The artist behind Darling in the Franxx has provided new cover art featuring the Androids from Dragon Ball Z. This is one of the many redesigns being featured by the Dragon Ball Super Project Gallery commemorating the series' upcoming anniversary. The eighteenth cover reimagines the thirty-first volume of the manga.On Twitter, Shonen Jump News shared the eighteenth redesign in the Dragon Ball Super Project Gallery. It is illustrated by Kentaro Yabuki, the artist of To Love Ru and Darling in the Franxx, and creator of Ayakashi Triangle. It alters the composition, shifting some of the original elements of the cover around, though it keeps the majority of them. The car is still included with Dragon Ball Volume 31's number on it. Androids 16, 17, and 18 are still present on the cover. However, now there is a snowy backdrop and Cell's first Dragon Ball form is nowhere to be seen.
Dragon Ball's Androids Get a Stylish Makeover
Beginning serialization in 1984, Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball is coming up on its fortieth anniversary in 2024. Numerous iconic mangaka and artists have been providing their spins on the manga's many covers, from Tite Kubo and Akira Amano to Yusei Matsui and Tatsuya Endo. While these acclaimed artists have tackled a wide range of the series' subject, this is the first cover in the Dragon Ball Super Project Gallery to feature the Androids.
Dragon Ball Vol. 31 (Dragon Ball Z Vol. 15) continues its focus on Cell and the Androids, with "The Terror of Cell", moving from the Imperfect Cell saga to the Perfect Cell saga within the Androids Group arc of the series. This follows a while after the debut of Trunks with his warning of the future battle against androids. This redesign removes a lot of the action present in the original cover, as the Androids are all standing outside the car instead of driving it as Cell looms in the background. This portion of Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z is a far cry from the tournament arcs present throughout and the reimagined cover removes a lot of the threatening theme the original possessed.
Kentaro Yabuki, like many other mangaka, has expressed that Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball was a major source of influence and education. Yabuki has worked on numerous manga, including Black Cat, To Love Ru, Mayoi Neko Overrun!, a manga adaptation of the original manga Darling in the Franxx, and most recently, Ayakashi Triangle. Ayakashi Triangle is still serializing, spanning twelve volumes, and recently began airing its anime adaptation in January. Given its nearly 40-year history, it is no surprise that Dragon Ball has influenced so many manga creators. Like Dragon Ball Z's Androids and their redesign from Darling in the Franxx's Kentaro Yabuki, many more characters from the series are still to come with later cover art, as the Dragon Ball Super Project Gallery continues.
Source: Shonen Jump News