The subject of the panel is “The Spirituality of Dragon Ball.”

Here’s the official description:

Exciting!

It’s an hour long show and there will be time at the end for questions. Plus you’ll be able to meet me in person. Who’d want to miss out on that, right?

The poem on the image above says:

“Coming…

I Am Coming Over the Mountain for You
I Am Coming Through the Stars and the Sky
I Am Coming Out From Where I Am
I Am Coming for You…”

That means I want the room packed with Dragon Ball fans. Let’s do this!!

Even if you don’t live in California, get on your Immortal Dragon and fly there!! The world is counting on you!!!

More info about the convention can be found at the AM² website, along with the other panelists mentioned on Anime News Network.

Post from: The Dao of Dragonball Blog

The Spirituality of Dragon Ball Premiering at AM2 Convention

The Prince of all Saiyans has awakened!

It’s time to explore Vegeta’s life through digitally painted Dragon Ball fan art.

Over the course of writing The Dao of Dragon Ball book and interacting with fans, I’ve been surprised by how much love there is for Vegeta. I had thought Goku was the most popular character.

But it turns out that Dragon Ball fans absolutely adore Vegeta’s attitude, his raw Saiyan strength, and his stylish hair line.

His transformation from a cold blooded killer to a family man over the course of hundreds of episodes is an iconic example of the power of redemption and personal change.

Vegeta now stands as one of the most recognizable characters in this or any other series. There’s no mistaking Vegeta when you see him!

Now we take a moment to look back on the life of a soul that sought the value of its self worth. A Saiyan who lost his tail and became a man.

The Early Years

“Prince Vegeta” by SD Nolan

“Demonic” by Inklingz

Saiyan Saga

“Invaders” by doomsplosion

“Nappa and Vegeta” by Big Sam

“Vegeta Sketch” by gavinslayer

“Prince Vegeta” by fluorescentteddy.

“Vegeta Oozaru” by Timsalcove

Namek Saga

“Vegeta” by raider

Artificial Human Saga

“Compulsion” by Inklingz

“Vegeta Badman” by Nenee

“Vegeta” by osiris999

“Vegeta vs A18″ by hoCbo

“Vegeta – GTA Style” by lynnember

“Stargazing” by ginkoflowers

“Vegeta and the Moon” by Tomahawk Dragon

“Eat Your Vegetables” by Rikona

“Vegeta n Trunks” by shadcarlos

“Vegeta’s Assault” by razwit

Majin Saga

“Majin Vegeta” by LucasHartes

“Majin Vegeta” by henryz

“Goku vs Vegeta” by mullerpereira

“Vegeta” by ginkoflowers

“Sacrifice” by unknown

“Gone” by Vegeta Pyscho

“DBZ Vegeta and Goku Attack” by Goldman Karee

Dragon Ball GT

“Vegeta 4 from GT” by shurikmx

“Vegeta’s Outdoor Trip” by Goldman Karee

Final Flash

Killer. Servant. Warrior. Lover. Father. To Hell and back. This was the life of Vegeta, the Prince of all Saiyans.

These images were found on the internet and I gave attribution where possible.

In case you’re curious, the first one was called “Vegeta, Prince of the Saiyans” by Giye.

Did you have a favorite? Please share with others and tell us why you love Vegeta so much!

Post from: The Dao of Dragonball Blog

Dragon Ball Art – Vegeta Paintings

Dragon Ball art is alive and well in the Dragon Ball fan community.

The previous post about Dragon Ball Paintings displayed fine art created with a brush.

Today’s article unveils digital art created with a mouse or pen, yet equally fine.

Using the following images of fan created works I have attempted to tell Goku’s story.

There may be a few pieces missing, but the hardcore dragon ball fans know where to fill in the blanks.

The majority of images are from the Deviant Art website, and I have given credit where I could.

Enjoy…

Goku’s Story

“Gohan” by kadlamalice

“Kid Goku” by XIIINinjaRabbits

“Goku vs Piccolo” by Zuthell

“Little Goku Day” by kadlamalice

“Flying Nimbus Color Wash” by saintchase

“Dragon Ball Fan Art” by elnota

“Epic Battle” by demitrybelmont

“Goku vs Freeza” by mobius9

“Goku” by paranoidvin

“Dragon Ball Cell vs Goku” by nig6ghtmare01

“Gokusan” by osiris999

“Kamehameha” by namekianpikkoro7

“Gokou” by osiris999

“The Super Saiyan” by Fallen Eye

“Dragon Ball Z” by elbrazo

“Goku” by cangdu

“Saiyan” by angel5art

“GSS4″ by alveeus

Images and Story Telling

Isn’t it amazing how each image carries an emotional history that we associate with Goku’s tale?

And the realism of several of the paintings helps bring his story to life.

Even though the images are still, they seem to be moving.

As each image enters our minds eye, it stirs our heart.

Such is the wonder of art.

What do you think? Have a favorite image, or how did you feel as you moved through the paintings?

Post from: The Dao of Dragonball Blog

Dragon Ball Art – Goku Digital Paintings

Saluti, and welcome to “Galleria di Dragon Ball.”

The Dragon Ball community is really amazing. Aside from being one of the largest fan bases in the world, it is also filled with a lot of talented artists.

This is because Dragon Ball inspired many people to become artists, whether it be in drawing, painting, digital art or comic book illustration.

Most of us, including myself, began by copying the art of Akira Toriyama. Those who persisted in their artistic training became better and better, eventually reaching the level of fine art, as you’ll see here.

Fine art is a representation of the best that a culture has to offer.

The fine art presented here is an example of the best that Dragon Ball fandom has to offer.

Dragon Ball might appear to be a simple series, but its effect on society has been rather large, and the artists wouldn’t have created these works of art without being inspired in their hearts.

The works are traditional paintings, using acrylics, oils or other natural materials

I have done my best to give credit where it’s due.

As you scroll downward, try to imagine that you are viewing the paintings in a real art gallery.

Please enjoy, and Grazie Mille.

Dragon Ball Oil Paintings

The above painting and the next 10 are by Nacho Molino.

“Freeza Crossing the Namek” by PoisonousFox

“Cell” by Lucas Hartes

Dragon Ball Modern Art

“Kamehameha” by MysteriousSquirrel

“Jeice’s Portrait” by SirCrocodile

Dragon Ball Acrylic Painting

“Battle Preparashyuns” by arumise

“Nouveau Vegeta” by Sara Richards

As You Exit the Gallery

That concludes the “Galleria di Dragon Ball’s” fine art wing.

If there’s enough interest in Dragon Ball art, then I will continue to post more art in different styles, such as watercolor, digital paintings, 3 dimensional art, pencil drawings and alternative art.

Have a favorite? Please let me know in the comments.

Post from: The Dao of Dragonball Blog

Dragon Ball Art – Paintings

Who is Boss Rabbit? Don’t remember him? Well that’s not surprising considering he’s only in a single issue and episode. But even if you do, I doubt you know his full story.

In this article you’ll learn about Boss Rabbit’s origins in Dragon Ball as well as his roots in Japanese, Chinese and Indian legends as the white rabbit of the moon. Yes, it goes that far back!

Boss Rabbit’s depiction in Dragon Ball is simple and comical, but Akira Toriyama manages to connect him to an ancient source at the very end.

