V-Jump (né “Virtual Jump”) — Shueisha’s multimedia-focused (video/card games, manga, anime, etc.) magazine — began with three issues in a smaller, thicker format on a (roughly) half-yearly schedule released in November 1990, June 1991, and November 1991. This was followed by an additional four-issue preview/test run in November 1992, February 1993, March 1993, and April 1993. The inaugural issue of the regular monthly run — the July 1993 issue — was released in May 1993. The magazine has continued on ever since, and is released on the 21st of each month (barring a Sunday or a holiday, in which case its release is moved up accordingly).

In addition to its obvious video games coverage and the ongoing Dragon Ball Super “comicalization” by Toyotarō, Dragon Ball fans these days tend to associate V-Jump with television and movie previews including character designs, author comments, etc. Truth be told, not much has changed since its earliest days: just as one flips through V-Jump for a glimpse at Broli in 2018, so too would one flip through V-Jump for a glimpse at Broli in 1993.

As we perused the November 1991 trial issue, we stumbled upon a few curiosities. The first page of the issue is a fold-out promotion highlighting the upcoming March 1992 Toei Anime Fair, which was set to debut the sixth theatrical Dragon Ball Z film alongside entries from the Magical Taluluto and Dragon Quest series.

The splash includes a comment from Dragon Ball‘s original author Akira Toriyama looking ahead to the new film:

“A word from Akira Toriyama-sensei!!”
To be perfectly upfront, this movie is awesome! A mighty foe far surpassing the conventional wisdom of Dragon Ball Z up to now will appear! He’s a fearsome foe who even thrashes the likes of Goku & co., driving them to desperation!! I’m a little scared, but I want to see it soon…!!

Additionally, the splash features villains from three previous Dragon Ball Z films — Tullece from the third, Slug from the fourth, and Coola from the fifth — with vague promotional text hyping up the (undisclosed) villain in the next film. Interestingly, Slug is described as being a Ｎ星人 (N-seijin) with the accompanying furigana indicating a pronunciation of namekku for the letter “N”; while this of course makes sense, the shorthand used here is certainly rare. Most interestingly, the text alongside Tullece makes a major error:

孫悟空の兄も敵で登場した。

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Son Goku’s [older] brother also appeared as an enemy.

The error is a strange one, considering the film had debuted well over a year earlier and would have been known, understood, and documented by all respective production teams. The film’s own theatrical attendee book, in a special “Secrets of the Saiyans” column, is explicit in its explanation of why “Kakarrot” and Tullece would look similar using Tullece’s own in-movie explanation as its basis:

さらに階級ごとに別々の育てられ方をしいるため、同じ階級の者は同じ顔になってしまう。サイヤ人の生き残りであるターレスも、もとは下級戦士。それで同じく下級戦士だった悟空と、そっくりの顔をしているというわけだ。

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Furthermore, Saiyans are forcibly raised differently based on their rank, so those of the same rank come to have the same face. Tullece, one of the surviving Saiyans, was also originally a low-ranking warrior. That’s why his face is the spitting image of Goku, who was also a low-ranking warrior.

The respective entry in our “Rumor Guide” has been updated accordingly with this information!