Dragon Ball AF Explained
Dragon Ball AF. You hate it, you love it, or maybe you’ve never heard of it. In any case, I doubt you know the full story.
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 1st), 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
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&feature=fvwrel
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.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUkGZFBuwPs
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
Dragon Ball Wiki Article on Dragon Ball AF
Daizex.com Aprils Fool’s Day Prank
Daizex.com Forum Post on Original DBAF Image
Desire Campbell’s Collection of Toyble’s Dragon Ball AF manga
The “Official” Dragon Ball AF Site
Great read!Great read!
I don’t think us Dragon Ball fans will ever give up on the hope of a new series. It’s amazing how something purely fan made can receive and create so much hype, I had no idea there were actually action figures based on Dragon Ball AF.
But hey, the more dragon ball content there is out there, the better.
I was surprised by that too. I had occasionally seen action figures over the years, but they were just blips on the radar. But now if you do a search for them, they’re all over the place. A lot are vinyl figures manufactured in China by really talented artists. Incredible that it has reached an economic level like this. Artists, production factories, and international shipping, just like the real merchandise.
OK (not related to the post), but I do have been having the curiosity. Is it possible you can get an interview with Brina Palencia, either for the blog, the book or any other way?
Ever since I read she is a DB fan, I have the curiosity of how does it feel being a DB fan and working on NGE. Like how does she compare both, does she see any similarities or some other elements or things I can’t even think of; but as it might not totally be DB focused, you may not want to place it.
It’s a good suggestion, but I’m not sure how many fans of Dragon Ball are also fans of NGE. I could make an assumption, but it’s probably best if I don’t. I’d like to keep it as focused on Dragon Ball as possible. I read that interview with her you sent before though, that was certainly interesting. If she gets involved with Dragon Ball in some way, then for sure I’d interview her!
excelent article, today i went to facebook like all the article i have read and realized there are many more, looking forward to reading them all! One thing i find odd, though it is fan-made you seem to almost avoid talking about the new bardock alternate storyline, even in the interview with marcus brimage u seem to not mention it when appropriate? At the same time you don’t go against GT which was not completly made by toriyama, whats your take on the new bardock retelling?
I’m not purposefully avoiding The Episode of Bardock, it’s just that I didn’t think either of those places was the right place to bring it up. During the Marcus Brimage article it hadn’t been animated yet (it came out during the Christmas season of 2011), and for this article, I feel like it would be better placed in my upcoming Dragon Ball Hoshi Explained. This is because there are so many people trying to pass The Episode of Bardock off as Dragon Ball Hoshi, saying it’s the new series and so on, when it’s really just a one time special.
And thank you! I’m glad you liked the article. Did you know you can search the site for keywords, or use the categories on the top right of the sidebar? That way you can read the subjects you’re interested in.
i did not realize that, though im a fan of this writing in general so i think I’ll just get to a point where I’ve read everything on the site soon enough, and i now see what this dragon ball hoshi was, i had heard there was a fan made special retelling many stories including bardock and master muten roshi’s kamehameha, i suppose that the second half of that is untrue then *sigh* oh well, looks like I’m still looking for that AF-like thing all these years later lol
Not exist some called Dragon Ball AF. But i hope some serie new o the continuation of dragon Ball. I always have desired the life of Pan, Oob, Bra, Marron, Trunks, Goten.
And Dragon Ball GT not is well maked for my.
Yeah, most people didn’t like GT and have always hoped for a new series.
Look at this thread I created on Daizenshuu Ex: http://daizex.fanboyreview.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&… ,
Dragon Ball AF has his origin on a spanish magazine on 1999, and it wasn’t goku ss5, it was Vegetto!!
Thank you for giving this to me!
This is really fascinating. But it’s not necessarily proof he was the first one to draw it. I’d like to jump to that conclusion, but I can’t because of all the anecdotal evidence. See my comment on your thread for more detail.
If I can find definitive proof, then I will update the article stating this. I should update the article anyway with these images, but I’m not sure how to do that yet. I’m going to wait and see what others in the community have to say. Thanks again though!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embed…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYB1Xoi5UBI&li…
Tenshinhan’s pic is great!
It’s a nice drawing for sure. Although it bothers me that he’s not sitting in full lotus. It would be absolutely agonizing to hold his current position while floating in the air and fighting against 10 times gravity.
Look,it seems Tenshinhan has new powers.Can you explain a little about it?
BTW,is there anyone from namcobandai we can contact to show this pic?
