Staff member Hikari wrote on the composer’s official blog this week that Norihito Sumitomo will return to musical composition duties for the upcoming Dragon Ball Super TV series.

Sumitomo began with Dragon Ball in 2013 with the score to the theatrical film Battle of Gods. He returned for the Majin Boo arc of Dragon Ball Kai in 2014 following the removal of Kenji Yamamoto’s music, and again for the 2015 film Revival of “F”.

Back in February, staff member Hikari provided an extensive blog post documenting the recording session for the Revival of “F” musical score.

Dragon Ball Super is the first all-new TV series for the franchise in 18 years. The story and characters will be developed by original manga author Akira Toriyama, will star veteran voice actress Masako Nozawa, and will be directed by Kimitoshi Chioka. While an exact start date has not yet been officially unveiled, it is likely that Super will begin its broadcast run starting 05 July 2015, taking over the Dragon Ball Kai time slot on Fuji TV. The series will, “…follow the aftermath of Goku’s fierce battle with Majin Boo, as he attempts to maintain earth’s fragile peace.”A manga adaptation from “Toyotarō” will run each month in V-Jump starting in June.

Thanks to kei17 for the heads-up!

A piece of promotional artwork resurfaced online yesterday tied in with excitement about the upcoming Dragon Ball Super TV series and, more specifically, its accompanying manga adaptation. Over the last day, several news outlets have incorrectly claimed this image is promotional artwork for the aforementioned manga adaptation.

The image — drawn by Toyotarō — dates back to February of this year, where it was used in the Shonen Jump+ digital bonus material from that month’s (March 2015) issue of V-Jump. Alongside the image were sketches for the following month’s second chapter of Toyotarō’s Dragon Ball Z: Revival of “F” manga adaptation, which ran for three chapters in the April, May, and June issues of V-Jump this year.

The image notes that the manga is “completely supervised by Akira Toriyama-sensei” and that “Toyotarō is drawing it with all his might!!!”

Japanese entertainment website Natalie ran a story announcing the forthcoming manga adaptation of Dragon Ball Super. The above image of Goku was used to accompany the story.

鳥山明ストーリー原案の「ドラゴンボール」新アニメ、Vジャンでコミカライズ

鳥山明原作のアニメ「ドラゴンボール」の新シリーズ「ドラゴンボール超（スーパー）」のコミカライズ連載が、6月20日発売のVジャンプ8月号（集英社）よりスタートする。執筆するのは、同誌にて映画「ドラゴンボールZ 復活の『F』」のコミカライズも手がけたとよたろう。

アニメ「ドラゴンボール超」は、悟空が魔人ブウとの壮絶な戦いを終え、平和を取り戻した地球を舞台とした「ドラゴンボール」シリーズ18年ぶりの新作。原案を鳥山が担当し、7月よりフジテレビほかにて日曜9時より放送される。

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V-Jump Comicalizes the New “Dragon Ball” Anime From Akira Toriyama’s Story Draft

The new “Dragon Ball” anime series, Dragon Ball Super, from original author Akira Toriyama is receiving a comicalized serialization, which is set to start in the August 2015 issue of V-Jump (Shueisha) on June 20th. It will be written by Toyotarō, who worked on the comicalization of the Dragon Ball Z: Revival of “F” movie in this magazine.

The stage for the Dragon Ball Super anime, the first new “Dragon Ball” series in 18 years, follows Goku’s fierce battle with Majin Boo, where peace has once again fallen over the Earth. Based on a draft by Toriyama, the [new series] will be broadcast on Sundays at 9 a.m. on Fuji TV this July.

The image of Goku is simply captioned with “Goku Cut by Toyotarō” (とよたろうによる悟空のカット), noting the obvious fact that it is drawn by Toyotarō. With no promotional artwork — let alone a true logo — released yet for Dragon Ball Super, we can only assume Natalie simply grabbed whatever image they felt was most relevant, or was perhaps even provided to them by Shueisha; in this case, an image of the main character from the respective manga artist makes sense as a choice.

Following Natalie’s story going online, many popular anime and comic websites ran with the story that the image was specifically from and for the forthcoming Dragon Ball Super adaptation.

As is probably apparent, this is not the case.

We do not yet have a perfectly-concrete, in-universe timeframe that the Dragon Ball Super story will take place (other than after the defeat of Majin Boo). We also do not know if Goku’s design as shown above (which includes Whis’ symbol on his dōgi) will be kept; it may be, or it may not be.

As of right now, all we know is that Toyotarō will be handling the manga adaptation in V-Jump. Nothing about its content, including character designs, has been revealed.

