Episode #0508! Mike brings on Ken and Ajay for an all-Daima extravaganza! We break down all the scenes in the debut Dragon Ball Daima trailer, trying to figure out who all is involved and what Toriyama may have in store for us, as well as dive into all the currently-announced production staff. We’re still a long ways off from actually seeing the show, but they certainly have our interest at this early stage!
Following up on previous chapters, Shueisha and Viz have added the official English translation of the Dragon Ball Super manga’s one-hundredth 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 February 2024 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’ one-hundredth chapter hitting today in the magazine’s February 2024 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 is set for release in February 2024.
Previously announced — back in March! — as the next entry in the Sparking! series of video games, Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO was more formally unveiled with a new trailer tonight during The Game Awards.
Characters showcased included Son Goku (normal, Super Saiyan Blue), Vegeta (normal, Super Saiyan Blue), Freeza (final form), Broli (Wrathful, Super Saiyan), Piccolo, Kuririn, Tenshinhan, Yamcha, Trunks (Super Saiyan from both Z and Super), No. 17, No. 18, Cell (Perfect), Mr. Satan, Boo (Good), Bergamo, and Jiren.
The trailer’s final screen confirmed that the series’ original developer, Spike Chunsoft, is back at the helm, and the game will be released internationally for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (via Steam). The official Japanese Twitter account later clarified that the Steam reference for Japan was published in error, and that the domestic release will only include the PlayStation 5, as well as digital versions for the Xbox Series X|S.
Both the official Japanese website — プレイ人数1人 (オンライン時 1～2人) — as well as online retailers in English appear to indicate that the game is locally playable by a single user only, with online play extending to player-vs-player battles.
DRAGON BALL: SPARKING! ZERO IS THE EARTH-SHAKING SEQUEL BRINGING THE BUDOKAI TENKAICHI SERIES TO A NEW GENERATION December 7, 2023
Shake the Earth, Break the Heavens in the latest Dragon Ball Game, Bringing Back the Beloved Arena Brawler Series after more than 15 years
DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO brings back the revered 3D action battle game series previously known as BUDOKAI TENKAICHI in the West
Arriving on new-gen consoles and PC, this is the first entry in the series since BUDOKAI TENKAICHI 3 released in 2007 on PlayStation®2
Engage in exhilarating battles with exceptional visual fidelity, fighting arenas with destructible environments, and an incredible roster of DRAGON BALL fighters
See the explosive announcement trailer here
Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. blasted global audiences with a Kamehameha by announcing DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO – the first entry to the DRAGON BALL Z: BUDOKAI TENKAICHI series in more than years – at The Game Awards. The debut trailer, which showcased in-game footage, revealed a visually stunning, authentic continuation of the BUDOKAI TENKAICHI series alongside faithful recreations of legendary characters and their special powers as they fight epic battles on massive and destructible fighting arenas. DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO is coming exclusively to PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X, and PC via Steam®. For more information, visit https://www.bandainamcoent.com/.
Developed by Spike Chunsoft, the developers behind the original BUDOKAI TENKAICHI series, DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO brings the series forward to a new era by harnessing the power of Unreal Engine 5 and pushing the envelope for gameplay and features in an arena brawler. DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO also brings the franchise back to the original Japanese naming convention, where the original DRAGON BALL Z: BUDOKAI TENKAICHI was titled DRAGON BALL Z: Sparking!
“This is the DRAGON BALL fighting game players have been waiting for, bringing a new sequel for one of the most beloved game series based on the franchise to a new generation of players,” said Mike Chang, VP, Marketing and Digital Business, Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. “It has been more than 15 years since DRAGON BALL Z: BUDKAI TENKAICHI pioneered arena brawlers, and DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO continues the legacy while adding new genre-defining features made possible only with the latest game platforms to deliver one of the most immersive anime game experiences of all time.”
The game’s gravity-defying fights promise to ‘shake the earth, break the heavens’, with each DRAGON BALL character’s signature destructive powers and Ki abilities showcased in stunning detail with damage capable of destroying entire parts of the arena.
