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After the untimely death of manga writer and illustrator Akira Toriyama, the Dragon Ball franchise has been kind of dormant for a while. Luckily for fans, the latest anime series Dragon Ball DAIMA was ready to go before Toriyama’s passing, and the video game Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero was prepared years in advance. Aside from that, however, the other entries in the franchise entered a long hiatus, most notably the manga series Dragon Ball Super. During a recent press conference, Toyotarou — the creator of the spin-off manga — talked about what it feels like to keep the franchise going while dealing with the death of his sensei.
The press conference featured Toyotarou, Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru (character designer for DBZ and Dragon Ball GT), and Kazuhiko Torishima (the editor who oversaw Toriyama’s work on Dragon Ball). When talking about how to keep Dragon Ball going without Toriyama, Toyotarou stated that it was “not easy, but not impossible.” However, he hinted at the people who really are able to make a decision about the franchise: the mangaka mentioned that manga company Shueisha and production company Toei Animation are the ones who are in charge of the late author’s estate.
One thing is sure: Dragon Ball won’t end anytime soon. The franchise ranks among the most popular in the world, and it’s only a matter of time until the manga returns from its hiatus and a new anime series is announced. The difference is that, from now on, the new material won’t have the input of Toriyama, so the companies need to be careful about who they choose as successors in order not to alienate fans.
How Involved Was Akira Toriyama With The Latest Dragon Ball Installments?
As franchises expand and extend over the years, it’s common for creators to distance themselves and let others take reins of creative decisions. Fans of Dragon Ball know that this was not the case with Toriyama — the mangaka was involved with the franchise to the very end. The author himself penned the script of the highly praised movie Dragon Ball Super: Super Broly, and he was also the one who suggested to the Dragon Ball DAIMA team that they should make all main characters into kids for the new standalone series.
Unfortunately for fans, Dragon Ball DAIMA was planned as a single-season deal that was mostly targeted at celebrating the franchise’s 40th anniversary. So, at least for now, we don’t have anything in the horizon (anime-wise) for the franchise to look forward to. At the same time, it’s been a decade since Dragon Ball Super debuted, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if a new anime series with multiple seasons was announced in the coming months.
You can stream Dragon Ball DAIMA on HBO Max, Crunchyroll and Netflix.
Source: Twitter/X