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Spotlight on Akira Toriyama: Part 1

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Find out what went into the creation of the manga and anime legend Dragon Ball, as creator Akira Toriyama fills us in on the secrets of his art, what Goku owes to both the Monkey King and Jackie Chan, and the surprising origin of the Kamehameha just in time for the North American debut of the Dragon Ball manga series.

Akira Toriyama's style is one that's immediately identifiable, even among a sea of other manga artists—no one does it quite the same. Toriyama's male characters are shorter, rounder, and somehow tougher, with a combination of Tezuka-like saucer eyes, throbbing muscles and laughing, toothy mouths. His female characters have their own brand of solid sexiness and cross eyed cuteness, and simply put, no one has a better grip on drawing children. Like rambunctious school kids, Toriyama characters dominate their space on paper as if it were their own sovereign state—when they shout, run, fly, kick, punch or let fly with a power blast, you can almost feel the energy crackle.

Toriyama traces his origins as an artist to his elementary school days. Even today, he remembers the first time his drawing began to really come together. "My first memory of a satisfactory drawing was that of a horse," he says. "I still remember it. I knew I got the joints right.

"I've always liked to draw,” he continues. "When I was little, we didn't have many forms of entertainment like we do today, so we were all drawing pictures. In elementary school, we were all drawing manga (comics in Japanese) or animation characters and showing them to each other.' But when asked if this early, self-made training in drawing is what led to his current career as a manga artist, Toriyama is skeptical. "Perhaps," he says. "I just kept on drawing. We all start out with around the same drawing skills, don't we? I started to do portraits of friends and whatnot and started to think drawing was fun."

As to what he drew back then, Toriyama points to the popular animated shows of the day. "I don't remember the very first animation show I saw, but the one of which I have the fondest memories is Tetsuwan Atom. I used to send out coupons to collect Atom stickers." Nothing too surprising there, as Osamu Tezuka's Tetsuwan Atom (a.k.a. Astro Boy) is remembered fondly by nearly every Japanese child who grew up during its on-air run. More surprising is Walt Disney's hand in Toriyama's early art career.

"When I was a child, there was a drawing class in the neighborhood," Toriyama says. "The kids would go there and draw pictures. I remember drawing 101 Dalmatians and getting a prize. That must have gotten into my head and made me what I am today," he laughs.

Aside from Atom and 101 Dalmatians ("I remember that movie for the great art"), Toriyama remembers watching Tetsujin 28, 8-Man, and the TV show Osamatsu-feun. We all imitated Iyami's 'shee' from that show," he recalls fondly. Later in his elementary school career, he began to like the live-action costumed hero shows and monster movies.

Nearing junior high, his tastes began to run more toward regular, theatrical movies, but his roots were not forgotten. Toriyama confirms that the Ginyu Special Forces in Dragon all had poses based on the live-action shows he watched with his son. "Those shows are pretty fun," he admits.

monkey business

Before he created Dragon Ball, Toriyama the artist had already become well known in Japan for his slapstick manga (and later anime as well) Dr. Slump, a story of a cute li'l robot girl and her antics with her inventor's family. Dragon Ball's genesis came on the heels of Dr. Slump. "In ending Dr Slump, I conferred with my editor many times about what to do for my next serial (weekly comic pages)," Toriyama says. "I always liked Jackie Chan and had seen his Drunken Master II many times. Torishima encouraged me to draw a kung fu manga if I liked it that much. That was the one-shot Dragon Boy I drew. The readers liked it, so I decided my next serial would be in this vein."

To give himself a change of scenery from the "American West Coast" art style of Dr. Slump, Toriyama decided to keep the Drunken Master origins for his new serial in mind and go with a focus on China.

“If its going to be Chinese, it might as well be from the Monkey King,” Toriyama decided. "The Monkey King is, after all, a tall tale with adventure," he says. "However, I decided to go with a Monkey King with some modem elements. I thought it would be easy to arrange with a base story all ready." The Monkey King, known in Japan as Saiyuki, or "The Journey west," is a legend known to nearly every Asian child as the archetype of the quest story. An early thought to draw Goku as a real monkey, however, was discarded as unoriginal. "That would have been the Monkey King exactly. That wouldn't show any creativity, so I decided to make the main character human. I wanted a normal human boy, but that wouldn't have character." Ultimately, Toriyama decided to add a little something extra.

"The main character in Dragon Boy had wings, so I wanted something immediately obvious like that. So Goku got his tail. That way, he could hide behind a rock, but if his tail showed, the readers could tell he's right there. Then, I added the Dragon Balls that grant your wish when you collect all seven of them. I thought I could make a Monkey King type of journey story."

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