You may have been confused by this reference since it was intended for a Japanese audience. Today you’ll finally learn what it’s all about.

Follow me as we dive into the rabbit hole and see how far down it goes.

Carrot Changing Rabbit Magic!

We’ll begin this topic by talking about Boss Rabbit’s one and only appearance in Dragon Ball.

Boss Rabbit premiered in Chapter 17 of the Dragon Ball manga, titled “Boss Rabbit’s Special Technique,” and episode 9 of the Dragon Ball anime, titled “Usagi Oyabun no Tokui Waza, うさぎオヤブンの得意技; English: Boss Rabbit’s Magic Touch,” on April 23, 1986.

His original name in Japanese is “usagi ninjin-ka” (兎人参化). This literally translates to “Rabbit Man Carrot Change,” or more accurately translated as “Rabbit who turns people into carrots.”

Since this is a hard term to translate, his name has appeared in different ways. In the Viz published manga he’s called “To, The Carrotter,” while in the FUNimation anime dub he’s called “Monster Carrot.” Fan translations have called him “The Carrotizer,” “The Carrotizer Bunny,” or simply “Boss Rabbit,” which I find the easiest to understand, even though it is not the most telling of his magic ability.

He’s called Boss Rabbit because he is the leader of the Rabbit Gang (Japanese: usagi dan, ウサギ団), a group of mobster-like criminals who have controlled a village near the Diablo Desert with fear. But it’s primarily because he’s a giant white rabbit that talks!

Why are the villagers so afraid of him? Because Boss Rabbit has the ability to turn people into carrots with his touch! He’s like the Greek legend of King Midas who turned objects into gold, but in this case, it’s into vegetables.

Only in this case it’s much worse, because after they’ve become a carrot he proceeds to EAT them. He does this because he’s evil, and he’s a rabbit, and evil rabbits eat carrot-people. That’s just what they do.

He has two gang members who walk around the town like they own the place. Bulma, Goku and Oolong happen to be in town. The two thugs see Bulma dressed in a rabbit costume (for altogether different reasons) and proceed to give Goku and the others a hard time, so Goku defends himself the only way he knows how.

The gang members retreat in pain and summon their boss to the scene.

Boss Rabbit drives up in a rabbit car, and gets out of the car wearing sun glasses.

The talking rabbit is walking on two feet and is wearing sun glasses traditional Chinese clothing with chaaracter (兎) on it. This character in Japanese is pronounced “usagi” (うさぎ) and means “rabbit.”

Toriyama often applies symbols to the characters’ clothing in Dragon Ball, and in many cases they have deeper meanings, but in this case it just means rabbit.

Boss Rabbit offers his hand to Bulma as a feigned act of kindness. She slaps it away in refusal. He starts laughing, and a moment later Bulma is magically turned into a carrot.

Goku is shocked. He fights against Boss Rabbit and uses the Nyoi-bo to make sure he doesn’t get touched.

Boss Rabbit is losing the fight so he holds the Bulma carrot hostage and says that if Goku fights back, he’ll eat her.

Goku has no choice but to endure the painful blows of Boss Carrot’s gang.

Seeing that Goku needs help, Yamcha and Puar (who were following our hero’s) steal the carrot away from Boss Rabbit, who is then defeated by Goku.

Goku forces Boss Rabbit to transform Bulma back into a person.

What happens next is straight out of a Japanese legend.

Boss Rabbit goes to the Moon

Goku ties up Boss Carrot and his defeated gang members. He then decides to take the gang as far away from the village as possible.

How, exactly?

By taking Nyoi-bo out, sticking it in the ground, and telling it to grow!

The magical staff that Goku carries (the Nyoi-bo) is based on the As You Wish Staff of Sun Wukong from Journey to the West (Chinese: Ruyi Jingu Bang, 如意金箍棒), and it has the power to change shape according to the users mind intent. The staff can become as small as a needle, or “As tall as Heaven.”

Sun Wukong (Son Goku) and the white Moon Rabbit (Jade Rabbit)

In this case, Goku grabs onto the tied up villains and rises into the air along with the staff. Higher, higher, and ever higher, until he reaches the moon!

There, Boss Rabbit and his two gang members endure punishment for their crimes, as they are seen pounding mochi cakes using a hammer.

Huh? What’s going on?

Okay, a couple things.

First, oddly enough, they can all breath in space, including Goku who brought them up there. This is because Akira Toriyama was more of a gag manga author at this time of his career, coming on the heels of Dr. Slump. He preferred to write more humorous story lines, interspersed with both traditional and pop culture, so even though they can breathe in space and it doesn’t make any sense, it’s funny and tells a better story.

But why are they pounding mochi cakes?

Quickly, in case you don’t know, mochi (餅) is a sweet rice cake in Japan eaten for dessert. In Korean it’s called Tteok (떡), and they’re made from glutinous rice flour. It can be cooked in different ways, including by being pounded with mallets inside a big pot.

The reason Goku took them to the moon is because Toriyama wrote his comic for a Japanese audience, and he was referencing an ancient Japanese legend, called The Rabbit on the Moon.

In western countries the craters on the moon are described as “The Man in the Moon,” as they look like a face. But in Japan, the craters are described as a rabbit standing above a mortar or pot, pounding into the pot with a hammer or pestle to make sweet rice cakes known as mochi.

As depicted here:

But how did a rabbit get on the moon?

Now that is a far more interesting tale.

The Rabbit on the Moon Legend

Like many aspects of Japanese culture, the Rabbit on the Moon legend comes from China. But as you’ll see, the Chinese legend goes even further back to ancient India and Buddhism.

All of the following legends show that our ancestors, no matter where they lived on earth, all looked up to the stars and moon in an attempt to find meaning.

Meaning for our lives and our place in the universe.

Let’s begin the telling of this legend in India, thousands of years ago, and then chronologically and geographically work our way toward modern Japan.

The Jataka White Rabbit

India is the most likely source of origin for the rabbit on the moon legend.

The Jataka, otherwise known as the “Previous Life Stories,” tell the tales of Buddha Shakyamuni’s 34 previous lives before being reborn as a human as Siddhartha Gautama and attaining enlightenment.

In story number 6, he is reborn as a white rabbit. Even though he’s an animal, this rabbit is so virtuous, beautiful, and good that the other animals treat him as a king and admire his wisdom. The three animals that became his closest students were an otter, jackal, and monkey.

One night, the rabbit instructed them that on the following evening there would be a full moon, and was a holy day (the Uposatha day of fasting), and that any beggars who needed aid should immediately be given food.

The rabbit realized later on that while his companions had a variety of ways to feed a human being, he had none. Only the bitter grass clippings that he ate each day. He immediately decided that if the opportunity arose, he would offer his own body as meat.

Hearing this thought, the god Shakra (aka Sakka, or Indra), the Lord of All Gods, decided to descend to earth and test the rabbit’s conviction. He appeared as a hungry beggar.

The otter brought fish. The jackal brought a lizard and a stolen pot of milk. The monkey brought mangoes.

But the rabbit had nothing to offer. So with the help of the other animals and the man he built a fire. As soon as the fire was blazing he jumped on top of it.

Shakra was greatly moved. He quickly reached into the fire, pulled out the unscathed rabbit and held it above his head, displaying him before all the gods in his mighty glory.

