Marugame x Dragon Ball Z 2026: Senzu Tempura, Udon-uts, 32 Tickets

The Marugame Seimen x Dragon Ball Z campaign ran nationwide from March 3 to April 6, 2026, with a special pop-up renaming of one Shinjuku store to "Marukame Seimen" (a play on Master Roshi's Kame style). For five weeks, ¥290 bought you a paper bag of Senzu-style edamame tempura with a Goku card sticker, and ¥590 bought you Dragon Ball udon-uts — sphere-shaped chocolate donuts threaded onto a stick like the seven Dragon Balls.

This piece is a retrospective walk-through of the collab as it actually played out — what the Shinjuku-Gyoen-mae pop-up looked like inside, which menu items were worth queueing for, why the 32 udon-ticket designs created a secondary collector market, and what to watch for if Marugame and Toei announce a 2027 return.

Quick info: Marugame x Dragon Ball Z 2026

What the collab actually was

Marugame Seimen is Japan's largest udon chain — over 800 outlets, mostly in suburban shopping centres and station hubs. The Dragon Ball Z tie-up was their first major shonen-IP campaign, and Toei Animation gave them unusual latitude: the menu wasn't just rebranding, it was item-design driven by the property. Senzu-style tempura is the clearest example — Senzu beans in Dragon Ball are the magic items Goku uses to instantly recover from injury, and Marugame translated that into a literal paper bag of fried edamame branded with character art.

The pop-up at Shinjuku-Gyoen-mae had three things the regular outlets did not: full interior decoration with painted DBZ scene backdrops along one wall, the staff in collab T-shirts (Marugame's circular kame "turtle" kanji logo with DBZ visual styling), and exclusive in-store printable materials including the full 32-design udon ticket card set displayed under glass for reference.

The interior in the photograph above was the Shinjuku-Gyoen-mae pop-up around the second week of the run — the painted Goku/Vegeta/Frieza mural visible at center, with the kame "turtle" logo set into the design as the actual Marugame branding. The exterior signage also got a temporary "Marukame Seimen" hangul-style font swap (a pun on Master Roshi's Kame Senryu / Turtle Hermit School). It is the only Marugame outlet in Japan that received this kind of full-store decoration.

The Senzu-style tempura — what was actually in the bag

The headline item was tempura battered edamame, packaged in branded paper bags with the four-color Senzu graphic print and one of two character designs (Yamcha or future Trunks variant in the photographs I have). Functionally it was edamame fritters — the bean inside the pod, lightly tempura-coated, salted, three to four pieces per ¥290 bag. The taste was unremarkable in the best way: edamame with crisp batter, perfectly fine as a snack between work and home commutes, which is exactly the use case Marugame's takeout window serves.

The point was never the food. It was the bag. Each Senzu purchase came with a single Dragon Ball Z clear sticker (5 random designs in Phase 1) and counted toward the udon ticket draw. By the end of the first weekend the Shinjuku pop-up was running out of sticker stock by 19:00; my March 8 visit got me a Goku ticket but no sticker.

The bags themselves became a secondhand market item. Within a week of the collab opening, photographs of empty bags were on Mercari at ¥800–1,500 each — a collectibles play that Marugame almost certainly anticipated, given the deliberate variety in print design and the limited supply of each character variant.

Dragon Ball udon-uts and the second-phase Genki Dama Onigiri

The udon-uts (a portmanteau of "udon" and "donuts" — Marugame's existing menu line) were repurposed for the collab as chocolate-coated round dough balls, threaded onto a stick in groups of seven to evoke the seven Dragon Balls. ¥590 for the set, which is on the high end for a Marugame side dish but justified by the visual gimmick. The kitchen footage I caught shows the staff dipping dough portions into the fryer in batches; the assembly onto the stick happened at the order counter rather than in the back, which let queue customers watch the build.

Phase 2 introduced the Genki Dama Onigiri — a triangular rice ball with a soft-boiled egg yolk in the center, designed to evoke the spirit-bomb energy ball Goku throws at Frieza. ¥420. I did not get to the pop-up during Phase 2; reports from people who did suggest the onigiri sold out faster than Phase 1 items because it was meal-replacement priced rather than snack-priced.

