Dragon Ball Debuts New Cover by One-Punch Man Artist

Dragon Ball is gearing up to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Akira Toriyama’s original manga series in 2024, and the manga has dropped a cool new cover from the artist behind One-Punch Man and Eyeshield 21, Yusuke Murata! Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball manga first hit the pages of Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1984, and Shueisha is planning to go all out for the series’ big milestone anniversary with some big plans next year. One of these plans is a special art exhibition in Japan, and this involves many of Shueisha’s other famous creators and artists. 

With Dragon Ball’s 40th Anniversary coming in 2024, Shueisha will be launching a special art exhibition showing off each of the manga’s 40 covers as done by different Shonen Jump creators. Previous entries have included submissions from Jujutsu Kaisen creator Gege Akutami, Black Clover creator Yuki Tabata, Tokyo Ghoul creator Sui Ishida and more, and the latest sees One-Punch Man artist Yusuke Murata share their version of Volume 12’s cover. Check it out. 

What’s Next for Dragon Ball in 2024? 

Dragon Ball’s 40th Anniversary will also be celebrated with a brand new entry in the franchise, Dragon Ball Daima. Currently scheduled for a release in Fall 2024, series creator Akira Toriyama is involved with the new original story and designs for the upcoming anime with Yoshitaka Yashima and Aya Komaki serving as series directors, Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru providing the character designs for the anime, and Yuuko Kakihara supervising and writing the scripts. As for what to expect from the new anime’s story, Akira Toriyama teases Dragon Ball Daima as such: 

“Due to a conspiracy, Goku and his friends are turned small,” Toriyama began. “In order to fix things, they’ll head off to a new world! It’s a grand adventure with intense action in an unknown and mysterious world. Since Goku has to make up for his petite size, he uses his Power Pole to fight, something not seen in a long time.” Goku voice star Masako Nozawa also shared her surprise about seeing Kid Goku in action for the first time in a while, “Goku was so adorable and wonderful! I wonder about the conspiracy behind Goku’s new appearance. I’m very curious, but I’m told the details are still a secret! I’ll be waiting for the new anime along with all of you! I hope you look forward to it too!”

What do you think of Yusuke Murata’s take on Dragon Ball? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animation and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!