Our latest translation comes from the Dragon Ball Z series’ second background music collection (released in May 1993, exclusively covering the eighth Dragon Ball Z film), whose inside pamphlet included an introductory comment from Toei Animation Producer Hiruta Sei’ichi:
“So, for this piece, since it’s going to be playing during the scene where Kaiō-sama is sensing danger due to the destruction of the South Galaxy, please don’t use a somber melody, but a heavy one instead.”
“Not somber, but heavy…? Without something more concrete, it’s kind of hard to picture… Could you please be a little more specific?”
“Um, so… I want something with a solemn and oppressive atmosphere, but that doesn’t feel too dark.”
“…”
The Ongakushū (“Background Music Collection”) series was followed by several movie-specific releases in the coming years, as well as 2006’s three-disc Dragon Ball Z BGM Collection, still the most recent (and unfortunately largely incomplete) collection of Dragon Ball Z background music.
This comment has been archived in our “Translations” section.
Each month, Toyotarō provides a drawing of a Dragon Ball 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 September 2021 entry, Toyotarō has contributed a drawing of Ipana and Berry from the Episode of Bardock “What If?” story by Naho Ooishi:
Ipana / Berry
With their simple and quirky designs that are just oh-so-Toriyama-sensei, they’re a set of characters I’d really like to see more of in the spotlight.
Apparently they lived on Planet Plant in the past.
Alongside the design for the main antagonist Chilled, Akira Toriyama provided the character designs for Ipana and Berry in Episode of Bardock; all of these designs were most recently included in 2013’s Dragon Ball Chōgashū: Super Art Collection (which received an English translation from Viz under the title “Dragon Ball: A Visual History” in November 2019):
This drawing and comment set has been added to the respective page in our “Translations” archive.
Continuing onward from previous chapters, Shueisha and Viz have added the official English translation of the Dragon Ball Super manga’s seventy-sixth chapter to their respective Manga Plus and Shonen Jump services, continuing the brand-new “Granolla the Survivor arc”. Alongside other initiatives including free chapters and a larger archive for paid subscribers, this release continues the companies’ schedule of not simply simultaneously publishing the series’ chapter alongside its Japanese debut to the release date, but to its local time in Japan alongside its serialization in today’s November 2021 issue of Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine.
The Dragon Ball Super “comicalization” began in June 2015, initially just ahead of the television series, and running both ahead and behind the series at various points. The manga runs monthly in Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine, with the series’ seventy-sixth chapter coming today in the magazine’s November 2021 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, “speeding up the excitement of the TV anime even more”. Though the television series has completed its run, the manga continues onward, moving into its own original “Galactic Patrol Prisoner” and “Granolla the Survivor” arcs. Viz is currently releasing free digital chapters of the series, and began their own collected print edition back in 2017. The fourteenth collected volume was released this month.
The Dragon Ball Super television series concluded in March 2018 with 131 total episodes. FUNimation owns the American distribution license for the series, with the English dub having wrapped its broadcast on Cartoon Network, and the home video release reaching its tenth and final box set last year.
Earlier this week, Viz revealed the cover artwork for their forthcoming Akira Toriyama’s Manga Theater compilation:
The cover artwork is sourced from the first volume in the Akira Toriyama’s _____piece Theater (鳥山明○作劇場; Toriyama Akira Marusaku Gekijō) series, which this compilation was announced to bring together in one package:
Originally released in three volumes over the course of 1983, 1988, and 1997, respectively, Akira Toriyama’s _____piece Theater (typically adapted as “Akira Toriyama’s Blank-piece Theater” in English) compiled a significant portion of the author’s short works and one-shots, many of which were contemporary with the original serializations of Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball. Perhaps most notable to Dragon Ball fans are the inclusion of Dragon Boy and The Adventure of Tongpoo, two works from 1983 that served as direct prototypes on the road to Dragon Ball itself the following year.
Originally announced back in February, Viz’s Akira Toriyama’s Manga Theater, translated by Greg Werner, is set for release 07 December 2021 for $34.99 MSRP and spanning 626 pages.
The volume is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.
Our latest translation comes from the Dragon Ball Z series’ first background music collection (released in August 1992), whose inside pamphlet included an introductory comment from then-Toei Animation Producer Kōzō Morishita, who speaks highly of his collaboration with and the music of the late Shunsuke Kikuchi:
One of the main factors behind that popularity is the music by Mr. Shunsuke Kikuchi, which brings to life various concepts from the original work.
In original work penned by Mr. Akira Toriyama, we have lots of peculiar characters, a ton of fast-paced action scenes and unexpected story developments, not to mention loads of both laughs and tears. And in order to convey those scenes and cuts accurately, music is something we cannot do without.
The first Ongakushū (“Background Music Collection”) was followed by several movie-specific releases in the coming years, as well as 2006’s three-disc Dragon Ball Z BGM Collection, still the most recent (and unfortunately largely incomplete) collection of Dragon Ball Z background music.
