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Translation Update: “Special Project: Toyotarō Drew It!” Image #84
Published by 07 December 2024, 4:14 PM ESTComment

Roughly every 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 November 2024 entry (posted in December), Toyotarō has drawn three of the Neko Majin from the Akira Toriyama manga series of the same name.

Neko Majin
A series I really like with a lot of connections to Dragon Ball

A few years after completing Dragon Ball, and sporadically over the next few years in between his other projects, Akira Toriyama released chapters of Neko Majin, a series that increasingly became a Dragon Ball parody and spin-off as it went on. Chapters were published between Weekly Shōnen Jump and (the now-defunct) Monthly Shōnen Jump, sometimes entire years apart from each other. The series consists of two chapters of Neko Majin ga Iru (“Neko Majin is Here”), one chapter of Neko Majin Mike, and five chapters of Neko Majin Z. The final two chapters of Neko Majin Z bucked the trend and were published back-to-back in consecutive issues of Monthly Shōnen Jump. All eight chapters were collected into a single kanzenban-sized volume in April 2005; they were later released in a new digitally-colorized version in April 2013.

The only chapter ever to be officially published and released in English has been Neko Majin Z 5, which was printed (without a chapter number) in the October 2007 issue of Viz’s (now-defunct) print version of Shonen Jump.

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

News
40th Anniversary Tribute “Dragon Ball Super Gallery” #41: Masakazu Katsura
Published by 06 December 2024, 10:31 AM ESTComment

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 forty entries, this month’s January 2025 issue brings us the penultimate drawing and comment combo with Masakazu Katsura (DNA², I”s, Shadow Lady, Video Girl Ai, Wing-Man, Zetman) and their take on the series’ first collected volume cover.

Katsura commented:

I am the man that kept getting the in the way of Dragon Ball‘s writing with really dumb phone calls, ones that started late in the night and went on until the wee hours of the morning.

I mean, technically, I wasn’t really getting in the way per se, but… midway through our calls, I would just casually ask “what are you doing?” and would always be really shocked when he answered “Hmm? Oh, I’m doing the storyboards.”

He really was amazing. I wonder what kind of brains Toriyama-san had floating up there on that noggin’.

Dragon Ball was always such a positive, pure and unbelievably fun manga that it will forever be a masterpiece.

Toriyama and Katsura were long-time friends and collaborators. Toriyama brings up Katsura countless times during his various interviews over the years, and Katsura himself actually showed up during Toriyama’s interview for the “Shenlong Times” accompanying Daizenshuu 7. During one of their most notable conversations, it was actually Katsura who suggested fusing characters together as a new way to power-up characters without another transformation. Toriyama and Katsura directly collaborated together for Sachie-chan GOOD!! and Jiya, the original two entries in the Galactic Patrol series.

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.

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.

Podcast
Podcast Episode #0515
Published by 11 November 2024, 10:01 AM ESTComment

Show Description

Episode #0515! Mike brings on JP from The Space Above Us podcast to chat about all things space in Dragon Ball! How realistic are the space travel options in the series, and what about other things like intergalactic communications, and even teleportation? What other real-world considerations do we see addressed in-universe?

How to Listen

Our podcast is available via Apple Podcasts and/or Google Podcasts, 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, or YouTube. We invite you discuss this episode on our forum.

 

Referenced Sites:

News
Saikyō Jump Serialization Updates: December 2024 Issue Includes “Dragon Ball SD” + New “Dragon Ball Super Divers” Manga Series
Published by 07 November 2024, 12:39 PM ESTComment

This week’s December 2024 issue of Shueisha’s Saikyō Jump magazine features the return of an old stalwart plus the debut of a brand-new series in support of the upcoming Dragon Ball Super Divers card-based arcade game.

Dragon Ball SD

A special bonus chapter of Naho Ooishi‘s Dragon Ball SD graces the pages of the magazine once again, this time coming back for a special 40th anniversary celebration.

