One year of monthly publication. 506 pages scripted, drawn, published and nearly 80.4 million readings. Figures that could very well be those of a serialized professional manga, but it is not. Dragon Ball Kakumei is the result of the work of Poisson Labo, Renko and Darkows, three French fans of dragonball, the famous manga by Akira Toriyama. This is the unofficial sequel to an official sequel. A little lost ? We recap.
An unprecedented success for a French manga fan
This dôjinshi project (Japanese word for manga created by fans), was born in 2018, after the broadcast of the last episode of Dragon Ball Superthe official sequel to the manga mainstay that is dragonball. Darkows, then a YouTuber specializing in Mangas and a fan of the series, posted an announcement on the forums to continue the story with a manga fan. He recruits about ten people including Renko and Poisson Labo. A first version of the project is born, but after two chapters, it stops.
“Two years later, I sent a message to Darkows and Renko to suggest that they take over the project as a threesome”, says Poisson Labo to 20 minutes. The machine is then gradually put in place. After several months of work, on August 25, 2021, the first chapter of the final version of Dragon Ball Kakumei is published on Mangadraft. The success is such that the site could not stand the massive influx of the public and had to upgrade its servers twice. Never has a fan creation generated so many readings as soon as it is published.
A Japanese publication rhythm for this French manga
“Before, it was casual,” recalls Renko with humor. Now, each member of the trio has a defined and complementary role. “Darkows and Renko have a Google Doc with the script, they write page after page of what happens in the chapter, then I adapt during the storyboard before moving on to the final boards,” explains Poisson Labo, 17. . An effective division of tasks which enabled them to publish ten chapters, the equivalent of two volumes. The eleventh chapter is currently being written and will be released on August 25. One year to the day after the start of the adventure.
“At the beginning, we had three chapters in advance, but today we produce one chapter per month, we are on a Japanese publication rhythm”, confides the designer. A rhythm that requires adapting your work and study time to advance on the boards. “I found little strategies to free up time for drawing,” continues the illustrator. Everything related to the courses, I do it in class, an essay on literature, I can do it during the Spanish course (laughs). Sometimes I print the script and draw the storyboards in high school. »
The screenwriters are not left out, the writing is done throughout the day: “The Kakumei team is the very example that you always have time to do something, explains Darkows. Renko works 35 hours a week and I have 40-45 hours at work, but we always have time. Coming out of the shower, during the lunch break… And it works. » A sustained rhythm, which requires a break of one month every five chapters, but which is a reason for the success of this dôjinshi.
Dragon Ball Kakumei succeed where Dragon Ball Super failed
“There is a real artistic approach. It’s not just fans having fun, it’s really fans who want to tell something with dragonball ” analyzes Alvin Labecot (alias Chef Otaku), youtuber, author of the manga Arena and fan of the work of Akira Toriyama. Dragon Ball Kakumei explores the script elements left aside by the official sequel with maturity and real sincerity.
Conversely, Dragon Ball Super seems, for Chef Otaku, to have been born of a simple marketing will. “They are looking to sell miniatures, attacks for cards. Dragon Ball Super, it really became a derivative of a license. Indeed, the series pays off enormously. It is the most lucrative license from Toei Animation (Japanese production studio) and Bandaï-Namco (video game and toy empire). With such economic stakes, the creative aspect of current manga is necessarily restricted. The scenario becomes a tool to allow the characters to unlock new transformations, which are all new designs and therefore new figurines.
Can we compare a fan manga and a professional manga?
“I enjoy reading more Dragon Ball Kakumei what to read Dragon Ball Super, certainly. But it’s different. I know the former is a fan manga and enjoys the freedom of a fan manga,” Chief Otaku points out. This artistic, scriptwriting and thematic freedom Dragon Ball Super and its authors, Toyotaro and Akira Toriyama, do not.
“Can we really compare? recalls Darkows. We are completely free. We have no marketing constraints, we have no censorship. We would be in Japan with guys behind our ass checking each board, it would be much more complicated. We would be less good, I think. » The three friends do not seek to deny Dragon Ball Super and for good reason, without the latter, their project would not exist. Their only goal is “to make a fan manga for fans”. A dôjinshi which revolutionizes the French fan manga, hence its name which can be translated as Dragon Ball Revolution.