This comment has been archived in our “Translations” section.
Last month’s September 2021 issue of Shueisha’s Saikyō Jump magazine kicked off a new “Dragon Ball Super Gallery” series in commemoration of the Dragon Ball franchise’s upcoming 40th anniversary. The new 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 part of the magazine.
Following the initial entry from Masashi Kishimoto, this week’s October 2021 issue of Saikyō Jump brings a new entry from Tite Kubo (Bleach), with his take on the series’ 27th volume cover:
Kubo commented:
The truth is, I didn’t know what I ought to write here, so I took a look at the author comment for the original Volume 27, and it said something like, “I’m supposed to write about what I’ve been up to recently, but I’ve been so busy with the serial that I don’t have anything to write about.” ‘I know, right?’ I thought, but at the same time, it also said something like, “I have my editor write the comments in the Jump table of contents,” which is a killer move that I would have loved to know about during my own serial. That reminded me once again of how awesome Toriyama-sensei is. To think I could’ve done it like that…
Toriyama’s full introductory comment from Volume 27 reads:
To be honest, all this author has to say is, I’m always stuck for something to write here. When you’re busy working on a weekly serial, it’s not like there’s going to be anything all that special to write about. What’s even more painful is the “author’s comment” blurbs on the table of contents page in the back of Shōnen Jump. This is a secret, but for at least half of those comments, I let my editor Kondō-san write them for me. Every week, he asks me, “Anything to talk about?” But I’ve got nothing.
Saikyō Jump (“The Strongest 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 last month (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. The magazine currently serializes content such as Yoshitaka Nagayama’s Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Big Bang Mission!!! and the Dragon Ball GT Anime Comic. For calendar year 2018, Saikyō Jump‘s readership comprised of 58.5% in upper elementary school, 28% in lower middle school, 11% in middle school, and 2.5% in high school or older.
Kubo is a long-time fan of the Dragon Ball franchise, noting Akira Toriyama as a source of inspiration. The first run of kanzenban editions of the Dragon Ball manga released from 2003 to 2004 included bonus pamphlets, with every other volume featuring a tribute image and comment from a fellow manga author/artist. Kubo took the sixth slot with an image of Piccolo, Vegeta, Trunks, Zarbon, Recoome, and Tao Pai-pai, noting at the time how much he loved the Dragon Ball villains:
It is September 2021, which means FUNimation’s English dub of the Dragon Ball Z television series kicked off in syndication 25 years ago this month.
What specific date did it actually debut, though? And is there more to this story? Did Dragon Ball Z actually air on American television years before this?!
Each month, Toyotarō provides a drawing of a Dragon Ball 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 August 2021 entry, Toyotarō has contributed a drawing of Papoi (and others!) relating to the Afterlife Tournament filler arc of the Dragon Ball Z television series.
Papoi
He’s a hero from the Southern Galaxy, but he showed up too late and didn’t make it in time for the Afterlife Tournament. I wanted to see what he could do.
Papoi was initially mentioned by South Kaiō only by name in Dragon Ball chapter 428; this scene was adapted in the Dragon Ball Z television series’ 207th episode with an actual design for Papoi, now present during the conversation.
This drawing and comment set has been added to the respective page in our “Translations” archive.
Continuing onward from previous chapters, Shueisha and Viz have added the official English translation of the Dragon Ball Super manga’s seventy-fifth chapter to their respective Manga Plus and Shonen Jump services, continuing the brand-new “Granolla the Survivor arc”. Alongside other initiatives including free chapters and a larger archive for paid subscribers, this release continues the companies’ schedule of not simply simultaneously publishing the series’ chapter alongside its Japanese debut to the release date, but to its local time in Japan alongside its serialization in today’s October 2021 issue of Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine.
The Dragon Ball Super “comicalization” began in June 2015, initially just ahead of the television series, and running both ahead and behind the series at various points. The manga runs monthly in Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine, with the series’ seventy-fifth chapter coming today in the magazine’s October 2021 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, “speeding up the excitement of the TV anime even more”. Though the television series has completed its run, the manga continues onward, moving into its own original “Galactic Patrol Prisoner” and “Granolla the Survivor” arcs. Viz is currently releasing free digital chapters of the series, and began their own collected print edition back in 2017. The fourteenth collected volume is due this September.
The Dragon Ball Super television series concluded in March 2018 with 131 total episodes. FUNimation owns the American distribution license for the series, with the English dub having wrapped its broadcast on Cartoon Network, and the home video release reaching its tenth and final box set last year.
SHOW DESCRIPTION:
Episode #0489! Mike and Ian discuss the evolving craft of the “Dragon Ball Super” manga series and all four of its key players: just how involved is Akira Toriyama in the most recent two arcs, how creative is Toyotarō allowed or encouraged to be, and how much authority do Akio Iyoku and Victory Uchida hold over the entire process? From drafts to dialogue to delivery, we bring the receipts!
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