Dragon Ball is one of the trailblazers in the Shonen genre and is a household name at this point. But did you know that when it first debuted, Akira Toriyama had no intention of making it a typical action-oriented series?
In fact, the author wanted to create a comedy series where the protagonist would journey across the world like New Journey to the West. Then, Goku would battle the enemies he would meet on his way. However, the manga never took off that well, inviting criticism to the author, and thus resulting in a complete overhaul.
Initially, Dragon Ball Was Unpopular
In an interview, Akira Toriyama admitted that after his last work, he had decided to change the setting and went with a Chinene scenery for his next work, Dragon Ball. He wanted to add all sorts of absurd and adventurous elements and thus took inspiration from a classic series.
And if I was going to give it a Chinese feel, I thought I would make the story based on “Journey to the West”.
The author then made the protagonist a human boy with a tail so that the series had originality. He added the Dragon Balls next and thought that the characters would go searching after the seven Dragon Balls and have a remarkable journey.
Akira Toriyama’s Decision to Abandon His Original Plans for Dragon Ball Also Changed Goku Completely
Unfortunately, the series never picked up popularity. This invited criticism and Toriyama’s editor, Torishima, told him:
Your protagonist is rather plain. That’s why it’s not popular.
This probably made the author feel immense humiliation because the series changed soon after to include one of the most famous and recurring arcs of the Dragon Ball franchise, the Tenkaichi Budokai.
Akira Toriyama Did a Complete 180 with Dragon Ball
Akira Toriyama was annoyed by his editor’s comment because he had intentionally kept Goku’s clothes simple since he was doing a fighting story. However, rather than holding onto a grudge, Toriyama decided to listen to this piece of advice and began to formulate how to make the series popular.
The author had observed during his previous series that tournament-like events had been very popular among readers, so he decided to apply the same formula to Dragon Ball. The results were so satisfactory that Toriyama himself was surprised.
From there the Tenka’ichi Budōkai was born. I temporarily withdrew the other characters besides Goku, brought back Kame-Sen’nin, and added Kuririn as a new character. From there it got popular before I knew it.
Dragon Ball‘s popularity soared soon after and Toriyama sensei then abandoned the Journey to the West-feel to completely devote to the battle portion of the manga. This was the turning point in Dragon Ball, after which the series barely ever had to worry about a lack of popularity.
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