To honor the rabbits selfless sacrifice, Shakra placed the image of the rabbit on the top of his palace, and most importantly to this story, carved the rabbits image onto the moon.

This is where the “rabbit on the moon” idea comes from. The rabbit was engraved on the moon so that people across the world would forever have a symbol of piety, righteousness and sacrifice to look up to.

The rabbit had nothing to offer but himself, and this was the greatest gift of all.

Chang’e and the White Rabbit

The Buddhism of India was exported into China where it took root and assimilated with the existing culture. Many of the Buddhist legends became interwoven with existing Chinese beliefs and folk tales, such as those from Daoism.

One such Daoist story is about a young woman named Chang’e (嫦娥). She is the Moon Goddess and the Chinese equivalent of “The Man in the Moon.”

The quick version of the story is that Chang’e and her husband were both immortals. Through an altercation with the Jade Emperor, Lord of Heaven, they were banished down to the earth to live as mortals.

In an attempt to seek their immortality once again, her husband Houyi sought the way back and was fortunate to meet the Queen Mother of the West, a Daoist deity. Seeing his pious nature, The Queen Mother gave Houyi a magic pill of immortality, but warned him that they each only need to eat one half of the pill.

Unfortunately Chang’e was too curious and swallowed the entire pill herself. She rose upward into the sky as her husband looked onward, unable to do anything but cry. She kept rising up, and up, until she landed back on the moon.

Luckily she wasn’t alone! A “Jade Rabbit” lived there as well, and he had the job of constantly making immortality elixirs in his pot.

Throughout Chinese history the “moon rabbit,” as inherited from the Indian legend of Buddha Shakyamuni’s sacrifice, had been called many names, such as Jade Rabbit (玉兎) or Gold Rabbit (金兎). The Jade Rabbit refers to Daoism and immortality, while I believe the Gold Rabbit most likely refers to Buddhism and enlightenment. Here you can see the interwoven cultures.

The white rabbit (aka Jade Rabbit) is connected to the Dao because he was making an immortality elixir. Long life and eventual immortality was one of the goals of Daoist practitioners, who regarded Jade as the highest material substance (as personified by the Jade Emperor). They were known for collecting herbs or special ingredients and mixing them together in a pot in an attempt to create immortality pills.

This image is of an 18^th century Qing Emperor’s robe. The white rabbit is on the Emperor’s Robe because it was considered a Daoist symbol of long life. The Dragon represents the Emperor and “The Will of Heaven.”

The Chang’e legend was part of traditional folklore that became very popular in the Tang Dynasty (609 – 907 AD). On each Mid-Autumn day, the full moon of the 8^th lunar month, people throughout China set up altars and put their pastries and cakes on the altar to be blessed by Chang’e. When they eat the pastries and cakes, they become beautiful.

This is called the Moon Festival, Mooncake Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival, and there is an accompanying parade at night where people carry lanterns with rabbits on them.

In literary culture Chang’e is also found in Journey to the West, the inspiration for Dragon Ball. Here, she is banished from Heaven by the Jade Emperor just like Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie, but through the process of redemption is allowed to make her way back up to Heaven and eventually to the moon.

Likewise, the famous Tang Dynasty poet, Li Bai, wrote of this rabbit in his poem, “The Old Dust,” saying, “The rabbit in the moon pounds the medicine in vain.”

These Indian and Chinese legends became intermingled and were then passed on to Japan.

The Japanese White Rabbit

Japanese culture is a mix of imported Chinese, Korean and native beliefs with its own unique flavors and disciplines.

A version of the Jataka stories from India can be found in the Japanese anthology, Konjaku Monogatarishu (今昔物語集), a classic source of many Japanese legends and both Buddhist and Shinto culture, written between 794 and 1185, a time of great trade with China.

It is retold here as a children’s story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN9Y_pZ8P0A

Many of the legends in the Konjaku Monogatarishu feature animals that can think and talk like humans. They sometimes appear bipedal and anthromorphic, with morality and feelings, just like the animal characters in Dragon Ball, such as Boss Rabbit, Oolong and Puar.

In the Japanese version of the Chang’e story, when she makes it to the moon and sees the white rabbit, the rabbit is pounding rice in a mortar, not an elixir in a pot. The rabbit’s name is Tsukiyomi (月読), the same name as the moon god in Shinto and Japanese mythology.

This is because Tsukiyomi is said to have killed Ukemochi, the rice goddess. Tsukiyomi pounds rice in a pestle and mortar because he harvested the grains of rice from the moon and is turning them into cakes. The “mochi” desserts come from Ukemochi.

The same idea of a rabbit making mochi (instead of elixir) is found in the Korean version of the story, but I don’t know which one came first.

Today, just like in China and Korea, people in Japan celebrate the first day of autumn by eating mochi. The first day of Autumn is an equinox, and therefore a perfect “moon viewing day” in Japan. People look up at the moon and see the rabbit. The rabbit on the moon makes the mochi. Then they eat the mochi. Makes sense, right?

This was common folklore and culture that Japanese citizens grew up with, just like Easter in America. It’s a national holiday that is celebrated throughout the country.

For example, the Rabbit Song, or “Usagi,” as it’s known, is a children’s song that mentions the rabbit on the moon and the festival. This song is as common in Japan as “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” is in the United States.

Here are the lyrics:

The song is sung by young children throughout Japan, including Dragon Ball’s target audience, and they’re all familiar with the legend.

Toriyama References Traditional Culture

Toriyama wrote his comic for young Japanese boys, and so he purposefully appealed to what they would be interested in during their youth. He took the legend of the rabbit on the moon and incorporated it into Dragon Ball.

This slice of Japanese culture is in the comic for seemingly no other reason than to be funny. And I’m not even sure why it takes up an entire episode and issue, as it isn’t integral to the story. It’s just something that happens along the way.

Japan only has a 2% Christian population, so there aren’t many people who celebrate Easter. The legend as depicted in Dragon Ball obviously has nothing to do with Easter, as I’ve thoroughly explained, but I thought it a fitting day to tell such a story to a primarily Western audience.

Toriyama fills in the blank of the Japanese version of the rabbit on the moon legend using Goku, Boss Rabbit and his Rabbit Gang. The rabbit made it up there because Goku took him up there!

He and his gang presumably would have stayed up there forever, but Master Roshi destroyed the moon with a Kamehameha while fighting against Goku during the 21^st Tenkaichi Budokai later in the series.

Oops.

Did they die, as would be logical?

No, because in the book “Dragon Ball: Adventure Special,” (published December 1, 1987), Akira Toriyama explained that “They’re drifting through space.”

Toriyama was probably trying to be nice by not killing them off. But to me, drifting through space for the rest of your life is even worse than death and going to the afterlife.

Oh well.

In conclusion, the point I’m trying to make is that the entire reference to all of this ancient culture is depicted in 1 panel, of 1 page, in 1 issue of a comic. Yet it speaks volumes if you know the full history of what is depicted.

And now you do.

So the next time you see Boss Rabbit you’ll remember all of the ancient culture and the thousands of years of history that made his creation possible.

