PAGE TOP

3,853 Posts & 2,435 Pages Documenting Dragon Ball, since 1998. We've got you covered!
Published by 03 January 2021, 5:36 PM ESTComment

Following last month’s episode, the official Super Dragon Ball Heroes website announced a title and summary for the upcoming tenth numbered episode of the Super Dragon Ball Heroes promotional anime‘s new “Universe Creation Arc” (under the larger umbrella of the game’s current “Big Bang Mission” update series), set for online streaming at some as-of-yet unannounced time this month.

Breaking the Most Evil of Limits! Broli’s Revival!
In the Time Rift, Vegetto: Xeno and the Dark King Fu clash. The Dark King Fu raises his evil energy, and the moment he raises one hand, all of a sudden, his surroundings transform into a massive ballroom. With a thunderous roar, from within the crumbling debris comes a deafening growl and the shape of a familiar but terrifying presence… During the fierce fight, the Universe Tree that had been filled with energy by the Dark King Fu starts to gradually become brighter and brighter until its light suddenly bursts! While the light released by the Universe Tree spreads everywhere, next to the captive Cumber is a single man with an ominous grin on his face.

The self-described “promotional anime” began its free online streaming in July 2018, with the initial six episodes covering the “Prison Planet” arc, then moving on to the “Universal Conflict” arc. Back in March, the series re-branded again for the new “Universe Creation Arc” alongside the arcade game’s own update to the “Big Bang Mission” series. Though the promotional anime series’ original trailer was available worldwide, the subsequent episode postings themselves have been region-locked to Japan. No home release of the promotional anime has been announced.

Super Dragon Ball Heroes is itself 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, now in its tenth year of operation. Dragon Ball Heroes has seen a variety of multimedia spin-offs and support pieces. Yoshitaka Nagayama’s Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Big Bang Mission!!! manga (a follow-up to the previous Dark Demon Realm Mission! and Universe Mission!! series) currently runs in Shueisha’s bimonthly Saikyō Jump magazine, while Toyotarō’s Dragon Ball Heroes: Victory Mission ran from 2012-2015 in Shueisha’s monthly V-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 on 04 April 2019 and internationally (a first for the series) 05 April 2019.

Published by 25 December 2020, 6:00 PM ESTComment

The seventh collected volume of Dragon Ball SD is on its way from Shueisha, with a catalog entry noting an 04 February 2021 release date, clocking in at 192 pages and running at ¥600 + tax.

The release will mark about a year and a half since the sixth collected volume, no doubt due to the current bimonthly schedule of Saikyō Jump where Naho Ooishi’s “chibi” spin-off manga is serialized, as well as the series’ brief hiatus earlier this year. The seventh collected volume will pick up with Bulma, Kuririn, and Gohan’s trip to Namek and Freeza’s introduction in Dragon Ball SD chapter 59.

The January 2021 issue of Saikyō Jump (released earlier this month), contained the spin-off manga’s 68th chapter since its 2011/2012 reboot. In 2016, the series skipped ahead from the end of the 22nd Tenka’ichi Budōkai to the Saiyan arc. Other than brief absences in the January 2017 and November 2020 issues, Dragon Ball SD has run in each and every issue of Saikyō Jump since its 2011 debut throughout all of its format and release changes.

Dragon Ball SD is not available in English, though it does currently see a release in certain territories such as Germany and France.

Published by 25 December 2020, 1:29 PM ESTComment

SHOW DESCRIPTION:

Episode #0487! Mike, Ajay, Terez, Ken, Jake, and Heath review the full Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc from the Dragon Ball Super manga!

Our podcast is available via iTunes and/or Google Play Music, 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.

Published by 24 December 2020, 6:09 PM ESTComment

Each month, Toyotarō provides a drawing of a Dragon Ball character — as well as an accompanying comment — on the official Japanese Dragon Ball website. Following up on the wealth of characters already drawn, for his December 2020 entry, Toyotarō has contributed a drawing of Shisami.

Shisami

Toriyama-sensei‘s design illustrations didn’t include a back view of him, so I suppose the high-cut briefs were the anime staff being playful. It’s fantastic.

2021 is the Year of the Ox, so I drew Shisami, since he’s probably got a bovine motif going on. I hope the year will be a good one.

Shisami debuted in the 2015 theatrical film Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’, as designed and written by Akira Toriyama himself.

This drawing and comment set has been added to the respective page in our “Translations” archive.

Published by 20 December 2020, 6:07 PM ESTComment

In conjunction with this weekend’s Dragon Ball FighterZ National Championships session, as well as today’s release of the February 2021 issue of V-Jump, Bandai Namco formally unveiled Super Baby 2 and Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta as forthcoming paid downloadable content characters for Dragon Ball FighterZ:

Super Baby 2, a transformed version of the Baby-infested Vegeta from the Dragon Ball GT television series, has made various appearances in video games throughout the years, including two years ago as a DLC addition to Dragon Ball XENOVERSE 2. The character will make his way to FighterZ next month on 15 January 2021. Curiously, the character’s name is written with the 超 (chō) kanji in the trailer, where in all previous appearances (including the respective V-Jump announcement) the name has been written in katakana as スーパー (sūpā).

Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta, likewise also from the Dragon Ball GT television series, will make his way to the game “soon”.

The 3-on-3, “2.5D” fighting game is developed by Arc System Works and is currently available on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC (via Steam). A first “FighterZ Pass” with eight additional playable characters is available for $29.99, with a “FighterZ Pass 2” available for $24.99 adding another six. In addition to these latest two character announcements, Kafla, Son Goku (Ultra Instinct), and the Turtle Hermit comprise the the five additional characters from “FighterZ Pass 3”. Said additional paid characters are also all available piecemeal at $4.99 each.

Dragon Ball FighterZ was originally released 26 January 2018 in North America and Europe, and 01 February 2018 in Japan, across the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Alongside its Japanese release, Bandai Namco announced that they had shipped two million copies of the game, making it the fastest-shipping game in the franchise’s history. The game also shipped on the Nintendo Switch back in September 2018.

Published by 20 December 2020, 11:33 AM ESTComment

Continuing onward from previous chapters, Shueisha and Viz have added the official English translation of the Dragon Ball Super manga’s sixty-seventh chapter to their respective Manga Plus and Shonen Jump services, concluding the the original “Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc” and officially kicking off the brand-new “Granolla the Survivor arc”. Alongside other initiatives including free chapters and a larger archive for paid subscribers, this release continues the companies’ schedule of not simply simultaneously publishing the series’ chapter alongside its Japanese debut to the release date, but to its local time in Japan alongside its serialization in today’s February 2021 issue of Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine.

The Dragon Ball Super “comicalization” began in June 2015, initially just ahead of the television series, and running both ahead and behind the series at various points. The manga runs monthly in Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine, with the series’ sixty-seventh chapter coming today in the magazine’s February 2021 issue. Illustrated by “Toyotarō” (in all likelihood, a second pen-name used by Dragon Ball AF fan manga author and illustrator “Toyble”), the Dragon Ball Super manga covered the Battle of Gods re-telling, skipped the Resurrection ‘F’ re-telling, and “charged ahead” to the Champa arc, “speeding up the excitement of the TV anime even more”. Though the television series has completed its run, the manga continues onward, moving into its own original “Galactic Patrol Prisoner” and “Granolla the Survivor” arcs. Viz is currently releasing free digital chapters of the series, and began their own collected print edition back in 2017. The eleventh collected volume was released earlier this month.

The Dragon Ball Super television series concluded in March 2018 with 131 total episodes. FUNimation owns the American distribution license for the series, with the English dub having wrapped its broadcast on Cartoon Network, and the home video release reaching its tenth and final box set back in January.

Published by 18 December 2020, 8:46 AM ESTComment

Following a special episode last month, the official Super Dragon Ball Heroes website announced a title and summary for the upcoming ninth numbered episode of the Super Dragon Ball Heroes promotional anime‘s new “Universe Creation Arc” (under the larger umbrella of the game’s current “Big Bang Mission” update series).

Evil Resurrected: Dark King Fu is Born!
As the fierce fight rages in the Time Rift, the Universe Tree suddenly turns to stone. The roots of the Universe Tree had been erased via Super Shenlong, summoned by the Gods of Destruction. As Super Fu trembles in rage at his plan being foiled, Towa and Mira appear before him. Towa presents him with a crystal that belches out a blackish Darkness Factor, which envelopes Super Fu…

The instant the Darkness Factor is incorporated into Super Fu, a new overlord emerges, cloaked in an eerie aura like shimmering heat…

Vegetto Blue is in the heat of battle. While evil energy pours into the petrified Universe Tree, a red flash suddenly runs across the sky, and a super-warrior surpassing the limits appears…!

Right here and now, an intense battle swirling with chaos and flashes starts with a bang!

The episode will debut this weekend at Jump Festa ’21 Online.

The self-described “promotional anime” began its free online streaming in July 2018, with the initial six episodes covering the “Prison Planet” arc, then moving on to the “Universal Conflict” arc. Back in March, the series re-branded again for the new “Universe Creation Arc” alongside the arcade game’s own update to the “Big Bang Mission” series. Though the promotional anime series’ original trailer was available worldwide, the subsequent episode postings themselves have been region-locked to Japan. No home release of the promotional anime has been announced.

Super Dragon Ball Heroes is itself 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, now in its tenth year of operation. Dragon Ball Heroes has seen a variety of multimedia spin-offs and support pieces. Yoshitaka Nagayama’s Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Big Bang Mission!!! manga (a follow-up to the previous Dark Demon Realm Mission! and Universe Mission!! series) currently runs in Shueisha’s bimonthly Saikyō Jump magazine, while Toyotarō’s Dragon Ball Heroes: Victory Mission ran from 2012-2015 in Shueisha’s monthly V-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 on 04 April 2019 and internationally (a first for the series) 05 April 2019.

