Dragon Ball is one of the most popular anime and manga franchises of all time and of the Shonen genre in particular. It is popular and famous the world over, playing a huge part in the growth of anime and manga outside Japan. Created by Akira Toriyama, the series initially started off as an adventure manga before shifting focus to a more combat, martial arts-oriented series and it developed from there.
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Some fans have often wondered how this iconic series which inspired so many other creators was first created. In an old interview, Akira Toriyama spoke of how he came to create Dragon Ball and how it had some surprising Chinese influences from both cinema, specifically a Jackie Chan movie, and classical literature.
How are Dragon Ball Z and Jackie Chan connected?
Speaking in the guidebook Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 2: Story Guide, translated into English by Kanzenshuu, Toriyama explained the original inspiration behind the series and how it related to Jackie Chan. He said:
“I had just ended “Dr. Slump”, and for the time being I was thinking about what I should do for my next serialized work. I had many meetings with my editor at the time, Torishima-san. As it happened, at that time I loved Jacky Chan’s movies and had seen “Drunken Master” dozens of times. Since I liked that sort of thing, Torishima-san advised me to try and make a kung-fu shōnen manga, so I drew a one-shot called “Dragon Boy”. That got an incredibly positive response from the readers, so I decided to go that route for my next serialized work.”
Drunken Master is an action-comedy movie released in 1978 starring the famous Jackie Chan, and as mentioned by Toriyama, also helped him create Dragon Ball. The balance between the martial arts element and comedy was perhaps from this highly popular kung fu movie.
Which novel did Toriyama take inspiration from?
Jackie Chan movies weren’t the only source of inspiration for Dragon Ball, as Toriyama also turned to classical Chinese literature for ideas. In the same interview, he said:
“Since “Dr. Slump” had been in a Western scenery, I decided to change that impression and make my new work have a Chinese scenery. And if I was going to give it a Chinese feel, I thought I would make the story based on “Journey to the West”. “Journey to the West” after all is absurd and has adventurous elements, so I guess I decided to make a slightly modernized “Journey to the West”. I thought it would be easy if that story served as the basis, since all I would have to do would be to arrange things.”
Journey to the West was published in the 16th century in China and is a hugely popular book in East Asia even today. Toriyama also explained how the character of Goku came about with reference to the novel, saying:
“The protagonist in “Dragon Boy” had wings, so I wanted a distinguishing characteristic in that sense, where you could tell it was him just by looking. So I gave Goku a tail. So even if he was hidden behind a rock, if you could still see his tail you’d know that it was Goku. From there I added the Dragon Balls, and if you gathered all seven your wish was granted. I thought that if the characters went searching for these, they could go through a journey like in “Journey to the West”.”
Unlike in Journey to the West, where the protagonist is a monkey, Toriyama made Goku a human in Dragon Ball. Though as fans of the series know, it turned out that Goku wasn’t a human at all, but a Saiyan.
Source: Comicbook.com, Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 2: Story Guide
