Dragon Ball's New Anime Proves That Toei Is Holding The Franchise Back

Published Nov 3, 2026, 8:00 PM EST

Since graduating from The Los Angeles Film School, Jason has worked as an editor for the local news, as well as a producer of several short films and podcasts. His extensive knowledge of film production and narrative storytelling has enabled him to travel the world, writing about the projects he is passionate about in the realms of film, anime, and gaming.
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People who grew up loving Dragon Ball are currently able to enjoy the weekly releases of the Japanese version of Dragon Ball Super: Beerus series, but the hype for the improved anime could be higher. Revised animations, pacing, and entirely new sequences have made the newest release more than a standard remaster. But that hasn't stopped Toei, the anime's producers, from making the same mistakes it's been repeating for more than 13 years.

The Battle of Gods movie and Dragon Ball Super anime series helped make Akira Toriyama's franchise more popular than ever. Their dramatic success proved the world still had a big appetite for more adventures with Goku and his friends. And while the Dragon Ball Super: Broly and Super Hero movies delivered in many ways, those who control the rights and production schedules of the beloved franchise have failed to capitalize on that success, holding the franchise back from reaching its full potential.

During the premiere of Dragon Ball Super's final episodes, which featured the incredibly epic conclusion of the universal Tournament of Power, fans flooded the streets of major cities around the world to cheer and enjoy the series together. The anime garnered that sort of reception with the release of the Japanese version of the series, but one can't help but wonder if the hype would have been even greater if the series' largest markets released their dubs at the same time in movie theaters.

Dragon Ball's Lack Of Simultaneous Dub Releases Hurt Its Hype

Judging by how the world's most popular anime streaming platform, Crunchyroll, has experienced crashes during several anticipated Dragon Ball Super moments, it's clear that a lot of fans around the world are more than willing to watch the series with subtitles. However, there is still a large percentage of hardcore Dragon Ball fans who prefer to wait and watch the franchise's newest releases with the iconic voice actors they grew up with. Unfortunately for them, some of the wait times for those dubs have been much longer than others.

The Japanese language version of the Dragon Ball Super anime premiered in July 2015, with the English version not releasing until January 2017. That was a considerable amount of time for arguably the world's most popular anime series to release its English dub, one of the franchise's largest markets/demographics. Because of the separate release schedules, hype for new releases can be hindered, compared to if Toei made sure the largest markets around the world had their dubs ready so that new Dragon Ball content could be released at the same time in multiple languages.

Since the Dragon Ball Super anime ended, there have been two movies and one completely separate anime series, Dragon Ball: Daima, released. While the movies made hundreds of millions of dollars at the worldwide box office, Daima received a much more lukewarm reception. Unsurprisingly, all of those releases saw the Japanese version released first, with the English versions of the movies releasing only around a month later. And while English fans did not need to wait as long as they did for the Dragon Ball Super dub, Daima's dub took an extra three months to begin streaming.

Dragon Ball’s current fragmented release model holds it back from even greater heights. Toei is repeating that mistake with Dragon Ball Super: Beerus, which began releasing on Crunchyroll on October 11, 2026. The English dub is likely being worked on as I type this article, but its release date has yet to be announced. And unless Toei changes its current production processes, the highly anticipated Dragon Ball Super: Galactic Patrol arc will also suffer from an uncoordinated launch. And that isn't the only way that Toei is hurting the franchise's potential.

Theatrical Anime Releases Have Changed The Game

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Newer anime series like Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer have dramatically altered the increasingly popular anime medium in several beneficial and lucrative ways. While their incredible quality and pacing have helped them stand out from many other anime productions, their theatrical releases have both earned their distributors millions of dollars in profit and been used to greatly increase the world's excitement for their anime series' returns. Both qualities that Toei is not currently utilizing with Dragon Ball.

The producers of Demon Slayer's anime have created the perfect format for milking a franchise for all it's worth. Before the decision to make the series' final arc into three separate movies, they helped open Pandora's box with the release of the 2020 film Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train. After the first season’s huge success, millions of fans worldwide hotly anticipated its continuation. When the next section of the story was released as a two-hour movie, that large fanbase was more than anxious to pay for a movie ticket to see the next part on the big screen.

Almost six months later, Demon Slayer's second season finally began releasing on Crunchyroll. It also covered the Mugen Train arc but with additional content and scenes that could not fit in the movie. Fans who were able to see that part of the story in the theaters were more than anxious to share their experience online, which generated even more hype for the anime's return for those who were not able to see the movie in theaters. It was a brilliant business tactic, but future theatrical anime releases would not execute this strategy nearly as effectively.

One of my biggest movie theater disappointments in 2025 was Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution. The series' Shibuya arc remains one of the best seasons of anime to ever release, but some of its greatest battles were unfinished. Its physical release was able to add those missing sections, and Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution could have used those as a way to entice fans to the theater to see the fights as they were intended. Instead, it was an underwhelming summary of the Shibuya arc with a few minutes of the anticipated continuation tagged on at the end. Still, that release made over $40 million.

Toei's Lack Of Theatrical Releases Are Leaving Dragon Ball Money On The Table

If Toei wanted to, they could use these lessons to make every Dragon Ball anime release a worldwide event that would take box offices by storm and further generate excitement for its new series. While Dragon Ball: Daima ended up being a disappointment for some, I'm sure others would have joined me at the movie theater if Toei had released the first 4–5 episodes of that series or Dragon Ball Super: Beerus in theaters a few months before they started streaming.

Releases like Demon Slayer: Mugen Train both respected audiences and helped build excitement for the anime series' return, and Toei could do the same with Dragon Ball. On the other hand, regurgitating already released content for an easy cash-in, as Jujutsu Kaisen has, would likely disappoint certain fans like myself. If Toei is willing to change their current Dragon Ball production processes, hopefully they can find a happy medium that will allow even more fans to get excited about each new release while also making the already profitable franchise even more so.