Dragon Ball Af Dragon Ball Hoshi

1999hoax / fan rumorclassic

Published August 19, 2026

Dragon Ball AF, also known as Dragon Ball Hoshi, is a rumored fourth Dragon Ball anime that never actually existed. The name grew out of a 1999 Spanish magazine fan drawing and a 2004 April Fools hoax by fansite Daizenshuu EX, then spread on YouTube for over a decade until Dragon Ball Super killed the theory in 2015.

dragon ball memeshoax memesfan theory memesanime mangaapril fools memes

Overview

Dragon Ball AF, also called Dragon Ball Hoshi, is a rumored fourth Dragon Ball anime that Toei Animation never actually made. For roughly fifteen years fans traded fake screenshots, invented plotlines, and doctored logos, convinced that a sequel to Dragon Ball GT was in production1. The rumor was fed by a real content gap, since GT wrapped in Japan in November 1997 and no new Dragon Ball TV series appeared until Dragon Ball Super premiered in July 20153.

The whole thing traces back to one mislabeled fan drawing and a snowballing April Fools joke. What started as a caption in a Spanish gaming magazine became one of the longest-running hoaxes in shonen anime fandom, with the AF and Hoshi labels stuck to countless bootleg videos and fan art projects3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Spanish print magazine (source image) / Kanzenshuu forums (viral spread)
Creator
Daniel Montiel Franco
Date
1999

The image that started everything ran in the May 1999 issue of the Spanish gaming magazine Hobby Consolas. Fans took it for a leaked promo of a new Dragon Ball series, but it was actually fan art by artist Daniel Montiel Franco. That origin was only pinned down on February 14, 2012, when Kanzenshuu forum user Raykugen posted scans of the magazine and identified the artist1. Franco later told Dragon Ball author Derek Padula, for his 2012 book The Dao of Dragon Ball, that the character in the drawing was not Goku but an original creation of his own named Tablos2.

The rumor got a much bigger push on April 1, 2004, when Dragon Ball fansite Daizenshuu EX (later renamed Kanzenshuu) posted a fake poster, a logo, and a Japanese-language trailer. The voiceover included joke lines like "What the hell is this crap!? Akira Toriyama" and "Don't sue us!!!", which non-Japanese fans could not read1. The site admitted it was a prank the next day, but the assets kept circulating1.

How It Spread

The 2004 Daizenshuu EX post ended up on other Dragon Ball forums almost immediately, and years later the site published a detailed writeup of how the prank was built1. YouTube then extended the myth well past its expiration date. The earliest known Dragon Ball AF clickbait upload, a video titled "Dragon Ball AF Opening" by user superkakarotto, went live on August 23, 2006, using footage stitched from Japanese Dragon Ball video game cutscenes3. By July 2015 the most-viewed AF clickbait clip had passed 17 million views3.

Around 2010 and 2011, actual fan animators picked up the AF name. YouTuber SuperDBAF uploaded a mashup of Dragon Ball clips and original animation on June 24, 2010, and Canal de pameliitahv posted a fully fan-drawn AF video on May 11, 20113. On November 30, 2012, YouTuber Mellavelli released the first episode of Dragon Ball Absalon, a fan series that pulled characters and ideas straight from the AF rumor pool3.

Search queries for Dragon Ball AF still return roughly 74,300 YouTube results and about 20,100 for Dragon Ball Hoshi3. DeviantArt lists more than 5,500 works tagged Dragon Ball AF4, and the Japanese art site Pixiv also hosts a small collection of AF illustrations5. Old AF fan blogs and tagged posts are still visible on Tumblr6.

Frequently Asked Questions

Dragon Ball Af Dragon Ball Hoshi

1999hoax / fan rumorclassic

Published August 19, 2026

Dragon Ball AF, also known as Dragon Ball Hoshi, is a rumored fourth Dragon Ball anime that never actually existed. The name grew out of a 1999 Spanish magazine fan drawing and a 2004 April Fools hoax by fansite Daizenshuu EX, then spread on YouTube for over a decade until Dragon Ball Super killed the theory in 2015.

dragon ball memes hoax memes fan theory memes anime manga april fools memes

Overview

Dragon Ball AF, also called Dragon Ball Hoshi, is a rumored fourth Dragon Ball anime that Toei Animation never actually made. For roughly fifteen years fans traded fake screenshots, invented plotlines, and doctored logos, convinced that a sequel to Dragon Ball GT was in production1. The rumor was fed by a real content gap, since GT wrapped in Japan in November 1997 and no new Dragon Ball TV series appeared until Dragon Ball Super premiered in July 20153.

The whole thing traces back to one mislabeled fan drawing and a snowballing April Fools joke. What started as a caption in a Spanish gaming magazine became one of the longest-running hoaxes in shonen anime fandom, with the AF and Hoshi labels stuck to countless bootleg videos and fan art projects3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Spanish print magazine (source image) / Kanzenshuu forums (viral spread)
Creator
Daniel Montiel Franco
Date
1999

The image that started everything ran in the May 1999 issue of the Spanish gaming magazine Hobby Consolas. Fans took it for a leaked promo of a new Dragon Ball series, but it was actually fan art by artist Daniel Montiel Franco. That origin was only pinned down on February 14, 2012, when Kanzenshuu forum user Raykugen posted scans of the magazine and identified the artist1. Franco later told Dragon Ball author Derek Padula, for his 2012 book The Dao of Dragon Ball, that the character in the drawing was not Goku but an original creation of his own named Tablos2.

The rumor got a much bigger push on April 1, 2004, when Dragon Ball fansite Daizenshuu EX (later renamed Kanzenshuu) posted a fake poster, a logo, and a Japanese-language trailer. The voiceover included joke lines like "What the hell is this crap!? Akira Toriyama" and "Don't sue us!!!", which non-Japanese fans could not read1. The site admitted it was a prank the next day, but the assets kept circulating1.

How It Spread

The 2004 Daizenshuu EX post ended up on other Dragon Ball forums almost immediately, and years later the site published a detailed writeup of how the prank was built1. YouTube then extended the myth well past its expiration date. The earliest known Dragon Ball AF clickbait upload, a video titled "Dragon Ball AF Opening" by user superkakarotto, went live on August 23, 2006, using footage stitched from Japanese Dragon Ball video game cutscenes3. By July 2015 the most-viewed AF clickbait clip had passed 17 million views3.

Around 2010 and 2011, actual fan animators picked up the AF name. YouTuber SuperDBAF uploaded a mashup of Dragon Ball clips and original animation on June 24, 2010, and Canal de pameliitahv posted a fully fan-drawn AF video on May 11, 20113. On November 30, 2012, YouTuber Mellavelli released the first episode of Dragon Ball Absalon, a fan series that pulled characters and ideas straight from the AF rumor pool3.

Search queries for Dragon Ball AF still return roughly 74,300 YouTube results and about 20,100 for Dragon Ball Hoshi3. DeviantArt lists more than 5,500 works tagged Dragon Ball AF4, and the Japanese art site Pixiv also hosts a small collection of AF illustrations5. Old AF fan blogs and tagged posts are still visible on Tumblr6.

Frequently Asked Questions