Back in 2022, Toei released Dragon Ball Super: The Mighty Hero, a fantastic movie that introduced a new art style and put Piccolo and Gohan (aka, his the son) forward. If you walk away from the movie liking any character, especially the original one, that seems to be the goal every time.
During the recent radio broadcast of the celebration Dragon Ball To celebrate the 40th anniversary, longtime executive producer Akio Iyoku talked about the series’ past and present projects. According to the notes translated by Twitter user peraperayume (thanks, CBR), Iyoku wanted Piccolo to be on par with Goku and Vegeta, both of whom had risen to the top throughout. Dragon Ball Super’s run once Broly the movie. At that time, Piccolo was not there, something many of the actor’s fans have noticed. Iyoku was one such fan, and wanted to talk about that investigation.
As he said, he sought out creator Akira Toriyama’s advice on how to do well with the Namekian. Eventually, their talks sparked the idea for Toriyama to write Mighty Warrior. That film puts Goku and Vegeta aside for Piccolo and Gohan to take center stage and join the newly revived Red Ribbon Army. Ultimately, the two unlock new forms to use, and Piccolo is a cool Orange mode considered by Toriyama as his first proper development.
Happy New Year!🐉
Yesterday on January 1st, Akio Iyoku spoke on the radio show “All Night Nippon – Dragon Ball 40th Anniversary Special” for about 20 minutes about various things about DB, including Daima and what might be coming 👀
Translated a few pieces🔽Source: pic.twitter.com/I12WCPxl2W
— Andy 案太郎 🇩🇪 (@peraperayume) January 2, 2025
While Piccolo is in the present Dragon Ball Daima anime, his orange form hasn’t appeared in that yet, neither has last year’s fighting game Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero. (Ibe was, however, added to Xenoverse 2 as DLC.) It feels like the movie did its job and made people want more Piccolo. Now, it’s just a matter of how Toei balances the demand with that of other fan-favorite characters—even more so since Toriyama passed early last year.
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