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Translations Archive

V-JumPlay Official News (14 October 2020)

VJ Official: Dragon Ball Super:
The Inside Scoop from the Editor!!

Koike: Welcome to V-Jump Official News! I’m Yumi Koike. And this is…

V-Long1: V-Long-vee! V-JumPlay Official News brings you the latest Jump news every day at 6 p.m.-vee!

K: V-Long! We have a guest today, right?

VL: Do we! Today is Dragon Ball Info Day, so we have a special guest lined up! Please welcome V-Jump manga editor and official V-JumPlay Player, Victory Uchida-san-vee!

Victory Uchida: Thank you for having me.

K: You finally came on! We’ve been waiting for you!

VU: Uh, really? I’m really happy to hear that.

K: We keep expecting you to come on as a guest, but you never do!

VU: You never ask!

K: We’ve been waiting for you!!

VL: It really seemed like he’d just come on?

K: It did! It did!

VU: You asked Asada2 on first!

K: Well anyway, I’m really glad to have you! There’s a ton I’ve wanted to ask.

VL: Uchida-san, I’ve heard that, as editor of the Dragon Ball Super manga, you’ve brought along something incredible today-vee!

VU: Normally we post the first few pages of the storyboard to the official Dragon Ball site, but today, before this month’s V-Jump goes on sale, I’ve brought with me the entire chapter’s storyboard!

VL: The whole thing?

K: You’ve gone too far!

VU: All 45 pages.

K: Ah, here it is! Now, I’ve seen a lot of storyboards from different artists, and they really vary from person to person, huh?

VU: They really do.

VU: When it comes to Dragon Ball Super, the original story is Toriyama-sensei‘s, but the manga and artwork are by Toyotaro-sensei. The three of us, myself included, work out the story, but then the process of storyboarding it out onto the page is left to Toyotaro-sensei. Since we build in time for Toriyama-sensei to do an additional check, Toyotaro-sensei produces these really clean storyboards.

VL: Ah, so for Toyotaro-sensei, this is something he’s going to show Toriyama-sensei

VU: That’s right. Toyotaro-sensei is a Dragon Ball fan himself.

VL: Ah, I get it.

VU: He’s really into it. So he’s been drawing Dragon Ball since well before he ever thought he would become a manga artist. And then before he knew it, he was doing the real thing.

VL: That’s so awesome.

K: Dreams really do come true!

VU: So every month while fighting against nerves, he draws these fairly complete drafts.

K: It really is detailed! It even has backgrounds drawn in! And the expressions are all super clear.

VU: This time we’ve only published up to page 8 on the official site. Go ahead and open to page 9. From page 8 to 9 … You think, “Oh my god, what’s going to happen?” Then you turn the page and it’s like, “Oh, so that’s what happens!”

K: Aaah! And you’ve only posted up to page 8?

VU: That’s right.

K: Argh, that’s so devious! That really does it, huh?

VU: Anyway, this month’s chapter, 65, is jam-packed. Please be sure to give it a read.

***

VU: So the current storyline is just about at its climax…

K: That’s right.

VU: And reaching the climax of this one means a new arc will have to start soon.

VL: Can we go ahead and interview you about a few things, including that?

K: In that case Uchida-san, can you share any hunches about where the new arc will go?

VU: Ah, thoughts on where the new arc might go… I actually have a meeting about that in two days.

K: Really?!

VU: So I’ll basically be sitting down for various discussions with Toriyama-sensei and Toyotaro-sensei. The idea isn’t to get to the point of being able to say, “We’re definitely going with this!” We’re just going to be… narrowing down. We’ll be paring down from what were an initial ten or so choices to about three. This is actually the first time we’ve had to narrow down from so many different options. So we should wind up being able to condense things down into a really interesting story.

K: One of the things that left the strongest impact on me the first time I read it was Ultra Instinct.

VU: The naming is really cool.

K: It is! It’s so cool! I was blown away by it in the manga, and then I got to be blown away by it all over again in the anime!3

VU: It feels totally different with movement!

