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 twenty-three entries, this month’s August 2023 issue brings us Kazue Kato (Blue Exorcist) and their take on the series’ 25th volume cover:
Kazue Kato commented:
Congratulations to Dragon Ball on its 40th anniversary!! Out of all the covers I enjoy, I purposefully picked one that had as many elements as possible. But I also wanted to draw Piccolo and Vegeta… While I was making this homage, I remembered how much I loved copying the artwork when I was a kid, saw how deep an influence it had on the way I draw natural objects and things like knots, and managed to realize once again how much Toriyama-sensei‘s talents became a part of my very being. It was fun!! It was such an honor to be able to partake of this opportunity. Thank you so much!
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. The magazine currently serializes content such as Yoshitaka Nagayama’s Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultra God Mission!!!! manga series, Yūji Kasai’s Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Avatars!! manga series, and the Dragon Ball GT Anime Comic. 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.