Toyotaro's Accidentally Leaked Spine Art Doesn't Confirm Seven-Three's Return in Dragon Ball Super

A misprinted spine cover on Dragon Ball Super manga volume 24 in Spain has set off speculation that Toyotaro accidentally leaked a piece of the next story arc. I do think this was a real printing error, but I do not think it confirms what a lot of people online are assuming, and I want to walk through exactly why.

A Misprinted Spine in Spain's Volume 24 Sparked the Rumor

Dragon Ball Super manga volume 24 came out in Japan last year and released around the rest of the world shortly after. That volume contains the final chapters written around the time of Akira Toriyama's death, plus a bonus chapter released last year. As of right now, volume 24 is the final volume available.

Recently, the version of volume 24 that came out in Spain surfaced with a different piece of spine art than the copies sold everywhere else. That Spain edition appears to show the character Seven-Three on the spine, which is not what appears on the standard release of that same volume.

Toyotaro Pre-Draws Spine Art Well Before It Reaches Print

Toyotaro revealed in an interview on the official Dragon Ball website, roughly two or three years ago, that he pre-draws all of the spine art ahead of time rather than drawing it right before each volume prints. How far ahead he actually is on this is not something we know. He could have several volumes already worked out, or he could just have a couple of loose ideas he has not fully incorporated yet.

Because the Spain misprint effectively previews the spine art meant for what will be volume 25, covering Dragon Ball Super chapters 105 onward whenever the manga returns, people have jumped to the idea that this teases Seven-Three coming back. That reasoning makes some sense on the surface, since the last time we saw Seven-Three was at the start of the Granolah arc, when it was revealed there were many clones of him, right around the head being left behind as the Moro arc transitioned into the Granolah arc.

I Believe This Was a Real Printing Error, Not an April Fools Joke

Based on the positioning of the characters in the Spain art, including a yellow beam meant to be a cloud sitting right above the character's feet, this does appear to genuinely be the artwork intended for the next volume. Somebody printed the wrong piece of art onto volume 24, and that much I am confident about. "I do believe that this was a legitimate leak," and I think somebody genuinely made a mistake putting that spine art where it does not belong yet.

This is not an April Fools gag. Sekai DB, the account that first broke this story and is based in Spain, already had a copy of volume 23 and had noted back in November that the spine art meant for volume 23 was actually the artwork that ended up getting used for volume 24. In other words, this misprint issue was already happening one volume earlier, and back then the speculation was whether the publisher would leave black space, finish that earlier character, or swap in something else entirely. "I'm sure it was. I'm positive it was" a legitimate accidental leak in terms of it being a printing mistake.

But Spine Art Has Never Matched the Story Inside the Volume

Here is the evidence that keeps me from reading this as a story spoiler. Look at the spine art for the original Dragon Ball manga, from volume 1 all the way to volume 42. Toriyama drew one continuous character illustration running across all those spines, and it is beautiful, but it does not correlate with the story happening inside those specific books. The bottom row of that art shows Cell, Android 17, Android 18, Android 16, and Goku, yet by the time readers reach the last thirty or so volumes, the story has already moved into the Majin Buu saga, and there is no Majin Buu anywhere on that art.

My take is that this kind of spine art gets pre-drawn, but not so far ahead that the artist already knows exactly how the story will unfold years in advance. That was true for Toriyama, and I believe it is true for what Toyotaro is doing now as well. Just because Seven-Three appears on the side of this upcoming volume does not mean he is guaranteed to be part of the next story arc.

Volume 23 backs this up directly. Saganbo, a character tied to the Moro arc, appears on that volume's spine art, yet volume 23 itself covers the Super Hero story content, with no Saganbo inside its pages. The spine art simply does not match what is happening in the chapters it is attached to.

What This Leak Actually Confirms, and the Rumors I Am Holding Back On

So my conclusion is straightforward. Yes, this was a legitimate misprint and a legitimate accidental leak of art meant for volume 25. But it does not mean Seven-Three is confirmed to be returning in the next arc. All it really confirms is that there are already more volumes planned beyond volume 24, which lines up with what we had already been told repeatedly, that Dragon Ball Super is on hiatus rather than finished.

Volume 25 will not arrive anytime soon regardless, since enough new chapters need to be published first before they get collected into a printed volume with that spine art attached. There are also new rumors circulating right now about a possible announcement coming in May. I am not going to get into those, because it is not something I have been able to multi-source, and I would rather not put unconfirmed timing out there in case plans change. Once I know something for certain and can back it up, I will share it.

Do you think Seven-Three is actually coming back for the next Dragon Ball Super arc, or is the spine art just another mismatch like the ones from the original series?