I have not followed the Dragon Ball AF story very well. I’m not sure what Tenshinhan’s new powers are, so I wouldn’t be able to explain them yet.
You should check out the manga by Toyble and Young Jiji and see if he’s in there. Maybe it explains them.
are the makers of DBZ lazy come on make a new story
i agree with you all the views the fake dbaf got, just imagine the real deal. I mean i totally think that they shuld make another story line, its what the fans want!! :)
plz plz plz!!!!!!!!!
make DB AF,i m waiting for it from very long time and i can pay whatever u charge 4 it……
plz make it
if they made db AF real omg! think how much money they would make it would make the fans happy i think the fans wouldn’t mind paying for this new series BTW why doesnt he want make DB AF real always wanted to know this.
if there gonna make DragonBall AF just only get the sayains to super sayain 5 and maybe have super sayain 6 if they want to. it would be, even though they dont rate shows, they need to rated it, rated AWESOME!
The picture of the series Dragon Ball Hoshi is basically a picture of some of the characters in dragon ball hero (A game that only in japan).
I don’t really get it, how does Chi chi and Bulma transform into super sayains, they are just humans. There is really no limit to Goku’s power, he said it himself on Dragon Ball GT.
O yeah i agree on the fake pics.
well y wnt they mke a acual real af series.. it would be worth they money
they could take some of the ideas and make a whole nother series.
My honest opinion is most of the shows start with manga’s. The fact more people are watching db / dbz then ever gives it a great comeback. Its sad for those that made this don’t see it as a good opportunity to get some new fans. As mentioned that manga is beautify made and could be used in some background of a new series. I have to say though that fans do get carried away and some of this bullshit needs to stop being slandered around. Ex. humans obtaining ssj’s and ssj50 shit. That’s more disappointing then spreading rumors about the AF series.
200years after frieza? gohan a teacher, pan still a little girl ?
i hope there talking about the reincarnations because. the very end of GT. Pan was a old women, and her grandson was called goku again.
i know its fake, sadly though
Super saiyan 5 goku looked pretty badass but everyone else being super saiyan 5 is kinda too far out there only Goku should be able to reach that far lol
If they make another dragon ball series I most likely guarantee ya’ll it will be corny I like how the old dragon ball z’s looked and dragon ball gt I thinking dragon ball z and dragon ball gt were the best in my opinion I actually think Dragon ball gt is very nice and I know this may sound weird but dragon ball gt in japanese with english subtitles is so much more better, it even cusses feels more real life to me in japanese.
I agree that Dragon Ball GT in Japanese with English subtitles is much better than the English dub. I find it painful to watch the English dub, to be honest.
Does anybody else think that this af shit is gay but they should make another dbz sires to shut everybody up and put rest to the corny ass YouTube videos
I think with the new movie coming out in 2013 Toriyama got the interest back to work on Dragonball projects again I never thought this would happen but theres a very good chance a series could be done in the future
thanks i really liked it and i enjoyed
Fuck u niggas i got used to their voices and goku in jap sounds like a bitch but they should make new episodes
I don’t know how recent this post is, but maybe you should check the increase on the Google search term “Dragon Ball AF by Toyble” Because being the only person to try and create a new manga series many people have actually pressured “Toyble” to (trying to get Mr. Toriyama’s approval as well) start franchising this manga. After reading this article I checked into this to see if Toyble really was good at creating manga as you said he was.
(i.e. “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.”)
I agree that this Toyble has a good artistic side and support him if he ever does decide to try and franchise his fan-made manga. Really if you think about it Fan’s who have gossiped about DB AF since 97′ – 2012 (Younger to Older / Believers to Non-Believers) would be ecstatic if everything they did from fan art to wacky story-lines actually was released as an official maybe “What-If” series (popular in a wide range of DB Video Games i.e. Budokai 3’s “What If” saga). As you said above Toriyama said he would not be making a next installment in the DB series, but whats to say that he doesn’t just bring in Toyble… (Seriously what is this guy’s name? I feel like every time I type this name, I’m talking about a ghost or something). …and work with his team on making ever fan’s dream a reality. It’s evident that with this new movie coming out in 2013 which is backed by Toriyama that he hasn’t lost his spark for the series. So why not please an enormous steadily growing fan-base? In conclusion as you can see I’m a very big fan of the DB series and I support Toriyama in any decision that he make for the future, I also want to point out that real or fake (obviously fake, but for the sake of a good ending) that I support all the fans and Dragon Ball AF 150% because that just goes to show how far one manga/anime series and really inspire a large group of people.
