After the end of the anime of Dragon Ball: Super, the manga continued the story. Now, the head of Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero explains whether some of the new characters from the manga will make it into his game on Steam.
Which characters are involved? The Dragon Ball: Super manga has a total of 103 chapters by March 2024. The storylines covered in the anime up to the end of the Tournament of Power and concerning the fate of the universe only include the chapters up to 42. The remaining 61 chapters tell a total of four story arcs that have not yet been animated or dubbed.
Accordingly, a whole lot of new characters appear in them. Specifically, the 10 million-year-old Star Eater
Moro and Granolah, the last survivor of the Cerealian people, would be exciting candidates for the latest game.
Regarding whether characters that have only appeared in the manga will also make it into Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, producer Jun Furutani has now spoken. Some of the characters that have already been confirmed for the game can be seen in the trailer:
Adapting manga characters? Difficult.
Will the characters come to the game? In an interview with IGN, Jun Furutani is asked whether characters from the manga will make it into Dragon Ball Super. Specifically, the interviewer asks if Moro and Granolah could make it into the game. They are two of the most exciting new characters.
Furutani responds to this, somewhat defensively:
The short answer is that it is difficult for him to talk about these things. Yeah, yeah. Due to various situations. I’m sure you understand that.
Furthermore, they do not address the question in the interview but instead turn directly to other topics.
What are possible reasons for the response? In an article on the topic, The Gamer suggests several theories. Primarily, it is suspected that the early death of Akira Toriyama, the creator of the series, continues to have a strong influence on the production of all Dragon Ball products like anime, manga, and games.
As Moro and Granolah have also never been animated and do not have their own voice actors in any language, the adaptation hurdle could be further increased: Games like Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero draw their inspiration from the manga template but primarily from the anime series and films.
To ensure that the series, movies, and games fit together, the games hire existing voice actors whenever possible. In Japan, but of course also overseas. If no voice actors for characters have been selected yet, the casting effort falls back on the development team of the game.
Depending on how anime adaptations of Dragon Ball proceed, there may still be hope for Moro and Granolah. If a continuation of Super adapts the two, they could potentially make it into the game at a later time. By the way, MyMMO editor Jasmin Beverungen is absolutely excited about Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero: With Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, I feel like I’m 12 again, it reminds me of the good times with Super Smash Bros.
