The Dragon Ball Super Gallery Project continued today with the release of the 24th installment in the project, which sees Blue Exorcist author and illustrator Kazue Kato take her turn. The project was designed to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the original series, written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama.
Each month will see a different mangaka take their turn redesigning the cover of one of the 42 volumes in the Dragon Ball manga series, which includes the events of the Z anime series. For Kato’s part, she’s chosen the 25th volume cover, which appears to depict Goku and friends traveling on a river in a Capsule Corp boat.
The project is being structured in a way that will see its completion come on the 40th anniversary of the Dragon Ball manga series in November 2024. With the project being over halfway through and some big names already having participated, fans are eager to see who joins Kazue Kato and others in the second half.
Dragon Ball Super Gallery Project continues the tradition of fantastic collaborations between series and modern mangaka
For Kato’s version of the Dragon Ball volume 25 cover, she’s taken interesting creative liberties with her rendition of the characters. Beyond the inherent differences in art style, Kato has made Goku much taller than he was on the original volume cover relative to his friends.
Bulma’s head is also now turned to face the reader, whereas the original volume cover had her looking off towards the bow of the boat in order to steer. Every character present on the cover also appears to be older and taller in Kato’s version, likely a deliberate choice to reflect how long it’s been since volume 25 was originally released.
As mentioned above, Kato is best known as the creative mind behind the Blue Exorcist manga series, whose anime adaptation is incredibly popular. The original manga version was published in Shueisha’s Jump Square magazine, where it is still serialized today. The series debuted in April 2009 and currently has 29 compilation volumes.
Unfortunately, there are not many other works fans would know Kato by, with Blue Exorcist easily being her most successful and well-known project in the anime and manga industry. Nevertheless, her flagship series remains a timeless staple of the genre, constantly being recommended for new fans looking for an easy, prototypical shonen series to dive into.
The Dragon Ball franchise’s latest anime project consisted of the Super Hero film from 2022, which the series’ manga is currently retelling as of this article’s writing. While it’s expected that the retelling arc will end soon, it’s unclear what the next steps for the franchise are from an anime and manga perspective.
Be sure to keep up with all anime, manga, film, and live-action news as 2023 progresses.
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