I hope this wasn’t too big of a post just really had a lot to say beings as this is one of my favorite series
i miss dbz sooooo much peopke shuld realy make that the dbz fans should get together and make it and get it on air i mean seriously!!! most dbz fans grew up with it and teo if you see this please make more dbz for every ones sake so we dont have to hear false thinking
i agree with you.
Someone must have used the dragon balls. We now have Dragon Ball Super.
Enjoy, fellow fans.
^_^
pleace start new episodes
all i have to say is pls make this my world i would surly be glued to t.v. my wife couldn’t get me away.
look fake or not af is still proof that we otakus have our pride and we will still have it til we finish AF
i rea;;y want a new DBZ series ……….. i know it is fake but i wait till my last breathe for the new official series ………..
Looks like Shenron granted your wish. We now have Dragon Ball Super.
Enjoy, fellow fan.
;)
i born 1997 well since 3 years i have been waiting for dragon ball Af and DR but as you explains no more dragon ball, is sad to said but is the true. i were really looking forward for dragon ball, hope that one day them make another dragon ball….-_-
Apparently there will be a new Dragon Ball Z movie entitled “Battle of the Gods” which will be out this month (March 2013). I landed here while I was digging around for some good ol’ DBZ infos and checking to see how the DBAF doujin is going, seems like many newbie fans are still going for it. I’ve been a DBZ fan for as long as 1994, and I think I have been a fan long enough to realize right off the bat that the new Dragon Ball series with the ‘AF’ is someone’s idea of a joke, I also heard of other renditions like the ‘Dragon Ball R’, which was rumored to be the continuation of the Dragon Ball story through Goku junior.
Hopefully the creators will see how much their fans want a new Dragon Ball and make one. It would bring in more fans and profit. I really want a new series!!!
Don’t see why Akira Toriyama isn’t writing new dragon ball manga, the story and characters are too cool to slowly fade away.
Well, I hear that akira guy is making that battle of gods movie ? the new dbz one. So maybe, just maybe. if this movie goes well he will come back and make a new series
The movie is already out in Japan and is a huge success. Already made over 2 Billion Yen. So yeah, maybe we’ll get a new series. Have to wait and see.
i thought af was real but it turns out it isny when is the next series coimg it cant end at this part of stroy because ther are clues that indicate it will continue such as goku telling piccolo that one day he will get out of hell and him goingto realm of eternal dragons and masterroshi saying thanks for the dragonballs goku andi hope your journey makes it back someday and they way theended it till we meetagain guys ahahahah the end they use that excat same thingfor both z and gt ending so it must continue
what ya think do ya argee with me
In the 2013 movie “Battle of Gods” The God of Destruction “Bills” said that there were 12 universes and they were #7 and there are probably even stronger beings out there. A good story line would be to create a new ova known as the “AF” afterlife or whatever and then make Goku and Vegeta achieve ss5 whilst being trained under Bills supervision and his teacher Whis, then go and travel and see the other universes. :).
I’m surprized you didn’t even mention PGV’s Dragonball AF (look for it on facebook) and
Dragonball Budokai AF. They have also better action figures. This article is incomplete.
Thanks, for the recommendations Albert. If you feel it’s incomplete, you can supplement the article and provide links to those sources in your comment, rather than making me or other people look for them.
The article was never intended to be an index of all fan-made comics across the world with the name AF in them. It does however fully achieve the goal of what was intended.
I was hearing that along with the new movie that they are making (the new battle of gods) that they are going to make an extra 200 episodes or more… i hope it is true and I think it is since I looked into it and i think that it traces back to the correct people (cannot type the name) but i still have no clue. Any one else heard about it????
ive never heard about it but that would be the greatest thing ever for dragonball fans across the globe. it would also bring in new fans of this generation adding to the ones of before. probably bringing in more and more money. i truly wish they would do this.
Dragon Ball AF is actually a video game! :D
(includes Ssj5 Goku,Vegeta and Broly
And then battle of.the gods .was made
dragon ball budokai af game is real
Finally a great article that hopefully people actually read lol.
But I do miss Dragonball Z. Been really getting into DBNA, great story.
