A New Dragon Ball Super Movie Is Coming in 2022
Dragon Ball Super is getting its second ever movie sometime next year, Toei Animation announced on Saturday. The announcement of the new movie came on Goku Day — May 9 because the Japanese character for five and nine can be read similarly to the character’s name — which serves as a celebration day for the entire Dragon Ball universe.
Dragon Ball is the anime that got me into anime. A few years ago, I binged through every Dragon Ball series, so of course I’m stoked for this.
But what I didn’t know is that May 9th is Goku day. According to the official Dragon Ball website:
Goku Day is an official anniversary certified and registered by the Japanese Anniversary Association1. Why May 9th? Well, since in Japan the date is written in the order 5/9, and because 5 and 9 can be read as “Go” and “Ku”, the numbers combine to make Goku’s Japanese kanji! Thus, May 9th became Goku Day!
I much prefer this holiday over May 4th, but that’s mostly because I didn’t grow up with Star Wars like many people around me did. And 五 (go) and 九 (ku) is just cool.
Funny story: I studied screenwriting at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, and we had most of our classes in a building named after George Lucas, and it wasn’t until my freshman year when I finally watched my first Star Wars movie. Yeah, that was awkward! I’m a fan now, though.
I really love that it’s a certified and registered anniversary. ↩︎