'Dragon Ball Super' Manga Reveals Its Take on the 'Broly' Arc

Dragon Ball Super is about to release its highly-anticipated first movie, Dragon Ball Super: Broly in theaters, but that won't be the only place where Broly makes his official (canonized) comeback: The Dragon Ball Super manga will also be telling its own Broly story - and today we have our first official tease of what that adaptation will be:

Well, at least it wasn't entirely skipped. (We've seen this art before.) pic.twitter.com/YvIv4zifpL

— Terez (@Terez27) November 18, 2018

The image above is a depiction of Goku and Vegeta battling Broly in the arctic, which is one of the scenes in the first act of Dragon Ball Super: Broly. The color artwork is something we've seen before: as promo art for the Broly movie that had the distinction of being drawn by Dragon Ball Super manga artist, Toyotaro. Now, we get the artwork in a greyscale format that will be the aesthetic of the manga, and helps us get a sense of what this new vision of Broly will look like on the page.

But here's the rub: This image above appears in the upcoming chapter 42 of the Dragon Ball Super manga - and it seems to be the only reference to the events of Dragon Ball Super: Broly. The scene references Goku and Vetgeta having to fight a stronger opponent - before it moves into the series next storyline.

Right now, Dragon Ball Super: Broly's first reviews are calling this the best Dragon Ball movie of all time - and quite possibly one of the best stories that the franchise has ever put out, in any format. That's a really high bar of expectation to set, and even if the film delivers everything that it's supposed to, Toyotaro would still be facing the big challenge of having the manga also meet those expectations. That would be especially hard, given that Toei Animation has invested quite a bit of time and budget in making sure that Dragon Ball Super: Broly has the best visual aesthetic of any Dragon Ball project ever.

Right now, Dragon Ball fans are actually getting more excited about what comes after the Broly arc in the Dragon Ball Super manga. It's recently been revealed that the manga will take the series into its first new arc since the anime ended, and that storyline will be called the "Galactic Patrol Prisoner Arc". That storyline will bring back one of Toriyama's most popular team creations, as well as a major Dragaon Ball Z villain. Look for "Broly" to be finished and "Galactic Patrol Prisoner" to begin by next spring.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly will hit Japanese theaters in December, and is expected to arrive in the U.S. on January 16, 2019. Dragon Ball Super is currently airing its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m. ET. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release of the series is complete and available to stream on Funimation, VRV, and Crunchyroll.