Akira Toriyama is a legend among mangakas and that includes authors of famous franchises like One Piece. Eiichiro Oda has repeatedly expressed his admiration for Toriyama and Dragon Ball, and once he received an opportunity to talk to the legend himself, he couldn’t quite hold back.
The One Piece Artbook, Color Walk 1, was published containing an interview between Eiichiro Oda and Akira Toriyama. Despite being called an interview, it was more of a chit-chat session between the mangaka, where each of them fanboy-ed over the other’s works.
Eiichiro Oda was Awe-struck With Akira Toriyama’s Art Style
As soon as the interview began, Eiichiro Oda exclaimed that Akira Toriyama is God and is in an entirely different dimension than himself, especially when it comes to drawing. The author continued that while he had never read Dr. Slump (Akira Toriyama’s previous serialization), he had first encountered Toriyama’s work in the early chapters of Dragon Ball.
I fell in love at first sight. I thought, “He’s too good!” At that time, I loved Disney, but I was thinking, “This is even better than Disney stuff!”
Then, the One Piece creator brought up an extremely minor character from Dragon Ball, Ranfan. Ranfan is a competitor at the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament. Oda commented that in one of the scenes in Dragon Ball containing Ranfan, he really appreciated how her armpits were drawn. Apparently, at that time, the author was really into drawing armpits, and Toriyama’s illustrations were the first ones he encountered in which armpits were drawn well.
Next, Oda kept praising another minor character, Taopaipai, an assassin in Dragon Ball.
When he posed his hands were so well drawn. During that time, the only thing I drew were hands. Those two things were what shocked me the most in Dragon Ball… armpits and hands.
The One Piece author was shocked at the precision with which Akira Toriyama drew hands. Toriyama’s art style has always been unique and easy to decipher, which has helped him gain popularity even more.
Akira Toriyama Regretted Not Studying Muscle Models Before Creating Dragon Ball
After Eiichiro Oda’s long rant on Akira Toriyama’s drawing style, the latter had the most shocking confession to make:
But, Dragon Ball grew to have more and more muscular characters. I actually regret not having studied muscle models back then, but I still haven’t gotten around to it…
Eiichiro Oda seemed to be in disbelief at this statement as he hurriedly said that the way Dragon Ball characters bulked up in the series was very stunning. Toriyama then clarified that he thought too much about how the muscles should look stylistically rather than how real muscles should look. Despite looking aesthetically pleasing, they aren’t accurate.
The Dragon Ball creator also stated that he made muscular female characters because he just didn’t know how to draw women. Despite admitting to so many flaws in his drawing style, every fan knows just how talented Akira Toriyama was.
Dragon Ball is available to read on Viz Media, and the anime is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
