Each month, Toyotarō provides a drawing — as well as a brief comment — on the official Japanese Dragon Ball website. Thus far, Toyotarō has provided drawings of #8, Lunch, Chapa with Oob, Tambourine, Man-Wolf, Tapion, Janenba, Broli, Ozotto, Ginyu, Bardock, Paragus, King Cold, Bardock’s original television special crew, Onio with his wife, Shiirasu, and Great Saiyaman. For his May 2019 entry, Toyotarō has contributed a sketch of Nail:
It’s Nail. If he hadn’t been defeated by Freeza and then merged with Piccolo, he might still be living peacefully on New Namek… He may very well be the single greatest sacrifice.
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 forty-eighth chapter to their respective Manga Plus and Shonen Jump services, moving further into the original “Galactic Patrol Prisoner 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 in today’s July 2019 issue of Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine in Japan.
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’ forty-eighth chapter coming today in the magazine’s July 2019 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, having recently entered its own original “Galactic Patrol Prisoner” arc. Viz is currently releasing free digital chapters of the series, and began their own collected print edition back in 2017. The fifth collected volume was released in English from Viz 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 airing on Cartoon Network, and the home video release reaching its eighth box set this coming July.
Bandai Namco Holdings has posted a ¥63.383 billion (approximately $578 million) profit for the full fiscal year of 2018, compared to a ¥54.109 billion profit last year.
Dragon Ball came in as the company’s best-performing franchise for the year, pulling in ¥129 billion (yet another jump over last year’s ¥97.9 billion), significantly beating the company’s forecast of ¥80 billion. The company is projecting ¥115 billion for fiscal year 2020.
In terms of general toys and hobby merchandise (non-video games), the franchise also jumped from ¥14.2 billion last fiscal year to ¥20.4 billion this year. The company is forecasting roughly the same amount next year at ¥20 billion.
The first collected volume of Yoshitaka Nagayama’s Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Universe Mission manga series — originally and currently serialized on a bimonthly basis in Shueisha’s Saikyō Jump magazine — officially hit Japanese shelves earlier this month on 02 May 2019 for ¥500 + tax. Spanning 200 pages, the volume covers the the series’ first six chapters, which encompasses the five-chapter “Prison Planet arc” (featuring Fu and Cumber) and begins the “Universal Conflict arc” (featuring Hearts, Kamin, and Oren). The volume also comes packed with Super Dragon Ball Heroes arcade card UVPJ-34 (Son Goku).
Under the dusk jacket, the volume’s front and back illustrations showcase additional characters from the story, including the various villains trapped on the Prison Planet:
In his introductory comment, Nagayama explains his profile illustration:
I just wanted to picture myself in Oolong’s costume. I, Yoshitaka Nagayama, have no interest whatsoever in a gal’s panties.
The inside title page showcases Trunks relaxing while Goku and Vegeta train, and Mai prepares a meal.
The manga content is presented in standard black-and-white, as opposed to the blue print in its original Saikyō Jump serialization. Chapters that were originally serialized in full-color are likewise presented in standard black-and-white in the collected volume.
Nagayama dedicates two pages to special thanks including his assistant Atsushi Kuguno, V-Jump editor (and mascot) “Victory Uchida”, volume editor Naomi Maehara of Yuki Design, volume designer Yōko Nose of Banana Grove Studio, the entire Dragon Ball Heroes team at Bandai Namco, Akira Toriyama himself (without whom none of this would be possible), and all Dragon Ball fans everywhere. Two final pages promote arcade game content; no additional manga material is collected in this volume.
This first volume of the collected edition is available for purchase via CDJapan and Amazon Japan.
Yoshitaka Nagayama debuted in a supplemental booklet packed in with the December 2013 issue of Saikyō Jump, with Dragon Ball Heroes: Rookie Charisma Mission Episode 0 depicting the daily life and “training” of Engineer Yoshito and new Battle Navigators Tsubasa and Momo-chan in a cartoony style. The series eventually received its own standard serialization in Saikyō Jump, running in earnest from the July 2014 to July 2016 issues. With the cancellation of Katsuki Hirose’s Dragon Ball Discross Divine Power God MAX!! manga series (due to the Discross arcade game’s official discontinuation), Nagayama returned with Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Charisma Mission!! in the March 2017 issue, which has been running alongside the standard manga fare ever since.