K: Right, right! When you actually see it in motion, it’s like, oh my god, that’s how it moves! It becomes even more clear. It’s so cool. Uchida-san, what were your thoughts on Ultra Instinct the first time you saw it?

VU: I was surprised. The idea of having Goku evolve in that kind of direction had come up during a meeting, but I didn’t expect the appearance to change. I thought only his movement would alter. So I thought, “Eh, silver hair?” The illustration Toriyama-sensei had drawn for it was super cool too.4 The expression he gave Goku for it was really fitting.

K: It’s really, like, stoic.

VU: Definitely.

K: It’s Goku, but there’s also somehow different.

VU: Right. It has an almost divine quality. He’s a god. The other thing with Ultra Instinct5 is that when I first saw it, I wondered why it had such a weird—Ah, I probably can’t call it “weird.”

K: That’s definitely staying in!

VU: Anyway, I thought it was an awesome name, but when you pay attention more closely, you have the “body” moving “on its own”.5 The body is moving on its own—that’s what the technique masters. The moment I noticed that, I was like, “That is an exceptionally cool name.”

***

K: V-Long, is there anything you’d like to ask?

VL: Hm. You said you have meetings with the three of you: Toriyama-sensei, and Toyotaro-sensei, and yourself. What would you say the power balance in those meetings is like? Like, in relation to one another?

VU: One-hundred million, ten million, -100.

VL: Sounds like someone’s in the way. (laughs)

VU: I might actually be holding them back!

VL: You feel like the two of them would be fine on their own?

VU: It’s more like… they have a good chemistry.

VL: Toriyama-sensei and Toyotaro-sensei?

VU: They don’t butt heads with each other. One of them will pitch an idea and the other will go, “Hey, that’s great,” and then add to it, and they just build and build on one another’s thoughts.

K: It’s like training! They’re Goku and Vegeta!

VU: It’s like Goku, Vegeta, and Yamcha. (Points at himself) Go on! You can do it!

VL: Is that right?

VU: I’m happy just to get to be there as a fan.

K: I really want to peek in on this meeting in two days!

VU: It’s going to be really exciting.

K: It sounds like it. That powerful combination and all… We certainly heard a lot of interesting stuff today, huh, V-Long?

VL: We really did. It was great.

VU: What’s even more interesting than this conversation is the manga that’s coming out soon.

K: Of course!

VU: We’re almost at the climax.

VL: Please look forward to Dragon Ball Super in the extra-large December V-Jump-vee!6 Last, Uchida-san, did you have something to announce?

VU: Yes. I have one important announcement today. Dragon Ball Super Volume 14 will be on sale December 4!

K: (Applause) I’ve been waiting for it!

VU: It has the content up through the issue on sale in September. It’s a really dense volume, so please be sure to give it a read as well!

The following translator notes are included for the benefit of the reader as supplemental information.

1 V-Jump mascot dragon character, represented by a voiceover and animated clipart
2 Victory Asada, V-Jump‘s advertising chair, who plays an exaggerated version of himself in public appearances similarly to Victory Uchida
3 The timing regarding when Ultra Instinct debuted is being misremembered here. The “final” silver-haired version debuted in Dragon Ball Super television series episode 129, which aired 04 March 2018 on Fuji TV. The corresponding form did not appear in the manga until chapter 41, which debuted 20 October 2018 in the December 2018 issue of V-Jump. Before all this, Akira Toriyama’s design and the corresponding anime version of the character design were printed in the April 2018 issue of V-Jump, released 21 February 2018.
4 As noted, Akira Toriyama’s design for the silver-haired Ultra Instinct was printed in the April 2018 issue of V-Jump, released 21 February 2018. For what it’s worth, it’s literally just a hair-recolor of his Super Saiyan God design for Son Goku produced back for 2013’s theatrical film, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, thus making the reaction here a bit questionable and hilarious.
5 Migatte no Gokui in Japanese; the “body” is mi and the moving “on its own” is katte, which may become gatte in compounds
6 The December 2019 issue of V-Jump, released 21 October 2020, containing Dragon Ball Super chapter 65
English Translation: Cipher