It Takes Longer to Make a 'Dragon Ball Super' Episode Than You Think

Fans eagerly await new episodes of Dragon Ball Super every week, but the amount of time it takes to get to your screens just might surprise you.

In an interview with Dragon Ball Super series director Masatoshi Chioka and producer Hiroyuki Sakurada, the two confirmed how long it took to produce a single episode of the series:

"How long does it take to make an episode of Super?"
"6 months starting from the scripting stage, and 4 months for the animation alone."

— Todd Blankenship (@Herms98) November 4, 2017

Stating each episode takes "6 months starting from the scripting stage, and 4 months for the animation alone," it's quite surprising to see just how long each episode takes.

This news might take you fans by surprise at first given how they responded to the first arc of the series. The "Battle of Gods" arc was mostly derided online as the art often seemed juvenile, or off model considering what most fans were expecting with Dragon Ball's first native HD animated series.

But perhaps those first several episodes were more of a practice run and the production team eventually found a groove because the current Tournament of Power in the "Universal Survival" arc has resulted in some of the best animation of the series.

Fans would do well to remember how awesomely animated Goku's first transformation into the Ultra Instinct state was. Not only was this part of an hour long special episode, but just looking at Goku's Ultra Instinct state would definitely imply how long the work must have taken to get there. A fan recently theorized on how Ultra Instinct Goku would have looked in Dragon Ball Z's animation style, and it is definitely impressive but Ultra Instinct is "super" in Super.

A more recent example would be Goku's long battle with Kefla. It not only ended in Goku's best attack ever, but the episode before had a Super Saiyan God Goku being pushed back by an increasingly strong Kefla. Fans can be sure Goku's inevitable rematch with Jiren will be a sight to behold as well.

Dragon Ball Super's "Universal Survival" arc is part of the recent simulcast agreement that sites like Crunchyroll and Funimation have scored. Dragon Ball Super airs on Crunchyroll Saturday evenings at 7:15 p.m. CST. Adult Swim airs the English dub during its Toonami block Saturday evenings at 11:30 p.m.

Does the length of production time surprise you? Talk to me @Valdezology.