Demon Slayer Artist Celebrates Dragon Ball with Anniversary Cover Art

Dragon Ball reigns supreme in the world of shonen anime, but there are series coming up to challenge its throne. After all, hits like Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba have rocketed in popularity, and creator Koyoharu Gotouge now commands one of the biggest franchises in Japan. Still, the artist is as humble as ever and doesn't hesitate to honor other creators when given the chance... so it is no surprise they inked a Dragon Ball cover ahead of the new year. 

The piece hit up social media courtesy of Twitter user WSJ_manga this week. It was there fans got a look at the anniversary cover, and of course, everyone is geeking out. After all, Gotouge doesn't pay tribute to Dragon Ball every day, and this cute visual will have Vegeta fans in their feelings.

DRAGON BALL Volume 32 by Koyoharu Gotouge (Kimetsu no Yaiba).

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/9uoxf9A26V

— Shonen Jump News – Unofficial (@WSJ_manga) December 25, 2021

As you can see above, the artwork tackled art for volume 32 of Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball. Back in the day, the manga's original artist inked a cover hyping Bulma and Trunks if you will remember. So of course, Gotouge stuck to that theme this time around.

In their drawing, the Demon Slayer artist inked Future Trunks and Bulma as the latter held Baby Trunks in hand. The sketch went on to show off Vegeta as the Saiyan sat between the pair. Clearly, the hero is going through a lot since his older son from an alternate timeline has come knocking, but Future Trunks visited for the best. After all, someone needed to warn Earth about the androids, and Goku's heart defect was not going to heal itself.

Gotouge's cover art is certainly different from that done by Toriyama years ago, but fans are still loving its style. And of course, there are more of these tributes on the docket. Dragon Ball is having some of manga's most famous artist redo its covers in honor of its 40th anniversary. So clearly, there was no way Gotouge was going to be left out of this campaign.

What do you think of this special Dragon Ball tribute? Did Gotouge nail their take on Vegeta's family? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.