Following the battle with Cell in the past, Trunks returns to his future timeline to defeat his own version of Cell, and then wants to return back to the past to let everyone know of his success. Bulma warns him that he keeps traveling back to the wrong periods of time, and that restoring the energy for the time machine isn’t easy! Trunks departs for the past, but Bulma of course isn’t sure about this…

Back in the past timeline, the heroes enjoy a party after Cell’s defeat. Kuririn and Gohan wonder what Trunks is up to and whether he’s defeated his own version of Cell yet, when suddenly the time machine appears… with Trunks, plus a wealth of different Gokus from across time! It seems that with Bulma’s unlimited energy upgrade to the time machine, Trunks kept going back to different times accumulating different Gokus who wanted to tag along; all the spiky hair was uncomfortable with them all crammed together in the time machine.

There’s a Goku from just when he gets married to Chi-Chi, three different Super Saiyan Gokus (who Trunks says all look slightly different depending on the time they’re from; Tenshinhan wonders why three Super Saiyans instead of maybe Super Saiyan 2 and 3, instead…), and then a bunch of Gokus with different hair colors including Super Saiyan God, Super Saiyan Blue, and Ultra Instinct (Vegeta wonders if there’s even a color they haven’t used, while Piccolo wonders about orange…).

Kuririn wonders why all these different Gokus wanted to travel through time with him: of course it’s because they all wanted to find someone strong to fight! Some of the Gokus explain that it turns out they’re all just Goku, though, and want someone else entirely different to fight. Trunks has an idea and pops back in the time machine… only to return with a bunch of opponents from across time and space!

Freeza figures out that he was brought back in a time machine, which would be very helpful for his army! Cell is also here and learns about what’s transpired, while Boo pops in from the background, too. Beerus says he was just interested in the food at the party, while Red and Black ask if they can just please go home.

All the different Gokus and villains (including Freeza, who has now transformed into Golden Freeza) are ready to fight! Yamcha is worried about the youngest version of Goku, while Vegeta notes that Freeza has historically performed poorly in gag manga and won’t stand a chance.

Watching the fights unfold, Trunks remarks to himself that he truly understands that Goku is always someone who brings hope to the future, and wishes to be more like him.

It seems Trunks used the time machine a little too much after all, so the villains hang around for a bit… and perhaps because they were defeated by all the Gokus, lend a hand in rebuilding West City from all the destruction caused by their battles.

Following up on a tease last issue, the chapter concludes with a note that Dragon Ball SD will return to serialization starting next month with the January 2025 issue.

Dragon Ball SD dates back to the literal beginning of Saikyō Jump, adapting events from the original story in humorous new ways with “chibi” or “super deformed” (the titular “SD”) styled characters. After the original four quarterly issues of the magazine and SD covering four distinct time periods, the magazine shifted to a monthly release and SD reverted back to the proper beginning of the series with a continuous storyline. In 2016, the series skipped ahead from the end of the 22nd Tenka’ichi Budōkai to the Saiyan arc. In conjunction with Saikyō Jump‘s big format refresh in 2021, Dragon Ball SD was moved out of the magazine to a digital-only series on the company’s official YouTube channel; in the meantime, the series briefly returned to print in the August 2022 issue for a special chapter promoting the theatrical film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. A collected edition has been in irregular series from Shueisha, with the tenth volume released back in April this year covering chapters 89-97 (plus the aforementioned Super Hero bonus chapter).

Dragon Ball SD is not available in English, though it does currently see a release in certain territories such as Germany and France.

Dragon Ball Super Divers: Let’s Super Dive!!

Following the completion of the previous Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Avatars!! series (in support of the Super Dragon Ball Heroes arcade game), Yūji Kasai returns with a brand new series in support of the Dragon Ball Super Divers arcade game (set to effectively replace Super Dragon Ball Heroes this month).

Dragon Ball Super Divers: Let’s Super Dive!! (ドラゴンボールスーパーダイバーズ -レッツ！スーパーダイブ!!- Doragon Bōru Sūpā Daibāzu -Rettsu! Sūpā Daibu!!-) kicks off by introducing a school with the goal of cultivating the best Dragon Ball Super Divers players. A young boy named Asuka Daibu (大舞アスカ) is heading off to attend for the first time. He (quite literally) runs into a new classmate, a girl named Azu Taibu (台武アズ). They comment on how their names are similar, but they are going to be late for school, so off they go.

