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