Dragon Ball, the manga and anime masterpiece by legendary mangaka Akira Toriyama, celebrates its 40th birthday today. To mark this occasion, the Shonen Jump publisher has of course come up with something special.
Not only has Dragon Ball's official website gotten a new coat of paint, but one of the late mangaka's rarest full-color designs has also been revealed:The very first page of the Dragon Ball manga traditionally colored and with small notes by Akira Toriyama.
Dragon Ball's anniversary celebration starts with a little journey through time
To celebrate the anniversary, theDragon Ball official websitea new picture from the popular Shonen series every 24 hours. These could be character designs, manga pages or rare drawings by Akira Toriyama or Toyotaro.
On the first day of the celebration, today, November 20, 2024, the website reveals one of the rarest drawings by the late Dragon Ball creator. It is the colored draft of the very first page of the first volume of Dragon Ball. Even though the final color version is technically nothing new, this image is still something special.
After all, this is the blueprint for something fans have come to love so much. There are even annotations and the late mangaka's handwriting on the picture.
Featuring Son Goku in the foreground holding a giant knife and conversing with monkeys, while an idyllic landscape of towering mountains can be seen in the background, this colorful design depicts the beginning of Son Goku's adventures in the Dragon Ball story.
The first chapter of Dragon Ball and therefore the first page was released in Japan on November 20, 1984.
Every 24 hours something special awaits us on the official website
Dragon Ball also announced that rare drawings will be released on the official site every 24 hours. Each drawing or design, be it from the manga, interviews or character designs, is intended to celebrate the beloved work of Akira Toriyama and honor the late creator.
So it may be that we will see never-before-seen designs for the new Dragon Ball series Daima. Hope is slim, but Dragon Ball Super shouldn't be ruled out either, even though the manga is still on hiatus.
What does Dragon Ball mean to you and which moment of the series do you remember most?
