Akira Toriyama’s unique art style is one of the most iconic in today’s times. It stands out in ways that make it recognizable to even the most novice anime fans. Dragon Ball’s distinctive style of drawing has unmistakably become its own form of art in a way. Toriyama’s legacy stands not just in the world and stories that he created but also in the characters he drew to perfection.
Perfection takes a long time to achieve, and the Sand Land creator understands that. It takes patience, practice, and great dedication to achieve one’s goals. Whether they are focused on the story itself or the art that narrates it.
Despite the hard work, dedication, and understanding put into creating characters like Goku, Vegeta, and Broly, the mangaka had one regret as if it were a chip on his shoulder.
Akira Toriyama Hated Not Doing More Research
From the iconic hair to the power scaling that has every single Dragon Ball fan roaring in cheers, Akira Toriyama has created a world full of action and surprises that keep the audiences on edge at all times. In an interview with Eiichiro Oda for the One Piece artbook Color Walk 1, Toriyama explained the one thing he regretted when starting with Dragon Ball.
“I actually regret not having studied muscle models back then, but I still haven’t gotten around to it.”
The series is known well for the muscular build each character seems to have. Whether it is a woman or a man, every single character is bulked up in the action-packed manga. This particular feature only continued to grow as the manga began to grow.
However, Toriyama revealed that had he taken into consideration some guides and muscle models, things would have been simpler for it. The characters would then have been better built in terms of ratios, proportions, and overall muscle mass.
Eiichiro Oda Had a Different Opinion
Contrary to Akira Toriyama’s beliefs, Eiichiro Oda had a completely different opinion of Dragon Ball’s art style. In the interview, Toriyama kept criticizing himself and the way he could have done things differently for one reason or another when it came to his drawings. The One Piece writer countered this argument by stating that the muscular builds that stand out are absolutely perfect.
“It’s perfect. Sensei, even the girls you draw are fairly muscular. I think that makes them a bit s*xy.”
Oda instead pushed forward the idea that even the women he drew had a certain flair to them in their muscular figures, one that he found rather alluring. Ironically enough, Toriyama is known to make Goku’s hair blond every time he entered Super Saiyan mode simply because he would not have to color it in. Toriyama even went so far as to state that he wasn’t great at sketching female characters.
However, Oda didn’t seem to see it that way. He found the muscular characters to be unique in their own way, helping Dragon Ball create a sense of groundwork for its own art style.