In conjunction with the launch of the official Dragon Ball Super website yesterday, the series’ theme songs were unveiled at the “Triad Rocks –Columbia vs Triad-” event held in Tokyo. The series’ opening theme, “Chōzetsu ☆ Dynamic!!”, will be peformed by Kazuya Yoshii (lead vocalist of The Yellow Monkey), while rock band Good Morning America returns from their work on Dragon Ball Kai to provide Super’s ending theme, “Hello Hello Hello”. Good Morning America and Kazuya Yoshii, who were both participating at the event, were on-hand to celebrate the announcement with Son Goku and Fuji TV producer Osamu Nozaki.

Following the event, comments from the artists and staff were released:

吉井和哉

子供達が学校の帰り道につい口ずさんでしまうメロディー、そしてその歌を呟けば、思わず強くなれるような、力が湧いてくるような曲を作りたいと思いました。

僕が悟空に持つイメージでもある、優しくて大きな強さの中にあるセクシーさも表現したかったです。

イントロからAメロは家族で空を飛んでるイメージです。作詞家としてリスペクトしている憧れの森雪之丞さんとの曲作りも超絶スーパーでした！この曲を作りながら自分もどんどん強くなっていった気がします。

レコーディングもLAの信頼するミュージシャン、スタッフで行いました！こちらも超絶！！楽しみにしていてください！

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Kazuya Yoshii

I wanted to create a tune that kids would hum as they went home from school, and as they hummed it, it would feel like power was welling up inside them.

I also wanted to convey my image of Goku: kind, powerful, and sexy too.

The intro up to the first verse have the image of flying together as a family. Yukinojō Mori is someone I really admire and respect as a songwriter, so getting to make this song with him was absolutely super! I feel like I grew stronger and stronger while making it.

The recording was handled by LA’s trusted musicians and staff! Fantastic!! Look forward to it!

グッドモーニングアメリカ　Vo./Gt. 金廣真悟

ドラゴンボール。前回携わらせてもらった「改」は、幼少時代に一度見たアニメのデジタルリマスター版。

当時そのエンディングテーマは影山ヒロノブさんが歌っていたし、良く知っている分、その部分を自分たちがするという事に、とても嬉しい反面、少しの違和感があり、なんなら未だに実感が無い状態です。

しかし今回は完全なる新しいストーリー。漫画にもなっていない未知なる冒険。とても楽しみだし、ワクワクしています。

ドラゴンボールの歴史とともに刻まれるような、とっておきの「超」新曲を持って来たので、楽しみにしていてください。

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Good Morning America (Vocals/Guitar: Shingo Kanehiro)

Dragon Ball. I was involved with Kai last time, which was a digitally remastered version of an anime I’d seen once back when I was a kid.

Back then, the ending theme was sung by Hironobu Kageyama. Since it’s something I’m so familiar with, on the one hand I’m very happy that we’re getting to do it ourselves, but on the other hand it doesn’t feel quite right; it doesn’t seem real yet.

Still, this time it’s a completely new story. An unknown adventure that’s not even in the manga. I’m really looking forward to it and totally excited.

In order to go down in Dragon Ball history, I’ve brought my ace-in-the-hole “super” new song, so look forward to it.

フジテレビ　プロデューサー　野﨑理

ドラゴンボールシリーズ18年ぶりの新作テレビアニメ「ドラゴンボール超」のテーマ曲を決定するにあたり、ドラゴンボールの世界に新しい風を吹き込みながら子供から大人まで幅広く親しまれる主題歌にしたいと思い、吉井和哉さんにオープニングテーマ曲を担当していただきました。

吉井さんもソロでは初のアニメ主題歌、そして作詞の森雪之丞さんとの初タッグということで、番組と共に新たなチャレンジをしていただいたのではないかと思います。グッドモーニングアメリカの皆さんには昨年の「ドラゴンボール改」開始時のエンディングテーマ曲を歌っていただきました。野沢雅子さんとイベントで共演するなど、新番組スタートを大きく勢いづけていただきました。「ドラゴンボール超」でもまた一緒に番組を盛り上げていければと思います。

18年ぶりの新シリーズ「ドラゴンボール超（スーパー）」と共に新テーマ曲にもぜひともご期待ください！

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Fuji TV Producer Osamu Nozaki

When deciding on the theme song for Dragon Ball Super, the first new Dragon Ball TV anime series in 18 years, I thought that the main theme should be a breath of fresh air for the Dragon Ball world, something that would be popular with both children and adults, so I entrusted the opening theme to Kazuya Yoshii-san.

This is Yoshii-san’s first time singing the main theme of an anime solo, and also his first time collaborating with songwriter Yukinojō Mori-san, so I’m sure the two of them will take on these new challenges together. Good Morning America all sang the initial ending theme for when Dragon Ball Kai started up last year. They also performed with Masako Nozawa-san at an event, so overall they’ve been heavily involved with starting up new programs. I hope they’ll help us kick off Dragon Ball Super as well.

