"Dragon Ball SD" in Saikyō Jump (UPDATE: Confirmed+Released)

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

Goku and Kuririn were training for the entire 8 months before the 21st Tenkaichi-Budokai, and Goku immediately left to go train for three years before the 22nd, after Bora came back to life. Goku and Kuririn have never really had a chance to hang out.

[Godo]

If it's just the comedic adventures of kid Goku and Kuririn, obviously it couldn't really have happened. I guess we'll see...

Why not? There are plenty of times throughout the series when they could have had misadventures together. Before the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai, or at some point early in the three years between Uranai Baba's and the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai, for example. My guess is that'll be like "Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!" and fit into an open period of time when it could plausibly happen.

Also, initial reaction is that a super-deformed style would just be ... ugh. One of those really Japanese tropes I've never enjoyed.

I would be excited if that was when the story would occur. Goku and Kuririn's early adventures is what made me love Dragonball. Some more of that couldn't hurt.
Although it would also be interesting to see what happened in that 7 year gap, until Gohan was born...

[VegettoEX]

I'm following all sorts of referrals we're getting for this news story from other websites and forums, and while I don't feel like this is a big-enough deal to post on the home page of the site (it's all moderately inside-baseball in terms of "this is how we do things" and "this is how we validate sources"), I feel it's worth enough for a little rant on my own forum.

I constantly see comments like "So the Bleeding Cool article was real!" or "There was something behind that rumor!" and the like.

No. No, there wasn't.

I'm not going to say that Rich, the author of the original article in question ("The Return Of Dragon Ball"), is a bad guy, is lying, or anything like that. Hujio and I briefly mentioned on the podcast once that they post lots of rumors in addition to genuine news stories, and this could be any variety of things. Marc is a regular visitor and vouched for Rich, too. Perhaps it's true and just hasn't come to fruition yet. Perhaps a game of telephone screwed up the story so much along the way that the only thing it ended up getting was the word "new". Perhaps it was just total fabrication.

Let's examine some of the claims from the original article, though, and point out exactly why it likely has absolutely nothing to do with Dragon Ball SD, and was merely coincidental in timing.

Shueisha Publishing Company of Tokyo has convinced legendary manga creator Akira Toriyama to come back and restart the Dragon Ball comics franchise

As of right now, Akira Toriyama has nothing to do with the announcement of Dragon Ball SD. While it is being published in something owned by Shueisha (Saikyô Jump), it is unlikely that anything DB-related would ever NOT be published in something that has to do with Shueisha. Furthermore, it is being produced not by Toriyama but by Naho Ooishi, who (as we've noted before) handled the manga adaptation of the 2008 Jump Super Anime Tour special. Even more furthermore, and this is playing a bit of the semantics game, there is nothing here about a "restart". Will Goku and Kuririn running around with their friends be a "restart" of what we know of the original story, or something entirely different? We'll know pretty soon, but right now... that one's up in the air.

... and his studio are working on a Dragon Ball Online MMORG for release soon.

And it's in that environment that Akira Toriyama has been persuaed to return to creating new chapters. Partly to help promote the game...

As far as we know right now, Dragon Ball SD has absolutely nothing to do with Dragon Ball Online. We'll know more about this soon, as well, but right now we don't know if it's going to be a one-shot in the first issue of Saikyô Jump, or a continuing story -- note that the Bleeding Cool article used the word "chapters" here, inferring an on-going production.

Something that will make this event even more spectacular is a simultaneous fully translated worldwide launch of the new book.

While the American branch of Jump has indeed announced an online supplement for its subscribers, and have also recently launched an iPad application which acts as both a reader and a store (and includes volumes of the original DragonBall manga)...

... well, none of this has to do with Saikyô Jump, nothing about Saikyô Jump being translated or released in English has been announced, which all leads up to the fact that absolutely nothing about Dragon Ball SD being released simultaneously worldwide has ever been so much as whispered yet.

