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3,826 Posts & 2,401 Pages Documenting Dragon Ball, since 1998. We've got you covered!
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.

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!

Published by 26 December 2024, 7:24 PM ESTComment

The eleventh collected volume of Dragon Ball SD is on its way from Shueisha, with a catalog entry noting an 04 February 2025 release date, clocking in at 192 pages and running at ¥814 + tax.

The release will mark just under a year since the tenth collected volume. The upcoming eleventh collected volume should pick with Dragon Ball SD chapter 98.

Dragon Ball SD was a stalwart of Saikyō Jump dating back to its original debut issue, adapting events from the original story in humorous new ways with “chibi” or “super deformed” (the titular “SD”) styled characters. After the original four quarterly issues of the magazine and SD covering four distinct time periods, the magazine shifted to a monthly release and SD reverted back to the proper beginning of the series with a continuous storyline. In 2016, the series skipped ahead from the end of the 22nd Tenka’ichi Budōkai to the Saiyan arc. In conjunction with Saikyō Jump‘s big format refresh in 2021, Dragon Ball SD was moved out of the magazine to a digital-only series on the company’s official YouTube channel. The series briefly returned to print in the August 2022 issue for a special chapter promoting the theatrical film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, and then again in the December 2024 issue for a 40th anniversary celebration chapter. Most recently, the series returned to the pages of Saikyō Jump-proper for full serialization again starting in the January 2025 issue released earlier this month.

Dragon Ball SD is not available in English, though it does currently see a release in certain territories such as Germany and France.

Published by 24 December 2024, 11:40 AM ESTComment

Show Description

Episode #0516! Mike and Randy chat about the North American Dragon Ball Daima Tour before turning their attention to the first half(?) of Dragon Ball Daima itself. How are we feeling about all the usual stuff like story, pacing, and production values? What hopes do we still have? Stick around for a short Dragon Quest III HD-2D wrap-up chat afterward!

How to Listen

Our podcast is available via Apple Podcasts and/or Google Podcasts, 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, or YouTube. We invite you discuss this episode on our forum.

 

Referenced Sites:

Published by 22 December 2024, 6:42 PM ESTComment

During Dragon Ball‘s panel on the “Red Stage” at Jump Festa 2025 this weekend (and as seen in a YouTube live stream unfortunately since made private), it was announced Toyotarō will once again return to the pages of Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine in its April 2025 issue — set for release 20 February 2025 — for a special one-shot Dragon Ball Super manga chapter.

The chapter will focus on what led to Trunks’ admiration of superheroes, with key artwork showcasing Goten and Trunks behind “Clean God” (a source of inspiration most recently seen in the “Super Hero” arc of the Dragon Ball Super manga).

What was not announced, however, was a “full return” of the Dragon Ball Super manga. The Jump Festa announcement was solely for this special one-shot, and as of V-Jump‘s February 2025 issue released this week, the usual note of “The Dragon Ball Super manga will be on hiatus next issue” remains in the back preview pages:

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. The manga has been on hiatus since chapter 103’s release back in the May 2024 issue (released earlier this year in March), coinciding with the passing of Akira Toriyama.

Toyotarō most recently contributed another special one-shot to promote the launch of the new Dragon Ball Super Divers arcade game in Japan two months ago in V-Jump‘s December 2024 issue.

Published by 21 December 2024, 11:26 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 December 2024 entry, Toyotarō has drawn Mako Maruyama (and friends!) from the Akira Toriyama manga series COWA!:

COWA!
Mako Maruyama

It’s the comic Toriyama-sensei said was his favorite.

The main character is Paifu, but it’s drawn with Makorin a.k.a. Mako Maruyama, who he actually wanted to be the lead, front and center.

Toriyama consistently called out COWA! as one of his favorite works, specifically stating in a comment for new obi included with his various works beginning in 2014 (alongside the launch of Jaco the Galactic Patrolman):

No matter what anyone says, this is the comic I like the best out of all my works.

COWA! is a fourteen-chapter post-Dragon Ball manga series by Akira Toriyama, debuting in the 1997 No. 48 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump, originally released 28 October 1997 in Japan. The series ran through to the 1998 No. 15 issue, and a collected volume was released that May.

In America, COWA! was released as a collected print edition by Viz in July 2008.

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

Published by 12 December 2024, 11:26 AM ESTComment

A new patch released today across all platforms for Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO brings a variety of balance and gameplay updates.

Perhaps most notably, the patch brings an all-new “High-Speed Dragon Dash” quick movement option, as well as offline split-screen multiplayer to all stages — though full-screen multiplayer was available for online battles at launch, this feature was previously only available on the Room of Spirit and Time stage for offline battles.

Game Mode Adjustments Battle
• All stages are now available in offline P1 vs. P2 battles.

Functionality Adjustments

Battle Setup
• A function allowing you to change a character’s display method has been added.
• The “My Sets” function has been added for Team Members.

Ranked Match / Player Match
• You can now skip the intro battle animations (requires both players to input the skip command).

Player Match
• You can now set your team to hidden or revealed to your opponent when editing your team.

Custom Battle Mode
• Text can now be sorted alphabetically.

Options
• You can now set the battle camera distance to be closer.

Battle System Adjustments

High-Speed Dragon Dash (New Action)
• The new quick movement action, “High-Speed Dragon Dash”, where you can move quickly towards your opponent, has been added. Perform with R2 and holding X (PS5) or RT and holding A (XSX/S).

Smash Attack
• You will no longer be stunned when being hit by a Rush Ki Blast when charging a Smash Attack.
• When charging a Smash Attack during a Rush Attack, charge time reduction based on hit count has been increased.

