Dragon Ball Sparking Zero Creates Riveting Toonami Tribute

Dragon Ball Sparking Zero pays homage to Cartoon Network's Toonami with a new trailer.

By Evan Valentine

October is set up to be quite a big month for the Dragon Ball franchise. On the anime front, the shonen series is returning to the small screen with Dragon Ball Daima, an anime that will take place following the death of Kid Buu but before the arrival of Dragon Ball Super. The anime world isn't the only place where Goku and the Z-Fighters will arrive next month as Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero will hit consoles and personal computers on October 11th. To further build hype for the continuation of the Budokai Tenkaichi series, the upcoming Bandai Namco video game has released a trailer paying homage to Cartoon Network's Toonami. 

It's impossible to deny the influence that the Dragon Ball franchise has had in boosting anime in North America. Dragon Ball Z first aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami on August 31st, 1998, helping to forge a platform for the programming block to air some of the biggest anime released. Ever since, Dragon Ball and its anime series have held a firm spot on Cartoon Network. Throughout Toonami's history, the platform has created "bumpers" that would normally see voice actors Steve Blum and Peter Cullen creating legendary promotional material. It's clear from the recent trailer that Bandai Namco has a soft spot for Toonami.

Sparking! Zero's Toonami Tribute

With only a few weeks until the new fighting game releases, Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero revealed its massive cast of characters that gamers will be able to choose from. The cast is a fantastic representation of the franchise, pulling characters from the original Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Super, Dragon Ball Daima, and Dragon Ball GT. On top of its imposing cast, Sparking! Zero also is planning to retell the story of the franchise while letting fans create "What If" scenarios of their own, meaning that this game will offer something entirely new for fans of the shonen series. 

Toonami's Future

To this day, Toonami continues to play a big role at Cartoon Network, becoming a part of Adult Swim and also airing "retro" anime series as part of a new programming block dubbed "Toonami Rewind". The platform is still airing Dragon Ball, via Dragon Ball Z: Kai but there are still plenty of anime franchises hitting Toonami. Rick And Morty: The Anime, Demon Slayer, One Piece, My Hero Academia, and many more. This spooky season, Toonami is planning to unveil Junji Ito's Uzumaki, the highly anticipated anime arrival that fans have been waiting years to see. 

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Dragon Ball's Future

To dive further into Dragon Ball Daima, the series see Goku and his allies transformed into "mini" versions of themselves, leaving many anime fans to think of Dragon Ball GT. The side story featured a very similar premise though the Grand Tour did only feature Son Goku being transformed into a kid. In recent promotional material for Daima, the upcoming Toei Animation production featured the Demon Realm, a locale that had a major role in video games like Dragon Ball Xenoverse and the series Dragon Ball Heroes. All of these factors have anime fans believing that creator Akira Toriyama might have been trying to put his own spin on these two "non-canon" series in the upcoming Dragon Ball Daima. 

Want to see if Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero will pull away as the greatest Dragon Ball video game of all time? Follow along with Team Gaming and Team Anime on ComicBook.com for the latest updates on the Z-Fighters across the board and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime. 

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