Please look forward not only to Dragon Ball Super, the first new series in 18 years, but also to the new theme song too!

Dragon Ball Super is the first all-new TV series for the franchise in 18 years. The story and characters will be developed by original manga author Akira Toriyama, will star veteran voice actress Masako Nozawa, and will be directed by Kimitoshi Chioka. While an exact start date has not yet been officially unveiled, it is likely that Super will begin its broadcast run starting 05 July 2015, taking over the Dragon Ball Kai time slot on Fuji TV. The series will, “…follow the aftermath of Goku’s fierce battle with Majin Boo, as he attempts to maintain earth’s fragile peace.” A manga adaptation from “Toyotarō” will run each month in V-Jump starting in June.

An official website for the upcoming Dragon Ball Super TV series has been launched at www.toei-anim.co.jp/tv/dragon_s/. An official Twitter account has also been set up at @DB_super2015.

In addition to the previously-revealed involvement (story and characters) from original manga author Akira Toriyama, as well as returning voice actress Masako Nozawa, the website reconfirms Kimitoshi Chioka as the director. The website also announces Kazuya Yoshii (lead vocalist of The Yellow Monkey) as providing the opening theme, while Good Morning America returns from their work on Dragon Ball Kai to provide Super’s ending theme.

The website reconfirms a July 2015 start for the weekly TV series, which will air Sunday mornings at 9:00 a.m. on Fuji TV.

While an exact start date has not yet been officially unveiled, it is likely that Dragon Ball Super will begin its broadcast run starting 05 July 2015, taking over the Dragon Ball Kai time slot on Fuji TV. The series will, “…follow the aftermath of Goku’s fierce battle with Majin Boo, as he attempts to maintain earth’s fragile peace.” A manga adaptation from “Toyotarō” will run each month in V-Jump starting in June.

Good Morning America contributed the song “Dear Zarathustra” as the first closing theme to the Majin Boo arc of Dragon Ball Kai for its Japanese broadcast (and third closing theme overall).

UPDATE: Toei Animation’s official Dragon Ball Kai website has updated with its own Dragon Ball Super announcement, which again includes all of the information listed above, but surprisingly does reveal the actual new theme song titles. The opening theme by Kazuya Yoshii will be titled, “Chōzetsu ☆ Dynamic!!” (超絶☆ダイナミック！！), where chōzetsu can mean “transcendence” or “excellence”. The new ending theme from Good Morning America will be “Hello Hello Hello” (ハローハローハロー). Singles for both themes will be released by Nippon Columbia in August 2015.

Anime News Network reports that the upcoming Dragon Ball Super TV series will receive a manga adaptation by Toyotarō, which will begin serialization in the August 2015 issue of V-Jump.

Along with the announcement, which appears in this month’s upcoming July 2015 issue of V-Jump (officially hitting shelves 21 May 2015), a brief message was included from V-Jump’s “elite” editorial staff member Victory Uchida:

ナゾに満ちたまったく新しい「DB」！！

突如発表されたTVアニメ最新作！！コレにはボクもビックりトリーだ！！いったいどんな物語になるのかは、まったくナゾなんだけど…みんなの期待を超えるのはマチガイないッ！！！

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A Completely New “Dragon Ball”, Full of Mystery!!

The latest TV animation was suddenly announced!! That was a Victory-surprise, even for me!! What on Earth will the story be? It’s such a mystery… There’s no doubt it will exceed everyone’s expectations!!!

While an exact start date has not yet been officially unveiled, it is likely that Dragon Ball Super will begin its broadcast run starting 05 July 2015, taking over the Dragon Ball Kai time slot on Fuji TV. The series will, “…follow the aftermath of Goku’s fierce battle with Majin Boo, as he attempts to maintain earth’s fragile peace.”

Toyotarō, in all likelihood a second pen-name used by Dragon Ball AF fan manga author and illustrator “Toyble”, is most recently responsible for a three-chapter introductory manga adaptation of Dragon Ball Z: Revival of “F”, which ran in the April, May, and June 2015 issues of V-Jump in Japan. Prior to this, Toyotarō penned the monthly Dragon Ball Heroes: Victory Mission promotional manga from the September 2012 to February 2015 issues of V-Jump.

At the moment it is unclear whether the Dragon Ball Super manga adaptation will be a true adaptation of its TV series counterpart, or will merely serve as a promotional tool to provide previews of upcoming episodes and story lines. It is worth noting that since the manga adaptation will be featured in V-Jump, it will most likely be released on a monthly basis, which greatly contrasts the weekly TV series schedule. In addition to that, the first chapter of the Dragon Ball Super manga is scheduled to be published two weeks prior to the TV series’ premiere.