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 April 2025 entry, Toyotarō has drawn the Turtle Hermit:
Kame-Sen’nin (Muten-Rōshi)
We all have in our heads this image of the Bankoku-Bikkuri-Shō being a Jackie Chun move, but in the animated series version of the Tournament of Power, the Turtle Hermit used it against The Priccio, so that’s who I’m drawing here!
During episode 101 of the Dragon Ball Super television series, the Turtle Hermit uses the Bankoku-Bikkuri-Shō against Universe 3’s The Priccio, who is then knocked out of the ring by Tenshinhan’s Shin Kikōhō.
In the Dragon Ball Super manga by Toyotarō, The Priccio is knocked out of the ring sometime after battling Cabba in chapter 37; Universe 3 is eliminated as a whole after a berserk Kale knocks Anilaza out of the ring in the following chapter.
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 March 2025 entry, Toyotarō has drawn Great Saiyaman #2 (with Great Saiyaman No. 1 himself in the background!):
Great Saiyaman #2
In the animated series, Videl also previously worked as a Saiyaman! They may snark about it, but in the end, everyone loves super heroes!
Videl takes on the mantle of Great Saiyaman #2 following the defeat of Boo, with perhaps her most notable appearance coming in Dragon Ball Z Movie 13:
After an announcement misfire last week via the Humble Bundle retailer website, Bandai Namco has formally unveiled the second paid downloadable content pack for Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO: the “DAIMA Character Pack 1” set with eight new playable characters from the respective (and recently-concluded) television series.
The new playable characters in this first Dragon Ball Daima pack include:
Son Goku (Mini) — Super Saiyan
Vegeta (Mini)
Vegeta (Mini) — Super Saiyan
Vegeta (Mini) — Super Saiyan 2
Vegeta (Mini) — Super Saiyan 3
Glorio
Panzy
Majin Koo
“Son Goku (Mini)” was previously a pre-order bonus character; as part of this new pack, Bandai Namco clarifies:
*This alternative version of Goku (Mini) can transform into Super Saiyan and use Aura Impact.
If you own Goku (Mini) from the Pre-Order Pack DLC you can use the alternative version by equipping an outfit. If you do not own it, it will appear as a new character in the character select screen.
The “Season Pass” for Sparking! ZERO is set to contain the previously-released “Hero of Justice Pack” (featuring characters and transformations from the 2022 theatrical film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero), and two Dragon Ball Daima character packs (with the final pack tentatively due Q3 2025). The full “Season Pass” retails for $34.99; the previous “Hero of Justice Pack” is separately available by itself for $17.99.
“DAIMA Character Pack 1” will release for separate public sale 24 April 2025, though anyone who has purchased the existing “Season Pass” can access its content starting today (21 April 2025), in line with their “three days early” scheme for ongoing content releases.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZEROreleased on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (via Steam) 10 October 2024 in Japan, and 11 October 2024 internationally. As opposed to the completely separateDragon 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. The new game’s title of Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO falls 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. 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.
Episode #0520! Mike and Ajay revisit “Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F'” for its 10th anniversary. Often looked back upon as the black sheep of the revival-era animated products, what does it have to offer audiences these days, particularly in light of its re-adaptation into the “Dragon Ball Super” television series?
Back in February, MANTANWEB shared a two-part interview series with Dragon Ball franchise executive producer (and Capsule Corporation Tokyo founder) Akio Iyoku. The first part of this interview, which we are sharing a complete translation of here today, looks toward the end of the then-forthcoming Dragon Ball Daima finale and discusses Akira Toriyama’s involvement in the overall series production.
