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 twenty-nine entries, this month’s February 2024 issue brings us Yusuke Murata (Eyeshield 21, One Punch Man) and their take on the series’ 12th volume cover:

Murata commented:

“While obediently following his masters’ teachings, Goku seeks to win the Tenka’ichi Budōkai. After training hard, he then enters and wins the tournament, and, in so doing, ends up defeating Demon King Piccolo, saving the Earth from his designs on world domination.” This is the plot of the first half of Dragon Ball (right before the Saiyan arc). Even with just the plot, don’t you think the fun of Goku’s unassuming nature — being somehow laid-back despite being insanely strong — comes right out? He manages to defeat the Demon King, who’s trying to destroy the world, all without actually breaking the tournament rules. That’s what’s so great about him. Since he’s so strong, he ends up prioritizing things other people don’t. This might be what “being above it all” is all about, in the end. And this might be the same attitude that characterizes Toriyama-sensei himself, someone who created an international mega-hit while famously thinking things like, “I wanna get this manuscript over with so I can go build more plastic model kits!” or “inking his hair black all the time is a pain, so I’m just gonna make Super Saiyan have white hair.” And this isn’t limited limited to just manga – “the person” shows through in anything one makes. If you want to make a comic this thrilling, then you first need to be a thrilling person yourself. That’s how I see it.

By “white hair,” Murata is of course referring to the original black-and-white comic incarnation of Dragon Ball. Toriyama — and a variety of other staff associated with the franchise — have often told the story of how removing the necessity of inking in Goku’s hair for the Super Saiyan transformation was as much a time-saving decision as anything else.

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.