Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball is considered to be the most popular Shonen Series that is solely responsible for the popularity of the manga and anime industries. The series is infectiously popular among fans as it is notorious for featuring epic battle scenes while inspiring them to not give up on themselves.
Though everyone in the otaku community adores Toriyama-Sensei’s contribution to the industry, they wholeheartedly despise one title that is attached to the series. Dragon Ball GT, the non-canon show that came right after the ending of DBZ, was believed to be the next hot thing. However, it failed to keep up with the expectations of the fans.
The mangaka was barely attached to the show, but his one contribution related to the show has continued to keep the fans divided as he gave one significant yet his tiniest to the show.
Akira Toriyama’s Super Saiyan 4 Design for Goku Has Kept the Fans Divided
After Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball Z wrapped up its story in 1996, Dragon Ball GT came hot and was believed by the fandom to follow the same emotionally stirring saga that its predecessors had showcased.
However, the non-canon show was a massive letdown as it changed its iconic theme song and featured villains that had no personality attached to them. But more importantly, the show ignored all the ground rules that Toriyama-Sensei had been establishing in his past two series.
Despite the criticism, he gave in to the show, as he decided to add something powerful to the non-canon saga. A key aspect of Dragon Ball GT is how it featured one of the most powerful and impressive transformations featured in the show, Super Saiyan 4.
Both Kakarot and Vegeta featured themselves in this iconic transformation, soon followed by their iconic fusion, Gogeta, which redefined what it means to be the strongest. Though Toriyama-Sensei was not heavily involved in the show, he was responsible for sharing his vision of the transformation that was by someone else.
The artist shared a few words on the occasion of its release on DVD via MeriStation, where he added a small illustration of Kakarot in his SSJ4 form in his style. He said,
Being a lazy bum by nature, I was absurdly happy when I managed to safely finish up Dragon Ball’s serialization, and finally be released from Deadline Hell.
Toriyama-Sensei added that working on a strict deadline was too problematic for him. Hence, he decided to part ways, and that resulted in the non-canon show.
The TV anime people wanted to continue for just a little bit more, but I just couldn’t do any more than that… And so, I left the Dragon Ball anime completely up to the anime staff, story and all. That was Dragon Ball GT.
While the design has kept the entire fandom divided, the mangaka praised the original designer of the character, who mastered his peculiarities in no time.
Akira Toriyama Praised the animator for Super Saiyan 4
In the same interview, Akira Toriyama shared that he was responsible for the bare minimum of the show, like giving the title and designing the initial main cast.
After feeling assured, he left the series with his staff, who continued with the series. He said,
For ‘GT’, all I did was just come up with the title, design the initial main cast and some of the machines, and also do a few images. However, I was able to rest easy handing things over to the excellent staff, who had continued on Dragon Ball for all this time.
However, one name stood out to the mangaka; it was none other than Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, the original designer of Super Saiyan 4. He added,
In particular, the animator Nakatsuru-kun is amazingly skilled, and mastered the peculiarities of my drawings in no time at all, to the point where there were even times when I couldn’t tell whether I had drawn a certain character design, or if he had. For instance, one of Nakatsuru-kun’s designs was ‘Super Saiyan 4,’ which appears in GT, and the picture above is a portrait that I drew looking off it. Did I draw it well?
Nonetheless, the show is not universally disliked because it includes several heartfelt moments between the characters that remind viewers of the canon series.
Dragon Ball DAIMA is the last show that was done by Toriyama-Sensei before he tragically passed away at the age of 68 due to acute subdural hematoma. Since the show is right around the corner, fans would be eager to see the canon series
Dragon Ball GT can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
