Not Impossible For Dragon Ball Super To Continue Without Akira Toriyama, Toyotaro Says
Dragon Ball Super manga artist Toyotaro has stated that it won’t be impossible to continue the popular series without its original creator, the late Akira Toriyama. The statement was made during a stage conference at Japan Expo on July 3, 2025.
Toyotaro started off by explaining his collaborative process with Toriyama, revealing that he was responsible for writing the story for Dragon Ball Super
On other occasions, Toriyama would provide story ideas for Toyotaro to review and suggest changes, which Toriyama would then give final approval on.
Due to this involvement in the process of writing the manga’s story, Toyotaro believed that continuing Dragon Ball Super without Toriyama would be “not easy, but not impossible.”
Toyotaro had confirmed in an earlier interview that he has already developed and drawn material for future arcs of Dragon Ball Super.
However, the path forward for the franchise is complex. While Toyotaro has been a key creative force, he does not hold the intellectual property rights to Dragon Ball and therefore cannot unilaterally decide on the manga’s continuation.
When questioned about a potential return date for the manga, former Dragon Ball editor Kazuhiko Torishima, who also attended the Japan Expo panel, deferred to the corporate entities involved — “Shueisha, Toei [Animation], and the company in charge of Toriyama’s estate.”
The future of the series is further complicated by reports of a struggle over the franchise’s rights following Toriyama’s passing. These reports suggested a division of control between publisher Shueisha, and a separate entity, Capsule Corporation Tokyo, led by Toriyama’s longtime editor and confidant Akio Iyoku.
Dragon Ball Super manga began its serialization in the August 2015 issue of Shueisha’s monthly V Jump magazine, which was released on June 20, 2015.
The series ran uninterrupted for several years, continuing the adventures of Son Goku and his friends beyond the events of the original Dragon Ball manga. However, following the passing of creator Akira Toriyama, the manga went on an indefinite hiatus.
The last chapter before the break, Chapter 103, was published in the May 2024 issue of V Jump, released on March 20, 2024. This final chapter concluded the “Super Hero” arc, which was an adaptation of the 2022 film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
Following this a one-shot focusing on Goten and Trunks was released as chapter 104, and compiled into the 24th volume of the manga. A full color version of this volume released in Japan on July 4, 2025.
Source: X