Written by Joshua Jacob
On January 25, fans of the popular anime franchise Dragon Ball tuned in both online and in-person for an event known as “Dragon Ball Genkidamatsuri.” This event was used as a fun way to celebrate the ending of the 40th anniversary of Dragon Ball. As the countdown to the event started, the vibe was already starting off iconic as the countdown showcased the iconic seven starred Dragon Balls counting down with their corresponding number. Event MC Toshihiro Ito from Fuji TV started off the event by thanking everyone for tuning in to the livestream and those who came in-person at the Makuhari Messe in Japan despite the cold, showcasing the importance of such a franchise to make them want to come out.
Ito started the first stage program of the in-person panel by introducing to the stage Executive Producer Akio Iyoku and Masako Nozawa, the Japanese voice actor for Goku. It was heartwarming seeing Nozawa’s reaction to not only the people waving to her in the crowd but also finding out the whole world is tuned in to the live streamed broadcast with English subtitles, showing how much her work has impacted beyond Japan. After a quick recap about 2024’s Daimatsuri, which was previously hosted to showcase the late Akira Toriyama’s work Dragon Ball Daima (2024), they reminisce on the impact of the franchise up to the 40th Anniversary before diving right into a 40th Anniversary Special Video Iyoku brought to promote the newest material for the franchise.
Fans watched the video as it showcased old manga features along with some that came colored and moved, transitioning from still images to animation. Seeing all the past adventures that Goku has been through, from riding on a motorcycle with a younger Bulma to his first fights against villains such as Vegeta, Frieza, Cell, and Buu. The video then supposedly ends with Goku seen flying towards the camera as he transforms into his iconic transformations before flying off into space in his legendary Mastered Ultra Instinct, a form last scene from the Tournament of Power arc of Dragon Ball Super in 2018. Fans were surprised that more was showcased as it recapped all the arcs that were done beyond Dragon Ball Z. Showcasing iconic characters and forms in each arc and ending with Daima from 2024 before fading into a red title card which read “A New Chapter Begins.” Fans watching all around the world knew this could only mean one thing: Dragon Ball Super is coming back.
For those who don’t know, the last episode of the popular series ended on March 25, 2018. The franchise has made returns in the form of movies such as Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018), Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero (2022), and the last official work of Toriyama before his passing Dragon Ball Daima (2024). While fans were no doubt eating good with the new Dragon Ball content they were receiving, many were still wondering when Super would return. Thanks to this announcement, fans can be rest assured that the long awaited series would not only be making a return, but they would be adapting the latest arc in the manga: the Galactic Patrol arc.
Arguably the most shocking thing was that the music used in the promotional video was made by none other than famous film composer Hans Zimmer, who is well known for creating the soundtracks to popular films such as The Lion King (1994), The Dark Knight trilogy, and the Pirates of the Caribbean films to name a few.
The speaker from the panel surprised the audience members and online viewers with even more news as he translated a personal message from Zimmer stating, “Congratulations on the 40th Anniversary of Dragon Ball! I am very happy to be involved in this special Dragon Ball 40th Anniversary film. I had a lot of fun and excitement working on the music, inspired by Mr. Akira Toriyama’s wonderful illustrations and animations. I hope all Dragon Ball fans around the world will enjoy watching it!” With someone like Hans Zimmer making such a comment, anime fans and even those who are not fans can see just how much of an impact Dragon Ball has had on mainstream media and pop culture as a whole.
Nowasa revealed that she was surprised by this, as she had no idea that the Galactic Patrol arc is set for production, showing how much they kept this under wraps for not even the voice actor of the main character to know about it.
After Nowasa performed the iconic “Kamehameha” with someone dressed as her character Goku and walking off for a short break, the event continued 20 minutes later with Iyoku returning alongside Masayuki Hirano, the producer of Dragon Ball Games from Bandai Namco Entertainment. Hirano showcases another promotional video featuring an original character created by Akira Toriyama who is shown to be fighting in a simulator while proceeding to utilize the popular Super Saiyan form before dropping the game project title of “Age 1000.”
Hirano explained that this is not the official game title and tells audience members to wait until the end, but further mentions that this game has been in development for six or seven years, showing that it’s been a project the producers have been working on for a while. Following that, they brought up how they want to expand more on the gaming of the franchise through the use of DLCs for Dragon Ball FighterZ, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 (which fans surely would have preferred to instead have Xenoverse 3) and a large scale DLC for the 2024 video game Dragon Ball Sparking Zero featuring new playable characters, costumes, moves, stages, and a new mode. Before closing Part 1, Hironobu Kageyama (popular for singing the Japanese version of the opening song “Cha-La-Head-Cha-La” from Dragon Ball Z) came on stage to sing for everyone the Japanese version of the new song for Dragon Ball Sparking Zero titled “Zero.”
Part 2 continues the eight hour long panel with them bringing back Iyoku, Nozawa, and one more guest: Koichi Yamadera, the Japanese voice actor of God of Destruction Beerus. It is then revealed through another promotional video that a Super remake is in the works, with a plan to readapt the full concepts of the manga starting with the events shown in Battle of Gods where Goku first fought Beerus. This is quite an interesting thing for Dragon Ball fans to think about. On the one hand, there are those who just want to see Super adapt the Galactic Patrol arc since they’ve been waiting for it since the creation of Daima.
On the other hand, there are those who recognize that there will not only be a better adaptation of the story but also make sure that they will be more faithful to the manga. For those who don’t know, there are instances where the anime deviated from the original written in the manga. For example, Goku never used the Kaioken technique in his Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan (also known as Super Saiyan Blue) form. In the manga, he used the red Super Saiyan God form before then pushing to its blue variant to battle Universe 6’s assassin Hit. Similarly, the battle between Ultra Instinct Goku against Kefla never happened outside of the anime. In the manga, Gohan fought Kefla.
While it was certainly a long panel with quite a lot of information, Dragon Ball fans certainly have a lot to look forward to for the start of 2026. It was so amazing to see just how much a boy with a monkey tail has had such a big impact on this big of an audience that the story has continued for almost 40 years after its anime premiere in 1986. Between an anime adaptation to the most recent manga arc to a remaster of the popular series to a promotional video featuring music from someone as popular as Hans Zimmer, everyone around the world can certainly see just how much impact Goku and his friends have made for generations.
Not only that but the producers going back and redoing all these sagas, at least from a video games perspective, is the best case scenario to create new content for gamers and keep the story alive for years to come. Ending the panel with Hironobu Kageyama singing three of the most iconic Dragon Ball Z songs to the audience, fans both in-person and watching online certainly can feel like they’re part of something big and charging up the biggest Genki Dama (which translated to English is Goku’s powerful move Spirit Bomb where friends have to lend their energy to charge it) and showing the whole world just how big and bright the franchise of Dragon Ball really is.