Following what appear to be successful vinyl releases of the Dragon Ball Z Best Song Collection and Dragon Ball Super soundtracks, Columbia Japan themselves are set to re-issue the Dragon Ball Ongakushū (“Music Collection”), releasing 23 July 2025 for ¥4,000:
A total of 14 tunes will comprise the single record, which includes background music composed by Shunsuke Kikuchi — as well as the vocal opening and ending theme songs — for the launch of the original Dragon Ball television series in 1986. The tracklist includes:
Side A:
Mystical Adventure! [VOCALS: Hiroki Takahashi]
Setting Out
Mystical Adventure! (Instrumental)
The Sexy Girl Bulma
Mystery of the Dragon Balls
Funky Turtle Hermit
A Great Wilderness
Side B:
Phantom Apparition
Ambition
Danger is Everywhere
Shenlong Appears
Pilaf and His Henchmen
Wild Boy
I’ll Give You Romance! [VOCALS: Ushio Hashimoto]
The album was originally released on vinyl 21 April 1986 (catalogue number: CX-7272) alongside the launch of the television series, and was later re-issued on CD 25 September 2003 (catalogue number: CX-7272) under the budget-priced ANIMEX 1200 series (thus its ¥1,200 price tag).
International distributors for the set include Cartridge Thunder (US $49; expected to ship this August) and Black Screen Records (€40,00; expected to ship this August). Note that there is a limited pre-order window with many of these international distributors, and pre-order sales are often final / cannot be cancelled once made.
Episode #0519! Mike interviews Brandon Bovia, letterer on the English release of the Dragon Ball Super manga from Viz. What exactly does a “letterer” do, how does that work differ between a simulpub and collected volume release, and what all else goes into bringing manga chapters to English?
Episode #0518! Mike interviews Rocco from Mega64 about his introduction to Dragon Ball, figure collecting, Mega64’s five-minute live-action DBZ sketches, ssj8 (99 percent sure is real), and more!
Viz’s previously-announced English translation of Dr. Mashirito’s Ultimate Manga Techniques has been bumped slightly from its originally-intended 22 April 2025 release to a new date of 13 May 2025.
The upcoming release is an English-translated version of the 2023 Japanese book which includes a variety of career reflections, advice for upcoming artists, and interviews with colleagues from legendary editor Kazuhiko Torishima. Alongside this wealth of content, Dr. Mashirito’s Ultimate Manga Techniques includes an interview with (and an original cover illustration by) the late and great Akira Toriyama:
Kazuhiko Torishima is the sixth editor-in-chief of Japan’s biggest manga magazine, Weekly Shonen Jump! He is one of Japan’s leading editors, having discovered and nurtured great manga artists such as Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball, Masakazu Katsura of Video Girl Ai, and Koji Inada of Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, and further transforming the manga business by expanding the crossover of manga, anime, and video games.
“Dr. Mashirito” is a scientist who was modeled after Kazuhiko Torishima by Akira Toriyama in Dr. Slump, and the character later became Kazuhiko Torishima’s nickname in real life, too. This book is the only place to discover Kazuhiko Torishima’s “Torishima Method,” an approach to making comics that will give you the mindset needed to become a manga artist!
Dr. Mashirito’s Ultimate Manga Techniques is available for pre-order on Amazon, currently with a 10% discount from its $25.00 MSRP.
Published by Hujio13 March 2025, 1:03 PM EDTComment
Since the initial launch of Kanzenshuu back in April 2012, our “Cast Guide” has remained virtually unchanged, with only the database consistently receiving updates. It was truly one of the last holdovers from the “pre-merger” times; a straight-up copy of how it had appeared on Kanzentai, with only minimal cast profiles listed from the first phase of Dragon Ball Kai. Well no more! After 13 years, the guide has finally been completely overhauled and reorganized to follow the current structure of most of our guides.
You will find information on cast credit structures, more organized cast profiles, and of course our large database of cast credits, which has also been updated to include original video game characters, cast credits from the Super Dragon Ball Heroes promotional anime, and is now current up through the last episode of Dragon Ball Daima. In addition, we have added filtering functionality — which you may have already noticed went live a few months ago — to make it easier to view credits from a specific series, production medium (movies, TV, video games, etc.), or special feature.
The cast profiles have also been updated and reorganized between the legacy (“original”) and new/current voice cast. You will see we have also opted for more of a listing approach, rather than dedicated in-depth profile pages. This was primarily done to make the profiles easier to maintain and keep up-to-date. However, each profile does include links to any agency profiles and Wikipedia pages available, where this in-depth information already exists.
