Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball is a name that you are bound to mention in the context of top shonen anime. Naturally, he is a huge inspiration to the future generations of mangakas. But it turns out that Toriyama himself is not very satisfied with various inspired works.
In a 2018 interview, Akira Toriyama and Takehiko Inoue, the author of Slam Dunk, opened up about prospects in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine and shared their thoughts on up-and-coming mangakas.
“Have pride and add a little originality” – Akira Toriyama
The 33rd issue of the Weekly Shonen Jump 2018 magazine was a special feature celebrating the magazine’s 50th year anniversary. It featured an interview with Akira Toriyama and Takehiko Inoue, who were asked to say some words for new authors aiming for Shonen Jump’s publication.
Toriyama sensei jumped at the opportunity to talk about the time he was a judge for the Tezuka Award, the highest manga award in Japan. He expressed that it’s nice to see authors getting influenced by their favorite authors. However, he would like them to exhibit pride and originality in their creations.
His statement was seconded by Inoue, despite his inexperience with many new manga. If you think about all the recent shonen you have read, how many can you claim to be completely original? Most shonen manga and anime feature a young and reckless protagonist with a mission too huge for their age. They are mostly surrounded by unique power-wielding individuals.
The formulae for different manga genres seem to have been set, and no one is ready to break away from them.
Toriyama sensei further clarifies that the quality of the work is increasing, but individuality is on a decline. He exclaims that he wants to come across a manga that makes him think, “This author must be nuts!”
“It (Jump) isn’t the goal at all” – Takehiko Inoue
Takehiko Inoue had his own thoughts to spare regarding the matter and spoke freely. He prefaced it by saying that he doesn’t read a lot of recent manga, so he doesn’t want to talk like a know-it-all. But he has noticed that there’s a trend amongst aspiring authors, who view Weekly Shonen Jump as the goal. Whereas, it’s just a magazine to showcase their works,
“Some people think that appearing in Jump itself possesses a value, but I’m not so sure about that.”
Inoue sensei claims that the Jump isn’t an author’s place of employment and he hopes it stays that way. It is true that some authors think getting featured in the magazine itself is a big deed and their work does not need any more innovation after that.
However, Jump shouldn’t be a goal, and authors should strive for creativity rather than being featured in a certain publication. Let’s hope aspiring authors will take the pro mangakas’ advice and improve themselves to create innovative series.
You can read Dragon Ball and the Slam Dunk manga on Viz Media.