Though the trailer included text stating “A New Budokai Tenkaichi Begins,” the game’s seemingly final title was revealed at the end as Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO, falling more in line with the original trilogy’s naming scheme in Japanese. The three Sparking! games — the original, NEO!, and METEOR — hit the PlayStation 2 over the course of 2005 to 2007, with the Nintendo Wii also receiving ports of the second and third games. The game series was released numerically under the “Budokai Tenkaichi” moniker internationally. A fourth games — Tag Vs. in Japan / Tenkaichi Tag Team internationally — was released on the PlayStation Portable in 2010.
As opposed to the completely separate Dragon Ball Z (“Budokai”) series developed by Dimps which came before it, the Sparking! series — developed instead by Spike — featured 3D arenas with an over-the-shoulder camera angle.
Spike (as Spike Chunsoft) later went on to also develop the crossover fighting games J-Stars Victory VS in 2014 and Jump Force in 2019.
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.
Not even in my dreams did I ever think I would get to participate in a project like this! What an honor.
Even I, who didn’t read a lot of manga back in primary school, remember copying drawings of the Kamehameha in my notebook. After becoming a mangaka, I went to exhibitions of Toriyama-sensei‘s artwork, and even already as an adult, I still got really excited by each and every page of his illustrations. I remember being really moved. Congratulations to Dragon Ball on its 40th anniversary!
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.
This week’s January 2024 issue of Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine revealed key staff for the upcoming show, Dragon Ball Daima:
Akira Toriyama: original author, story, character designs [previously announced]
Masako Nozawa: voice of Son Goku [previously implied]
Yoshitaka Yashima: series co-director
Aya Komaki: series co-director
Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru: character designs [adapted for animation from Toriyama’s designs]
Yūko Kakihara: series composition/script
Yoshitaka Yashima was extensively involved with the Dragon Ball Super television series, handling a wealth of storyboards, key animation, and animation supervision; Yashima is also responsible for work on a plethora of other franchises. As with Yashima, Aya Komaki is well known for her work on the One Piece franchise, including both its television series and recent theatrical film, One Piece Film: Red. Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru is no stranger to the Dragon Ball franchise, with character design, animation, and promotional artwork duties dating back to its original serialization heyday. Yūko Kakihara is responsible for the script writing on a variety of recent shows, including Digimon Adventure tri.
Dragon Ball Daima is an upcoming animated series, though no specific debut timeframe beyond “fall 2024” or release/broadcast platform has been announced. The series was first revealed at New York Comic Con in October 2023 by way of a trailer and comment from original franchise creator Akira Toriyama. The “Daima” in the series’ title is a made-up term, though the individual kanji that make up its spelling would be 大魔; in Toriyama’s own words, …”in English would be something like ‘Evil.'”
Following up on previous chapters, Shueisha and Viz have added the official English translation of the Dragon Ball Super manga’s ninety-ninth 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 January 2024 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-ninth chapter hitting today in the magazine’s January 2024 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 is set for release in February 2024.
Bandai Namco Holdings has posted a ¥52.167 billion profit for the first half of fiscal year of 2024, down from a ¥66.557 billion profit this same timeframe last year.
Dragon Ball came in as the company’s second-best-performing franchise for the half, pulling in ¥68.4 billion (behind the Mobile Suit Gundam at ¥72.6 billion). This is a slight jump from Dragon Ball‘s performance during this same timeframe last fiscal year at ¥65.7 billion. The company is projecting a full fiscal year total of ¥133 billion, however, which would be down from last full fiscal year’s ¥144.5 billion.
In terms of general toys and hobby merchandise (non-video games) for Japan, the Dragon Ball franchise pulled in ¥12.2 billion (behind the Mobile Suit Gundam and One Piece franchises at ¥34.7 and ¥30 billion, respectively). This is roughly in line with Dragon Ball‘s performance during this same timeframe last fiscal year at ¥12 billion. The company is projecting a full fiscal year total of ¥21 billion, which would be down from last full fiscal year’s ¥22.5 billion.
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.
Whenever I was at the pub that a friend of my father’s used to run, the only reason I was able to wait my way through the adults’ late-hours drinking without so much as a peep was thanks to the fact that they had all the Dragon Ball volumes available to read. To think that, 25 years later, I would be able to participate in a project like this fills me with such deep emotion that I think it’s transcended the concept of “deepness” at this point.
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.
Following the base Super Dragon Ball Heroes arcade upgrade and its subsequent Universe Mission, Big Bang Mission, and Ultra God Mission expansions, the series is set to debut its brand new Meteor Mission update on 09 November 2023, alongside the game’s overall 13th anniversary.
