Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero Reveals New Character Designed by Akira Toriyama

Dragon Ball Super‘s next movie will be Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero!, a title and concept that still needs a lot of explaining after the enigmatic teaser trailer. However, what we did get from Toei Animation’s Comic-Con @ Home panel were some interesting teases of what Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero! will bring – including some first looks at the character designs for the film. Fans have been intrigued by Super Hero’s new designs for longtime Dragon Ball Z characters like Krillin, Piccolo, and Pan they’re even more intrigued by a look at one of the new characters that Akira Toriyama has designed for Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero!

Comicbook.com’s Nick Valdez shared that image of one of the new characters from Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero!, along with the following caption:

“#DragonBallSuper’s new movie will feature this mysterious, still unnamed character! Here’s the original design from creator Akira Toriyama himself! #ComicConAtHome2021”

One Or Two?

You may look at that character concept art from Dragon Ball Super: Super Heroes! and think, “Isn’t that actually two new characters?” However, during the Toei presentation at Comic-Con, panelists Masako Nozawa (voice of Son Goku), Akio Iyoku (executive producer of the Dragon Ball series and editor for Akira Toriyama), and Norihiro Hayashida (producer of TV animation and movies for the Dragon Ball series) were very careful to refer to this new character in the singular, while also teasing fans with the question of who this unique new figure really is.

We know from the character concept art Akira Toriyama did that this being looks very much like an alien being, who looks like some kind of galactic official warrior. He’s got a retro-looking ray gun, but the most interesting feature is the fact that his being seems to have either two different design concepts – or some kind of ability to be in two bodies at once. It’s Dragon Ball so it really could go either way.

So far we know that Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero! will feature a time skip that will take the story years beyond the Tournament of Power arc and Broly film. The design aesthetic will also be something revolutionary, as mention that the next film will use “a lot of ingenuity using different technologies” in its animation. That’s a hint that Dragon Ball Super: Super Heroes! could mix hand-drawn and CGI animation in new ways.

Dragon Ball Super: Super Heroes will be released in 2022.