At the end of the day, the only thing the Bleeding Cool article got right was something about "DragonBall" and something "new". I could crap out those two words on my website any day of the week and blindly hit an announcement I knew nothing about, though, and maybe even something relating to manga. The fact of the matter is that not a single one of the (very) bold claims in the article has anything to do with reality right now, and should not be pointed to as a source for this Dragon Ball SD announcement -- that lies with Jump and them alone.

Don't misunderstand! I'm not "angry", or anything like that, with people referring to the original article on Bleeding Cool -- I can see people somehow inferring that I would be "jealous" or some equivalent (absurd) feeling. I don't care if it gets attention. What matters to me is that stories are not blown out of proportion, and stories are not given validity where none is warranted.

[TripleRach]

I often defended the validity of that Bleeding Cool article, mostly because I didn't think "Some other guy with similar credibility says it's false" and "Kintoki exists" were enough to completely debunk it.

But just last week I pooped out a theory that Saikyou Jump/Super Strong Jump could have new Dragon Ball in it, and that theory was a lot closer to reality than the Bleeding Cool article was. So, instead of Rich Johnston, people would be better suited giving me all the praise and attention and money.

...On an unrelated note, I hope this somehow leads to a tankoubon release of Ooishi's version of the JSAT special, along with whatever this turns out to be. I hate not having convenient ways of owning Dragon Ball manga.

[Ussj Future Trunks]

I wonder what SD stands for (PS. I think I know. Add a T in the middle of that teehee )

[Senzu_Bean]

At least something about the early portion of the series.

[Tsukento]

I wonder what SD stands for (PS. I think I know. Add a T in the middle of that teehee )

Part of me gets the impression of "Super Deformed" simply because of kid Goku and Kuririn, which isn't an uncommon thing for existing franchises to be basically chibi-fied (like Gundam). But that's just an assumption of mine.

[Hellspawn28]

I'm happy we are getting something new in the series for once since other then dvd's, video games, and DBKai. We pretty much have nothing to talk about really talk about in the past 13 years.

[Scarz]

Drew this sketch very quickly since I have to run off to work in about a few minutes. In retrospect I should have made him even smaller.



And yes, that is a bed sheet tied around his neck. You have to earn your cape kid.

[mystic trunks]

I want DBZ dammit!

[Gaffer Tape]

I, on the other hand, much prefer that we're gonna get some fun stuff based around the earlier parts of the series.

[Piccolo Daimao]

I'm getting really psyched for this. It's nice to see something new come out of Dragon Ball, and even more intruiging is that it'll be with super-deformed characters and apparently focus on kid Goku and Kuririn running around with their friends. I really hope that kid Vegeta is in it though. I'm not saying that every single main character from DB should be in Dragon Ball SD, but at least some of the popular ones.

I do hope it's not going to spark another discussion about its canonicity though. I just want to enjoy this new manga without thinking about whether it can fit into the storyline or scrutinize over what Toriyama says about it.

[NeoKING]

Dragon Ball SD = Dragon Ball Saikyo Dragon... HA, jk. Could you imagine?

[Gaffer Tape]

I do hope it's not going to spark another discussion about its canonicity though. I just want to enjoy this new manga without thinking about whether it can fit into the storyline or scrutinize over what Toriyama says about it.

Indeed. It's just a fun little side story written by another author. Just have fun with it!

And part of me hopes they won't include Vegeta in this just because I'm sick of him being fan wanked into everything. But at the same time, I imagine he'd come out similar to his counterpart in Little Saiyalings, and that would just be awesome.

[.:PoetikaL:.]

Personally, I hope this goes in a different direction and brings new things that aren't presented already in what we know as Dragon Ball. I would love for it to be random stories, like maybe Goku getting taught by Krillin what men look for in women (well... Muten Roshi's view anyways) or something hilarious. If the stories delve into explaining certain aspects, like how Kami came to Earth or something, I would be okay with that as well. I'm just glad that a new manga is being created.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Part of me hopes they won't include Vegeta in this just because I'm sick of him being fan wanked into everything. But at the same time, I imagine he'd come out similar to his counterpart in Little Saiyalings, and that would just be awesome.