Ahead of the game’s content launch, various multimedia spin-offs have already jumped into the game’s forthcoming content:
The November 2023 issue of Saikyō Jump featured the final chapter of Yoshitaka Nagayama’s Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultra God Mission!!!! manga series — clocking in at 20 chapters, it has thus far been the longest of Nagayama’s various series. Alongside the final chapter, Shueisha announced that Nagayama would continue onward with a respective new Meteor Mission manga series, which hit today within the December 2023 issue of Saikyō Jump.
The Meteor Mission update is also given attention in the latest chapter of Yūji Kasai‘s Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Avatars!! manga series, likewise hitting today in the December 2023 issue of Saikyō Jump.
Back on 22 October 2023, the ongoing Super Dragon Ball Heroes “Promotional Anime” took a hiatus from its traditional 2D animation: the new Meteor Mission episode — “The Curtain Rises on the Demonic Invader Arc!! A Dark Shadow Attacks the Earth” — was instead animated via the video game’s engine (indeed featuring a different “Promotional CG Movie” watermark as opposed to the standard “Promo Anime” version).
In both the manga and promotional anime series, following the completion of the Super Space-Time Tournament, Goku and the others regroup on North Kaiō’s planet only to find him completely gone — they are then confronted by “Majin Ozotto,” who claims to have eaten Earth and is hunting gods.
The character Majin Ozotto is a notable focus in this latest Meteor Mission content. Ozotto dates back to 1994, where — in conjunction with the “Jump Multi(media) World” event celebrating Weekly Shōnen Jump‘s 25th anniversary — the character debuted in Sega’s first-person arcade fighting game, Dragon Ball Z: V.R.V.S., where “Majin Ozotto” (rendered in the game’s own English translation as “Ozotto the Super Monster”) is the shapeshifting final boss.
Ozotto was in fact designed by original Dragon Ball author Akira Toriyama himself. The original design set included a larger, multi-armed version which was not used in the final game; this design was most recently seen in the Dragon Ball 30th Anniversary Super History Book:
The character fell into relative-obscurity following his original release, with a planned appearance in the 1996 PlayStation and Saturn game Idainaru Dragon Ball Densetsu (“The Great Dragon Ball Legend”) unfortunately scrapped. Ozotto was brought back in 2018 within Super Dragon Ball Heroes, where he made a small appearance at the end of the “Universe Mission 3” update’s special video, and went onward to be included in various game missions and manga chapters.
Sony has announced that Dragon Ball: The Breakers — alongside Mafia II: Definitive Edition and Aliens Fireteam Elite — will be a PlayStation Plus “Essentials” title for North American and European subscribers this month.
Dragon Ball: The Breakers | PS4
In this online asymmetrical action game, a team of 7 ordinary citizens tries to survive the Raider (a classic Dragon Ball rival such as Cell, Frieza, and Buu), who will hunt them down and evolve during the game into an unstoppable force. Escaping won’t be so easy: cooperate with others while there is still time, but the Raider or other Survivors’ decisions might force you to go at it alone. As a Raider, you will enjoy overwhelming powers to hunt and wipe out Survivors. Master each Raider’s unique abilities to track, catch your victims to evolve, and become even more powerful! Whether you’re a Raider or a Survivor, choose your progression path and unlock skills, skins, and items to fine-tune your own personal strategy to escape as a Survivor or triumph as a Raider.
Titles in the “Essentials” category are free for all PlayStation Plus subscribers to claim during their month of availability — this month’s titles will be available from Tuesday, November 7 until Monday, December 4. In North America, the “Essentials” plan currently runs at $9.99/month or $79.99/year.
Bandai Namco recently outlined plans for the game’s fourth season of content in conjunction with its first anniversary, which includes forthcoming crossplay integration (allowing players on different consoles to play with each other):
Developed by Dimps, Dragon Ball: The Breakers puts a small group of seven survivors up against a “raider” in an asymmetrical race to survive, in a world shared withDragon Ball XENOVERSE 2. The game launched at a base digital price of $19.99 US (with physical versions coming at respective higher costs) on 13 October 2022 in Japan and 14 October 2022 in other worldwide territories across the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC (via Steam).
