Dragon Ball has recovered a rare Shonen Jump full-color cover featuring Trunks and Goten as children, depicted standing alongside several other late Golden Age-era characters from the magazine.
The official Dragon Ball site recently released the stunning Weekly Shonen Jump 1994 No. 36/37 Double Issue featuring Goten and Trunks alongside some of the other biggest manga characters from the early to mid-90s, such as KochiKame: Tokyo Beat Cops' Kankichi Ryotsu, Hareluya II Boy's Hareluya Hibino and Slam Dunk's Hanamichi Sakuragi. The image was unearthed as part of the Toriyama Archives -- a regular column where rare Toriyama art is re-released for 24 hours only. Readers can check out the image and description below.
The cover page is described: "Front Cover. Released on August 9, 1994. This cover showcased all the popular Shonen Jump protagonists of the time ready for summer! You can see Goten and Trunks use the Buku-jutsu (Levitation Technique) to fly beside a yacht! With their hair blowing in the wind, you can almost feel how fast they're going!"
Dragon Ball, Slam Dunk, Yu Yu Hakusho & More Represented the Golden Age of Shonen Jump
1994 represented the peak of Shonen Jump magazine's sales. Dragon Ball (260 million), KochiKame: Tokyo Beat Cops (156.5 million) and Slam Dunk (170 million) alone registered nearly 600 million copies in circulation, all easily ranking among Shonen Jump and manga's highest-selling titles ever. Naturally, for three of these, alongside Yoshihiro Togashi's Yu Yu Hakusho all to be serialized simultaneously, the period earned the moniker "The Golden Age" of Shonen Jump. A CBR feature arguing how Shonen Jump is dying highlights how, at its peak in 1994, the magazine shipped 6.53 million copies. This is now down to under 1.5 million copies as Shonen Jump continues its shift to digital publication.
VIZ licenses Dragon Ball in North America, describing the manga series: "Meet a naive young monkey-tailed boy named Goku, whose quiet life changes when he meets Bulma, a girl who is on a quest to collect seven "Dragon Balls." If she gathers them all, an incredibly powerful dragon will appear and grant her one wish. But the precious orbs are scattered all over the world, and Bulma needs Goku's help (and his super-strength)! With a magic staff for a weapon and a flying cloud for a ride, Goku sets out on the adventure of a lifetime..."
Source: Dragon Ball official website