Resources

White Rabbit on Emperor’s Robe

Japanese Wooden Rabbit Toy

Bunny Rabbit on the Moon

Jataka Stories

Moon Rabbit on Wikipedia

Chang’e on Wikipedia

Carrotizer Bunny on Dragon Ball Wikia

Japanese Children’s Story on YouTube

Jataka Stories 2

A French Article on Dragon Ball’s Moon

Li Bai’s Poetry

Prints of Japan – In Depth Article on Japanese Mythology

Chang-e Moon Goddess and White Rabbit

Post from: The Dao of Dragonball Blog

Dragon Ball’s White Rabbit of the Moon

Have you heard of this before? The internet is abuzz.

In this Google Trends image you can see that searches for “dragon ball hoshi” became a noticeable trend in July, 2011. Searches rose sharply in August before taking a dip, and then increased dramatically in early November to December.

So what is it about? Is it even real?

Today you’ll learn what Dragon Ball Hoshi truly is and find out why it matters so much to Dragon Ball fans!

What is Dragon Ball Hoshi?

The official FUNimation forum has the first verifiable post discussing Dragon Ball Hoshi on June 10, 2011. It states that other forums had been discussing it for a while, and traces it back to a DeviantArt profile that has since been deactivated, named “Goku9.”

Here is the exact rumor often added to YouTube video descriptions.

“Akira Toriyama is to be making a new Dragon Ball series alongside mangaka Naho Ooishi, the creator of the 2008 Dragon Ball Z special, “Yo! Son Goku and Friends Return,” called Dragon Ball Hoshi. Ooishi will be making a manga that continues the Z Manga past the Buu saga. It will have a newly designed Super Saiyan 4, and even a Super Saiyan 5. Akira Toriyama will be assisting her and backing off. The events in Japan (earthquake, tsunami) slowed this down. Now Toriyama is taking care of that. Launch in 2012, 2013.”

Wow, a new Dragon Ball series?! Time to get excited!!

But wait, hold on. There are a few problems with this rumor.

The first is that it’s an outright lie in every single way!

It’s not mere speculation or even grapevine gossip originating from an official source. It’s a bold faced lie! None of it is true.

The second is that it would be illogical for Toei to announce “a newly designed Super Saiyan 4, and even a Super Saiyan 5” before it actually appears in a new series, as this would ruin the story, build up and development of the characters. They would lose viewership and profits.

The third is that you can be guaranteed that a new Toei produced Dragon Ball series would have an extremely specific launch date. Not some vague “in a year or two” like we’ve been hearing about the rumored Dragon Ball AF over the last 15 years.

There would also be an enormous marketing push, with press releases, media coverage, and so on. None of this has happened.

To state clearly, there have been no official announcements of any kind regarding Dragon Ball Hoshi or this rumor.

But that hasn’t stopped people from looking for Dragon Ball Hoshi news.

According to Google AdWords Keywords Tool, there were an average of 49,500 global monthly searches for “dragon ball hoshi” over the last 12 months and 18,100 for “new dragon ball series.” But because these numbers are an average, and the number has recently risen sharply, I believe the current numbers are higher.

In short, a lot of people are hearing the Dragon Ball Hoshi rumor and looking for news on the internet.

What are they finding and then sharing with others?

Let’s take a look.

Dragon Ball Heroes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7fHmw6pQUo

This is labeled “New Series Dragon Ball 2012 Hoshi *All Trailer* Original”

What is it really?

Dragon Ball Heroes, an arcade game in Japan where players insert collectible cards to perform moves or summon allies.

The game has had several big marketing pushes, each one accompanied by a short promotional video with newly animated scenes, like you see above.

Did you notice that the singer continuously repeats the jingle, “Dragon Ball Heroes,” as the videos play? This is because it’s the name of the game, Dragon Ball Heroes. NOT Dragon Ball Hoshi.

As you’ll find with most of these videos, they are missing the beginning and ending. This is done on purpose so that you don’t see the title cards and identify what the animation really belongs to.

The main character of Dragon Ball Heroes, named Hero, is the one you repeatedly see interacting with Goku. He’s a new character made specifically for this game.

Most of the videos you’ll see here are by the same small group of people, primarily the YouTube users “DragonBallHoshi1,” “SuperDragonBallAf2″ and “DBHoshi.” They may even be the same person, as the videos have the same descriptions.

They have created multiple videos with misleading titles, all aimed at building up hype and confusing viewers.

Sometimes if you try to comment on their videos to tell people the truth, the comment has to be approved first, and it never will be. Only the “I’m so excited” and “Dragon Ball Hoshi looks awesome!” type of comments are approved. Or comments are disabled outright.

This is not Dragon Ball Hoshi.

Dragon Ball Online

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph9ZY2C5E3Q

This video is labeled “Dragon Ball Hoshi New Series 2013 Original.” It has 1.4 million views.

And you know what it really is? It’s the intro to Dragon Ball Online, the new MMO currently being played in Korea and Taiwan.

Dragon Ball Online is an official video game that continues the canon Dragon Ball story. It takes place after the end of the original Dragon Ball manga (DBZ anime), and completely ignores Dragon Ball GT.

Akira Toriyama is involved in its production. He spent over 5 years working on the character and world designs.

The game is massively multiplayer and allows you to select from several races and classes from within the Dragon World, including some new ones, and then train them to have different skills. You take your character and go on adventures, team up with others, make friends, and chase after the dragon balls.

An English release has not been announced, but there are English modifications that allow you to play the Korean version.

This is not Dragon Ball Hoshi

Yo! Son Goku and Friends Return

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu1oMJ6LrIw

This video is labeled “New Series Dragon Ball Hoshi 2012.”

It’s actually “Yo! Son Goku and Friends Return,” an animated special from 2008 in Japan. It tells a short story about Goku and his friends battling against a new bad guy and introduces Vegeta’s long lost younger brother, Tarble.

This is not Dragon Ball Hoshi.

Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AplTH454H7c

Here’s one called “New Series Dragon Ball 2012 (Dragon Ball Hoshi) Real Full HD).” It has 2.8 million views.

What is it?

It’s the opening for Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi [aff] in slow motion, because apparently that makes it better.

The two characters fighting Goku are personifications of the types of characters you can create in the Hero character customization mode.

This is not Dragon Ball Hoshi.

The Episode of Bardock

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIoxUjhjiBc

This video is titled “New Series Dragon Ball Hoshi Episodes 1 Real Full HD 1080p.” It has 214,000 views.

But what is it really?

The Episode of Bardock.

A single animated episode based on the 3 chapter manga created by Naho Ooishi, that tells an alternative story of what happened to Bardock after Freeza killed him and all the other Saiyans.

Instead of dying, Bardock goes back in time and faces off against Chilled, Freeza’s predecessor. In the process, he becomes a Super Saiyan.

The manga had appeared in V-Jump, Shueisha’s Video Game magazine, between August to October, 2011.

Why a video game magazine? Because Bardock was going to be transformed into a Super Saiyan for the very first time in the new update of Dragon Ball Heroes, the arcade game mentioned above.

As you can see in this image, Bardock, Chilled, Freeza and King Cold are positioned next to the Dragon Ball Heroes arcade unit.

The Episode of Bardock premiered in Japan during the Jump Festa event from December 18 to 19, 2011. It then streamed live on Bandai’s website for another week.

These guys on YouTube recorded the stream, added subtitles, and then labeled it Dragon Ball Hoshi.