Rush Ki Blast
• The time between being able to fire the next Rush Ki Blast after firing the maximum consecutive amount at once (different for each character) has been increased.

Rush Ki Blast Deflection
• You can now move while deflecting Rush Ki Blasts.

Steps
• You will now no longer be able to be hit by certain attacks immediately after performing a Step.
• Rush Ki Blast and Smash Ki Blast can now also be evaded.

Z-Burst Dash
• The amount of Ki consumed when activating it has been increased.

Burst Smash
• Ki will no longer be consumed when activating it and will instead consume an amount based on the distance traveled.

Blast
• Damage has been increased when using a boost.

Z-Search
• Z-Search will no longer lose track of your opponent when characters are swapped.
• You will now quickly regain sight of your opponent if they enter your line of sight from the front when Z-Search is not locked onto them.

Z-Counter
• The input window has been shortened.
• Z-Counter will become more difficult to perform if performed consecutively.
• Ki consumed has been increased when successfully performing a Z-Counter.
• Skill Count increase speed has been reduced when successfully performing a Z-Counter.

Revenge Counter
• Skill Count consumed when using Perception against Revenge Counter has been reduced from 2 to 1.

Rush Attacks during Sparking! Mode
• Gradual damage reduction of consecutive hits has been increased.

Combos
• The final attack of Aerial Combos and Aerial Slash Combos will no longer be interrupted by guarding.

Character Switch
• Health recovery rate of Standby characters has been reduced.

Z-Burst Dash (Giant Characters)
• The tackle done by Giant characters during Z-Burst Dashes is now guardable.

Skill Adjustments

Skills that cause instant Sparking! Mode
• Skill Count consumed has been increased.

Skills that increase stats in general
• Skill Count consumed has been decreased.

Afterimage Strike
• Effect duration has been reduced to 10 seconds and will be removed if your opponent uses Perception while you are under the effect.

False Courage
• Skill Count consumed has been increased from 1 to 2.

Technique: All I Need Is Five Seconds!
• Skill Count consumed has been increased from 3 to 2 and status increase upon activation has been increased.

Stardust Barrier
• You can now activate it while receiving melee attacks from the front.

Blast Adjustments

Long-Range Blasts and Ultimate Blasts
• Speed has been reduced.

Super Vegito: Final Kamehameha
• Ki consumed and damage has been increased.

Goku (Mini): Quick Rush
• Trajectory can now be changed while Rushing.

Mr. Satan: Present Bomb
• Increased ending lag after activation.

Character Adjustments

Android 19/ Dr. Gero
• Health/Ki amount absorbed on successful throw has been adjusted.
• Dragon Dash, Quick Ascend, and Quick Descend now consume Ki.

Cell 2nd Form
• You can now escape the throw.

Cooler
• Amount of Health restored upon transforming has been increased.

Giant Characters
• Increased the time it takes to charge a Smash Attack and reduced its power.

Great Ape Vegeta / Dr. Wheelo
• Maximum health has been reduced.

Other
• We have improved performance and ease of use.

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 December 2024, 4:14 PM 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 November 2024 entry (posted in early December), Toyotarō has drawn three of the Neko Majin from the Akira Toriyama manga series of the same name.

Neko Majin
A series I really like with a lot of connections to Dragon Ball

A few years after completing Dragon Ball, and sporadically over the next few years in between his other projects, Akira Toriyama released chapters of Neko Majin, a series that increasingly became a Dragon Ball parody and spin-off as it went on. Chapters were published between Weekly Shōnen Jump and (the now-defunct) Monthly Shōnen Jump, sometimes entire years apart from each other. The series consists of two chapters of Neko Majin ga Iru (“Neko Majin is Here”), one chapter of Neko Majin Mike, and five chapters of Neko Majin Z. The final two chapters of Neko Majin Z bucked the trend and were published back-to-back in consecutive issues of Monthly Shōnen Jump. All eight chapters were collected into a single kanzenban-sized volume in April 2005; they were later released in a new digitally-colorized version in April 2013.

The only chapter ever to be officially published and released in English has been Neko Majin Z 5, which was printed (without a chapter number) in the October 2007 issue of Viz’s (now-defunct) print version of Shonen Jump.

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

Published by 06 December 2024, 10:31 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 entries, this month’s January 2025 issue brings us the penultimate drawing and comment combo with Masakazu Katsura (DNA², I”s, Shadow Lady, Video Girl Ai, Wing-Man, Zetman) and their take on the series’ first collected volume cover.

Katsura commented:

I am the man that kept getting the in the way of Dragon Ball‘s writing with really dumb phone calls, ones that started late in the night and went on until the wee hours of the morning.

I mean, technically, I wasn’t really getting in the way per se, but… midway through our calls, I would just casually ask “what are you doing?” and would always be really shocked when he answered “Hmm? Oh, I’m doing the storyboards.”

He really was amazing. I wonder what kind of brains Toriyama-san had floating up there on that noggin’.

Dragon Ball was always such a positive, pure and unbelievably fun manga that it will forever be a masterpiece.

Toriyama and Katsura were long-time friends and collaborators. Toriyama brings up Katsura countless times during his various interviews over the years, and Katsura himself actually showed up during Toriyama’s interview for the “Shenlong Times” accompanying Daizenshuu 7. During one of their most notable conversations, it was actually Katsura who suggested fusing characters together as a new way to power-up characters without another transformation. Toriyama and Katsura directly collaborated together for Sachie-chan GOOD!! and Jiya, the original two entries in the Galactic Patrol series.

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.