Dragon Ball’s Goku Gets Makeover from Slam Dunk Creator

The Dragon Ball 30th Anniversary History Book has given us so many fantastic interpretations of the Z Fighters and their villains from some of the biggest creators of anime and manga. From the creators of Bleach, Hunter X Hunter, and Yu-Gi-Oh!, new sketches were created to celebrate the long running Shonen series that features some of the greatest battles ever witnessed in anime history. Now, the creator of Slam Dunk has offered their interpretation of a young Goku for the publication, and while the Saiyan may not be playing basketball, he’s performing some typical fare for his character!

Twitter User GovetaXV shared this sketch, showing Goku attempting to fish using his own “unique” method of attempting to lure in the catch of the day by Takehiko Inoue, creator of the most popular basketball anime/manga franchise to date:

Slam Dunk may not have garnered the popularity of Dragon Ball, but really, not many anime have managed to with the Akira Toriyama creation continuing to run to this day in the form of the sequel series, Dragon Ball Super.

What do you think of this sketch that combines the worlds of Slam Dunk and Dragon Ball? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, Slam Dunk, and Dragon Ball!

Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block on Saturday evenings, and 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 and Crunchyroll. The manga has chapters that can currently be read for free thanks to Viz Media, and Dragon Ball Super’s big movie, Dragon Ball Super: Broly, is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.

Slam Dunk was created by Takehiko Inoue for Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 1990, and has been collected into 31 volumes and sold over 121 million copies in Japan. The series has been licensed for an English language release by Viz Media, and is described as such:

“Winning isn’t everything in the game of basketball, but who wants to come in second? It takes dedication and discipline to be the best, and the Shohoku High hoops team wants to be just that. They have one last year to make their captain’s dream of reaching the finals come true–will they do it? Takehiko Inoue’s legendary beloved basketball manga is finally here and the tale of a lifetime is in your hands. Hanamichi Sakuragi’s got no game with girls–none at all! It doesn’t help that he’s known for throwing down at a moment’s notice and always coming out on top. A hopeless bruiser, he’s been rejected by 50 girls in a row! All that changes when he meets the girl of his dreams, Haruko, and she’s actually not afraid of him! When she introduces him to the game of basketball, his life is changed forever…”