This is not Dragon Ball Hoshi.

The Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans

Want the official version of The Episode of Bardock? It was distributed on a disc as a bonus in the March 2012 issue of Monthly Saikyo Jump, published by Shueisha.

Also included on the disc is the recently re-animated film, The Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans. This is a special film that originally appeared as animated clips on a Dragon Ball video game for the Playdia console in Japan in 1993, called Zetsumetsu Keikaku (Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans).

The scenes were reanimated as a bonus for Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 [aff] on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, and this is the first time it has been published outside of the game.

This film was also streamed online, on Sheuisha’s Official V-Jump Website. But it’s region blocked for those in other countries.

Naturally, The Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans is also passed off as Dragon Ball Hoshi, as you can see in this clip where they overlaid all the sound with Dragon Ball Heroes music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cqm6cPZPCE

This is not Dragon Ball Hoshi.

Dragon Ball SD

The first issue of Monthly Saikyo Jump was also the premiere of a new, official, Dragon Ball manga, called Dragon Ball SD.

This one is actually real!

The manga is done by Naho Ooishi, with supervision by Akira Toriyama. The series retells key moments of the Dragon Ball series in a SD (Super Deformed) style, where the characters are shrunk down and cute. It’s made to appeal to little kids.

Saikyo Jump was released as a quarterly magazine for 1 whole year before it turned monthly on December 3, 2011. The Dragon Ball SD manga therefore had 4 chapters. The story retold Goku’s training with Kame Sennin, his fight against Freeza, against Cell, and against Majin Buu.

Now that it has appeared monthly, it has returned to the beginning of Dragon Ball and is retelling the story in a cute style.

It’s unknown how many issues are planned.

Luckily nobody is trying to pass this off as Dragon Ball Hoshi because it’s a manga. But just to make it clear…

This is not Dragon Ball Hoshi.

Dragon Ball SSSS

In early January, Bandai announced a new project called SSSS, which stands for Saikyou Super Saiyan Secret.

This is a collaborative project with Toei to do cross promotional Dragon Ball video games and animation. The streaming of Episode of Bardock was the first result, and they are working on new video game titles.

Since it’s a secret, very little else is known.

There are already videos out there being titled SSSS that consist of other content. So don’t be fooled in the future when you see more.

This is not Dragon Ball Hoshi.

Why does Dragon Ball Hoshi Matter?

By now it should be obvious that Dragon Ball Hoshi is none of the things you’ve seen above.

So I’m sure you’re dying to know, what IS Dragon Ball Hoshi?

The truth is that there is no such thing as Dragon Ball Hoshi. It was a lie from the beginning!

That’s right, the cake is a lie!

Dragon Ball Hoshi merely consists of recycled clips from other Dragon Ball properties. That’s why most of them are so shallow and there are never any title screens.

It’s not even a fan made creation like Dragon Ball AF, where people have created new characters, illustrations, manga, action figures, original videos, and even video game modifications.

Nor is Hoshi like the other fan creations, Dragon Ball AE, Ultimate Z , V, SF, X, Absalon, Neo, or H, that contain stories or illustrations.

Dragon Ball Hoshi is nothing. It is an empty name devoid of substance.

Dragon Ball Hoshi only matters because it exists so prevalently.

Put an End to Wild Rumors

Even with Dragon Ball Hoshi clearly explained, you may still wonder, “Why then is there all this content on the internet labeled as Dragon Ball Hoshi, and so many people talking about it?”

I would ask, “How can something so fake still fool so many people?”

Is it because of the animation quality? Because of the crafty editing and withholding of valuable information? Because of the deceptive lies?

Sure, these contribute. But the real reason is because Dragon Ball fans inherently WANT to believe that there will be a new Dragon Ball series.

Deep in their hearts they seek to relive the same experiences from the first time through Dragon Ball, and they want to reconnect with their favorite characters. Everybody wants a new Dragon Ball series!

Dragon Ball is still relevant to its fans, and the new releases of films, video games, and re-animated works like Dragon Ball Kai continue to excite their interests without fully satiating them.

Unfortunately, just like those who promulgate Dragon Ball AF as the next official series, these YouTube guys are con-artists and attention seekers. They either want you to click on whatever they are advertising, or watch their videos and be fooled into believing it so they can get a laugh.

Or they’re just plain dumb and honestly don’t know what they’re doing.

Just look at this conversation on the unofficial Dragon Ball Hoshi Facebook page, which has 3,858 likes.

Mason says, “They are making a new dbz series.” Robin replies, “Mason, they are not..” and the owner of the page says, “if dragon ball hoshi was fake than why did they make it. Common sence if i was fake i wouldn’t of putting this page in the first place. Duhhhh.”

Yeah. I rest my case.

The same thing happened with AF between 1999 and today.

To point, the Dragon Ball Hoshi rumor is so prevalent because once a rumor is started on the internet, it’s hard to kill.

Spreading rumors and gossip is wrong in the first place, and knowledge of truth is the remedy. So now that you know, please stop believing and telling others about it.

There is no value to Dragon Ball Hoshi’s existence.

Unless a new Dragon Ball series is finally made, the rumors may never die. But let’s try to end them, shall we?

When official news comes down the pipeline you’ll be sure to see it across the web on legitimate news sources. There’s no need to make up stories.

Remember, all you have to do the next time you see something labeled as Dragon Ball Hoshi, is close your eyes, tap your heels together three times, and think to yourself…

“This is not Dragon Ball Hoshi. This is not Dragon Ball Hoshi. This is not Dragon Ball Hoshi.”

Then you’ll be whisked away by Kinto’un and magically wake up from this illusory dream.

Resources

The Truth About Dragonball Hoshi

Dragon Ball Hoshi New Series 2012 (New Character)

New Series Dragon Ball Hoshi 2012

Daizex.com forum post on “New Dragon Ball Series

Saikyo Jump Official Website

Kanzentai.com article on Dragon Ball SD

FUNimation forum post about Dragon Ball Hoshi rumor

Dragon Ball Hoshi Facebook Page

Post from: The Dao of Dragonball Blog

Dragon Ball Hoshi Explained

It’s a truth that Dragon Ball fandom is and always has been intense. Regardless of their preferred version, Dragon Ball fans absolutely love their Dragon Ball.

Just before Dragon Ball GT concluded its original television run in Japan in 1997, a rumor spread about a new official series called Dragon Ball AF. Fans wanted the series to continue.

The only problem is that it was never true.

And you might suppose we could end this article right here. But as with everything involving Dragon Ball and its impact across the world, there’s a lot more to the story.

Dragon Ball AF was originally the creation of an unknown fan that evidently had a strong desire for a fourth Dragon Ball anime series.

A single image appeared on the web of a hypothetical Super Saiyan 5 Goku with a “Dragon Ball AF” logo on it, and from there it spread like wildfire.

The rumor grew gradually over the years and took on a life of its own, spawning many fan creations, illustrations, videos, episode listings, action figures, and even high quality fan manga based on the collective rumors.

For example, who is this guy fighting Goku?

Images like this confused the heck out of new Dragon Ball fans. And those who circulated lies about Dragon Ball AF preyed on the gullible nature of fans who simply wanted to see more of their favorite characters.

