Dragon Ball franchise creator Akira Toriyama passed away last year, and it turns out that the artist behind Dragon Ball Super paid tribute to the late creator by adapting one of the final stories he had left behind. Dragon Ball Super is currently in the midst of a hiatus following Toriyama’s passing. Wrapping up the events of the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero arc ahead of the hiatus, Dragon Ball Super made a surprising return to Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine with a brand new one-shot story for Goten and Trunks as they were inspired to turn into local superheroes. But it turns out this was one of Toriyama’s final left over ideas.
Dragon Ball Super has returned with a brand new volume of the manga now hitting shelves in Japan, and it collects the final few chapters of the series now available. This includes the new one-shot story for Goten and Trunks set before the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero prequel arc, and this came from a story that Toriyama had left behind that had yet to be officially adapted into the manga. As series artist Toyotaro explained in a special message within the volume release, this story was based on an idea that Toriyama shared but hadn’t gotten used before.
Dragon Ball Super Uses Akira Toriyama’s Final Story
“The secret story behind the birth of ‘Saiyaman X‘ that I got to draw for the end of this volume was based on text written by Toriyama-sensei, which I revised and made into a manga,” Dragon Ball Super artist began in his message with Dragon Ball Super Volume 24 (as translated by @Herms98 on X). “During the process of working out the ‘Saiyaman X’ story that serves as a prequel to the Super Hero arc, he gave me this story as a prologue, saying ‘it really doesn’t matter whether you use this in the main story or not.’ But I felt it would be a waste to cut it, so I really wanted to make it into a manga.”
Explaining that Toyotaro ultimately was only given three chapters for the special Super Hero prequel arc, the artist then revealed that he ultimately went with the version of the story seen originally. But with the coming release of this final volume, Toyotaro requested to adapt this final idea that didn’t get made, “However, as the Super Hero arc drew to a close, this was still a story I wanted to draw no matter what, so they were nice enough to let me have my own way, and I got to draw it as a one-shot.”
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What’s Next for Dragon Ball Super?
With the release of this final one-shot and latest volume of Dragon Ball Super, Toyotaro confirmed that the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero arc has officially come to an end. This is an important thing to note as it does give some hope that there’s still something for the future in the months or years to come. Rather than saying outright that the Dragon Ball Super manga has come to an end following this arc, it’s just the arc itself that’s ending.
Dragon Ball Super‘s artist seems to tease that there is more on the way in the future, but it’s unclear as to what this could mean. With the editorial team at Shueisha likely trying to figure out how to continue this story without Akira Toriyama’s input (much like how the anime team started its production with Dragon Ball Daima), Dragon Ball Super‘s future is still very much uncertain.
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