Miscommunication among mangakas and their anime staff is common and frequent. Akira Toriyama had first-hand experience with such matters, especially due to his long career and prolonged interactions with anime staff for Dragon Ball.
But in one instance, the author was about to face a major disaster with Dragon Ball, had he not stopped the staff at a crucial juncture. If not, you would have received a completely different antagonist in the Universal Survival Saga.
Dragon Ball Anime Staff Almost Made Jiren a Talkative Character
Jiren is a powerful antagonist in the Universal Survival Saga. He is so strong that he is considered the strongest mortal in the whole multiverse, far exceeding the strength of his universe’s God of Destruction. However, the character has a tragic backstory as his parents were killed by a villain. Later, even his friends and teacher died in a battle with the same villain. Akira Toriyama thus planned for the character not to be able to speak.
In an interview between Dragon Ball Super’s director and producer, they revealed some inside info on the manga. During the planning of the arc for Dragon Ball Super anime, Akira Toriyama’s proposal contained character design images for several characters. The first characters to be drawn were Jiren, Toppo, and Dyspo. However, the original character designs did not contain any indication to Jiren’s personality. Thus, the anime staff took matters into their own hands.
Producer Satoru Takami commented:
Since the tough opponents in Dragon Ball Super up until then had been nihilistic, cool characters like Hit or Zamasu, we thought it might be best to make Jiren very talkative, so we came up with the background of him being a hero of justice.
The staff members of the Dragon Ball Super anime planned to make Jiren a talkative character. When they suggested it to Akira Toriyama, he received the shock of a lifetime. The author was flabbergasted and replied that Jiren is a character who doesn’t speak.
It was only after this point that Akira Toriyama sent a detailed explanation of Jiren’s backstory. Thus, the staff members corrected their mistakes and began working on the improved plan.
Toppo Took the Brunt of the Miscommunication with Akira Toriyama
Toppo or Top is another character from the Universal Survival Saga who is the leader of the Pride Troopers. He is a hot-blooded warrior who repeatedly talks about righteousness and justice. But there’s a peculiar reason behind his character being like this.
After realizing that Jiren does not talk, the staff members of Dragon Ball Super decided to change the character to whom the talkative trait could be attached. Thus the staff came up with the idea of Toppo. Since he is also one of the first characters created for the arc, he was an easy target to transfer the characteristics that were rejected by Toriyama for Jiren.
Toppo was also included as a candidate for the God of Destruction in Akira Toriyama’s draft. In the anime, he is a Destroyer-in-training (much like Vegeta) and is on the way to becoming the God of Destruction for Universe 11.
You can read Dragon Ball on Viz Media and watch the anime on Crunchyroll.