The desire for a new Dragon Ball series is so strong that even today the rumor is still actively spread that Dragon Ball AF is the next official series from Toei, and that the videos and images “leaked” on YouTube will arrive in “the next year or two.” New fans continue to fall for it, and the cycle continues.

Despite all the time that it has been around, if you search online for an explanation of Dragon Ball AF, you will only find bits and pieces of info. A short wiki article here, some crudely Photoshopped images there, a guy saying it’s not real while another screams back that it is, followed by immature insults and a link to fan made manga. There are, maybe, two good sources on the topic. Unless you spend hours putting the pieces together, you’ll be confused or simply dismiss the whole thing outright.

Because of Dragon Ball Z Kai’s and Dragon Ball GT’s second syndication on TV, there is now a new generation of Dragon Ball fan looking to see what happens next.

With the realization that people are still being confused, I set out to discover the true story behind Dragon Ball AF and write the definitive article.

Along the way I found a captivating story to tell.

The Dragon Ball AF Trend

Before we get into the details of Dragon Ball AF, I’d like you to see just how popular it is.

I’ve been a fan of Dragon Ball since 1997 when it first aired on Cartoon Network’s Toonami block and Midnight Run. Even back then I remember seeing rumors about it on the Internet.

I’ve never done an article about Dragon Ball AF because frankly, I didn’t think it was worth digging into. As a kid I realized it wasn’t real after 5 seconds of seeing the first image. It was obviously poor quality and made by fans. I was curious, but since it wasn’t genuine I thought the rumor would be dead in a few years.

But Dragon Ball AF continues to be talked about. Somehow people are still falling for the rumors. In fact it’s even more popular now than when Dragon Ball Z was syndicated on national TV.

Consider the following search trends.

According to Google Adwords’ keywords tool, the term “dragon ball AF” received 1,000,000 global monthly searches on average in the previous 12 months (January, 2011 to January, 2012). And at the date of this article it has 3,490,000 Google search results.

For comparison, “dragon ball z kai” received the same 1,000,000 global monthly searches.

This means Dragon Ball AF is currently 100% as popular of a search term as Dragon Ball Z Kai, and it’s not even real! Nor is it backed by millions of dollars in marketing.

How is that possible? The rumor started in 1997 and people are STILL actively looking for it 15 years after its creation?!

Query data for Dragon Ball AF on Google only begins in 2004, when Google began recording trend data. We can see that its popularity grew gradually over the years. There was a huge spike in 2007 for Dragon Ball AF information, most likely coinciding with the end of Dragon Ball GT’s syndication across the world by fans hungry for more. Then this gradually dropped over the next few years. But there are more queries for it now between 2011 and 2012 than there were between 2004 and 2006.

The term “dragon ball” has 30,400,000 monthly queries and “dragon ball z” receives 16,600,000.

Comparing that to two other large series, we see that Star Wars receives 24,900,000 queries and Star Trek receives 4,090,000 queries. This helps prove that Dragon Ball fandom on the internet is still very much alive, as searches for “dragon ball” eclipses both “star wars” and “star trek” combined.

What’s crazy is that the entirely fan created “dragon ball AF” is so popular when compared to these legitimate series, at 1,000,000 queries.

Even more shocking, there are multiple Dragon Ball AF videos on YouTube with over 9 million views, 8 million views and 5 million views, while the incredibly popular Dragon Ball meme, “It’s Over 9,000!” only has 7 million views total. Is Dragon Ball AF really more popular than “Over 9,000!”?

Some fans have speculated that when the rumor began in 1997 it was on April Fool’s Day (April 1^st), and this is why it’s called AF. There’s no proof of this, but if so, it seems like the whole world fell for it, because Dragon Ball AF is exponentially more popular now than when it started.

Where did Dragon Ball AF Come From?

Dragon Ball GT completed its run in 1997 and even though fans knew it was the end, everybody was hungry for more.

GT was for most people a disappointment, as it was written by someone other than Akira Toriyama. In this case, Matsui Aya, the Series Organizer at Toei. Fans wanted Akira Toriyama at the creative helm again, like he was for Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z.

It’s not known where the rumor started (possibly Spain), but it mentioned a new series called Dragon Ball AF, where Goku reaches Super Saiyan 5, Pan turns Super Saiyan, and Raditz comes back alive somehow, also as a Super Saiyan.

The first image associated with Dragon Ball AF was of Super Saiyan 5 Goku.

Nobody knew where it came from. Rumors said it was from a fan made manga (Dojinshi), but no proof was ever provided. Others have said that it’s not Goku at all, rather his son Xicor.

The AF logo was completely fabricated, but even so, fans speculated what it could mean. It was rumored to stand for “After Future,” because the series took place 200 years after the end of GT. Others said it stood for “Alternate Future,” or “AfterliFe,” while those who didn’t believe in it, as they still explain today, said it stood for “April Fools.”

A few crudely drawn images appeared of Goku Photoshopped to have different color hair, Pan with golden hair, Super Saiyan Raditz and other seemingly random combinations of Fusioned characters, like Vegetunks, the Fusion of Vegeta and Trunks.

Meanwhile, Super Saiyan 5 was surpassed by Super Saiyan 6. Goku was now “Evil Goku” because he had been corrupted by the power of the dragon balls and it was up to Vegeta to stop him. And a new set of Potara earrings could now fuse 3 people together, instead of only 2.

Fans argued endlessly about whether or not these were real, with some stating that their “friend in Japan” confirmed it was. Others said, “Yeah, it’s real, I use these characters in my fan fiction and my role playing games,” naively blurring the line between fan made fiction and official releases.

This mess of “real” or “not real” confused others looking for the truth.

What may have been a couple months or perhaps years later, two more images appeared of Super Saiyan 4 Gohan and “King Vegeta.”

These two images were exquisitely detailed and looked very professional, as if they could have been done by Toei staff or even Akira Toriyama. These caused a huge surge in the number of believers and were used as validation that Dragon Ball AF was real.

But on each image was a logo that read, “Studio Tomita.” Who was Studio Tomita? Nobody knew, so more rumors flew around. Maybe it was a company working with Toei, or maybe it was Toriyama’s studio under a different name?

It was neither. Turns out that Studio Tomita was a very talented fan (or group of fans) who drew illustrations of their favorite anime characters. They had a website with a few images on it, but oddly, neither of these two Dragon Ball images was there.

There was however a note that said, “If you accessed this homepage in order to obtain an image of “DRAGON BALL”, you will be discouraged. I do not put an image of “DRAGON BALL” in this homepage currently. And I reply to a request of somebody and do not intend to send an image. I’m sorry.”

This tells us that if even Studio Tomita did create them, they now wanted nothing to do with these images or to be affiliated with Dragon Ball. Most likely due to the amount of emails they received from rabid fans.

But that was all it took. These images sparked the flames of what would become a much larger fire.

The Rise of Dragon Ball AF

It was now sometime between 1999 and 2001. With all this Dragon Ball AF content out there, fans became excited and eagerly awaited this new series.

And they waited.

And waited.

And it never came, because it was never real.

There were no official screen shots or episode clips, no advertising, merchandise or articles in Japanese media.

All the while fans were rapidly producing new content and slapping the Dragon Ball AF logo on it, adding to the confusing mess.

