This month is a busy one for Naho Ooishi and Dragon Ball SD, with her “chibi”-fied retelling of the series receiving its fourth collected volume, the 41st chapter of the series seeing its serialization in Saikyō Jump, and a bevy of bonus material making its way to print.
The fourth collected volume of Dragon Ball SD was released 04 February 2016 for ¥600 + tax; a digital version will follow next month. The volume covers chapters 29 through 38; counting the latest chapter in Saikyō Jump, this leaves only three regular chapters not yet collected. In addition to the ten regular chapters, the volume contains two bonus chapters: a four-page comic originally printed in the 2015 Jump Victory Carnival official guide book, and a two-page comic originally printed in the 2015 Jump Festa official guide book.
The first bonus finds the future Trunks knocking-out and taking his own present-version’s spot at the 28th Tenka’ichi Budōkai. When Knock bad-mouths Vegeta, Trunks steps in and beats him up. Trunks complains about what bad manners young people have these days, which prompts Goku to realize he must be the future version of Trunks rather than the Trunks from this timeline. Pan comes up and playfully punches Trunks, sending him flying all the way to the moon. Goku says it’s no wonder the future Trunks was no match for Perfect Cell, and the narrator explains how the future Trunks has been left in the dust by this timeline’s rampant power inflation.
The second bonus finds the same future version of Trunks, having gotten the time period wrong, visiting his already-visiting-other-future-version during the Dr. Gero chase. Vegeta makes no effort to save Bulma and baby Trunks, causing the normal future version of Trunks to be disgusted at what a horrible person his father is. The second future version of Trunks consoles his earlier self, saying that Vegeta will one day change into a loving family man (somehow also knowing about “My Bulma!” from Battle of Gods). Meanwhile, Vegeta is freaked out to see two adult versions of Trunks side-by-side, and can’t believe he’ll ever become the person this second future version of Trunks describes. Hearing all this, Bulma is happy and thinks she was right to break up with Yamcha after all.
The March 2016 issue of Saikyō Jump was released 05 February 2016 for ¥500 + tax. The volume contains the 41st chapter of the series since its reboot, which covers Jackie Chun vs. Tenshinhan and Son Goku vs. Kuririn at the 22nd Tenka’ichi Budōkai (roughly original manga chapters 123-127). Aspects removed from the original version include Tenshinhan’s Kamehameha, the conversation between Tenshinhan and the Turtle Sage following their match, and a bit of the fight material between Goku and Kuririn.
The issue also includes a brand-new side story printed within a Vegeta profile insert. The five-page “Special Edition” chapter finds the future version of Trunks yet again traveling through time, but for a different reason. Even though this time period is supposed to be when his parents met, there is nobody around… and it sure does not look like Namek. Something streaks down out of the sky, impacting with a boom. Two Saiyans emerge, as Trunks observes from the bushes. Raditz had told Vegeta that his brother was sent to this planet, and with Planet Vegeta gone, they should find and recruit him before exterminating everything on it. A young girl with a ray-gun appears; she had detected their ships out in space and overheard their plans just now. Raditz assumes it is a toy gun, and patting her on the head, tells her to give up and accept her fate… prompting the girl to fire. Vegeta is shocked, not just at the gun’s power, but to learn that the girl is only five-years-old and built it herself. Thinking how powerful the actual military must be if a young girl is at this level, he flees. Trunks comments to his (very confused) future mother how she has been secretly saving this world with her technical prowess all this time. The narrator explains that Trunks was once again made to realize his mother’s greatness.
The fourth collected print volume of Dragon Ball SD is available to order from CDJapan and Amazon Japan. The March 2016 issue of Saikyō Jump is also available to order from CDJapan and Amazon Japan.
Dragon Ball SD began with Saikyō Jump as a quarterly publication with four total issues in 2011 re-telling major aspects of the franchise in an even more childish tone. When the magazine switched to a monthly format in 2012, Dragon Ball SD started over at the very beginning of the series with the same kind of writing and artistic style. The publication switched to a bimonthly release schedule in late-2014.
The second collected edition of Dragon Ball SD is due out 17 February 2016 in France from Glénat.
