PAGE TOP

3,853 Posts & 2,435 Pages Documenting Dragon Ball, since 1998. We've got you covered!
Published by 20 November 2020, 10:12 AM ESTComment

Continuing onward from previous chapters, Shueisha and Viz have added the official English translation of the Dragon Ball Super manga’s sixty-sixth chapter to their respective Manga Plus and Shonen Jump services, moving further into the original “Galactic Patrol Prisoner 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 January 2021 issue of Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine.

The Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc is set to conclude next month in the magazine’s February 2021 issue.

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-sixth chapter coming today in the magazine’s January 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, entering its own original “Galactic Patrol Prisoner” arc. A new arc is set to begin following the completion of this arc next month. Viz is currently releasing free digital chapters of the series, and began their own collected print edition back in 2017. The eleventh collected volume is due out this December.

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 16 November 2020, 1:41 PM ESTComment

On Episode #0485 of our podcast last month, we discussed a recent video interview with “Victory Uchida” on V-Jump‘s official YouTube channel, in which the hosts went through storyboard teasers for Dragon Ball Super manga chapter 65, as well as somewhat surprisingly dropped the announcement that a new story arc is in development.

We now have that interview translated in full for your archival pleasure!

This interview has been archived in our “Translations” section. Thank you to Ian for the translation!

Published by 09 November 2020, 8:52 AM ESTComment

Bandai Namco Holdings has posted a ¥31.715 billion (approximately $302 million) profit for the first half of fiscal year 2021, compared to a ¥34.607 billion profit at this same point last year.

namco_bandai_logo_resaved

Dragon Ball remains the company’s best-performing franchise, pulling in ¥63 billion (a jump over ¥61.3 billion at this point last year), though the company is projecting a full fiscal year total of ¥109 billion, down from last full fiscal year’s ¥134.9 billion.

In terms of general toys and hobby merchandise (non-video games), the franchise fell from ¥11.6 billion last fiscal half-year to ¥7.4 billion this half-year, with a projected full year drop from ¥20.7 billon last year to ¥16.5 billion this year.

Regarding the continued effects of COVID-19 on financial projections compared to final figures, the company noted:

During the second quarter (six months) of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021, every business was impacted by the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Nevertheless, the actual results for the second quarter (six months) exceeded the Company’s projections, and business portfolios centered around the IP axis proved effective in the following businesses: in the Toys and Hobby Business, products for the mature fan base, such as plastic models of the Mobile Suit Gundam series and collectible figures gained popularity; while in the Network Entertainment Business, there was brisk repeat sales of key titles in network content and existing home video game titles.

For consolidated projections for the full fiscal year ending March 31, 2021, as the spread of COVID-19 is expected to have an impact on society and the economy overall, and the future situation is expected to remain unclear in countries around the world, it is difficult to calculate the impacts on each business properly. In addition to the impact of the spread of COVID-19 on each business, we plan to reexamine the trend for the coming Christmas and New Year selling season, which is the largest selling season of the year for the Toys and Hobby Business, progress on the development and sales schedule of home video games, and other factors when their impact on earnings has become clear; therefore, at this stage we have not revised the previous projection.

We will promptly disclose any potential impacts on earnings due to changes in the market environment and so forth going forward.

*For your reference, we are experiencing or expect to experience the following impacts on business operations from the spread of COVID-19.
・Impact on consumption due to factors including the closure of sales outlets
・Postponement or cancellation of events and an associated impact on promotion
・Impact on the development schedule of products
・Impact on the production schedule of the Group’s factories and other cooperating factories
・Impact on the development schedule of home video games and network content and on operation systems
・Impact from the closure of amusement facilities
・Impact on the schedules or releases of visual productions and package launch scheduled

Published by 28 October 2020, 2:27 PM EDTComment

Shueisha and online retailers have listed an 26 November 2020 release date and ¥1,350 + tax price tag for a forthcoming Super Dragon Ball Heroes: 10th Anniversary Super Guide.

The 2020 book follows several previous anniversary guide books: the 5th Anniversary Mission book in November 2015, the 8th Anniversary Super Guide book in November 2018, and the 9th Anniversary Super Guide in November 2019. Each book covers card additions, ongoing storylines, interviews with production staff, and more. The 5th anniversary book in particular contained the 29th (and thus far last) chapter of Toyotarō’s Dragon Ball Heroes: Victory Mission manga series.

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: Big Bang Mission!!! manga (a follow-up to the previous Dark Demon Realm Mission! and Ultimate 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 05 April 2019.