Published by 15 December 2020, 8:49 AM ESTComment

Following up both on previous direct teases as well as this month’s manga storyboard drafts, Shueisha has officially unveiled the Dragon Ball Super manga’s forthcoming story arc: the “Granolla the Survivor arc”, set to begin next week in the series’ 67th chapter as published in the February 2021 issue of the company’s monthly V-Jump magazine:

Dragon Ball Super – A New Chapter
The “Granolla the Survivor” Arc
The battle is over…
But, in the shadows…

Yunba: Did you check to make sure he was destroyed?
Yunba: You didn’t … make sure, did you?

A new evil makes its move.

(New character): Oatmil, that’s the ship, right?
(Response): That’s right. Stay sharp, Granolla.

New chapter – The “Granolla the Survivor” arc kicks off!
Continued in the February issue of V-Jump. The “Granolla the Surivor” arc begins!

Within this trailer, two new character names are revealed in dialog:

  • Oatmil: The character’s name of オートミル (Ōtomiru) is likely adapted from the katakana spelling of オートミール (Ōtomīru) from the English word “oatmeal” by shortening the elongated ミー to from the “meal” portion.
  • Granolla: The character’s name of グラノラ (Guranora) is likely adapted from the katakana spelling of グラノーラ (Guranōra) from the English word “granola” by shortening the elongated ノー to from the “nola” portion. This shortened spelling is also sometimes used in brand names and other food items in Japan.

These name spellings of “Oatmil” and “Granolla” are our current Kanzenshuu style guide spellings, and are spelled in a way as to reflect their source word changes while also providing a natural pronunciation guide. These spellings may change as new information is revealed, and may differ in the official English localization.

The Dragon Ball Super “comicalization” began in June 2015, initially just ahead of the television series, and running both ahead and behind the series at various points. The manga runs monthly in Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine, with the series’ sixty-seventh chapter coming 21 December 2020 in the magazine’s February 2021 issue, simultaneously wrapping up the previous “Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc” and kicking off this new “Granolla the Survivor arc”.

Illustrated by “Toyotarō” (in all likelihood, a second pen-name used by Dragon Ball AF fan manga author and illustrator “Toyble”), the Dragon Ball Super manga covered the Battle of Gods re-telling, skipped the Resurrection ‘F’ re-telling, and “charged ahead” to the Champa arc, “speeding up the excitement of the TV anime even more”. Though the television series has completed its run, the manga continues onward, now entering its second manga-original story arc. Viz is currently releasing free digital chapters of the series, and began their own collected print edition back in 2017. The eleventh collected volume was released earlier this month.

The Dragon Ball Super television series concluded in March 2018 with 131 total episodes. FUNimation owns the American distribution license for the series, with the English dub having wrapped its broadcast on Cartoon Network, and the home video release reaching its tenth and final box set back in January.

Published by 03 December 2020, 2:43 PM ESTComment

Viz’s thirteenth collected volume of the Dragon Ball Super manga will be released 01 June 2021, covering chapters 57-60 (a la its Japanese counterpart):

Moro’s goons have arrived on Earth, but the planet’s protectors aren’t about to go down without a fight! However, when Moro himself finally appears and pits a powered-up Saganbo against Gohan and friends, the good guys struggle to keep up. With a planet in peril, will Goku and Vegeta make it back in time?!

Print editions retail for $9.99 MSRP. Digital editions of each will also be available at various retailers, including Amazon, Comixology, and direct from Viz.

The Dragon Ball Super “comicalization” began in June 2015, initially just ahead of the television series, and running both ahead and behind the series at various points. The manga runs monthly in Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine, with the series’ sixty-seventh chapter coming later this month in the February 2021 issue, concluding the ongoing “Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc”. Viz is currently releasing free digital chapters of the series, and began their own collected print edition back in 2017. Viz’s eleventh collected volume of the English translation was released this week, with the twelfth due in March. Over in Japan, Shueisha released the fourteenth collected volume today.

The Dragon Ball Super television series concluded in March 2018 with 131 total episodes. FUNimation owns the American distribution license for the series, with the English dub having wrapped its broadcast on Cartoon Network, and the home video release reaching its tenth and final box set back in January.

Published by 26 November 2020, 10:11 PM ESTComment

Each month, Toyotarō provides a drawing of a Dragon Ball character — as well as an accompanying comment — on the official Japanese Dragon Ball website. Following up on the wealth of characters already drawn, for his November 2020 entry, Toyotarō has contributed a drawing of Gregory.

Gregory

He’s Kaiō-sama‘s caretaker who you’ll know from the anime. He doesn’t appear in the comic, but maybe he’s just hiding somewhere!

Gregory was an original creation for the Dragon Ball Z television series, designed by Akira Toriyama himself at the request of Toei Animation, who asked him to develop one more character for the events during Goku’s training at Kaiō’s.

This drawing and comment set has been added to the respective page in our “Translations” archive.