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Tuesday, January 30, 2024, saw the next entry in the Dragon Ball Super Gallery Project revealed—the reimagining of the 21st volume cover of the original series. The cover is redrawn by Undead Unluck creator, author, and illustrator Yoshifumi Tozuka, who is the 31st mangaka to join the celebratory project thus far.
The Dragon Ball Super Gallery Project is meant to serve as a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the original Dragon Ball series, which premiered in November 1984. The project will see all 42 of the original series’ volume covers redrawn by other manga artists, like the Undead Unluck mangaka, with varying degrees of reimagining.
Likewise, the Undead Unluck mangaka’s approach to their entry for the Dragon Ball Super Gallery Project is a very unique one, matching the original artstyle of the series quite closely. While nuanced differences in the artwork and a shift in perspective differentiate it from the original cover, the overall aesthetic of the artwork is very similar to that of the original series.
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Undead Unluck mangaka Yoshifumi Tozuka is the latest to join the Dragon Ball Super Gallery Project
In the original cover for the 21st volume of the series, Bulma is shown in the foreground with her back to the viewer as she chases after Gohan and Krillin in the background. The background setting is also a simple red and green design, lacking any distinguishing features otherwise. The Undead Unluck mangaka’s entry into the Dragon Ball Super Gallery Project instead chooses to use the planet Namek as the setting, given its focus at this point in the series.
Perspective is also flipped to show Gohan and Krillin flying at the reader, with Bulma in the background yelling at them for going too fast. In addition to this new dialogue, the poses of Krillin and Bulma are significantly different from the original cover, while Gohan’s is the same. In terms of art style, the two series are very similar, so while there are nuanced differences in Tozuka’s redrawing of the characters, the overall aesthetic is largely the same.
The original Dragon Ball series first premiered in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump manga publication magazine in November 1984, where it was regularly serialized until May 1995. The original series concluded with 519 individual chapters collected into 42 compilation volumes. In the years since, additional manga series such as Dragon Ball Super have since debuted and been serialized.
It is expected that the Dragon Ball Super Gallery Project will lead directly into the premiere of the upcoming new television anime series for the franchise, Dragon Ball Daima. The new series was initially announced in October 2023 and is scheduled to premiere in Fall 2024. This release window would coincide with the conclusion, or near-conclusion, of the Super Gallery Project.
Be sure to keep up with all anime, manga, film, and live-action news as 2024 progresses.
