Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, has blessed the anime and manga communities with his works. His creations like Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump have opened the realm of manga to a global audience that has now fallen in love with the anime and manga industry, making it one of the biggest entertainment artworks of all time.
However, Toriyama revealed in an interview that he did not plan to send the drafts of his magnum opus, Dragon Ball, to Weekly Shonen Jump. Rather, he wanted to send it to Weekly Shonen Magazine at first but, ultimately, was forced to get his work published in Weekly Shonen Jump. Toriyama’s first manga, Dr. Slump, was already a big deal in Weekly Shonen Magazine at the time.
While it was a forced decision, it worked in the favor of the series, as it went on to inspire many other manga creators and their works, making Weekly Shonen Jump one of the biggest Japanese manga magazines.
Akira Toriyama Was Forced To Send Dragon Ball Drafts To Weekly Shonen Jump
Rumic World shared one of Toriyama and Rumiko Takahashi’s old interviews, which was published in Telepal Tokyo Edition 1986, Volume 3. In the interview, both manga artists talked about why they chose the Shonen genre and when they decided to become manga creators.
Toriyama stated:
“I wanted to keep it a secret, but I planned to submit my drafts to Weekly Shonen Magazine at first, but I found the deadline had already passed, so I had no choice but to send it to Weekly Shonen Jump. The reason why I became a mangaka… to be honest, I just wanted the 100,000 yen prize (laughs).”
According to Toriyama, he wanted Dragon Ball to be a secret because he wanted to submit the drafts of his work to Weekly Shonen Magazine instead of Weekly Shonen Jump. However, he missed the deadline and had to forcefully share them with Weekly Shonen Jump. He also explained that he wanted to become a mangaka because of the 100,000 yen prize money.
The Difference Between Weekly Shonen Jump and Weekly Shonen Magazine
Although Japanese manga fans might already know this, Weekly Shonen Jump and Weekly Shonen Magazine are two different manga magazines. While Weekly Shonen Magazine is published by Kodansha, Weekly Shonen Jump is published by Shueisha. Weekly Shonen Magazine started in 1959, and Weekly Shonen Jump started in 1968.
Weekly Shonen Magazine has published multiple manga series like Blue Lock, Attack on Titan, Fairy Tail, Hajime No Ippo, etc. However, Weekly Shonen Jump contains major manga series like One Piece, Naruto, Dragon Ball, Jujutsu Kaisen, Kagurabachi, etc. Both of them are considered to be two of the biggest manga magazines in the world.
Akira Toriyama has collaborated with both magazines. His first manga series, Dr. Slump, was a part of Weekly Shonen Magazine, while Dragon Ball, as mentioned above, became a part of Weekly Shonen Jump. Although Dr. Slump marked the beginning of Toriyama’s career, Dragon Ball is the one that led him to become a legend in the manga industry.
You can read Dragon Ball manga on Viz Media.
