The recent revelation of a mysterious character’s silhouette in Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece has shocked the entire fandom, as he has been featured among the most important characters in the final saga. This character has been put in the leagues with heavy hitters like Dragon, Akainu, Imu, Blackbeard, Luffy, etc., proving his importance to the battle of supremacy.
Although the character’s identity has been kept hidden by Eiichiro Oda because of the narrative, it has become a big issue for One Piece fans, as they can’t even point out a single thing that would help them understand the origins of the mysterious character. While Oda has had similar issues in the past, Dragon Ball’s creator, Akira Toriyama, perfected this skill.
Toriyama once revealed how he was able to make his characters identifiable to such an extent that it became a Dragon Ball trademark. Fans are able to recognize the characters even from their silhouettes, which is considered a challenge in the manga world.
Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball Trademark
To honor the 30th anniversary of the Dragon Ball franchise, a book called Dragon Ball: Super History Book was released in 2016, which featured an exclusive interview with the mangaka that was shared by Kazenshuu. During the interview, Toriyama was asked about how he was able to make the Dragon Ball characters so easily recognizable to the fans.
The mangaka revealed:
I guess I just ended up doing that naturally, because I use a lot of long panels, and that makes it easy to tell where and how they’re fighting. When drawing the characters small, it’s no good if you can’t tell who’s who, so it’s best to give them each some distinguishing characteristic.
The panels in the Dragon Ball manga are generally long because of the fights and battle sequences that take place in the series. Because of this, Toriyama had to draw small characters that would help fans understand the location and the nature of the fight. Thus, he had to give each character a distinguishing characteristic that would make them recognizable.
Akira Toriyama’s Process of Designing Characters
Further explaining the discerning features of Dragon Ball characters, Akira Toriyama revealed that the process of designing a character starts with his or her personality. After that, he focused on their faces, and finally, he designed their clothes. This helped him keep the differences between the characters and make them perceptible.
Toriyama stated:
My process for drawing characters is basically that I start with their personality, and decide on their face next… then once the face is done, I can come up with their clothes. I try not to settle on any specific design concept ahead of time, because that takes all the fun out of it. I guess it just comes down to whatever’s influencing me at the time.
Although both Dragon Ball and One Piece feature a vast array of characters that are unique in their own way, Toriyama mastered the technique of making them physically noticeable. This helped fans understand the story more easily.
However, Eiichiro Oda, on the other hand, likes to keep the mystery of the character until the very end, which is why he draws characters in a way that fans can’t recognize them. This makes the One Piece narrative even more complex than it already is.
You can watch Dragon Ball and One Piece on Crunchyroll.