Nagayama’s major follow-up, Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Dark Demon Realm Mission!, began in the September 2016 issue of Saikyō Jump telling a new story set in the Super Dragon Ball Heroes world with Time Patrol Trunks, the Kaiōshin of Time, and more. The series’ tenth chapter (later renumbered as its eleventh courtesy of a bonus chapter) was serialized in the March 2018 issue, which simultaneously marked it as the “End of Part 1” while the table of contents listed it as the “final chapter”.
The Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Universe Mission series began serialization the very next release in the May 2018 issue of Saikyō Jump, replacing Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Dark Demon Realm Mission! That series’ seventh chapter was recently serialized last month in the magazine’s May 2019 issue.
Independent of Universe Mission, Nagayama announced on Twitter that Dark Demon Realm Mission! would return to Saikyō Jump starting with the May 2019 issue (beginning “Part 2”), and will run for the foreseeable future alongside Universe Mission. Both series clocked in at roughly 30 pages each in the issue.
Nagayama’s Dark Demon Realm Mission! and Universe Mission manga series, as well as the ongoing “Promotional Anime” series, all adapt story content from the arcade version of Super Dragon Ball Heroes, which saw the eighth update in its own “Universe Mission” series this week.
Following today’s eleventh episode premiere, the official Super Dragon Ball Heroes website announced a late-June 2019 streaming date for the forthcoming twelfth episode of the Super Dragon Ball Heroes promotional anime, continuing further into the brand-new “Universal Conflict” arc. In the upcoming episode (“Calling All Super Warriors! Universe 7’s Decisive Battle”), Goku and the others face off against Hearts and Kamioren, while Cumber clashes with Coola (and his new power-up) over in Universe 3.
The arcade game’s “Universe Mission 8” update hits today in Japan. In 2015, May 9 was officially recognized as “Goku Day” in Japan.
The self-described “promotional anime” began its free online streaming in July 2018, with the initial six episodes covering the “Prison Planet” arc, then moving on to the “Universal Conflict” arc. Though the series’ original trailer was available worldwide, the subsequent episode postings themselves have been region-locked to Japan. No home release of the promotional anime has been announced. The series’ eleventh episode went live today.
Super Dragon Ball Heroes is itself an update and hardware revision to the original Dragon Ball Heroes, a card-based arcade game in which players arrange teammates on a playing field for turn-based battles. Dragon Ball Heroes has seen a variety of multimedia spin-offs and support pieces. Yoshitaka Nagayama’s Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Universe Mission manga (a follow-up to the previous Dark Demon Realm Mission series, which also recently re-started) currently runs in Shueisha’s bimonthly Saikyō Jump magazine, while Toyotarō’s Dragon Ball Heroes: Victory Mission ran from 2012-2015 in Shueisha’s monthly V-Jump magazine. Three portable game adaptations — Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission, Ultimate Mission 2, and Ultimate Mission X — were released on the Nintendo 3DS. A fourth home version, Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission, launched on the Nintendo Switch and PC on 04 April 2019 and internationally 05 April 2019.
Bandai Namco has detailed numerous gameplay and character-specific changes in the 1.17 patch of Dragon Ball FighterZ hitting this week, releasing in conjunction with tomorrow’s “Son Goku (GT)” playable character debut.
The 3-on-3, “2.5D” fighting game is developed by Arc System Works and is currently available on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC (via Steam); on these systems, the game runs at a 1080p resolution and 60fps frame rate, with higher resolutions available on the PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X consoles, as well as the PC. Playable characters include Son Goku, Son Gohan (Cell arc design), Vegeta, Freeza, Cell, Boo (Good), Trunks, Piccolo, Kuririn, #16, #18 (with #17), Yamcha, Tenshinhan (with Chiaotzu), Ginyu (with teammates), Nappa (with Saibaimen), Gotenks, Son Gohan (Boo arc design), Boo (Pure), Hit, Beerus, and Goku Black (with Zamasu), as well as “Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan” (SSGSS, or “Super Saiyan Blue”) versions of Goku and Vegeta that can be accessed early via pre-orders or unlocked through gameplay. The Akira Toriyama-designed “#21” is a new character central to the game’s story mode.
