Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball has existed for well over three decades, and in this golden period, the show has featured a plethora of iconic moments. From Goku’s epic battle with King Piccolo to launching a Super Spirit Bomb to defeat Kid Buu, the series has given its fans countless memorable moments that have left a lasting impact in the minds of the viewers.
Even though each moment of our protagonist marks a landmark in the series, Toryima-Sensei shared how coming up with such iconic moments in the series was never easy. The legendary mangaka opened up about the immense fan pressure that he felt while drawing the 21st Tenka’ichi Budōkai Arc. As a result, he was forced to change the story that would have featured a key moment of our young protagonist.
Akira Toriyama Felt Immense Fan Pressure During The 21st Tenka’ichi Budōkai Arc
One of the key sagas in Akira Toriyama’s Dragor̥n Ball series was the 21st Tenka’ichi Budōkai Arc, popularly known as the World Martial Arts Tournament. This arc in the Shonen series marks a pivotal moment as it becomes the turning point of the series.
Even though this saga is memorable because Kid Goku faces several formidable opponents such as Namu, Giran, and Jackie Chun, an alter ego of Master Roshi. The saga was thrilling to watch for showcasing thrilling battles, often leading to unexpected outcomes.
One of the shocking results in the arc was how Jackie Chun defeated our protagonist. The moment was unforeseen, and many fans could not believe it because everyone thought that the young Saiyan should have won the tournament. However, the mangaka did not want to follow what the fans wanted and went for a different outcome.
During an exclusive interview in 2014 with the Japanese magazine Men’s Non-No translated via Kanzenshuu, Akira Toriyama shared how at the beginning of his Shonen Series “it wasn’t received well,” due to lack of fighting scenes. To change the fans’ response, he started working on it and started “working from chapter to chapter every time,” and he often had a sense of “what should I do next?”
However, when he started working on the Tenka’ichi Budōkai Arc, he felt immense fan pressure. He said,
“Even with the Tenka’ichi Budōkai, I was drawing it without knowing who would win. At first, even I thought it might be Goku after all, but along the way, there was a survey [in Jump] about “who will win?”, and the result was overwhelmingly “Goku.””
The mangaka added,
“Since I’m a contrarian, I don’t want to go along with what everyone else thinks. (laughs) I was desperately thinking up ideas about how not to have Goku win the championship.”
Although it may not seem important, Goku’s defeat in the tournament was pivotal because Master Roshi did not want Goku and Krillin to stop training. Hence, he decided to participate in the World Martial Arts Tournament to teach his students a lesson, and it paid off big time because it led to several iconic moments later in the franchise.
Toriyama-Sensei Opened Up About How He Came Up With More Thrilling Fights in the DBZ Universe
In the same interview, Toriyama-Sensei was asked if he felt any pressure when improving the setting for the fights as the story progressed. The mangaka replied that he had never sort of thought of anything like that until he “got to the Majin Boo arc.”
He said,
“I was truly drawing without thinking about that sort of thing, but when I got to the Majin Boo arc, I felt that there wasn’t anywhere to go beyond it. There was, somewhat. However, perhaps because I live in the countryside, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I think that was actually probably a good thing. If I had been conscious of it, I would over think things, and it might not have amounted to much.”
Nevertheless, the pressure could not get to Toriyama-Sensei as the Majin Boo saga was gripping and featured several iconic moments such as Kakarot vs Majin Vegeta, Kakrota going SSJ 3 for the first time, Goku and Vegeta fused into Vegito using the Potara Earrings, and many more.
Dragon Ball can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