Son Gokū wouldn’t let that happen, as Four-Star Dragon Ball represents Grandpa Gohan’s Shén — you’d be Shindeiru’d w/ a Genki Dama
Derek, you should Extinguish these trolls dishonoring attempts to tarnish Dào of Dragon Ball posts :-/
I did mark it as spam, but it didn’t work. Sorry about that. Just deleted.
hi everyone.. can i ask?? like you i am a Dragon ball fan..But what do think will happened if the dragon ball AF is real and release as an anime? what do you think will happen to all famous anime like naruto and one piece and all other anime who had battling for ratings?? maybe that is the reason why Mr. Toriyama’s did not want to create another dragon ball series because it has a big impact to all famous anime in this generation. and Mr. Toriyama is a legend in anime world he inspired many manga artist to create a new breed of anime. I saw the DB AF fan made video in youtube it has a 2 episode and i was fascinated how they work this fan made video and it was amazing even though the animation is rough.And like you i hope this DB AF become an official anime series but its to impossible to become true… sorry for the grammar i am not in english.. ^^
I approve of this message, im as well a fan, but your right. if dragon ball af did happen to air, or another sequal to the series were to air, not only would tori have a hard time trying to stop all the tears when he ended the series just as he did with GT, and deal with enraged fans, but then the newer manga artists trying to get their show aired, or supported would be less likely to be seen, or supported because everyones sucked into dragon ball AF, and ya the rateings would drop severly, for all other high demanded animes. althought I Truly wish for another series, I would believe, that its best that we move on. Dragon ball was the anime that united the world with anime I believe
i need more dragon ball z or else I’ll die
EVERYBODY WHO LOVES DRAGON BALL A LOT READ THIS NOW!!! There is a new
fan made animation for dragon ball and it’s very legit actually,
completely legit! there doesn’t seem to be any photo-shop at all because
as we all know, people just photo-shop stuff and sell it as their own
but this one is completely legit! I’ts called “Dragon Ball Absalon”! It
appears to be sort of a re-creation of Dragon Ball AF but only it’s
called Dragon Ball Absalon! The story line is different from AF but
there are characters from it that are in Dragon Ball Absalon! The
creator/animator for this wonderful animation is Mellaveli and lots and
lots of voice actors that I won’t mention because there are too many of
them but Mellaveli works real hard to feed us of our hunger for more
Dragon Ball! Lots and lots of people swear and insult him for the
humongous gap that it takes for every episode to come out but really, I
personally think those guys are **** heads (no offence) for that because
I know that to make seconds in animations it take hours! The first
minute or so of the first episode of Dragon Ball Absalon is horrible but
that’s just the first minute that’s bad but the rest is amazing
graphics and everything! I hope this helps all of you people who love
Dragon Ball as much as I do!
Here are some of the links:
Link to Mellaveli: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFumqlOOt7nv4h_FGyZYF6Q
Now here is a link to another fan made manga that is very good it’s called Dragon Ball
Multiverse! Here is a links to it: http://www.dragonball-multiverse.com/en/chapters.html
Good-bye everybody and as I always say, have a great day!(syke j.k. that’s Quamaans land!)
im 13 and i watched both z kai and gt. i loved it, i thought they should make more series to this because even younger kids can enjoy this show just like i still do. i even recorded the whole series on t.v. of gt so i can watch it whenever i want. super saiyan 5 sounds cool and all but why not make a series when pan is the main character and becomes super saiyan 2,3, and eventually 4 doing this all with her trusty side kick giru and a boyfriend met in a another galaxy she met when fighting some random race. that i would watch
That’s a cool idea. If they do that, then I’d like Pan to have an official and well written story by Toriyama, where he actually redeems her character as someone who isn’t complaining all the time. I bet Pan could be really awesome and inspire a lot of young girls across the world.
and thanks for this article, it cleared up alot of things for me
You’re welcome. Glad you enjoyed it.
when will it come out i need to watch more dragon ball z series ASAP i miss it
Who thinks we should start a kick starter fund for a celebrity spokesman whom is also a fan of dbz, and have them get an interview and a meeting with the original creators for some dbz AF? Honestly, if they got some great writers together and planned on a nice 35-40 episode saga to end it all…. I mean.. Yea. I’d say pan would become an omnipotent; omnipresent being after witnessing the greatest tragedy dbz has seen, she would acheive this buy using the spirit bomb technique. The technique would allow all the Kai’s and all the power of the eternal dragons to be obsorbed into pan. Of course you’d have all the awesomeness of ss5 goku(with the white hair) and some type of plot twist that would allow the z fighters to engage in battle against each other(possibly goku killing gohan to trigger the previously mention tragedy of pan). Let me know what you guys think!
Just wishful thinking people, don’t hate me please.
