Dragon Ball Unleashes Special Tribute by Gintama Creator

Dragon Ball has been around for decades now, and if you did not know, the manga is celebrating a big milestone these days. In the wake of its 40th anniversary, the team at Shueisha kickstarted a project of sorts to honor Akira Toriyama's franchise. Some of manga's best artists are doing their own cover redos for Dragon Ball to celebrate its 40th anniversary, and a new tribute has gone live courtesy of Gintama's creator.

As you can see below, the piece was released just recently thanks to Hideaki Sorachi. The artist, who is known best for creating Gintama, gave their own take on Dragon Ball through volume 19. After all, Sorachi redid the volume's cover art in his own style, and it gives Goku a wild new hairstyle.

Obviously, the character is easy to pick out given their orange-blue gi, but the rest of Goku has been made over entirely. His muscular frame looks lankier under Sorachi's direction, and his features are softer on the face. Of course, the biggest switch comes with Goku's hair. The look is still defying gravity, but Goku has way more layering and depth to the style when Sorachi is in charge.

Of course, Piccolo is given his own makeover as well. The Namekian looks rather harsh in this shot, and his red eyes are impossible to miss. Honestly, Sorachi has the fighter looking less like an alien and more like a human given his sharp nose and jawline. Toriyama always made Piccolo look otherworldly for good reason, but Sorachi's vision has its own perks.

Now, the creator of Gintama can say they've taken part in one of Dragon Ball's biggest projects to date. So far, some of the industry's biggest names have contributed to the Dragon Ball Super Gallery Project. From Tite Kubo to Masashi Kishimoto and Tatsuki Fujimoto, the best of the best have signed up, and there are more covers to come between now and November 2024!

What do you think about this latest Dragon Ball project tribute? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.