Dragon Ball Super fans have been hoping to see the anime making a comeback ever since the TV series came to an end years ago, but if it happens it might not be in the way that fans have been waiting to see thanks to how much One Piece has changed. Dragon Ball is one of Toei Animation’s biggest franchises, and continues to be a success even without an ongoing TV anime or movie release. But with creator Akira Toriyama’s passing some time ago, the future of the anime franchise going forward remains uncertain. Those behind the scenes have shared their desire to continue it in some form, however.
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Dragon Ball Super‘s manga continued the story beyond the events of the Tournament of Power seen in the TV anime series, and even incorporated events from Dragon Ball Super: Broly and Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero in the time since. There are still two major arcs fans are hoping to see get an official anime adaptation in the future, but if that happens then it’s not going to be the multi-episode run that fans saw years before with Dragon Ball Super‘s first series. If it’s like One Piece, it’s going to be seasonal and split across multiple years.
Dragon Ball Super Won’t Come Back the Same Way
It’s big a long time since 2018, and that means Dragon Ball Super’s anime will be a lot different from the first time around. Not only has the staff at Toei Animation changed over the years, but the way they produce anime has shifted as well. One Piece shook the world when it was announced that it would not only be airing throughout an entire year, and instead will be limiting its offers to just 26 episodes a year spread across two cours of episodes (with a few months worth of break in between each cour).
One Piece moving to a seasonal schedule for 2026 and beyond already sets a stage for a potential Dragon Ball Super continuation. This will hopefully get the One Piece team on a much better schedule for production, but also is an indicator of how Toei Animation will be treating their marquee franchises going forward. If Dragon Ball Super indeed comes back, it won’t be over 100 episodes released every week like before, but instead will launch in 12 to 26 episode batches across multiple years. But this might also end up being for the best.
Dragon Ball Super‘s return is one of the most hyped potential releases by fans, and there’s no real way that a new anime could somehow meet those expectations. Regardless of how well it might do, it’s just not going to live up to the way fans have built up such an idea for the past eight years so far. If the series does come back on a seasonal schedule, however, it’s going to have enough time to actually give the team behind it a fighting chance to craft the best end result possible.
Dragon Ball Super Just Won’t Be the Same
It also solves the problem of creating a new Dragon Ball Super specifically for these two arcs in the first place. Because the manga has gone on hiatus following Toriyama’s passing, it means there’s not much material left to actually bring to life. If the anime comes back with a full adaptation of the Galactic Patrol Prisoner Arc in 2026, for example, then an adaptation of the Granolah the Survivor arc likely won’t come until 2027 at the earliest with this new schedule.
This might quickly catch up the new anime to where the previous TV series and movies came to an end, but also it would give artist Toyotaro time to craft new material for the manga to keep the story going. Because if the anime came back now, it would lead to a cliffhanger that has yet to be resolved. That’s not a place where the anime franchise should be, and Dragon Ball’s team needs some time to figure out how to properly end the series without Toriyama at the helm of it all.
There are just so many other issues at hand with bringing Dragon Ball Super back, so fans just need to unfortunately adjust to the idea that it’s not going to look like how you might have dreamed. It won’t have as many episodes as you want to see, and won’t release as quickly as you might want it to. It’s just not the way anime is made anymore, and any new version of Dragon Ball Super will be fitting within this new output schedule. And even if it does come back, it’s just not the same without Toriyama either.
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