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3,797 Posts & 2,371 Pages Documenting Dragon Ball, since 1998. We've got you covered!
Published by 20 August 2024, 11:50 AM EDT1 Comment

We are often spread thin and working on a million things at once — check out our Otakon 2024 panel! — which occasionally results in us putting things up on the site aaaaand… completely forgetting to announce them!

Databook Guide: Dragon Ball Theatrical Movie Guides

From Dragon Ball‘s debut at the Winter 1986 Toei Cartoon Festival all the way up through 2022’s Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero debut, we now have it all covered! This includes theatrical pamphlets, special Jump magazine releases, attendee bonus items, and even special newspaper publications!

This is actually a section I’ve been somewhat embarrassed hasn’t already existed here on the site, so it’s great to finally own the complete collection and get the details down in one place.

 

Translation: Weekly Toyo Keizai — “Fervor and Chaos Regarding the ‘Dragon Ball Money'”

Last month, this article from an issue of the magazine Weekly Toyo Keizai — following up on last year’s news about Akio Iyoku striking out on his own — made the rounds, with a report on what appears to be major issues surrounding the various rights and direction of the Dragon Ball marketing and production machine, particularly in the wake of Akira Toriyama’s passing.

We have completed our own translation of this article.

Published by 15 August 2024, 11:40 AM EDTComment

With Dragon Ball Super Divers on the horizon, the next Dragon Ball Heroes guide book looks to perhaps be a retrospective wrap-up rather than another standard anniversary book — Shueisha and other online retailers have listed a 29 August 2024 release date and ¥1,760 + tax price tag for a forthcoming book titled Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Path of Heroes ―HEROES MEMORIES―.

The B5-sized book will span 112 pages and come packed with several Dragon Ball Heroes cards representing and celebrating the history of the game:

The book is also slated to contain the “final chapter” of Toyotarō’s Dragon Ball Heroes: Victory Mission manga series (originally serialized in V-Jump from 2012-2014); whether this refers to the previously-published “Chapter 29” or something new all-together is not clear from the existing verbiage.

This 2024 book follows several previous anniversary guide books: the 5th Anniversary Mission book in November 2015, the 8th Anniversary Super Guide book in November 2018, the 9th Anniversary Super Guide in November 2019, the 10th Anniversary Super Guide in November 2020, the 11th Anniversary Super Guide in November 2021, the 12th Anniversary Super Guide in November 2022, and the 13th Anniversary Super Guide in November 2023. Each book covers card additions, ongoing storylines, interviews with production staff, and more.

Super Dragon Ball Heroes is an update and hardware revision to the original Dragon Ball Heroes, a card-based arcade game in which players arrange teammates on a playing field for turn-based battles. Dragon Ball Heroes has seen a variety of multimedia spin-offs and support pieces. Yoshitaka Nagayama’s Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Meteor Mission! manga (a follow-up to the previous Dark Demon Realm Mission!, Ultimate Mission!!, Big Bang Mission!!!, and Ultra God Mission!!!! series) currently runs in Shueisha’s monthly Saikyō Jump magazine. Three portable game adaptations — Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission, Ultimate Mission 2, and Ultimate Mission X — were released on the Nintendo 3DS. A fourth home version, Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission, launched on the Nintendo Switch and PC internationally in April 2019.

Published by 11 August 2024, 1:14 PM EDTComment

Show Description

Episode #0511! Recorded live at Otakon 2024, Mike presents a whirlwind tour of Akira Toriyama’s works and legacy! From “Awawa World” to “Jaco the Galactic Patroman” (and beyond!), we cover it all!

How to Listen

Special note for this episode: the audio podcast contains additional opening and ending content, as well as the Q&A session from the panel — these are not present in the YouTube video archive of the panel.

Our podcast is available via Apple Podcasts and/or Google Podcasts, or you can pop the direct RSS feed into the program of your choice. You can also listen to this episode by directly downloading the MP3 or by streaming it on Spotify, or YouTube. We invite you to discuss this episode on our forum.

 

Referenced Sites:

Published by 08 August 2024, 10:27 AM EDTComment

By way of the company’s and franchise’s official social media accounts today, Bandai Namco announced a new multiplayer online battle arena (“MOBA”) video game for the Dragon Ball franchise, tentatively titled “Dragon Ball Project: Multi”:

The game will feature 4-vs-4 battles and is slated for release on iOS, Android, and PC (via Steam). A regional beta is planned for Canada, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and United States spanning 20 August 2024 to 03 September 2024.

The Dragon Ball franchise’s first team-oriented battle begins!

◆ Intense 4 VS 4 team battle
Experience the world of Dragon Ball through wrecking the battlefield with your own strength, or by conquesting the enemy objective with your friends and allies.
The Hero characters you take in control will grown in strength as the round progress to give you a chance to obliterate enemy players and bosses alike.

◆ Heroes with roles
Pick heroes with unqiue abilities and skills to fulfill their roles.
– The simple but effective super aggressive damage role.
– The ever persistent tank role staying on the battlefield indefinitely.
– The technical role which excells in ally support or enemy disruption.

◆ Customization
From simple character aesthetic changes with skin items, to animation changes, express your love for the characters in your own way.
Acquire a wide variety of customization items such as entrance animations to special finisher animations.

