‘Dragon Ball Super’ Director Admits Controversial Fact About Kale, Caulifla

Dragon Ball Super is about to come to an end, but the anime at least made sure to go out with a bang. The Tournament of Power helped usher in the show’s finale, and the event introduced more than a dozen new characters. Fighters like Kale piqued interest from the start, but it turns out the girl nearly didn’t make it into Dragon Ball Super.

In fact, according to a new interview, Akira Toriyama did not even come up with Kale on his own volition.

Recently, Dragon Ball Super published an interview on its official website. Producer Satoru Takami and director Ryota Nakamura sat down to talk about the anime, and a translation of the chat just went up thanks to Kazenshuu. It is there fans learned the creator of Dragon Ball had no intention of creating Kale or Caulifla to start.

During the interview, Nakamura admits Caulifla was one of Toriyama’s original character designs. However, Takamai made sure to explain how Caulifla was put upon the creator’s radar.

“She wasn’t part of the initial rough draft. During a story conference, it was mentioned that Broli was very popular,” Takami explained.

“We wanted a Broli-like character, but it would be boring to have it be exactly the same. So we made the character a girl, and designed her at Toei Animation. When we showed her to Toriyama-sensei, he went along with it and drew Caulifla.”

So, there you have it. The anime staff working on Dragon Ball Super came up with the idea of Kale. The over-powered heroine was pitched to Toriyama who approved of her creation, but the artist did not want Kale to be alone. Toriyama created Caulifla to pair with Kale much in the way Vegeta and Goku work together, and Toei Animation moved ahead in adding the heroines to the anime.

Dragon Ball Super airs on Crunchyroll Saturday evenings at 7:15 p.m. CST. Adult Swim airs the English dub during its Toonami block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m, and is now available to stream on FunimationNOW and Amazon Video.

Are you surprised by this anime revelation? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics, k-pop, and anime!