Dragon Ball Super might have ended its television series in 2017 when the Tournament of Power came to an end, but the shonen franchise’s anime continued. Thanks to two feature-length films, Dragon Ball Super: Broly and Dragon Ball Super: Super Herothe Z-Fighters’ battles have marched forward. On the manga front, there have been some major story arcs that have yet to be animated, with the likes of the Moro Arc and the Granolah the Survivor Arc potentially running for years should they ever be animated. In a recent interview, Dragon Ball Super’s artist dropped a big reveal regarding the printed story.
Since the tragic passing of Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, artist Toyotaro has been thought of as the “heir apparent” to the Z-Fighters. While the Dragon Ball Super manga has yet to reveal when it might return, the recent reveal Toyotaro might be good news for its future. During an interview discussing the legacy of Toriyama himself, the artist revealed that he wrote the Moro Arc himself with Akira simply giving him approval. While the Granolah The Survivor Arc was outlined by Akira Toriyama, Toyotaro did his fair share of heavy lifting. With so much experience, the Dragon Ball Super artist seems primed to continue the story of the Z-Fighters in the future.
Toyotaro Speaks
In the recent interview, Toyotaro fleshed out his role working on the manga, “I worked with Toriyama-sensei’s original scripts until the Tournament of Power arc. I was drawing based on those. I’d show him what I’d drawn, and when he greenlit it, I moved forward. But after the Tournament of Power arc, I wrote the Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc on my own. I showed the scenario to Toriyama-sense for his approval. After that, I started to draw based on the scenario I’d written. Each time, I’d show him my 45 pages, and once approved, I moved on.”
In the same interview, Toyotaro then explained the creation of the Granolah Arc and how it differed from Moro’s storyline, “For the Granolah Arc, Toriyama-sensei actually wrote part of the plot, and I built on it to draw the manga. The approach varied with each series.” Toyotaro was then asked what kind of changes Toriyama would normally make, with the artist stating, “Sometimes the way characters walked was off, or my drawings lacked three-dimensionality. Sometimes he didn’t make any corrections. If anything, I was happy to get his corrections. He actually looked at my work!”
Of the many story elements that might be a part of Dragon Ball Super’s manga return, the biggest that readers are waiting for is Frieza and his new transformation. “Black Frieza” is the new form that the alien despot unveiled in the final chapters of the Granolah The Survivor Arc, showing that the shonen villain has become the strongest being in the universe. While far from confirmed, a fight between Frieza and his Z-Fighter “frenemies” is sure to be on the horizon.
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