Fans of the Dragon Ball Super manga have been clinging to any glimmer of hope that it might return for the past two years, since the last chapter of the main story was published. A one-shot chapter was published one year later, but it was a flashback meant to celebrate the release of the final (for now) volume of the manga, and the status of the series remains unknown to this day — despite the big announcement of a reboot of the Dragon Ball Super anime. Still, Toyotaro, the artist who created the manga under the direction of the late Akira Toriyama, just gave fans further reason to hope the series will come back at some point.
On March 21, Toyotaro updated the bio of his X profile, @TOYOTARO_Vjump, which now reads: “Everything is for the return of the series.” This should not be taken as an official statement confirming the upcoming return of Dragon Ball Super, but it’s surely something that fans can cling to. Toyotaro has remained active during the past two years, authoring monthly illustrations of Dragon Ball characters that are published on V-Jump. Most recently, he illustrated a three-page manga that will accompany a history book for the SH Figuarts collection.
The Dragon Ball Super manga occupies a weird spot in the franchise, and despite its many fans, it often feels like an unwanted child. Launched alongside the anime series, the manga sometimes looked like an ancillary item due to its slow release pace and how overshadowed it was by the global popularity of the show. In truth, the manga and anime were conceived as different ways to adapt Toriyama’s original story inputs. For the manga, Toriyama usually gave Toyotaro an outline of the plot and characters, and then had final say over the finished product. The young artist, who has been a lifetime fan of the franchise and got his start in the business by creating a Dragon Ball fan manga, had increasing creative input as he gained the trust of the revered mangaka, until Toriyama’s unfortunate passing left Dragon Ball Super in limbo.
The manga was dragged down by being forced to adapt the contents of the Dragon Ball Super movies whenever they came out, but it also contains original arcs that have pushed the story of Goku and his friends forward in ways fans appreciated. For example, the Moro Arc, which has been announced for the return of the Dragon Ball Super anime, first appeared in the manga. The Granolah the Survivor Arc ended on a massive cliffhanger before the manga was forced to adapt the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero story for what felt like an eternity.
The rumored struggle over the franchise’s rights after Toriyama’s passing, along with the focus on the anime, with Dragon Ball Daima and the upcoming return of Super, means that the fate of the manga remains a mystery. But Toyotaro is keeping hope alive. “Everything is for the return of the series,” could simply be a declaration of his commitment to bringing back the Dragon Ball Super manga, but it could also be a way to subtly reassure fans that there is news on the horizon. The biggest question about the future of the Dragon Ball franchise is who is going to pick up the creative torch from Toriyama. While he can’t be compared with his master, fans of the Dragon Ball Super manga know that Toyotaro has at least earned a chance to try.
