Austen Goslin, Polygon:

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.