Dragon Ball Manga Gets New Cover Art from Bleach's Creator

When it comes to Dragon Ball, there are few people more in tune with the manga than Akira Toriyama. The creator has overseen the story since day one, and he continues to add in his own way with Dragon Ball Super. As the series approaches its 40th anniversary, Shonen Jump is eager to celebrate the manga in a big way, and it seems the creator of Bleach is going to step in for the event.

Not long ago, it was announced Dragon Ball is launching its Super Gallery Project in honor of its big anniversary. The event, which starts this month, will bring in a different mangaka each month to redesign the cover art of Toriyama's manga. In total, there will be 42 covers, and the last will be released around November 2024.

DRAGON BALL Volume 27 by Tite Kubo (BLEACH).

This is part of the DRAGON BALL Super Gallery Project to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the series. Every month, different mangaka will redesign one of the 42 covers of the series until November 2024. pic.twitter.com/0JwG7FjH9J

— Shonen Jump News - Unofficial (@WSJ_manga) September 2, 2021

As you can see above, the first cover art in this campaign has hit social media, and it is pretty perfect. The art comes from Tite Kubo, the creator of Bleach and Burn the Witch. After looking at his choices, Kubo chose to redesign the cover art of volume 27, and it suits the Soul Reaper creator perfectly.

Kubo's artwork can be seen to the left while Toriyama's original piece stands on the other side. Goku is shown standing in his orange gi as usual here, but his features are more narrow, and his physique is more compact. The same can be said for Piccolo in the back, and of course, Frieza is in the foreground though mostly covered in shadow. His iconic red eyes can be seen in the light, and Kubo drew Frieza with an even more slender frame than usual.

Clearly, you can imagine how excited Dragon Ball fans are about this whole project, and Kubo was an excellent choice to kick it off. Now, fans can expect 41 more of these to go live, and there is no telling who will be contributing. But if we could have Kohei Horikoshi of My Hero Academia to take part, well - there will be no complaints from me!

What do you think about this anniversary campaign? Who else needs to take part in this Dragon Ball tribute? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.