Toyotaro's New Three-Page Dragon Ball Manga Ties Into SH Figuarts, Not Dragon Ball Super's Return

Toyotaro, the artist who worked alongside Akira Toriyama on the Dragon Ball Super manga, has a brand new short manga on the way, but it is not the continuation of Dragon Ball Super that fans have been waiting for. It is a three-page one-shot tied to the SH Figuarts toy line, and the official Dragon Ball Super website has already dropped a teaser image from it.

A couple of days before this update, I reported that Toyotaro had changed his social media profile with language about the return of the series. Something is clearly moving in the background that we do not have full details on yet, but hopefully we will soon, because a lot of people have wanted the Dragon Ball Super manga to come back. There is excitement about the Moro arc anime and other things coming up in the next year, but the manga is really where the story is going to continue, and I think a lot of folks want to know what happened after Black Frieza.

The new Toyotaro manga is a side project tied to SH Figuarts, not Dragon Ball Super

This new project is a very short one-shot, just three pages, going into the history of SH Figuarts, the toy line that has been putting out Dragon Ball figures for decades. It is not a full length manga and it is not related to Dragon Ball Super, though it is still Dragon Ball related. I want to be clear that this side project will not get in the way of Dragon Ball Super continuing.

The teaser page dropped today on the official Dragon Ball Super website shows Goku dressed in his Journey to the West outfit, the Monkey King look that, as far as I know, only appeared once before in a Toriyama style cover page. I actually own a figure of Goku in this outfit myself, though mine is the statue version rather than the SH Figuarts one.

Toyotaro's art on the teased page looks like a real step up

Beyond the novelty of seeing Goku in that Monkey King outfit again, I have to give Toyotaro credit for how good the art looks. It seems like he may have been cooking for the past couple of years, because his art looks improved. I think Vegeta looks a lot better in this piece, and Goku looks tremendous. This might be one of my favorite versions of Goku that Toyotaro has ever drawn.

What I am hoping for is that when the Dragon Ball Super manga does continue, we get art at this level in every single chapter, that Toyotaro really brings it and goes all out as a tribute to his mentor Akira Toriyama, trying to capture the magic Toriyama had all those years ago. A second teased page shows Goku facing off against Vegeta in the classic pose from the Saiyan Saga, with Vegeta wearing the armor from that era.

The promotion points to new SH Figuarts figures coming this year, including Moro arc characters

All of this one-shot is being done to promote the SH Figuarts toy line, which has a lot of new releases planned for this year, including Moro arc related figures. I am not sure whether those will arrive right away or once the anime is deeper into that story, but fans can eventually expect official figures of Merus and Moro.

Ultra Ego is going to be a couple of years down the road as an official SH Figuarts release. In the meantime, I have seen bootleg figures on AliExpress, including a Black Frieza figure that looked pretty good, but the hope is that official versions will be coming before too long.

To sum up, this is just a quick update. Toyotaro has a side manga he is working on tied to SH Figuarts history, it will not interfere with Dragon Ball Super, and it is not connected to that story even though it is still Dragon Ball related. We will see when it actually comes out.