One lucky Dragon Ball fan will soon take home a unique replica of Piccolo's cape.
The official Japanese Dragon Ball Twitter account has kicked off a new contest, where the grand prize is a one-of-a-kind, hand-crafted replica of Piccolo's trademark white cape, complete with a high, bundled collar and wide, pointy shoulder pads. In order to enter the contest, fans simply have to follow the Twitter account and retweet the contest announcement before May 15. The winner will be selected randomly and will be notified via direct message. Unfortunately for the series' millions of international fans, the contest is only open to residents within Japan.
The contest is being held to promote the upcoming release of the latest movie in the series, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. Piccolo will play a major role in the film, which has a story that concentrates on the master/student relationship between the Namekian warrior and his first martial arts pupil, Gohan. Set sometime after the events of the Moro arc, the movie will see the pair fighting side-by-side once again as they do battle with Gamma 1 and Gamma 2, a new pair of android fighters created by the Red Ribbon Army. Piccolo will debut a new transformation in the movie, which gives the former-villain a new golden color scheme, while Gohan will wear his own replica of his mentor's outfit, including the cape.
Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero was originally planned to debut in Japan on April 22, but production on the movie was significantly delayed after Toei Animation, the studio that has handled all of the franchise's animation duties since the original 1986 TV anime, fell victim to a targeted ransomware attack. The movie is now scheduled to premiere in the region on June 11. Crunchyroll recently announced that it will distribute the film internationally and plans to give it a theatrical release sometime this summer.
Fans looking to see more of Piccolo and his cool cape can catch up on the entire Dragon Ball saga on Crunchyroll, which is now streaming every anime series in the franchise, ranging from the original 1986 series to the 2017 animated adaptation of Dragon Ball Super.
Dragon Ball was created by Akira Toriyama in 1984 and has since become one of the best-selling manga series of all time, with over 300 million copies in circulation around the world. The series is widely credited with helping to establish anime and manga's mainstream popularity outside of Japan. The complete original manga, as well as its on-going sequel series, Dragon Ball Super, are distributed in English by publisher VIZ Media.