Almost every Dragon Ball character has a well-defined body. If you think of major characters like Goku or Vegeta, their stunning physique is always considered to be the gold standard. Yet, it turns out Akira Toriyama never studied muscle structure!
Yes, you read that right. Legendary mangaka Akira Toriyama admitted to not learning muscle models in a discussion with Eiichiro Oda, the author of One Piece. Oda, who is a huge fanboy of Toriyama, was equally shocked by the news.
Eiichiro Oda Regrets Not Studying Muscle Model During Dragon Ball‘s Creation
In a moderated discussion between Eiichiro Oda and Akira Toriyama, the former began by geeking out over the latter.
Eiichiro Oda: “He’s god! He is in an entirely different dimension. All in all, he’s just too good at drawing!”
Akira Toriyama was suddenly put in an awkward position, but Oda continued lauding his idol by talking about some of his favorite characters in Dragon Ball. He even talked about Ranfan’s well-drawn armpits in Dragon Ball!
This led Akira Toriyama to confess:
“Dragon Ball grew to have more and more muscular characters. I actually regret not having studied muscle models back then, but I still haven’t gotten around to it…”
Of course, this sent Eiichiro Oda to a shocked state, as he tried to make sense of it by saying how the bulking up of Dragon Ball characters was stunning. Toriyama explained that he thought too much about how the muscles looked stylistically, so they didn’t adhere to how real muscles look. He also admitted that his female characters are fairly muscular because he is not very good at drawing girls.
Akira Toriyama Considers His Mecha Illustrations Fake
Once again, Eiichiro Oda’s fanboying kicked off the discussion, as he exclaimed that Akira Toriyama’s mecha illustrations are amazing. Toriyama quickly burst his bubble by claiming that a majority of those are made up. However, he had blueprints in his head to figure out where its fuel tank would be located and how it would propel itself.
“The logic behind them all are all fake, but even so, for odd-shaped mecha, I do think about things like, “How would I get onto this thing?” etc.”
Toriyama further explained that while drawing from an illustration is fine, in a manga, the mecha must appear multiple times in different poses and angles. So if he reaches his limit with the design, it comes back to bite him later.
Eiichiro Oda also agreed that making the characters and mechas move is a different matter altogether. He was overjoyed with the mecha that the Pilaf crew was aboard. The three mechas that combined into one made him overjoyed.
In fact, two of the mechas combined to become an ostrich robot. Oda was amazed at how Toriyama had planned everything. The Dragon Ball mangaka, on the other hand, couldn’t even remember that he drew a robot, and almost couldn’t believe he had that much farsight.
The interview brought out the child inside Oda, as he remembered every small detail of Dragon Ball. In another interview, the author also talked about how much other mangakas sought after Dragon Ball’s slot after the manga ended, due to its high popularity.
You can reach both Dragon Ball and One Piece manga on Viz Media and watch the anime on Crunchyroll.