I don't understand. How is Vegeta fanwanked into everything? He's not Broli. And he is kinda one of the main characters; he's expected to be a large part of the story.

[Chuquita]

Vegeta's 5 years older than Goku though, he'd be in the same age and height range as Bulma if they add him in there. Goku was already pretty much adult sized by 18, so I'd think 17 year old Vegeta would be too.

[Gaffer Tape]

Part of me hopes they won't include Vegeta in this just because I'm sick of him being fan wanked into everything. But at the same time, I imagine he'd come out similar to his counterpart in Little Saiyalings, and that would just be awesome.

I don't understand. How is Vegeta fanwanked into everything? He's not Broli. And he is kinda one of the main characters; he's expected to be a large part of the story.

If he was put into a story about Goku and Kuririn's youth, it would definitely be a fanwank. He is one of the main characters, but certainly not at this point. The fact that the story does seem to be taking place in the early days makes me happy partly because that gives it a chance to focus on those earlier characters. But I have a feeling that chance diminishes as soon as you force Vegeta into the story... unless it's just a random cameo.

And, Chuquita, not necessarily. It really depends on how "factual" or "serious" they're planning to take this story. If, say, Vegeta is going to be in a story where he clearly doesn't belong, they could really take it in any direction they want. Again, look at the old Little Saiyalings comic, where Goku, Kuririn, Bulma, #18, Chichi, and Vegeta are all around the same age and all go to school together. The Avatar SD shorts did a similar thing in one of their episodes. It doesn't have to make sense in regards to the story. It could just be the author having fun.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Part of me hopes they won't include Vegeta in this just because I'm sick of him being fan wanked into everything. But at the same time, I imagine he'd come out similar to his counterpart in Little Saiyalings, and that would just be awesome.

I don't understand. How is Vegeta fanwanked into everything? He's not Broli. And he is kinda one of the main characters; he's expected to be a large part of the story.

If he was put into a story about Goku and Kuririn's youth, it would definitely be a fanwank. He is one of the main characters, but certainly not at this point. The fact that the story does seem to be taking place in the early days makes me happy partly because that gives it a chance to focus on those earlier characters. But I have a feeling that chance diminishes as soon as you force Vegeta into the story... unless it's just a random cameo.

And, Chuquita, not necessarily. It really depends on how "factual" or "serious" they're planning to take this story. If, say, Vegeta is going to be in a story where he clearly doesn't belong, they could really take it in any direction they want. Again, look at the old Little Saiyalings comic, where Goku, Kuririn, Bulma, #18, Chichi, and Vegeta are all around the same age and all go to school together. The Avatar SD shorts did a similar thing in one of their episodes. It doesn't have to make sense in regards to the story. It could just be the author having fun.

Well, if kid Vegeta's in it, I could see why considering he's one of the most popular characters in Dragon Ball. But yeah, you're right, if this new manga is focusing on Goku and Kuririn's youth, then Vegeta shouldn't be in there. That is, if they're trying to make factual. Which they probably won't, it's just for fun.

I'm actually doubtful that it will focus on Goku and Kuririn's youth now, looking back on it. If it's called Dragon Ball SD, and SD stands for "super-deformed", then it doesn't count if they have kid Goku and Kuririn from the early portion of the series. They would have to be super-deformed from their adult selves. Unless they're just incorrectly throwing the word "super-deformed" in there for promotion because there are two kids in it. Or maybe they just used that picture of Goku and Kuririn because Ooishi hasn't drawn all the designs for the characters yet, so they just used characters that were already established (and aren't "super-deformed" at all).

Imagine if kid Broli's in it, like how they had Broli as a boss in Attack of the Saiyans even though he had nothing to do with it.

[Senzu_Bean]

SD for "super-deformed"? Is this for real?