Even though we lost the legendary Akira Toriyama in March 2024, Dragon Ball Super isn’t over. In fact, it looks like the manga is going to keep going, and Volume 24, releasing in Japan on April 4, 2025, gives us a bunch of strong signs that there’s still more story ahead.
Volume 24: The Last Chapter With Toriyama’s Involvement
Until the very end, Toriyama was still part of the Dragon Ball Super creative process. While he wasn’t drawing the pages anymore, he was still writing story outlines and designing characters. That work was then handed off to Toyotarou, the manga artist who’s been working closely with him for years.
That’s what makes Volume 24 a big deal. It’s the final volume where Toriyama had direct creative input. It even includes a special one-shot prequel he wrote, which was released in February 2025. It takes place before the Super Hero arc and adds another layer to the story.
This makes the volume feel like a personal goodbye from Toriyama to the fans.
What’s Spine Art and Why Is It Important?
One of the clearest signs that the series isn’t ending yet is something a lot of fans might overlook: the spine art.
For those unfamiliar, manga publishers often create spine art, where the sides of each volume line up to form a full picture when you put them together on a shelf. It’s something that collectors love, and it’s also a quiet way for publishers to show whether more volumes are planned.
With Dragon Ball Super, the spine art has been forming one continuous image for a while now. Volume 24 doesn’t finish that image, it keeps it going, continuing directly from Volume 23. This is a pretty solid hint that more volumes are already in the pipeline. Publishers usually don’t leave a visual like that incomplete unless more content is coming.
So yeah, the spine art is kind of like a secret message: “We’re not done yet.” The back cover of Volume 24 features Black Frieza, and that’s not random. Putting a major villain like that on the cover usually means he’ll play a bigger role soon, possibly as the next major threat for Goku and the rest.
Dragon Ball Super manga confirmed to have more coming. The spine indicates that there is still more to add in order to complete the image! pic.twitter.com/F8XNkPs5LM
— SLO (@SLOplays) April 1, 2025
Toyotarou Takes Charge After Toriyama
With Toriyama gone, it’s now up to Toyotarou to continue the manga. He’s already done that with Chapter 104: The Birth of Simon X, which is the first brand-new story created without Toriyama’s input. Some fans were excited by it, especially the callbacks to old Dragon Ball elements, while others weren’t fully on board with the new tone.
Style-wise, Toyotarou is definitely starting to put more of his own touch on the series. His drawings are a bit more serious-looking compared to Toriyama’s classic style, which was a little rounder and more cartoonish. It’s not better or worse—just different—and it’ll be interesting to see how his version of the story develops from here.