Do you know that super saiyan 5 has the same hair color as the planet goku landed on after goku fought friza. You know the planet with a thousand time’s gravity where the goddess try’ed to saduce goku.The planet turned silver after goku left the planet.What if that goddess is still around.Did she die.Well I was thinking she could of remained at goku brain.I think some one need’s a dream catcher.If I we’re chi chi that’s what I would be using.To get that goddess out of goku dream realm.Also I think goku should wish chi chi is younge again if that hasn’t ready happen.If you bring the dream world into dragon ball af with a different view like goku flying off into darkness in a dream to get to the dragon ball’s and wish for.Well the only way it will work maybe if a namik was there.May be you could interduce goku to his family and friend’s.I would like to be a character of dragon ball af.I love dragon ball z also and gt.I saw some of dragon ball.I was thinking I came up with battle of god’s.I watch dragon ball z so I use’t to train like master roshi training or king kai training.Like I thought about dragon ball z a lot and that I tried so many move’s with my thought like try to think I did push up with forming a thought of my self doing a push up and also a muscle flex aura power.I tried to put thought weight against my self.I believe I told akira toryima by thought to make dragon ball z battle of god’s My mom had 12 kid’s and three died there are 9 left of us.There where twelve god’s.Also I trained on Psychic power’s like picking up water but I not to sure I can tell more.I would if I could.Okay everyone have a kamekameya day
WTF!?
um………….wut
I also ment that is goku super saiyan five from the godess
Hi.. Iam Robin..me and my frnd(rafin) are making a dbaf comic related to all the fan made also the real ones..we ‘ll release it soon..in Bangladesh..the drawings are made by me..and u will see it soon..The drawings are just like Toriyama style..And we’ll release the first chapter soon..on our facebook page..
Any links??
If you thought about it a continuation of dragon ball would get stale; a new enemy pops up and goku needs to go super saiyan 5 and it would just get old. I was sad at the end of GT but i knew that they would lose people if akira and toei continued dragonball, we all know this is the truth
look i swear to god what you just siad is all fake you stupid ass because iam the official creator of dbzaf and those villians i dont know where the hell you got it from mybe from my friends look i got the offical espiodes at my house remember mr derek my name is the lemon now no my power
Lol dbz super is coming out in like a year and manga in like 5 months how old is this?
This article was published on Feb 13, 2012.
AF is a piece of shit.. good thing dragonball super is just around the corner.
Guess someone used the Dragon Balls to grant our wish. XD
Which of the fan mangas is better- Toyble’s or Young Jijii’s?
Great job for your article, very nicely done. You forgot to talk about the quality fanfic Dragon Ball Multiverse:
http://dragonballmultiverse.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon_Ball_Multiverse
And now, a few years later than when this article was written, there is an official sequel to Dragon Ball Z, written by Akira Toriyama himself: Dragon Ball Super. Published in manga and anime simultaneously. Finally, all ends well for DB fans.
Right on both counts, grosbedo. Multiverse and Super are both great for DB fans.
Hey Derek, thank you for this.
By the way, have you written any more articles like this.
One more thing, the Dragon ball hoshi link isn’t working, can you please repost it.
Hi Bryan. Here’s my other article on AF, titled Dragon Ball AF Origin Revealed. https://thedaoofdragonball.com/blog/fans/dragon-ball-af-origin-revealed/
And I updated the link to the Hoshi article. Also here: https://thedaoofdragonball.com/blog/fans/dragon-ball-hoshi-explained/
Thanks
And now Toyble is making Dragon Ball Heroes and Dragon Ball Super he is really good
Yeah, and then he changed his name to Toyotarō.
He was a Japanese fan who created his own fan manga as Toyble and got his talents noticed by Shueisha. Working with Toriyama every day. Lucky guy!
I belive he will be one of the next good mangakas if he will do this job in the future not only under Toriyama.
Toriyama said he wanted to pass his legacy to him ya know
THE ORIGIN OF FIRST DRAWING IS SPAIN Songoku SS5 here I leave PAIR OF LINKS
http://www.hobbyconsolas.com/reportajes/dragon-ball-af-origen-fanart-definitivo-134046
http://af-dragonball.blogspot.com.es/
Just awesome topic! Unfortunately, I found this article too late – I already found the answer on another service. BTW, if anyone needs to fill out a AF IMT 24, I found a blank fillable form here
http://goo.gl/27sS24.We collect dragon balls and ask wish for not happen ending like that goku going away by time travelling