One of the biggest debates in Dragon Ball Super has officially been settled: Gohan and Piccolo's new forms from the movie Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero will soon become official canon in the manga too. The teaser for the new Dragon Ball Super arc includes a reference to the new powerful transformations that Gohan and Piccolo debuted in the movie, which pretty much settles things.

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero had the merit of putting the spotlight on two characters that found little time to shine in the manga and its anime adaptation, Gohan and Piccolo. Dragon Ball Super has mostly focused on Goku and Vegeta until now, but fans were clamoring to see more of other favorite characters, which is one of the reasons for the success of Super Hero. The movie gave Gohan and Piccolo two powerful new forms, Gohan Beast and Orange Piccolo, but the question remained if they had to be considered canon for the series or not, as the events of the franchise's movies usually sit in a weird, grey area of canonicity.

Related: Dragon Ball's Beast Gohan Gets Epic Transformation in New Fan Animation

The announcement of a new story arc for the Dragon Ball Super manga cleared any doubts. Thanks to (now removed) tweets from Dragon Ball news sources such as @DBSChronicles, fans outside of Japan know that the January 2023 issue of the magazine V-Jump (published in November 2022) contains a teaser announcement of the new arc, which confirms that, when the manga returns to serialization on December 20, the story will adapt the events of Super Hero, while also adding a prequel focused on Goten and Trunks. The announcement also specifically mentions Gohan Beast and Orange Piccolo, meaning that they will undoubtedly appear in the manga.

The Dragon Ball Super Manga Will Explain Gohan Beast And Orange Piccolo

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After Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero came out, many fans started debating if the events of the movie should be actually considered canon (as was the case for Dragon Ball Super: Broly), and when they actually fit the timeline of the series. The absence of Goku and Vegeta from the story made fans believe that Super Hero is set during the Granolah the Survivor Arc from the manga, but the appearance of Goten and Trunks as grown-ups proves that the movie actually takes place a few years in the future. Just like it happened with Broly, the manga will take the majority of the events in the movie, including Gohan and Piccolo's new transformations, and make them canon, while also adding new details that had to be left out of the film.

This means that fans will finally get to know more about Gohan Beast and Orange Piccolo. In the movie, both of these power-ups sort of happened without a lot of explanation, due to runtime constraints. The manga thus has the chance to explain how Gohan unlocked this new form from his Potential Unleashed state, and why Shenron was able to grant Piccolo his new transformation through a simple wish. Fans of Dragon Ball Super who were already excited about the upcoming next arc of the manga now have something else to look forward to: the debut of Gohan and Piccolo's new powerful transformations.

Next: Dragon Ball Super Teases Piccolo's Huge Role For Next Arc

Source: @DBSChronicles. Original source: Shueisha's V-Jump magazine, January 2023 issue (published in November 2022).