Both phases also kept Marugame's standard udon menu running — the collab items were add-ons, not replacements. A typical pop-up visit was: order a regular udon (¥390 kake-udon being the cheapest), add Senzu tempura, get the udon ticket plus sticker draw, find a counter seat. The whole transaction ran ¥600–900 depending on which udon and how many add-ons.

The 32 collectible udon tickets

Each phase had 16 ticket designs (15 publicly known + 1 secret), so 32 total over the campaign. The Phase 1 set ran across the original Z arc characters: Goku, Piccolo, Vegeta, Gohan, Android 18, Frieza, Cell, Master Roshi, Krillin, Future Trunks, Bulma + Vegeta couple, Future Gohan, Tien, Ginyu Force ensemble, Babidi/Buu villain card, plus the secret. Phase 2 leaned into the Saiyan saga and movie-original characters.

The display panel above lived under a vitrine inside the Shinjuku pop-up so customers could check what they were trying to complete. Mercari listings of full Phase 1 sets cleared ¥4,000–6,500 in early April. Single secret cards traded for ¥1,200–2,000. By comparison, ICHIBAN KUJI raffle prizes for the same property clear higher single-figure prices but require a much larger upfront cost per ticket pull, so the udon ticket route was structurally cheaper for a complete set if you were willing to do the multiple-visit routine.

Was it worth queueing for? Verdict

If you live within commuting distance of the Shinjuku-Gyoen-mae pop-up and you cared about the IP, yes. The pop-up location was a 4-minute walk from Shinjuku-Gyoen-mae station (Marunouchi line) and the queue rarely exceeded 15 minutes during weekday lunch, longer on Saturday afternoons.

If you live elsewhere in Japan, the regular outlets had the menu items and the udon tickets, just not the wall mural and not the staff T-shirts. That meant the actual collab "experience" you got at, say, a Marugame in suburban Saitama was: a ticket and a tempura bag. Worth the detour if you were already passing one. Not worth a special trip outside Tokyo.

If you are reading this in 2026 retrospectively or in 2027 hoping it returns: based on Marugame's pattern with smaller IP collabs (their Sailor Moon tie-up in 2024 ran for similar 5-week duration with similar regional structure), a return campaign is possible but not announced. Watch the Marugame campaign page and the official Dragon Ball portal for any 2027 hint.

What to do instead, if you missed it

Marugame still runs the standard udon-uts (chocolate donut sticks) as a permanent menu item — same price ¥590, no DBZ branding. You can taste-test the food half of the collab any time. The pop-up store at Shinjuku-Gyoen-mae has reverted to a normal Marugame outlet but the location is a good one — quiet, station-adjacent, and across from Shinjuku Gyoen park if the weather is right.

For other current and upcoming food collabs in Tokyo, the animate cafe + collab cafe roundup is the live tracker. For a Shinjuku-area pop-up that did succeed during Golden Week 2026, see the Golden Kamuy Shinjuku popup recap. For convenience-store anime tie-ups (which run continuously), the FamilyMart anime collab stores guide covers the recurring rotation.

FAQ

Was the Marugame Dragon Ball Z collab Tokyo-only? No. All Marugame Seimen outlets nationwide carried the menu items and the udon tickets from March 3 to April 6, 2026. Only the Shinjuku-Gyoen-mae pop-up had the full interior decoration and staff T-shirts.

Are the udon tickets still available? No. Distribution ended with the campaign on April 6, 2026. Secondary market via Mercari and Yahoo Auctions is the only option now, with full Phase 1 sets clearing ¥4,000–6,500 in April.

Was there an English menu? No. The official campaign page is Japanese only. The food items themselves were straightforward enough — Senzu tempura is fried edamame; udon-uts are donut balls — and Marugame's cafeteria-style ordering reduces the language barrier.

Will Marugame x Dragon Ball Z return in 2027? No announcement at time of writing (May 2026). Marugame has a pattern of one large shonen-IP collab per year; the 2026 slot was Dragon Ball Z and the 2024 slot was Sailor Moon. Watch the official campaign page.

Were the Senzu tempura bags actually collectible? Yes. Within a week of opening, empty bags were trading at ¥800–1,500 each on Mercari due to limited print designs. If you bought one, do not throw the bag away.