Dragon Ball Anime Return in 2023? DBS Chronicles Reported New Weekly Episodes and Another Movie

In July 2022, DBS Chronicles on Twitter reported that new weekly Dragon Ball anime episodes, set after the Tournament of Power and the Universe Survival arc, were in production and would return in 2023. The same report said another Dragon Ball movie after Super Hero was in preproduction, and that Toei was planning to release movies once every two or three years.

The one question the Dragon Ball fandom had been asking nonstop since 2018 was when we would get more weekly episodes, and the answer looked like it may be coming sooner than later. I want to be clear from the start that this was his report, not mine. But it lined up closely with what I had been hearing internally, and I had some new details of my own to add.

DBS Chronicles reported new Dragon Ball episodes were in production for 2023

The core of the report was that the anime would come back in 2023, that the new episodes would follow on from the Tournament of Power, and that a further film after Super Hero was already being prepared. Toei, according to the report, planned to keep releasing movies every two or three years.

Internally, the anime coming back had not really been that big of a secret. I had been talking about it with several people for a while. Even so, there was some interesting background to how things had got to this point, and it explains why I had been cautious about saying anything publicly.

Why the Dragon Ball Super anime was postponed in 2019

Back in 2019, Dragon Ball Super was originally set to return, but plans changed and the series was postponed. Instead, Shueisha and the Dragon Ball Room focused on the manga and began preproduction on Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, which changed the direction of the franchise for at least the next few years.

Over the 12 months before this report, talk internally about the anime coming back had been ramping up. Earlier in 2022, Akio Iyoku, the Shueisha executive producer behind the Dragon Ball Room and Akira Toriyama's right hand man, stated that there would be more coming after Super Hero and that we would get more information by the end of the year. I believed this report was what he had been talking about.

A writer reportedly tied the return to Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai

Shortly before the report, a mutual friend of mine spoke to a writer from Dragon Ball Super. I think he was writing Digimon at the time, but I was not entirely sure on that. He said the anime had been postponed and would return after Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai ended, because most of the primary Toei animators were working on that show.

That was only from one source. At the time, Dai was in its final arc, and Digimon was still on the air. My view was that until those two shows came to an end, or at least one of them did, nobody should expect Super to come back.

Super Hero's success in Japan may have sealed the green light

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero had been a success in Japan. It was not quite on the level of Broly, but it was a success. At the time, the film was set to open in August across the US, Mexico, Canada, Latin America and most of Europe, with other countries following around September.

I had been very hesitant to report on the anime returning because nothing was concrete and plans could change again, as they had before. The last time I reported something from the inside, I got in hot water with certain executives. If Super Hero had flopped in Japan, they may have simply decided against more Dragon Ball. That was not what happened.

My belief was that even though they were already planning to bring the series back, the film doing as well as it did in Japan was enough for them to give it the green light. I could be wrong on that. It was speculation on my part.

The new episodes would reportedly pick up after the Tournament of Power

According to DBS Chronicles, and in my words at the time, "this is his story not mine", whatever came next would be set after the Tournament of Power. Back in 2018, I was directly told they were not going to adapt the Broly movie.

That may have changed, though. With two movies out and the manga running its own continuity, I thought they would have to adapt the Moro and Granolah arcs, plus something after that, and go in the proper order so everything flowed, much like they did with Dragon Ball Super before. That remained to be seen.

The returning Dragon Ball anime might not be called Dragon Ball Super

This was the point I flagged as "you're hearing it here first": when Dragon Ball came back, it might not be called Dragon Ball Super. Personally, I believed it would be, because Super was the current branding. Both Broly and Super Hero carried the name, the TV show did too, and while the games were just called Dragon Ball, the brand name was Dragon Ball Super.

However, because Super Dragon Ball Heroes existed, because of the overuse of the word super, and because of some internal mumblings that had been going on for quite some time, the show might end up with a different name. Either way, it would still be Dragon Ball, and it would still be what fans had been wanting: more episodes.

Super Hero's hybrid 2D and 3D animation could carry over

Super Hero experimented with hybrid 2D and 3D animation. I had been very concerned about where they were going with it, but from the clips, trailers and the film itself, "it definitely turned out better than i was expecting". There was a possibility that the upcoming series would also use 2D and 3D animation, though that was only a possibility.

The report matched what I had heard, but I had not been sure whether an announcement would come in 2022 or later. I had discussed 2023 as the date privately for some time, and I have messages with people where I talked about it. With so much focus on finishing Super Hero, especially after the hack, the series had been set aside for a few months. With the film out, it looked like they were going back to it.

What I still did not know about the timing and production

I want to reiterate that this was the DBS Chronicles report. I was not reporting it officially, only saying I had heard similar things. I did not know when in 2023 it would return, whether April, July or October. I did expect it would probably sit in the same time slot as before, right before One Piece, where Digimon was airing.

It was also very early. The report said in production, but I did not know how far along it actually was; it could have been that they were getting ready to start and had not begun yet. I hoped the new series would avoid the bad animation and wonky writing Super had, and be more streamlined and focused, but I could not say that for certain. There was no word yet on the involvement of Chikashi Kubota or other staff.

What we had was this: according to DBS Chronicles, more Dragon Ball was coming in 2023, along with more movies. That matched what I had heard over the previous 14 months and what Akio Iyoku said earlier that year. I expected any announcement to come later in 2022. I did not think it would be at San Diego Comic-Con, but you never know what Shueisha wants to do with the property. The manga would continue, and the anime would likely follow it until it eventually overtook it, if it ever did.

If the returning series does drop the Dragon Ball Super name, as it may, would a fresh title be the better move, or should it keep the Super branding?