Dragon Ball Super Concept Art Imagines Hit’s Shintani Design

Dragon Ball Super blew the doors of the Dragon Ball universe wide open – literally and figuratively. Thanks to two particular story arcs from the series focused on intergalactic fighting tournaments (“Tournament of Destruction” and “Universal Survival”), we got to meet an exciting lineup of new warriors making their Dragon Ball debut. Among the dozens of new fighters from throughout the multiverse that Dragon Ball Super introduced, few have broken out to become major fan favorites quite like Hit, the top assassin from Universe 6. Well, one Dragon Ball Super has done a new piece of artwork that gives Hit a makeover in the style of Dragon Ball Super: Broly animation director Naohiro Shintani.

Check out the Shintani-style version of Hit, below:

What’s great about this piece of Hit artwork is how it conveys the assassin’s expressions better than any of the animation that Dragon Ball Super provided. Now granted, in the show Hit is supposed to be a stoic assassin who isn’t exactly the emotional type, but even when the action kicked up to high gear the anime wasn’t all that good about giving the character distinctive personality. Thankfully, Hit’s time-skip power set and unique battle style helped him stand out, and non-canon Dragon Ball projects like the Super Dragon Ball Heroes promo anime or Dragon Ball FighterZ have been able to continue exploring Hit – including putting him in fans’ hands, in the case of the latter.

The future of Dragon Ball Super anime is still uncertain, but fans are chomping at the bit to get that next anime series – and are equally enthusiastic about getting in deeper with various characters introduced during the Tournament of Power arc, like Jiren and the Pride Troopers of Universe 11, or Hit and the heroic Saiyan warriors of Universe 6. DBS already dipped a toe into how Hit can be a part of the Z-Fighters going forward, as Goku hired the assassin to help test and prepare him for the Tournament of Power.

Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block on Saturday evenings, and is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese-language release of the series is complete, and available to stream on FunimationNOW and Crunchyroll. The manga has chapters that can currently be read for free thanks to Viz Media, and Dragon Ball Super’s big movie, Dragon Ball Super: Broly, is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.