Asuka really wants to be friends with her (and asks if he can even call her “Azu-Azu”), but she’s not interested. Suddenly, a Vegeta-looking character crashes in on a motorcycle! He is “Geta Wagama” (我間ジータ), and he’s the leader of this class of weaklings. Asuka tells him to get up from his seat (which he initially takes as a challenge), but it turns out Geta just has a split down the back of his pants that Asuka wanted to tell him about. Geta goes in for a punch, but the classroom teacher — Mr. Kamito (神斗先生) — stops him with chopsticks. There’s to be no real fighting, but they can duke it out in the game!

The two get set up with their avatar versions and teams of eight players, while Mr. Kamito wonders about the spirit of the legendary fighter appearing… After several rounds, Asuka wins with a combination God Kamehameha and Kikōha. Geta can’t believe he lost to someone like this, but Asuka fell asleep! Azu and Mr. Kamito think this is going to be an interesting class…

Kasai debuted with Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Avatars!! in Saikyō Jump, running from the January 2021 to October 2024 issues. The series tells the story of a young boy who idolizes Son Goku and seeks to become a great Super Dragon Ball Heroes player.

Magazine Details

The December 2024 issue of Saikyō Jump was released 04 November 2024 for ¥700. The issue is still available for order on Amazon Japan.

The January 2025 issue of Saikyō Jump is set for release 04 December 2024

News
40th Anniversary Tribute “Dragon Ball Super Gallery” #40: Nobuhiro Watsuki
Published by 05 November 2024, 3:29 PM ESTComment

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-nine entries, this month’s December 2024 issue brings us Nobuhiro Watsuki (Rurouni Kenshin) and their take on the series’ 40th volume cover.

At this time, Kanzenshuu will not be sharing Watsuki’s illustration or comment (beyond this note for future reference’s sake that it was published at this time in this issue).

In 2017, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police charged the then-47-year-old manga creator with possession of child pornography. Watsuki was later fined ¥200,000, and returned to serialization the next year.

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.

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.

Content
New Rumor Guide Addition: “The Turtle Hermit is a Tenka’ichi Budōkai Champion”
Published by 29 October 2024, 2:00 PM EDTComment

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. A new entry in the guide tackles an extremely important question…!

RUMOR: The Turtle Hermit is a Tenka’ichi Budōkai Champion

Nevermind that “Jackie Chun” guy — is the Turtle Hermit himself actually a past Tenka’ichi Budōkai champion…? Things are left pretty vague in the original manga, but statements from one specific movie (as well as later filler material) shine a little more light on the past!

Read the Full Story!
Content
Translation Update: “Special Project: Toyotarō Drew It!” Image #83
Published by 28 October 2024, 8:57 AM EDTComment

Roughly every 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 October 2024 entry, Toyotarō has drawn Kajika, the main character from the Akira Toriyama one-shot Kajika.

Kajika
“A boy with special powers!” With Toriyama-sensei drawing a comic based on this premise, of course it turned out really interesting!

Kajika is a 12-chapter manga series by Akira Toriyama which ran from the 1998 No. 32 to No. 44 issues of Weekly Shōnen Jump, releasing over the course of 07 July 1998 to 29 September 1998 in Japan. Kajika is a boy who sets out on a journey to save 1,000 lives in order to undo the curse a fox put on him. He comes to the rescue of a girl named Haya, and ends up being entrusted with the egg of the last dragon in the world…?!

Though it has seen proper releases in certain other territories, Kajika remains without an official English translation.

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

Podcast
Podcast Episode #0514
Published by 27 October 2024, 4:21 PM EDTComment

Show Description

Episode #0514! Mike and Heath check in with personal feelings and the general fandom atmosphere now that we are a few episodes deep in to Dragon Ball Daima. How is site work going alongside this new series, and what’s grabbed us the most so far?

How to Listen

Our podcast is available via Apple Podcasts and/or Google Podcasts, 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, or YouTube. We invite you to discuss this episode on our forum.

