Following the rabid support of Dragon Ball Z fans in recent years and some record breaking film releases in Japan (including the most recent that actually kept Furious 7 from the top spot), Dragon Ball is making a comeback to television with a new series. The show will be known as Dragon Ball Super or Dragon Ball Chou in Japan.
Franchise creator Akira Toriyama will be hands on for the project and Toei Animation released an official statement detailing the direction for the new series:
Following the recent events of the hit feature film, Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’, Dragon Ball Super will debut in Japan in July 2015.
Reuniting the franchise’s iconic characters, Dragon Ball Super will follow the aftermath of Goku’s fierce battle with Majin Buu, as he attempts to maintain earth’s fragile peace. Overseen by Dragon Ball’s original creator, Akira Toriyama and produced with Fuji Television, Dragon Ball Super will draw on its historic past to create a bold, new universe welcoming to fans and endearing to new viewers.
Fans of the show will remember the Toriyama-less Dragon Ball GT that originally followed up on the Z series, so it isn’t known if that will be wiped clean from the slate in a manner similar to Star Wars or if they’ll find a way to include it. They’ve certainly done a bang up job throwing tons of movies at the fans without even the hint of a coherent timeline, so it really doesn’t matter at the end of the day.
It seems odd that we’ll be getting more of DBZ here in 2015. It was probably the first real introduction to anime I had as a kid (right next to some Saturday morning classics on the Sci Fi Channel), but I can’t really see where it can stand out in today’s landscape creatively. It’s a no-brainer on the business side, though. When you’re latest movie is beating the Paul Walker-fueled beast that is Furious 7, that’s saying something.
An English dub will most likely come shortly after, probably a year judging by the film releases. That means nothing via the wonders of the Internet, so fans can start preparing now for all that powering up and Earth destruction.
(Via Toei Animation / i09 / The Verge)
