2018 is a weird year to be a fan of Dragon Ball. In just a couple weeks, the franchise will see its latest anime end when Dragon Ball Super wraps. The bemoaned finale will put an end to Goku and Jiren's climatic battle, but Toei Animation is not dropping the franchise completely. A new Dragon Ball film is slated to drop in December, and a first-look at the feature seems to have been dropped.
Not long ago, the anime fandom gathered when an alleged key visual for Dragon Ball's 20th film went live. The poster, which can be found below, was shared by Yonkou Productions less than an hour ago. The well-known leaker posted the key visual after dropping it in a surprise livestream, and fans have gone nuts over it.
Seriously, just check out the slides below. Twitter has lots to say about the intriguing still.
As you can see, the fandom is plenty intrigued by this key visual's art style. Dragon Ball Super popularized a more robust 3D-centric animation when it aired. This new visual tones down that art in favor of a more static, color-rich palate. Goku is seen wearing his bright orange Gi, and his flattened design looks more reminiscent of Dragon Ball Z than anything else.
So far, Shueisha has yet to comment on the poster nor has Toei Animation. Fans have been expecting to get updates about the next Dragon Ball movie for awhile now, but official news has been hard to come by. When Dragon Ball Super airs its last episode, the anime's crew has told fans to stick around for something "special" after the credits. So, there's a chance this still will be made public after episode 131 airs unless Toei Animation plans on dropping a teaser trailer.
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 9:30 p.m, and is now available to stream on FunimationNOW and Amazon Video.
Are you ready for more Dragon Ball? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics, k-pop, and anime!