One of the most recognized names among manga artists is Akira Toriyama. His most famous work is Dragon Ball, which has acquired a massive image in the industry. It has gone beyond the medium of manga to emerge as a multimedia IP renowned across international borders.
Akira Toriyama has gained quite the stardom and has been the center of the spotlight ever since his most outstanding work was released. Akira Toriyama always tries to avoid interviews, however, here is an interestingly ironic fact about the Mangaka. Despite creating one of the most significant shonen anime of all time, he wasn’t interested in shōnen manga.
Akira Toriyama was never interested in creating a Shonen manga
Akira Toriyama was working in a design company where he would usually illustrate or do lettering jobs. However, the man wasn’t satisfied with the life he was leading and decided to ultimately quit his job.
Akira Toriyama began illustrating manga when he was 23 years old. He was initially planning to emerge as a comedy manga author. Akira Toriyama is quite well-known for well-written comedic dialogues and signature humor.
It was his editor who actually suggested that he draw a manga that included a lot of action. Akira Toriyama actually gave it a shot despite his initial hesitation. Thanks to his editor and Toriyama’s determination, the world got to witness one of the best shonen anime, Dragon Ball.
How did Akira Toriyama come up with the idea of Dragon Ball?
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Dr. Slump was quite popular when Toriyama was about to conclude his work. His publisher proposed to him to come up with a new series to launch in the next three months, and he can end Dr Slump.
He worked on a plethora of unfruitful one-shots with his editor before coming up with the idea of Dragon Ball, which would be a martial art-based shonen series. His publisher and Toriyama deemed this series worthy of taking over Dr. Slump.
Dragon Ball is quite famous, but it was a flop upon launching, which is difficult to comprehend. It was hitting rock bottom for quite a long time before actually climbing up the ladder of popularity.
As Dragon Ball immersed more into battles, the popularity of the series skyrocketed until the “Tenkaichi Budokai” arc, which pushed the series to the number one rank in the ratings. Once it wore the crown of the top series, Dragon Ball broke all records and is now often credited as the anime that made anime famous in the first place.
Source: CBR
