Akira Toriyama's classic Dragon Ball manga covers have been ranked by Japanese fans.As reported by Twitter user @DBSChronicles, Japanese manga site Futabanet asked Dragon Ball fans to vote on their favorite covers from the original manga. Unsurprisingly, the first volume's cover, which features an iconic image of a young Goku riding the wish-granting dragon Shenron, came in at the top spot. Second place went to Volume 10, which spotlights Bulma, while third place went to Volume 27, which features the climax of Goku and Frieza's planet shattering battle. The fourth spot went to the original manga series' final volume, which has a cover that shows Goku flying into space while saying thank you and waving goodbye to the readers. The top five was rounded out by Volume 32, the final collected volume of the Cell saga. The rankings were determined by a selection of 200 readers, whose ages ranged from teenagers to long-time fans in their 40s.
A lot of attention has been focused on Akira Toriyama's manga covers in the lead-up to the series' upcoming 40th anniversary. Shueisha, the publishing company behind Dragon Ball and the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine where it was originally serialized, recently began the cover-based Dragon Ball Super Gallery Project. The project has selected 42 other famous manga artists to redraw classic Toriyama's classic Dragon Ball manga covers in their own style, with a new cover being released every month until the anniversary date arrives. Previous artists who took part in the project include Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto, Bleach's Tite Kubo, Beelzebub artist Ryuhei Tamura, Kochikame's Osamu Akimoto and Chainsaw Man and Look Back creator Tatsuki Fujimoto. Some of the covers are faithful recreations of Toriyama's original work, while others, such as the cover drawn by Demon Slayer creator Koyoharu Gotouge, simply use the original work as a loose inspiration for a brand new piece. The most recent entry in the project came from Sket Dance creator Kenta Shinohara, who drew a fairly direct interpretation of Volume 9's original cover, which featured Goku and Bulma riding some sort of dinosaur creature.
Dragon Ball first premiered in 1984 and is now the third best-selling manga series in history, with over 260 million copies in circulation worldwide. Goku's adventures continue to this day with the on-going Dragon Ball Super manga, which is still overseen by Toriyama and features art by his successor, Toyotarou. The franchise will release its newest movie, entitled Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, in Japan this April, with a North American release scheduled for the summer of 2022.
Source: Twitter