'Dragon Ball Super' Hinted At Its Ending Awhile Back

For some, the announcement of Dragon Ball Super's upcoming end came as a shock. The anime stands as a popular one both domestically and internationally, but its last moments were hinted at a long time ago. So, if you felt something was up with Dragon Ball back in August 2017, then you were on to something.

The first sign fans got about the end of Dragon Ball Super came last fall. Fans cannot be sure when the decision to end the show was finalized, but it was likely before August 2017. After all, that is when Toei Animation shared information about the show's 11th box set.

The report was not totally unexpected, but its content made fans scratch their heads. Normally, box sets for home releases like this contain 12 episodes. This new one was slated to have 13 for some reason and was later cut down to 11. The changing episode count did confuse fans at first but was mostly chalked up to announcement error. However, it seems the back-and-forth was really indicative of Toei Animation deciding on the show's final episode count.

Fans also heard from an animator about Dragon Ball Super's end. Once the news went live, freelancer Tsutomu Ono took to Twitter to address it. In one message, Ono said he only learned about the show's end the day before the news went live. Another tweet saw Ono admit he'd heard rumors about the show ending months ago but had gotten official confirmation in December. So, the August 2017 speculation does line up with that message.

For now, fans can only wait and see what the future of Dragon Ball Super will look like. The franchise still has a film to debut later this December, and Fuji TV did say in its announcement that the series as a whole wasn't done just yet. Toei Animation may have plans in store for Goku's gang still, so audiences better start making wishes to Shenron ASAP.

DragonBall 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 9:30 p.m, and is now available to stream on FunimationNOW and Amazon Video.

Are you bummed about the end of Dragon Ball Super? Hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to let me know and talk all things comics, k-pop, and anime!