This November marks the Dragon Ball Heroes series’ overall tenth anniversary, with a special live event set to be held 15 November 2020.

Published by 28 October 2020, 2:14 PM EDTComment

Shueisha has listed an 04 December 2020 release date for the fourteenth collected volume of Toyotarō’s Dragon Ball Super manga series, which will retail for ¥440 (+ tax) in print. The volume will pick up with the sixty-first chapter of the series.

While the volume is available for pre-order on Amazon Japan, the current listing does not necessarily provide international shipping; this arbitrary restriction has occurred with previous releases, and historically has been lifted closer to the volume’s actual release date.

Shueisha will also release the first collected volume of Yoshitaka Nagayama’s Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Big Bang Mission!!! manga series that same day.

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-fifth chapter coming last week in the magazine’s December 2020 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, entering its own original “Galactic Patrol Prisoner” 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 is due out this December.

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 27 October 2020, 10:20 AM EDTComment

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 October 2020 entry, Toyotarō has contributed a drawing of Mummy-kun.

Mummy-kun

I like how, with a face like that, he’s called Mummy-“kun“. It was a pain just drawing his bandages, so wrapping them must have been even more of a chore…

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

Published by 25 October 2020, 9:29 AM EDTComment

SHOW DESCRIPTION:

Episode #0486! Mike speaks with Ian about a recent V-Jump video interview that discusses the current events within and the future of the Dragon Ball Super manga, as well as with Terez for a wiki project overview and status update.

SEGMENTS:

  • 00:13 – Introduction
  • 02:43 – Topic 1
  • 32:24 – Topic 2
  • 55:20 – Wrap-up

REFERENCED SITES:

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, SoundCloud, or YouTube. We invite you to discuss this episode on our forum.

Published by 24 October 2020, 2:54 PM EDT1 Comment

Last December, the official Dragon Ball website posted an exclusive interview with Toyotarō in conjunction with the then-recently-released eleventh collected volume of his Dragon Ball Super manga. The interview showcases Toyotarō’s workspace, touches on various aspects of Merusu’s and Moro’s character designs, and more!

This interview has been archived in our “Translations” section. Thank you to Ian for the translation!

Published by 20 October 2020, 12:00 PM EDTComment

Continuing onward from previous chapters, Shueisha and Viz have added the official English translation of the Dragon Ball Super manga’s sixty-fifth chapter to their respective Manga Plus and Shonen Jump services, moving further into the original “Galactic Patrol Prisoner 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 December 2020 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-fifth chapter coming today in the magazine’s December 2020 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, entering its own original “Galactic Patrol Prisoner” 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 is due out this December.

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 16 October 2020, 2:13 PM EDTComment

Columbia will release a new CD entitled Dragon Ball Heroes 10th Anniversary Theme Song Collection in Japan 16 December 2020 for ¥2,000 + tax.

The new CD (COCX-41348) collects songs spanning the card-based arcade game’s decade-long history thus far, including the various updates’ theme songs as well as two new tracks: a remix and a “fight song” to get excited and cheer along with.

  1. Dragon Ball Heroes 10th Anniversary Remix
    Takayoshi Tanimoto, Mayumi Gojo, YOFFY
  2. Dragon Ball Heroes Theme Song
    Takayoshi Tanimoto
  3. Dragon Ball Heroes Galaxy Mission Theme Song
    Takayoshi Tanimoto
  4. Dragon Ball Heroes Evil Dragons Mission Theme Song
    Takayoshi Tanimoto
  5. Dragon Ball Heroes God Mission Theme Song
    Takayoshi Tanimoto, Mayumi Gojo
  6. Super Dragon Ball Heroes Theme Song
    Takayoshi Tanimoto, Mayumi Gojo, YOFFY
  7. Super Dragon Ball Heroes Universe Mission Theme Song
    Takayoshi Tanimoto, Mayumi Gojo, YOFFY
  8. Super Dragon Ball Heroes Big Bang Mission Theme Song
    Takayoshi Tanimoto, Mayumi Gojo, YOFFY
  9. Super Dragon Ball Heroes Fight Song
    Takayoshi Tanimoto, Mayumi Gojo, YOFFY

The Dragon Ball Heroes 10th Anniversary Theme Song Collection CD is available for pre-order on Amazon Japan.

Amazingly, the various Dragon Ball Heroes theme songs have not yet received proper CD or digital releases thus far, with the only related “release” being the inclusion of several songs to listen to within the Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission video game on Nintendo Switch and PC.