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Is it possible to realize a battle armor which stretches out 4 times bigger? In the world-popular animation “DRAGON BALL” (DB), one of the warriors, Vegeta, transforms into a great ape with the armor on. Jun Araki, Professor of Textile Science and Technology, Shinshu University, has tackled this question with his fellow experts on Textile Science, and given “Yes” to it in the articles on the DB official website, Shueisha Inc..

In the article ‘the interviewer’ asks how to realize the super-stretchable battle armor, and ‘the researcher’ explains with professional insights including Polyurethane and Spandex for elasticity, coating against bullets and blades, and newly developed material Polyrotaxane, which enables the armor to equip with both elasticity and strength (*1) and reveals to increase strength as it stretches out (*2).

The articles are the fruit of a liaison between Professor Araki, who once was a computer magazine writer 30 years ago, and his former writer colleague Mr. Munehiko Inagaki (Studio Bentstuff Co., Ltd.), who has led the writer team composed of Mr. Keisuke Kawabata (Creek & River Co., Ltd.) and Ms. Saori Ohyoshi (Freelance writer) and asked the professor for cooperation. "It was an interesting experience to seriously examine the 'sounds impossible and nonsense' subject and collaborate with experts in various fields of Textile Science," Prof. Araki reflects on the collaboration. Their collaboration is mentioned on The society of Fiber Science and Technology (Japan) facebook, too.

Fellow researchers for the DB articles:
-Takeshi Kikutani, Professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology
-Wataru Takarada, Assistant Professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology
-Go Matsuba, Professor at Yamagata University
-Hitomi Hamada, Professor at Tokyo Kasei University
-Masayuki Takatera, Professor of Faculty of Textile Science and Technology, SU
-Hiroyuki Kanai, Associate Professor of Faculty of Textile Science and Technology, SU
-Yosuke Horiba, Associate Professor of Faculty of Textile Science and Technology, SU

*1: Araki, J. et al. Polymer 2006, 47, 8241–8246.
*2: Liu, C. et al. Science 2021, 372, 1078–1081.

Articles on the DRAGON BALL Official Website:
Part 1 https://en.dragon-ball-official.com/news/01_556.html
Part 2 https://en.dragon-ball-official.com/news/01_557.html

Articles in Japanese:
Part 1 https://dragon-ball-official.com/news/01_556.html
Part 2 https://dragon-ball-official.com/news/01_557.html