A first “FighterZ Pass” with eight additional playable characters is available for $29.99. A “FighterZ Pass 2” is also available for $24.99 covering six further characters, which are still mid-cycle in their release with “Son Goku (GT)” following Videl and Jiren. Said additional paid characters are also all available piecemeal at $4.99 each.
Dragon Ball FighterZ was originally released 26 January 2018 in North America and Europe, and 01 February 2018 in Japan. Alongside its Japanese release, Bandai Namco announced that they had shipped two million copies of the game, making it the fastest-shipping game in the franchise’s history. The game shipped on the Nintendo Switch back in September 2018.
SHOW DESCRIPTION:
Episode #0473! Mike and Julian share their “Hidden and Forgotten Dragon Ball Stories” panel from Castle Point Anime Convention 2019! Tune in for a brief overview of some of the oft-forgotten supplemental manga series and the historical context that created some of these bizarre releases.
SEGMENTS:
Our podcast is available via iTunes and/or Google Play Music, or you can pop the direct RSS feed into the program of your choice. You can also listen to this episode by directly downloading the MP3 or by streaming it on Spotify, SoundCloud, or YouTube. We invite you to discuss this episode on our forum.
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Following an initial launch on other platforms back in March, today’s update for Dragon Ball XENOVERSE 2 on the Nintendo Switch enables the long-promised “Photo Mode”:
Players will find a new “Photo Mode” robot in Conton City which will allow them to set up battles and pause for specific camera framing and embellishments. The photo mode is unique to this glorified menu option in the city, and is not accessible during regular matches.
Developed by Dimps for Bandai Namco, Dragon Ball XENOVERSE 2 is available worldwide for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC (via Steam), and Switch. In North America, the game launched for consoles 25 October 2016 with a PC release following 28 October 2016. In Europe, the game launched across all platforms 28 October 2016. In Japan, the game launched on the PlayStation 4 console 02 November 2016. The Nintendo Switch port was released in Japan and internationally in September 2017.
The sixth collected volume of Dragon Ball SD appears to finally be on its way from Shueisha, with a catalog entry noting an 04 June 2019 release date, clocking in at 192 pages and running at ¥600 + tax.
The release will mark a little more than a year since the fifth collected volume, no doubt due to the current bi-monthly schedule of Saikyō Jump where Naho Ooishi’s “chibi” spin-off manga is serialized. The sixth collected volume will pick up with Goku’s battle against Nappa in Dragon Ball SD chapter 49.
The May 2019 issue of Saikyō Jump, released earlier this month (05 April 2019), contained the spin-off manga’s 60th chapter since its 2011/2012 reboot, featuring the heroes landing on Namek. In 2016, the series skipped ahead from the end of the 22nd Tenka’ichi Budōkai to the Saiyan arc. Other than a brief absence in the January 2017 issue, Dragon Ball SD has run in each and every issue of Saikyō Jump since its 2011 debut throughout all of its format and release changes.
Dragon Ball SD is not available in English, though it does currently see a release in certain territories such as Germany and France.
SHOW DESCRIPTION:
Episode #0472! Mike and Julian go behind-the-scenes to discuss some of the recent name spelling disparities between not just the official licensees, but also with us here at Kanzenshuu. What is suddenly driving this attempt at consistency from the top down, and why do we sometimes feel the need to be different? Where can you compromise, and where should you not?
SEGMENTS:
Our podcast is available via iTunes and/or Google Play Music, or you can pop the direct RSS feed into the program of your choice. You can also listen to this episode by directly downloading the MP3 or by streaming it on Spotify, SoundCloud, or YouTube. We invite you to discuss this episode on our forum.
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