| Akira Toriyama interview |
| The Magnificent Four Akira Toriyama and his three editors, Fuyuto Takeda (3rd Editor), Yuu Kondo (2nd Editor) and Kazuhiko Torishima (1st Editor) "After 10 Years of Dragon Ball, Now We Can Bring You Behind the Scenes" This is an open table discussion with some of the major people responsible for Dragon Ball. This is the second in the series. By coincidence, Mr. Toriyama was in Tokyo, so he has joined the discussion. Mr. Takeda is the discussion leader. Takeda: After such a long time of Dragon Ball, I think Akira Toriyama would like to talk about what went on behind the scenes, but first, I would like to talk to Mr. Torishima. Was Dragon Ball popular at first? Torishima: Well, we were thinking what we could do after Dr. Slump. We wondered, "What do we do next?” I asked Mr. Toriyama to write a one-shot story for Weekly Jump and Fresh Jump. Toriyama: I wrote many one-shots. Then Mr. Torishima and I had a lot of talks. Torishima said the reader reaction to these wasn't good. We planned these carefully in meetings but...(smiles) Torishima: We didn't really talk about Dragon Ball seriously after Dr. Slump, but the reader reaction was really good. Toriyama: Yeah I had a good feeling about the positive reactions, so I thought this might be really good. I thought I should make the boy the hero. Takeda: Then we started continuing the stories. At the start, how long did you think it would take to make each saga? Toriyama: At the start, I didn't think about that. I thought it would only last a year, so I made up three sagas. * Torishima: Right, right. Authors usually prepare more drafts. Kondo: Usually authors make a few rough drafts and one final draft. But in Toriyama's case, he skips the roughs and only makes a final. So I didn't know if I should have corrected them or not, but Toriyama is a genius of revisions, so if he personally corrects one rough draft, then the whole impression changes drastically. Toriyama: No, no, no. It's just that I'm too lazy to spend energy working on corrections, so I just do my own. (Smiling) Torishima: Okay then, changing subjects, the most difficult time was when we were told Son Gokou should grow up. Toriyama said we couldn't continue it if he grew. (Smiling) So we had to tell the boss he needed to grow up [in order to make Toriyama grow]. Takeda: Yeah, we negotiated with the executives. Torishima: Because that's against the theory of manga. The basic thing is the appeal of the main character or hero. So we were thrilled the morning of the day the issue he grew up in went on sale. We came to the office early before 8 AM to listen to complaints from readers. But they accepted it naturally. Takeda: The first stage of Son Gokou was accepted because he was cute, and when he grew up, he became "cool". Torishima: And when Gokou grew up, that was when Takeda's era ended. So during Kondo's era, Vegita appeared and then the female fans increased. Kondo: Before women bought Jump, they read mainly shoujou** manga. After I was put in charge we went in the direction of fighting stories. So we needed to escalate, overall story, fighting story, and the background story. So we had three things to think about. Takeda: At that time, Mr. Toriyama wanted to popularize the series by making it's story fulfilling. Toriyama: Yeah, at that time, I enjoyed talking about story, rather than drawing story. Going by sagas, I only thought about each part, one month at a time. I kept digging the same hole. The most difficult part was when Trunks appeared. The more I wrote and drew, the less it made sense. It was a difficult time. Torishima: Yeah...nobody has that kind of patience except Kondo. I couldn't have been that patient. Toriyama: You're saying that Torishima? That's terrible. Remember that time Artificial Humans 19 and 20 appeared? You weren't in the management position at the time, but you called me at my house and said, "Mr. Toriyama, after waiting for the enemy, it turns out to be just an old man and a fat guy." (Laughing) Truth is, we had only planned to use 19 and 20. We had another choice, so we sent 17 and 18. And you said, "I'm disappointed, they're just kids.” So I sent Cell. MORE ON THE NEXT PAGE>>>> |