Dragon Ball Fans Are Saying The Same Thing About The New Galactic Patrol Anime

"Dragon Ball" is finally returning to our screens. Sure, we had "Dragon Ball Daima" back in 2024 and that show gave us some fascinating lore reveals. Still, it was mostly just a fun and silly little side adventure rather than some high-stakes epic.

That is changing with the newly announced "Dragon Ball Super: The Galactic Patrol." The announcement came at the "Dragon Ball Genkidamatsuri" fan event in Japan as part of the 40th anniversary celebration of the original Akira Toriyama manga. During the event, a 40th anniversary special animated video was released for fans, which you really should watch. It's beautifully animated, breathing life into the pages of Toriyama's hugely influential manga and recreating popular cover pages and iconic moments. Then, at the very end we get the announcement of the continuation of the "Dragon Ball Super" anime that ended abruptly in 2018 (though it got two highly successful feature films, the last one in 2022). 

"Dragon Ball Super" is the canonical continuation of "Dragon Ball Z." It started with a series of movies before expanding to a TV anime and a manga series made with direct involvement and supervision from Toriyama himself. Notably, the manga has been in extended hiatus since Toriyama's tragic passing in 2024.

The announcement of a new "Dragon Ball Super" anime is obviously big news, and fans have been celebrating accordingly. There's been praise for the animation of the anniversary video and the new anime announcement. That being said, what fans seem to agree on the most is how good the video's music is, with fans expressing surprise that legendary composer Hans Zimmer himself scored the video. On Twitter, a fan described the Zimmer and "Dragon Ball" collaboration as "absolute cinema" and they're not alone in their enthusiasm.

Having Hans Zimmer score the music for the "Dragon Ball" 40th anniversary special video is, of course, big news. It shows that "Dragon Ball" is more than just an anime — it's a global cultural institution. The fact that it's not just an American composer doing the score, but specifically one that scored a Superman movie ("Man of Steel"), is also a cool nod to Akira Toriyama.

The manga creator was very much influenced by Superman throughout his career. He added a Clark Kent parody in the "Dragon Ball" comic, and then retconned Goku's entire origin to essentially make him Kal-El. In recent years, "Dragon Ball" has, in turn, influenced the Man of Tomorrow. James Gunn's "Superman" even included a subplot straight out of "Dragon Ball" and the Saiyans. To now have the "Man of Steel" composer do the score to a "Dragon Ball" project just adds to the intricate connection between the two franchises. Fans, of course, are being quite enthusiastic about this news.

"If you would've told me Hans Zimmer would do music for Dragon Ball... its almost like a hoax... but its real!" a fan wrote on Twitter. Likewise, on Reddit, several fans shared their disbelief over seeing Zimmer's name in the credits.

The enthusiasm also spread to the announcement of the new anime. There were more than a few joke-y reactions, including several fans joking that Mexican cartel violence is about to drop drastically when "Dragon Ball Super" returns (via Twitter). This is a reference to a popular meme after Toriyama's passing that claimed Mexican cartels had agreed to a ceasefire in his honor (via Complex). Even if that isn't entirely true, "Dragon Ball" is definitely beloved worldwide, and can tap even renowned musical talent.