Following up on previous chapters, Shueisha and Viz have added the official English translation of the Dragon Ball Super manga’s ninety-eighth chapter to their respective Manga Plus and Shonen Jump services, continuing onward into the brand-new “Super Hero arc”, now adapting the contents of the recent theatrical film following three chapters worth of original prologue material. 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 2023 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 in Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine, with the series’ ninety-eighth chapter hitting today in the magazine’s December 2023 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”, “Granolla the Survivor”, and now “Super Hero” arcs.
Viz is currently releasing free digital chapters of the series, and began their own collected print edition back in 2017. The company’s twentieth collected volume was released last month.
During today’s “Dragon Ball Special Panel” at New York Comic Con, various announcements were shared, including that of a brand new animated series: Dragon Ball Daima.
Moderator Monica Rial (English voice of Bulma) introduced fellow guest Ian Sinclair (English voice of Whis) to review ongoing events and updates for the video games Dragon Ball XENOVERSE 2 and Dragon Ball: The Breakers. The Dragon Ball Super Card Game series was also given a spotlight.
Following these updates, franchise executive producer Akio Iyoku was introduced. With Iyoku on stage, further game updates were shared, including that of the fourth Dragon Ball Games Battle Hour, which will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center next January. The Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero 4K UHD was given a quick nod, with its release in North America coming this November. The theatrical run of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods‘ extended edition from Toei and Fathom was likewise given a brief nod, coming next week in theaters across the United States.
Iyoku then transitioned to the subject of Sand Land, explaining its origin as an Akira Toriyama manga series from 2000, and that more info will be coming about the movie’s international release, but that the forthcoming game from Bandai Namco will release worldwide simultaneously.
Finally, the panel wrapped up with the debut trailer for Dragon Ball Daima, an all-new series slated for release in fall 2024 (though no more specific of a timeframe or release/broadcast platform was given):
Akira Toriyama is credited with the original work (the standard 原作gensaku credit), story, and character designs, and was stated by Iyoku to be “deeply involved beyond his usual capacity.” In the trailer, all of the main characters are turned into child-sized versions of themselves. Iyoku noted that “Daima” is a name from Toriyama himself, and that there was a long process of different ideas before finalizing it — in fact, the title was only just decided upon a few days ago; a filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office from October 6th included the title “DRAGON BALL DAIMA” along with (a black and white version of) its logo:
Iyoku shared a written message from Akira Toriyama (transcribed below as was presented on-screen live at the panel):
Hello. I’m Akira Toriyama.
I’m currently working on a new Dragon Ball. The Title is “Dragon Ball DAIMA”.
“DAIMA” is a made-up term, which in Japanese characters would be “大魔” or in English would be something like “Evil.”
Due to a conspiracy, Goku and his friends are turned small. In order to fix things, they’ll head off to a new world! It’s a grand adventure with intense action in an unknown and mysterious world.
Since Goku has to make up for his petite size, he uses his Nyoibo (Power Pole) to fight, something not seen in a long time.
I came up with the story and settings, as well as a lot of the designs. I’m actually putting a lot more into this than usual!
Things will unfold that close in on the mysteries of the Dragon Ball world. Hope you enjoy these different-from-usual battles that are cute and powerful!!
— AKIRA TORIYAMA
The title’s characters of 大 and 魔 should be familiar to many Dragon Ball fans, with 大 (dai) regularly used for things like the Great Demon King Piccolo (ピッコロ大魔王) or Great King Enma (閻魔大王), while the 魔 (ma) is the same from 魔人 (majin).
The panel closed with a video message from Masako Nozawa encouraging a group Kamehameha.
Dragon Ball XENOVERSE 2 — originally released back in 2015 on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and later receiving ports to the Nintendo Switch and now-defunct Google Stadia — continues to receive updates and downloadable content to this day. Following a brief tease on social media yesterday…
… Bandai Namco has announced a new roadmap taking them through 2023 and into 2024 with even more updates to the game, including native Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 versions of the game.
This new update cycle kicks off tomorrow (12 October 2023) with a free update; content is scheduled to include a new “Cross Versus” 3-vs-3 multiplayer mode and a “Festival of Universes” event series.
The 2024 roadmap confirms — alongside the aforementioned Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 versions of the game — additional playable characters, story scenarios, and more.
Episode #0506! We continue a brand new interview series talking with the staff members of Kanzenshuu itself! Heath is up next, so strap in for a trip back to the early days of fansites, launching a new one in 2005, combining sites in 2012, how we collaboratively work on everything together, and much more!
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.
When I was a kid, I really admired Toriyama-sensei and drew Trunks and Goku a lot, as well as many manga and illustrations that copied his style. Sensei‘s linework, while simple, is also very difficult, with both depth and fun, and I had a lot of fun and excitement trying with all my might to emulate it.
When I got the opportunity to be a part of this project, while drawing, I kept telling my child self: “You’re drawing Dragon Ball! And Toriyama-sensei is actually going to see it!”
I was really excited and terribly nervous, but thank you so much for letting me draw this.
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: Ultra God 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.
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. The latest entry started as a simple way to catalogue the Alien movie reference that trips people up, but turned into a larger dive into Toriyama’s plans!
Following the now-traditional schedule, Shueisha and other online retailers have listed an 09 November 2023 release date and ¥1,595 + tax price tag for a forthcoming Super Dragon Ball Heroes: 13th Anniversary Super Guide.
The 2023 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, and the 12th Anniversary Super Guide in November 2022. 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: Ultra God Mission!!!! manga (a follow-up to the previous Dark Demon Realm Mission!, Ultimate Mission!!, and Big Bang Mission!!! series) currently runs in Shueisha’s monthly 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 internationally in April 2019.
Each month, Toyotarō provides a drawing of a Dragon Ball (or related…!) 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 September 2023 entry, Toyotarō has drawn the skinny failed fusion version of Gotenks:
Gotenks (Failed Fusion)
In Super Hero, they went with the fat version, but since he got to fight in ways only he could, with headbutts and the like, it might have been a better idea than going with this skinnier version.
Following up on previous chapters, Shueisha and Viz have added the official English translation of the Dragon Ball Super manga’s ninety-seventh chapter to their respective Manga Plus and Shonen Jump services, continuing onward into the brand-new “Super Hero arc”, now adapting the contents of the recent theatrical film following three chapters worth of original prologue material. 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 November 2023 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 in Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine, with the series’ ninety-seventh chapter hitting today in the magazine’s November 2023 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”, “Granolla the Survivor”, and now “Super Hero” arcs.
Viz is currently releasing free digital chapters of the series, and began their own collected print edition back in 2017. The company’s twentieth collected volume was released this month.