*Internet connection required.
*This product is a multiplayer game that is played mainly through online matches between players.
*Online matches allow you to play against players from all over the world. You will match with people whose network conditions are optimal for the region you play in.

The game is in development by Ganbarion, who previously developed 2016’s Dragon Ball Fusions on Nintendo 3DS, 2006’s Jump Ultimate Stars on Nintendo DS, and 2005’s Jump Super Stars on Nintendo DS.

An official website for the game has opened at: dbpm.bn-ent.net

Published by 05 August 2024, 2:41 PM EDTComment

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 thirty-six entries, this month’s September 2024 issue brings us Yoshihiro Togashi (YuYu Hakusho, Hunter × Hunter) and their take on the series’ 5th volume cover:

Togashi commented:

Drawing this piece was like going back to those times, so it was really fun! When I finished drawing, I came to my senses, and was overcome with emotion so strong I could almost cry, so I just read Dragon Ball Volume 5, which was right in front of me. Yup, I’m not lonely at all! Toriyama-sensei is right here!!

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: Meteor Mission! manga series and Yūji Kasai’s Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Avatars!! manga series. 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.

Published by 02 August 2024, 8:00 PM EDTComment

The latest addition to our “Translations” archive is a special one: an interview with Akira Toriyama, spoken aloud by the man himself from the first “Jump Original CD” release (WJ-0004) from 1993!

The two “Jump Original CD” releases were giveaways drawn by lottery in conjunction with Weekly Shōnen Jump in 1993 and 1994, and feature special talks with Akira Toriyama, in-character appearances with Masako Nozawa, and more. More contents from these CDs are coming to our “Translations” archive in the future… so stay tuned!

A subtitled audio version of this translation premiered live this evening during our “Akira Toriyama Career Retrospective” panel at Otakon 2024!

Published by 25 July 2024, 6:00 PM EDTComment

Roughly every month, Toyotarō provides a drawing of a Dragon Ball (or related…!) character — and generally an accompanying comment — on the official Japanese Dragon Ball website. Following up on the wealth of characters already drawn, for his July 2024 entry, Toyotarō has drawn none other than Son Goku himself from Dragon Ball:

The drawing was produced alongside Comic-con International: San Diego taking place this week. Unlike other illustrations, no special or additional comment from Toyotaro was published alongside the drawing.

Published by 22 July 2024, 4:56 PM EDTComment

The “Rumor Guide” has been a consistent favorite of staff and visitors alike here at Kanzenshuu — the entries are a blast to put together, and they each act as an authoritative, one-stop-shop with verified original research and (generally!) definitive answers.

As part of the guide’s latest update, one new entry has been added… which in many ways was more of an excuse for a teaching moment about the art of translation, rather than any of us actually being particularly concerned about the ultimate answer!

Confused? Read on!

RUMOR: Goku Never Kissed

The question of whether or not Goku has kissed — after all, he was married and had kids! — was never actually a question until late-2016 when Dragon Ball Super threw a couple curious lines of dialogue into the mix. What’s significantly more important than what otherwise appears to be the question at hand here, however, is that the Dragon Ball Super anime and manga were both translated correctly in their official English localizations.

Published by 19 July 2024, 5:11 PM EDT1 Comment

In conjunction with an announcement on the Dragon Ball Official Site, a new trailer for the forthcoming Dragon Ball Daima animated series reveals a slightly-more-concrete October 2024 release timeframe, along with a batch of new character announcements:

New key artwork showcases “mini” Goku and Kaiōshin, along with a new catchphrase: “Welcome to the Great Adventure!” (ようこそ、大冒険へ!!).

New characters seen in the artwork, trailer, and showcased on the official website — from left to right — include (note: “English” spellings for new characters written here are taken and adapted from the Dragon Ball Official Site‘s respective article):

  • Gomah (ゴマー; Gomā)
  • Masked Majin (仮面の魔人; Kamen no Majin)
  • Glorio (グロリオ; Gurorio)
  • Goku (Mini)
  • Kaiōshin (Mini)
  • Vegeta (Mini)
  • Piccolo (Mini)

The series’ official website is also now fully open at: dragonballdaima.com

Dragon Ball Daima was first revealed at New York Comic Con in October 2023 by way of a trailer and comment from original franchise creator Akira Toriyama. The “Daima” in the series’ title is a made-up term, though the individual kanji that make up its spelling would be 大魔; in Toriyama’s own words, …”in English would be something like ‘Evil.'” The forthcoming series debuts in October 2024 on Fuji TV in Japan, and will feature an original story by series creator Akira Toriyama, character designs by Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, script/composition by Yūko Kakihara, and series co-direction by Yoshitaka Yashima and Aya Komaki.

Published by 05 July 2024, 1:56 PM EDTComment

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 thirty-five entries, this month’s August 2024 issue brings us Takehiko Inoue (Slam Dunk, Vagabond) and their take on the series’ 17th volume cover:

Inoue commented:

I was very happy and extremely blessed to have had a series running at the same time and in the same magazine as Dragon Ball.

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: Meteor Mission! manga series and Yūji Kasai’s Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Avatars!! manga series. 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.