'Dragon Ball' Fans Discover One Impressive 'Avengers' Connection

With Marvel's Avengers films as big as they are, fans often wonder why they haven't made too many [...]

By Nick Valdez

With Marvel's Avengers films as big as they are, fans often wonder why they haven't made too many ventures into anime series. Little do most fans know that the Avengers have actually had an anime outing in Avengers: Disk Wars in Japan.

But Dragon Ball fans discovered an impressive connection between this series and Dragon Ball Super, animator Naotoshi Shida, who animated impressive action scenes between both series.

As noted by @AnimeAjay on Twitter, many of the staff members who later went on to work on Toei Animation's Dragon Ball Super, also worked on the collaboration between Toei and Disney Japan, Avengers: Disk Wars.

This famously includes Naotoshi Shida, and in the clip that @AnimeAjay shares fans can see his influence on a fight between Loki and the Avengers. In the clip, Iron Man lands a decisive blow on Loki after he manages to keep the other Avengers at bay.

This fight should look slightly familiar to Dragon Ball Super fans as Shida uses some similar techniques in scenes he animated during the series. Shida's worked on famous scenes such as Golden Freeza and Goku's first battle during the Universe Survival arc, and most recognizably, Mastered Ultra Instinct Goku's fight with Jiren toward the end of the series.

Shida is also reportedly contributing to Dragon Ball Super: Broly, but his contributions are unclear at this point. Though given his talent, and how impressive fight scenes like this one in Avengers: Disk Wars, fans can rest easy knowing that Shida's contrbutions will be a feast for the eyes.

Avengers: Disk Wars was a joint production between Toei Animation and Disney Japan that ran for 50 episodes in 2014-2015. This series flipped the script on Avengers stories and had kids transform into the popular heroes instead (as Captain America and the others are trapped in the series' titular disks).

As for Dragon Ball Super, it currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m. 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 FunimationNOW, VRV, and Crunchyroll. The manga has chapters that can currently be read for free thanks to Viz Media.

You can catch up with the English dub pretty easily too, as the first 65 episodes of Dragon Ball Super are now available to stream on FunimationNOW, VRV, and available to purchase on Amazon Video as well. The 65 episodes span the full range of what has aired in the North America and covers the "Battle of Gods" arc, "Revival of F" arc, the "Universe 6" arc, and bringing the series right up to the climax of the "Future Trunks" arc. The series is also currently airing reruns weeknights on Adult Swim.

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