 

Referenced Sites:

News
Toyotarō Contributes “Dragon Ball Super Divers” One-Shot Manga in December 2024 V-Jump Issue
Published by 24 October 2024, 11:25 AM EDTComment

As teased last month in the November 2024 issue, Toyotarō contributed a 32-page (one color title page and 31 black-and-white content pages) one-shot manga — in support of the forthcoming Dragon Ball Super Divers card-based arcade game in Japan — to this week’s December 2024 issue of Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine (released 21 October 2024).

The story — simply titled “Dragon Ball Super Divers” as-is from the source game name — is a condensed run-through of the battle against Nappa and Vegeta. A Super Divers avatar character fights alongside the heroes, having been sent into the game world through a capsule game system by Trunks. Yamcha, Tenshinhan, Piccolo, and Kuririn all rush in to fight the Saibaimen, but the fight roughly continues as it did in the original series with one of them grabbing onto Yamcha and exploding. Even with Goku already on the the battlefield, the avatar character tells Goku to save his strength, and the battle resumes with Nappa attacking Tenshinhan and killing Piccolo. The avatar character rescues Gohan from Nappa’s foot stomp, and proceeds to distract him with a Kienzan before taking him out point-blank with a blast, overpowering Nappa’s own mouth blast. Vegeta takes to the skies to unleash his Gyallic-Hō, but Goku and the avatar character power-up their own Kamehameha in response. The two power-up from a 3x to a 4x Kaiō-Ken, finally overwhelming and defeating Vegeta. It’s a “K.O.”… and the player awakens back in the real world, stepping outside of the capsule gaming system. A young woman welcomes him back, saying that Freeza is up next, and the enemies only get stronger from here on out. The player is ready to take them all on!

Toyotarō’s previous work was the Dragon Ball Super manga, which has been on hiatus since March 2024 with the release of its 103rd chapter. Each issue of V-Jump since then continues to include a tiny blurb toward the back saying it will be on hiatus the following issue — this remains true even as of this December 2024 issue. No concrete word on the series’ possible return has been announced.

While other artists such as Yoshitaka Nagayama and Yūji Kasai have contributed manga adaptations of Dragon Ball video games before (primarily in Shueisha’s Saikyō Jump magazine), Toyotarō contributed a special one-shot manga for Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 alongside the game’s launch back in October 2016. In Japan, the chapter was included within the game’s guide book, while internationally the chapter was included within a special “Time Patroller’s Guide” booklet accompanying the game’s Collector’s Edition.

Kasai is set to begin serialization with a new series — Dragon Ball Super Divers: Let’s Super Dive!! — beginning next week in the December 2024 issue of Saikyō Jump.

Dragon Ball Super Divers is a forthcoming physical and digital card-based arcade game, effectively replacing the existing Dragon Ball Heroes run from the last 13 years. Super Divers was announced last May and launches next month.

News
Dragon Ball Daima Announcements: “Mini” Character Voice Actor Updates + Creditless OP/ED
Published by 20 October 2024, 4:45 PM EDTComment

Alongside the premiere of Dragon Ball Daima‘s second episode this weekend, the “Dragon Ball Official Site” shared confirmation of new voice actors taking on the “Mini” versions of characters:

  • Bulma (Mini): Mai Nakahara
  • Vegeta (Mini): Yūdai Mino
  • Piccolo (Mini): Tomohiro Yamaguchi
  • Kuririn (Mini): Aki Kanada
  • Chi-Chi (Mini): Ai Kakuma
  • Turtle Hermit (Mini): Nobuaki Kanemitsu
  • Trunks (Mini): Tsubasa Yonaga
  • Dende (Mini): Erina Goto
  • Mr. Popo (Mini): Kimiko Saitō
  • Kibito (Mini): Yūsuke Handa
  • Mr. Satan (Mini):Tōru Sakurai
  • Majin Boo (Mini): Shiho Amuro

This is in addition to “Kaiōshin (Mini)” played by Yumiko Kobayashi which was previously announced. Masako Nozawa continues as the “Mini” version of Son Goku (as well as Son Goten per the episode’s end credits).

Additionally, creditless versions of the series’ opening and ending themes — “Jaka ☆ Ja~an” and “NAKAMA” respectively — were shared on Toei Animation’s YouTube channel: