cards, and deal one damage to them.

The card will be included — alongside those for the Battle Spirits, Ultraman, and Union Arena card games — inside the next issue of V-Jump (the magazine’s December 2025 issue), due out on 21 October 2025 for ¥680.

Toyotarō’s Dragon Ball Super manga series, itself originally serialized in V-Jump, has largely been on hiatus since wrapping up the “Super Hero Arc” back in March 2024, which also coincided with the passing of Akira Toriyama. The series returned for a single one-shot chapter back in February this year, providing additional prequel content for the arc, and filling out the page count to release the 24th collected volume of the manga.

With the exception of the March 2025 issue noting the aforementioned one-shot chapter, each issue of V-Jump since the conclusion of the “Super Hero Arc” has included a tiny message in the back stating, “Dragon Ball Super will be on break next issue” (次号の「ドラゴンボール超」は休載です。) — this remains true with the latest issue (the November 2025 issue released this week):

The original Mobile Suit Gundam IRON-BLOODED ORPHANS broadcast (beginning October 2015) was largely contemporary with the original (June 2015) serialization and (July 2015) broadcast of the respective Dragon Ball Super manga and anime series.

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, “speeding up the excitement of the TV anime even more”. Though the television series completed its run, the manga continued onward, moving into its own original “Galactic Patrol Prisoner”, “Granolla the Survivor”, and “Super Hero” arcs.

Viz released free digital chapters of the series upon release as a simultaneous publication, and began their own collected print edition back in 2017. The company’s 24th collected volume — which lags behind the Japanese release — is due out in March 2026.