Rumors, fan art and outlandish Fusions of characters fed into one another and created a giant, endless cycle of rampant lies and immature stupidity.

Free websites like Geocities and Angelfire became popular outlets for Dragon Ball fans wanting to “prove” the existence of Dragon Ball AF. They would create a site, post the images, and suddenly Dragon Ball AF seemed a bit more real in the mind of an average web surfer. After all, wherever you looked, there it was!

Fans jumped on message boards saying, “Hey, I heard about a new Dragon Ball series!” Then other fans would get into the conversation and it would derail in various ways.

More established sites also promoted the series. While doing research for The Black Goku article, I found a news post about Dragon Ball AF on the archived DaBlackGoku.com homepage from October 9, 2000. It said, “Hello Everyone. I found some interesting information on the Dragon Ball AF series that everyone has heard rumors about.”

This was in the year 2000, and he was talking about it being a rumor back then and passing it off as news. It’s still a rumor today and people still pass it off as news!

With the advent of high speed broadband internet, YouTube became increasingly popular and fans started to put their work in video form. This immediately led to claims that what they posted was the “official” anime, and that their “leaked” footage was real.

Fans created back stories, episode listings, and even more character splices.

Several “Official Dragon Ball AF” websites sprung up claiming to sell tapes.

Dragon Ball Z was airing on TV at the time, and was sending millions of new fans onto the internet. Those who were naïve bought into it.

That’s really all there is to Dragon Ball AF for the next few years. The inertia of fandom ensured that it kept growing and reaching more people through different platforms.

The Daizex.com April Fool’s Joke

"Toriyama-sensei is very angry!!"

The year was 2004 and a search on Google for “Dragon Ball AF” generated 1,170,000 results. This collective fan creation had become extremely popular.

Dragon Ball Z was still very popular in America and Dragon Ball GT was beginning to be sold on tape and air on TV.

The website DaizenshuuEX had grown over the years to become, in their own words, the “most authoritative and complete stop online for anything and everything DragonBall.” And it’s true. Daizex.com has always provided the latest and most up to date official news regarding the Dragon Ball series. Their forum had (and still has) a reputation for its hardcore and extremely knowledgeable fans. Whatever was posted on the main news page was inarguably official.

That said, the owner, Mike “VegettoEX” LaBrie had a yearly tradition of playing an April Fool’s prank on the community.

He knew better than anyone that Dragon Ball AF wasn’t real, and everyone in the community was tired of hearing about it. Because there had not been any official media reports, advertisements, or video clips surrounding Dragon Ball AF, he decided to make some and act like they were real!

He later said on his site, “If we were going to do this, it had to be insane. Everything had to scream of quality, and above all else, it had to be in Japanese and look / sound authentic.”

They created a print advertisement and a commercial to share on YouTube. Mike said, “The print-ad came first. Julian began work on it, typing up some of the text using a pre-existing “Dragon Box” Japanese ad as a template.”

The original Japanese Dragon Ball ad was modified with images of content from Dragon Ball AF, and some comedic Japanese text was added. Text that, for anybody who spoke Japanese, would immediately give away the fact it was a joke. But for non-Japanese speaking fans everywhere else it would look authentic.

“Soon Mike began work on the video commercial.” Mike had become a talented video editor from his years of working on Dragon Ball music videos, and made it his profession. He very skillfully ripped audio from One Piece and Revolutionary Girl Utena, featuring the same voice actors that are in Dragon Ball, with classic moments from the series. Interspersed throughout the dialogue were Japanese title cards, which just like the advertisement above, would clearly be obvious as a joke to Japanese readers.

Mike released the ad and video on April Fool’s Day and he updated his site to reflect the news (as if it were official), stating it would air September 8, 2004. The site said, “On this date, a new series was officially announced in a mailing to frequent buyers of the DB Kanzenban volumes. And best of all, in a nod to fans who were so anxious for a sign, the series is going to be called–get this–DragonBall AF!!!”

As a result, not everybody realized it was a joke. And that was the point.

He later said, “It wouldn’t be an April Fool’s Day prank if we didn’t cause havoc across the internet. We knew we’d end up fooling some people, and we knew that people would be talking about it.”

This had rather large consequences on the Dragon Ball AF community, because most of them were young, naïve, and didn’t speak Japanese.

One fan named Jose Gonzales was aware that it was a joke and wrote to them, saying, “I hope you realize that because of this little stunt there’s going to be an outpouring of kids freaking out all over the net and it will almost certainly be seen as proof of the existence of AF.”

Of course that is exactly what happened. People shared it left and right, posting on message boards about how they now had proof that “the new Dragon Ball series is real!”

Mike had a lot of fun with it though, saying in response, “I’m not going to regret it and there’s no hate mail to speak of. It’s been a blast, and it’s awesome to see that people are enjoying it and getting a kick outta it.”

Even though a day later he completely admitted to the joke, once you put an image on the internet, it’s their forever. And these images and videos were pushed around by every Dragon Ball AF loving fan that could find them.

I have a copy of the video, but for the sake of making sure that this doesn’t happen again, I’m not going to post it online. Plus it’s not my property to rightfully post.

Why did people believe the ads? Probably for the same reasons they believed in Dragon Ball AF in the first place!

Meanwhile, in the fan driven evolution of Dragon Ball AF, there were now 10 levels of Super Saiyan!

Yes. That is Super Saiyan 10 Goku, apparently.

Dragon Ball AF Fan Manga

Fan manga and fan fiction have always surrounded the Dragon Ball series.

Despite the wild images, there had never been a serious Dragon Ball AF manga. Most of the illustrations were poorly drawn.

These series tried to pass themselves off as real while riding the wave of Dragon Ball AF fandom. They would either share that name, or come up with their own, such as Dragon Ball V, Dragon Ball ST, Dragon Ball AE, and Dragon Ball DR. Basically any other letters you want to add to the end of “Dragon Ball.”

Over time, Dragon Ball AF became the default go-to name for any type of fan creation. It was synonymous with fan made.

That changed in 2006 when a very talented artist in the Toriyama style finally put pen to paper and created a Dragon Ball AF worthy of the name.

Toyble (pronounced Toiburu) deserves credit for making something original, beautifully illustrated and true in spirit to the series. At least for the most part.

The story is about the illegitimate son of Goku, Zaiko (otherwise known as Xicor), who was born by a female Kaioshin that stole Goku’s seed in a dream, while he slept. The child was half-man, half-god, and more powerful than all of the other warriors, including Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta and Super Saiyan 4 Gohan. It’s up to Goku to save the day.

Toyble is unique because he clearly states on his site, “This site and its publications have nothing to do with the original author [Akira Toriyama] and has no relationship with him. Dragon Ball AF is an interpretative story.”

Even so, Toyble’s Dragon Ball AF (ドラゴンボールAF, Doragon Bōru AF) is one of the major reasons that Dragon Ball AF rumors continue to linger. His excellent drawings and story (that weaved many of the existing rumors together) serve as the prime example the stalwart fans present when insisting Dragon Ball AF is real. The images look authentic, so fans jump to the conclusion that they are.

Another artist named Young Jiji has also done a similar Dragon Ball AF manga with an equally impressive Toriyama style of art, making it seem real.

These are really the only two manga with a high enough level of quality I feel are worth mentioning.

