The latest entry in the Dragon Ball Super Cover Project has arrived.
The new illustration was created by Kenta Shinohara, the writer and illustrator behind the high school comedy manga Sket Dance. Shinohara redrew the cover to Volume 9 of Akira Toriyama's original Dragon Ball manga, which was originally published in Japan in 1987. While other artists in the series have offered wildly different takes on Toriyama's original art, Shinohara stayed true to the source material, adapting the image of a young Goku and Bulma riding a dinosaur-like creature to his own style while only changing the angle of the scene. The new art was shared online by Twitter account @DbsHype.
Exclusive: Dragon Ball Volume 9 Cover by Kenta Shinohara, mangaka of Sket Dance! pic.twitter.com/UW6axed3fC
— Hype (@DbsHype) February 2, 2022
Toriyama's original cover:
The Dragon Ball Super Gallery Project is an initiative put forth by Weekly Shonen Jump publisher Shueisha to celebrate the upcoming 40th anniversary of Dragon Ball's 1984 debut. Shueisha has selected 42 other famous manga artists to redraw covers from Toriyama's highly influential and still extremely popular manga series, with a new cover being released every month until the anniversary date arrives. Previous artists who took part in the project include Naruto's Masashi Kishimoto, Bleach's Tite Kubo, Beelzebub creator Ryuhei Tamura, Kochikame's Osamu Akimoto and Chainsaw Man and Look Back creator Tatsuki Fujimoto. The previous entry in the project was put together by Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba's reclusive creator, Koyoharu Gotouge, who used one of Toriyama's covers as the inspiration for a family portrait of Vegeta, Bulma and Trunks.
Shinohara is best known for his 2007 manga series Sket Dance, which was also serialized through Weekly Shonen Jump. The comedy series told the story of a high school club whose members were dedicated to helping their classmates solve any problems they might have, completely free of charge. The manga was adapted into a 77-episode anime series in 2011, which was produced by Tatsunoko Production, the legendary animation studio behind classic anime such as Neo Human Casshan and Genesis Climber Mospeada, as well as more recent hits such as Karas and Wake Up, Girls!. Sket Dance concluded in 2013 and Shinohara is now working on his latest series, the fantasy rom-com Witch Watch. Witch Watch is available in English through VIZ Media.
Dragon Ball is the third best-selling manga series in history, with over 260 million copies in circulation worldwide. Goku's adventures continue have continued with the on-going Dragon Ball Super manga, which is still overseen by Toriyama and features art by his successor, Toyotarou. The franchise will release its newest movie, entitled Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, in Japan this April, with an international release promised to come soon afterwards.
Source: Twitter
