According to promotion efforts for the upcoming Dragon Ball Genkidamatsuri- a special celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Dragon Ball anime, hope has renewed for the reveal of a possible continuation of the Dragon Ball Super anime and/or manga, following the tragic passing of Akira Toriyama.
Specifically, promotion and advertising efforts for the event are being put forth by seemingly every party involved with the Dragon Ball franchise, including Toei, Akio Iyoki, the former head of Shueisha's (the Dragon Ball publisher) Dragon Ball Room, and the late Akira Toriyama's official spokesperson and Shuiesha.
Previously, the latter two parties were locked in a contentious battle following Toriyama's passing, a dispute that reportedly led to the hiatus status of the Dragon Ball Super manga and the decision to release Dragon Ball Daima instead of continuing Super.
Well, promotional efforts for Genkidamatsuri seemingly now have these two joining hands for a major announcement TWO MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENTS.
Leading Dragon Ball Youtuber Geekdom 101 breaks down the news in the video below.
As Geekdom broke down, the event is promising to reveal "two major projects" along with a "video game announcement". And again, the Genkidamatsuri event on January 26th in Japan is being HEAVILY promoted by Akio Iyoki's Capsule Corporation Tokyo, Shuiesha, Toei, Bandai, pretty much everyone that has anything to do with Dragon Ball.
In addition, legendary Goku voice actor Masako Nozawa is confirmed to attend, along with Japanese singer and composer Hironobu Kageyama, who famously wrote and provided the opening Cha-La Head-Cha-La.
The Dragon Ball Super manga has been on a prolonged break since March 2024, and the manga's editor Victory Uchida has already confirmed that the manga won’t resume in 2025, leaving the next chapter of the main story, the Black Frieza Saga, on indefinite hold.
As for the anime, the televised run wrapped up on March 25, 2018, with Episode 131. Although the series ended there, the story continued on the big screen through two canon films: Dragon Ball Super: Broly in 2018 and Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero in 2022.
If the anime ever comes back to adapt the material created after the Tournament of Power, there’s plenty waiting to be animated.
Three full arcs and one shorter prologue remain untouched in anime form including the Galactic Patrol Prisoner Arc (the Moro Arc), the Granolah the Survivor Arc, and the Super Hero Arc, which would largely re-tell the 2022 film.
That's about 62 chapters of the manga that could be animated, which could theoretically account for about 70-80 new episodes as the Dragon Ball Super anime previously adapted about 0.5 to 1.0 chapters of the manga per episode.