Dragon Ball AF Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqr9KJZqzUA

Dragon Ball AF videos? What is there to say, really?

The quality is guaranteed to be poor. They usually consist of edited clips and drawings from Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT, with the colors changed or with weird effects added on top.

They won’t be real. The creators try to pass them off like it’s a new series, just as they’ve been doing since this began.

They’ll be annoying. Backed by odd music or simply poorly edited, with ads pointing to something unrelated as an added bonus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2vHuB0rDdg

Other times the videos will simply be the animated intro footage for the Dragon Ball video games, such as Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi, Dragon Ball Heroes or Dragon Ball Online. They are labeled as Dragon Ball AF or the “New Dragon Ball Series,” but only exist to prey on those who don’t know otherwise.

Despite these drawbacks, many of these videos have more than 9 million views! That makes them some of the most popular videos on YouTube.

Why so popular? Because everybody wants the next Dragon Ball series, and they want it now! Remember, Dragon Ball fans love their Dragon Ball!

Some less scrupulous video editors capitalize on this fandom and post videos that have the title of “Super Saiyan 7 to 10,” and so on, but then they talk about things unrelated to Dragon Ball. They bait and switch people to click and watch their crap.

They also feature really odd and unique characters put together via Fusion, or show strange Majin Buu absorptions of other characters, such as Majin Buu after absorbing Freeza. Naturally, the Super Saiyan levels continue to rise, going from Super Saiyan 10 to Super Saiyan 20 and even Super Saiyan 50! Goku’s golden yellow hair is insanely long.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z67XXZtQgGc

The creators lie about AF’s existence, or only tell half truths to benefit themselves. For example, from the description of one video it says, “Note everyone: Dragonball AF is REAL, It already has comics based on it and action figures. Comment And Subscribe If You Want To Support Dragonball AF.” They are again passing “real” off as “official,” which it isn’t.

Lastly, they pull content from the Dragon Ball games and try to connect it to Dragon Ball AF. The game Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 has alternate outfits showing Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta with white hair, which fans say is all too coincidentally like Super Saiyan 5 Goku to be a coincident.

Fans wondered why the developers in Japan chose these colors. Maybe they did it on purpose to allude to Dragon Ball AF? Or maybe it was foreshadowing of what Toei was going to release “in the next year or two.”?

A few videos that went over 9,000,000 views were posted in 2007, while one with 3,000,000 views was posted as recently as Jun 24, 2010. None of them are real, but the fandom is still alive so people continue to play this silly game of lies.

Suffice to say, if you were falling for it, now you know better.

Dragon Ball AF Images

In the beginning, the Dragon Ball AF images were awful. But now the fans have really taken to it, and more talented artists have produced better art based on these fan fiction characters. Here’s a bit of it.

Dragon Ball AF Action Figures

The fandom has reached such a point that Dragon Ball action figures and models have been created.

I find this interesting. Dragon Ball AF is a fan created series but people apparently spend their money on these models, buying into the fandom, official or otherwise.

It’s as if Dragon Ball AF has become official simply because of consumer demand.

The Heart of a Dragon Ball Fan

Dragon Ball AF is an unofficial, fan made creation that has grown in such leaps and bounds that it’s now on par with Dragon Ball Z Kai in terms of search requests, and even has its own merchandise.

Fans wanted a new Dragon Ball series but Akira Toriyama said he wouldn’t create any more Dragon Ball manga. Toei didn’t provide them with a new Dragon Ball anime, either. With a couple of exceptions, most of what has arrived is rehashed and “refreshed” content.

So what did fans do in the absence of a new series?

They made it themselves!

They wanted Dragon Ball AF to be real, so they made it real.

It all began with a single image of Super Saiyan 5 Goku. Then two more images appeared of Super Saiyan 4 Gohan and “King Vegeta.” This somehow led to new characters being developed, a complete storyline, and episode listings. From there it got mashed together repeatedly over the years, with more and more piled on top of itself.

No matter how crudely drawn, poorly Photoshopped, oddly written, or strangely fused together, Dragon Ball AF has grown to represent the dreams and desires of Dragon Ball fans across the world.

That’s the real story of Dragon Ball AF. The story behind the scenes.

The Dragon Ball fans themselves. Their aspirations and desires.

Why do people want a new Dragon Ball series so badly? What moves them to draw, color, animate, and create their own manga? And what makes people want to believe in, promulgate lies, and trick people into thinking like them… all through the vehicle of Dragon Ball?

I believe Dragon Ball speaks to a part of our humanity and appeals directly to our core. All that fans want is a new series at a high level of quality so they can continue to have the same exhilarating feeling they did the first time they saw Goku transform into a Super Saiyan, or when Gohan defeated Cell with the Father-Son Kamehameha.

It never arrived externally, so fans made it internally. Then they shared it.

Like Cell, Dragon Ball AF is an artificial monster that continues to grow and evolve, becoming more refined as it goes. But instead of seeking to destroy, it seeks to bring more fans into its collective grip, making them hope, dream, and become involved with something bigger than themselves. A community of like minded people who speak the same language and love the same thing.

Once you get fans hooked on a series and then end it, what else are fans to do? Be patient and let it go?

Ha! That’s not how Dragon Ball fans work!

Emerging Dragon Ball Trends

As if Dragon Ball AF weren’t enough, in late 2011 a new rumor mysteriously spread across the internet about yet another new Dragon Ball series, called Dragon Ball Hoshi. Exactly like Dragon Ball AF when it began, this one is also fake and an odd combination of truths and lies.

Similar to Dragon Ball AF, Dragon Ball Hoshi has quickly grown in popularity, as seen in this Google Trends image comparing the search trends for both.

But explaining Dragon Ball Hoshi will have to wait for another day. [Update on Feb 19, 2012. Here is Dragon Ball Hoshi Explained.]

One of the goals of this article was to present the truth of Dragon Ball AF in a logical, rationale way, so that the genuine fans will understand it and stop being fooled by (and then promote) the lies.

Failing that, if it still becomes even more popular at least this article will serve to bring people up to speed on what Dragon Ball AF is all about.

As I mentioned in the intro, I believed Dragon Ball AF was best left un-discussed and that it would eventually die out.

How wrong I was!

But do me a favor. After reading this article, please stop going on the message boards and forums to tell people you’ve heard of a “new Dragon Ball anime series!!”

We’ve got enough of those guys out there already.

Oh, who am I kidding? Dragon Ball fans love their Dragon Ball! This will probably never stop!

Dragon Ball AF Roxors! OMG Broly’s Power Level is Maximum!! Super Saiyan 50 Goku for the win!!!

Resources

Studio Tomita Archived Site

Dragon Ball Wiki Article on Dragon Ball AF

Daizex.com Rumors Guide

Daizex.com Aprils Fool’s Day Prank

Daizex.com Forum Post on Original DBAF Image

Toyble’s Dragon Ball AF

Desire Campbell’s Collection of Toyble’s Dragon Ball AF manga

Young Jiji’s Dragon Ball AF

The “Official” Dragon Ball AF Site

Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 Character Skins Forum Post

Dragon Ball AF on Facebook

FreeWebs.com DBAF Posting

Super Saiyan Goku 1 through 10

Post from: The Dao of Dragonball Blog

Dragon Ball AF Explained