The 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 September issue’s entry from Masashi Kishimoto and October issue’s entry from Tite Kubo, this month’s November 2021 issue brings us Osamu Akimoto (Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen-mae Hashutsujo, or “KochiKame” for short) and his take on the series’ 28th volume cover:
Akimoto commented:
In the original, the Turtle Hermit was riding the first-gen Honda Monkey, so I had Ryō-san ride tandem on the most active-styled Monkey, the Monkey RT. I like the machines in Toriyama-san‘s works, and in Dragon Ball specifically, things like the flying machines and submarines look really cool. On the character side, I like the Turtle Hermit. He’s a kooky old lech, but he’s actually strong. I admire that. I tried building up my strength in pursuit of him, but I was frustrated in my efforts. Still, I think my age, at least, is catching up to him (laughs), so I ride around with the top down, wearing shades. (laughs)
Akimoto had written a two-page bonus chapter (featured in volume 69 in the original KochiKame manga, and first serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump 1990 #17, alongside Dragon Ball chapter 268), where KochiKame protagonist Ryō-san is reassigned to police duty on Planet Namek. Sixteen years later, Akimoto and Toriyama collaborated on a nine-page semi-continuation/reboot of this premise — This is the Police Station in Front of Dragon Park on Planet Namek, printed in the Chō-Kochikame anniversary book — where Ryō-san goes after Freeza for illegally parking his spaceship.
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 this fall (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.
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 October 2021 entry, Toyotarō has contributed a drawing of the Ghost who handles the line queues for the Fortuneteller Crone:
The Ghost Who Tells People to Form a Line
Since Halloween is this month, here’s a ghost. It’s the Fortunetelling Crone’s servant, who also does things like blood transfusions. The skeletons next to it are the gatekeepers standing guard.
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-seventh 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 December 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-seventh chapter coming today in the magazine’s December 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 fifteenth collected volume is due out in January 2022.
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.
New York Comic Con kicked off this morning in New York City, with the first panel on the main stage at 12:30pm EDT going to the upcoming Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie slated for release in Japan sometime in 2022. The live panel was hosted by Justin Rojas, who was joined by English voice actors Ian Sinclair (Whis) and Monica Rial (Bulma). The Japanese staff, including Toei Animation producer Norihiro Hayashida and Shueisha executive producer Akio Iyoku, had originally planned to attend in person, but for unspecified reasons instead joined the panel via live stream from Toei Animation Studios in Tokyo, Japan (local time 1:30am). They were also joined by panel host Sascha and translator Kyle Carr, who relayed information from the producers to the audience.
After some brief introductions, the producers quickly began sharing new content, including character designs for Dende, Bulma, and Karin. According to Akio Iyoku, some time has passed so Dende has grown a bit, and Akira Toriyama has given Bulma yet another new hair style. He also notes that he specifically requested Toriyama provide the animation staff with an updated character design for Karin.
The panel went on to debut an exclusive trailer filled with clips of finished scenes from the movie, with the hosts noting fans should pay particular attention to many of the new characters introduced. It is worth pointing out that each clip in this trailer utilizes CG rendered character models, as well as a combination of 2D and 3D backgrounds. So far every indication leans toward this movie being produced almost exclusively with CG, a drastic departure from the updated animation style utilized in the previous movie, 2018’s theatrical film Dragon Ball Super: Broly.
While the general plot is still unknown, the trailer does provide some hints as to who a primary antagonist may be: namely, the Red Ribbon Army. While the producers only hint at this possibility, it is quite obvious in the trailer (and later confirmed in the panel). The producers do also note that both Pan and Piccolo will play significant roles in the new movie, with Piccolo not only training Pan, but also being a grandfatherly figure. Akio Iyoku further provides the names of the two new characters that debuted at the pre-recorded Comic-Con@Home panel in August: “Gamma 1 (ガンマ1号)” and “Gamma 2 (ガンマ2号)”. Akio Iyoku notes that they put a lot of effort in getting the numbering on their chests just right, and in particular for Gamma 2, who has what appears to be a Red Ribbon Army patch on his left arm in the trailer. Also, as spotted by many out there with a keen eye for detail, a quick glimpse of Broli appears while fighting Goku on what we can only speculate is Beerus’s Planet.
The panel then played two quick pre-recorded Q&As with Toshio Furukawa (Piccolo) and Masako Nozawa (Son Goku), both of whom noted the Japanese cast had just finished recording. Conversely, after the two videos finished, Monica Rial noted that the Funimation cast has yet to start dubbing the movie. In his video, Furukawa notes that he is excited that the movie contains a healthy balance of drama and battle, while Nozawa is thrilled to see Gohan’s family make an appearance. She also leaves absolutely no doubt about the revival of the Red Ribbon Army, saying they appear in the movie and further noting that they are “horrible people”, but she cannot say much more than that at the moment.
Of note was the Q&A session with pre-selected questions from fans to the panelists. Below are the questions with a summary of the response, which are not transcribed verbatim.
The panel concluded with an announcement that all in attendance would receive a free poster of the movie’s promotional banner, itself prominently featured at the convention.
Our latest translation is a tiny, three-item Q&A from a sidebar column in the February 2021 issue of Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine (originally released 21 December 2020); for proper historical context, this issue contained Dragon Ball Super manga chapter 67, which concluded the “Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc” and officially kicked off the (as of this post still-ongoing) “Granolla the Survivor arc”.
As discussed in more depth on Episode #0489 of our podcast, this otherwise-inconspicuous sidebar column is the primary source for the fact that it was Akira Toriyama who provided a draft for the overall storyline of the current “Granolla the Survivor” arc:
“What are you excited about going onto the “Granolla the Survivor arc”?
It took even longer to come up with ideas than with the last arc, but it was all worth it, and Toriyama-sensei came through with a fantastic draft for us. There’s still nothing I can say for now regarding the actual story, but we included a lot of twists and new reveals so that we think the readers will enjoy it immensely. I’m gonna heat things up more than ever before, so please, everyone, be sure to give me your support!
This Q&A has been archived in our “Translations” section.
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.
