Dragon Ball Super might be continuing via its manga, but it seems as if the Shonen franchise has decreased in overall profits with the anime series continuing to be on hiatus as a recent report for Bandai reports when it comes to the merchandise associated with Akira Toriyama’s legendary series. While both last year, and this year, are looking to achieve over one billion dollars in profit for Bandai when it comes to the Dragon Ball series alone, it’s clear that there has been a decrease for unknown reasons when it comes to 2021 versus 2020.
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Dragon Ball remains the number one “money maker” for Bandai, pulling far ahead of the likes of Naruto, Mobile Suit Gundam, One Piece, and many other anime franchises associated with the company. While we aren’t sure if there is one definitive answer as to why Dragon Ball’s overall profits decreased, one could perhaps attribute the drop due to the coronavirus pandemic or since the series hasn’t released any new anime projects outside of the continuing spin-off of Super Dragon Ball Heroes. Needless to say, it will be interesting to see what the overall profits for the Shonen series are in the future, especially with a new movie being released into theaters next year.
Twitter User Arched Thunder shared the breakdown of profits for Bandai when it came to some of their biggest anime franchises and the merchandise associated with them that have continued to sell like hotcakes over the years as the popularity of the medium increases:
Bandai Namco Fiscal Year 2021 (April2020-March2021) results. The decline of DB has hit Bandai, for the first time in quite a few years it was down year over year, 127.4 billion yen vs 134.9 billion. Still their #1 money maker though. FY2022 is expected to be basically flat. pic.twitter.com/tfxo6VhO95
— Ethan Law🏳️🌈 (@ArchedThunder) May 12, 2021
While it’s still anyone’s guess when Dragon Ball Super’s anime will return on the small screen, there is plenty of material from the manga to translate, including the Moro and Granolah The Survivor Arcs. The next film will be an original story from creator Akira Toriyama, and we would imagine that it will definitely help the profits rise for the Bandai.
What do you think is the cause of Dragon Ball’s decline? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of Dragon Ball.
