On November 20th, the popular manga Dragon Ball by the late Akira Toriyama celebrated its 40th anniversary since its serialization began. To commemorate this, a special website called the Dragon Ball 40th Anniversary Site was opened on the same day. The site offers a variety of content, including Weekly Dragon Ball News, which introduces the latest information every Monday; Almost All of Akira Toriyama's Works, which introduces one rare image per day related to Toriyama's manga, character designs, interviews, and more; and Toyotaro, who is currently serializing Dragon Ball Super in V Jump (Shueisha), presents original illustrations in Toyotaro's Drawn by Toyotaro section.
The 40th anniversary site is also looking for fans from all over the world to share their memories and messages about the series. If you post a message or illustration on X (Twitter) with the hashtag #DragonBall40th, it may be posted on the site. A different character will appear on the site's homepage each week. There is also a mechanism where "something" will happen if you press the "LIKE" button next to a character many times.
"Dragon Ball" began serialization in issue 51 of Weekly Shonen Jump (Shueisha), released on November 20th, 1984, and continued until issue 25, released on May 23rd, 1995. The growth and battles of the main character, Son Goku, are depicted with overwhelming artistic skill and storyline, and have continued to fascinate fans around the world across generations. The total number of copies of the comics in print worldwide has exceeded 260 million. A completely new anime series, "Dragon Ball DAIMA," produced to commemorate the 40th anniversary, began airing in October, and has been a hot topic of discussion.
