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3,854 Posts & 2,436 Pages Documenting Dragon Ball, since 1998. We've got you covered!
Published by 20 August 2020, 11:39 AM EDTComment

Continuing onward from previous chapters, Shueisha and Viz have added the official English translation of the Dragon Ball Super manga’s sixty-third 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 in today’s October 2020 issue of Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine in Japan.

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-third chapter coming today in the magazine’s October 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 tenth collected volume is due out this September.

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 August 2020, 3:07 PM EDTComment

In conjunction with today’s “Dragon Ball FighterZ Show” live stream discussing upcoming competitions and game updates, Bandai Namco formally unveiled the Turtle Hermit as a forthcoming paid downloadable content character for Dragon Ball FighterZ this September:

Long rumored to be coming to the game, the character’s forthcoming inclusion was spoiled slightly earlier during the stream during a presentation of the game’s 2020 roadmap.

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 today’s announcement of the Turtle Hermit, thus far Kafla and Son Goku (Ultra Instinct) comprise the known cast of 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 08 August 2020, 11:45 AM EDTComment

Bandai Namco Holdings has posted a ¥13.181 billion (approximately $126 million) profit for the first quarter of fiscal year 2021, compared to a ¥16.924 billion profit the same quarter last year.

namco_bandai_logo_resaved

Dragon Ball once again handily came in as the company’s best-performing franchise for the quarter, pulling in ¥27.1 billion (though a drop from last year’s ¥28.4 billion in the same quarter); Dragon Ball beat out the number-two franchise, Mobile Suit Gundam, by ¥6.4 billion. The company is projecting ¥103 billion for fiscal year 2021.

In terms of general toys and hobby merchandise (non-video games), the franchise also fell from ¥5.3 billion in Q1 2020 to ¥3.0 billion this year’s first quarter, with a similarly-lowered-projection for the full year at ¥16.5 billion.

Published by 30 July 2020, 11:49 AM EDTComment

Following this week’s fifth episode premiere, the official Super Dragon Ball Heroes website announced a title and summary for the upcoming sixth 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). Similar to the last few episodes, no debut streaming timeframe is listed for the upcoming episode, though the website states that new episodes should be expected on a monthly basis.

Dragon Fist Explode! Super Full Power Saiyan 4: Limit Break!
In the midst of the fierce battle with Janenba, Demon Gods Salsa and Putine from the Dark Demon Realm suddenly appear. At their advice, Goku and the others all together lend their power to Son Goku: Xeno and Vegeta: Xeno. A red light scatters from the bodies of the two Xeno warriors, and they are bathed in an aura of a different color from before… Just how will the fierce fight with the mighty foe Janenba play out?!

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. 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 28 July 2020, 4:45 PM EDTComment

SHOW DESCRIPTION:

Episode #0483! Mike brings various wiki gang members back together again to chat up the history of Viz’s manga release in America (and various changes throughout multiple printings), music cataloging, hacking away at video games to enable lost features, and fun filler factoids! Stay tuned toward the end for various bits of future website teases!

SEGMENTS:

  • 00:13 – Introduction
  • 03:44 – Viz Manga History & Music Catalog w/ Terez
  • 30:54 – Hacking Away at Budokai 1 w/ PSP
  • 44:31 – Afterlife Tournament w/ JRP
  • 1:03:58 – Website Chat w/ Hujio

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 27 July 2020, 4:01 PM EDTComment

Viz’s twelfth collected volume of the Dragon Ball Super manga will be released 02 March 2021, covering chapters 53-56 (as well as a two-page bonus chapter) a la its Japanese counterpart:

The villain Moro has released vicious criminals from the Galactic Prison, and now they’re ravaging the galaxy in their search for planets with exceptional life energy! Meanwhile, back on Earth, members of the Bandit Brigade have shown up, including Seven-Three, who has the ability to copy other fighters’ powers. How will Piccolo and the others fare against this new threat without Goku around?

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-second chapter coming last week in the magazine’s September 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 next collected volume — the tenth — is due out this September (followed by the eleventh in December, and now the twelfth in March).

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 21 July 2020, 9:15 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 July 2020 entry, Toyotarō has contributed a new image of Raditz (with a special guest appearance by Bardock):

Raditz

Goku’s older brother, who came to Earth in order to bring Goku over to his side. Bardock must certainly have never anticipated a future where both of his sons would be fighting each other…

The pose in Toyotarō’s new drawing is a clear homage to a scene from chapter 201 of Akira Toriyama’s original Dragon Ball manga, in which Raditz blocks a Kamehameha from Goku before taking on Piccolo’s Makankōsappō.

Last week, as part of a special connection with the “Toyotarō Drew It!” series, the official Dragon Ball website shared — alongside a brief interview — a new color image of Goku and Bardock from Toyotarō that is being turned into a crane-game prize series this December.

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

Published by 20 July 2020, 11:05 AM EDTComment

Continuing onward from previous chapters, Shueisha and Viz have added the official English translation of the Dragon Ball Super manga’s sixty-second 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 in today’s September 2020 issue of Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine in Japan.

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-second chapter coming today in the magazine’s September 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 tenth collected volume is due out this September.

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 15 July 2020, 1:28 PM EDTComment

The official Dragon Ball website announced today that a new drawing from Toyotarō, artist behind the Dragon Ball Super manga serialized in Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine, will be developed into crane-game prizes this December by Bandai Spirits. Alongside a debut of the drawing itself, the website included a brief interview with Toyotarō, which we have added to our “Translations” archive:

This interview is an extension of the on-going “Toyotarō Drew It!” column on the official website, where each month Toyotarō contributes a new character drawing and accompanying brief comment. A full archive of this column is likewise available in our “Translations” archive and is updated on a monthly basis.

Published by 10 July 2020, 3:58 PM EDTComment

July 10 is a special day for a very different franchise: it is the anniversary of the original Ultraman promotional broadcast back in 1966!

In this fun Twitter thread, take a quick tour through some of Akira Toriyama’s references to Ultraman — you’re bound to learn something new!