Toyotaro Reveals Akira Toriyama Secretly Wrote the Ending of Dragon Ball Super's Superhero Prelude

Volume 24 Closes the Dragon Ball Super Superhero Prelude

Toyotaro finished the final chapter back in February, wrapping up the Dragon Ball Super Superhero prelude material. That chapter was meant to be the last one included in volume 24, which is already out in Japan and is set to arrive later this year from Viz Media in its English physical release.

Volume 24 includes a piece of art titled Toriyama's World Forever, which combines earlier art pieces Toyotaro has drawn over the years into one image, and it looks great.

The volume also includes an interview with Toyotaro, translated by Herms, where he goes into details about the Superhero arc that had not been revealed before, including exactly how much Akira Toriyama was involved in writing the prelude chapters.

Toyotaro Says the Secret Origin Story in the Final Chapter Came From Text Toriyama Wrote

In the interview, Toyotaro says the secret origin story he drew for the end of the volume was based on text written by Toriyama, which he then revised and turned into a manga. That stood out to me because there had been no word of Toriyama's involvement in this specific chapter beyond what we already knew, which was that Toyotaro was putting together the arc while Toriyama supervised him.

We already knew Toriyama wrote the script for the Dragon Ball Super Superhero movie himself, which came out three years before this interview, and that Toyotaro made some changes to the manga adaptation that Toriyama approved.

The Gohan and Clean God Prequel Chapters Were Also Written by Toriyama

Toyotaro also revealed that while working out that story, Toriyama gave him the material as a prologue and told him it did not really matter whether he used it in the main story or not. That prologue material is the same stuff involving Trunks and Mai in high school that served as a prequel to the Superhero arc, including the prelude chapters covering Clean God and the reveal that Gohan had secretly been masquerading as Clean God.

This is new information to me. I think most of us assumed that prelude material was something Toyotaro came up with on his own, especially since it was published a full year after the movie came out. Finding out Toriyama wrote it as a prologue changes that assumption.

Toyotaro Says He "Cried and Cried" Over Having to Cut It Down to Three Chapters

Toyotaro said, "I felt it would be such a waste to cut it. So, I really wanted to make it into a manga." However, the Superhero arc's prequel was fixed at three chapters, chapters 88 to 90, which run right before the manga adaptation of the movie itself begins with chapter 91. He said, "So, I cried and cried and resigned myself to drawing three chapters."

I think that three-chapter limit was likely a decision made by Shueisha rather than Toriyama, since it reads like the kind of restriction a publisher would impose rather than something the writer himself chose. And when Toyotaro says he cried and cried, I don't think he means that literally. I think he's talking about how much he wanted to include more of the material he had been given.

The One Shot Finally Got Made After the Superhero Arc Wrapped

Toyotaro said that "as the superhero arc drew to a close, this was still a story I wanted to draw no matter what," and that "they were nice enough to let me have my way and I got to draw as a one-shot." That wording makes me think he may have drawn this material months, maybe even close to a year, before it was actually published in February.

It's worth remembering that Toriyama passed away in March of 2024, so whenever this one-shot was actually drawn, the material itself traces back to text Toriyama had written before then. Toyotaro closed the interview by thanking readers and noting the Superhero arc is now finished, signing off with the line, "Look forward to future developments."

What "Future Developments" Actually Tells Us About Dragon Ball Super

That line is no different from what Toyotaro already said last summer, when he mentioned there was more to come. Since Toyotaro's job is specifically drawing Super, I think it's fair to assume he's talking about Super, but that's still an assumption on my part.

In Shueisha's V Jump, the manga is still listed as being on hiatus, not as finished. I keep thinking that if it's actually over, they should just tell us it's over. I think I speak for most people when I say they should stop leading us on and give us an actual answer.

The issue is that, as I see it, Japan's communication and promotion around this kind of news is pretty bad. Right now, all that's implied is that more is coming, with no indication of when.