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.
Following the previous thirty-two entries, this month’s May 2024 issue brings us Naho Ooishi (Dragon Ball SD) and her take on the series’ 18th volume cover:
Ooishi commented:
My first contact with the manga was when I was in kindergarten and couldn’t even read it, given to me by my father in place of a coloring book. Even after becoming an adult, I thankfully continued to be involved with Dragon Ball, so I was able to live my life alongside the larger-than-life Goku, who had become a father, and later a grandfather. It’s no exaggeration to say that Dragon Ball has occupied a very, very big presence throughout more than half my life. No matter how much I try, I will never be able to thank Toriyama-sensei enough for allowing me to live my life alongside the Dragon Ball. Thank you so, so much. I will continue to love Dragon Ball with aaaaaaaaaaall my heart from now on, too.
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: Meteor 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.