The Legendary anime series Dragon Ball and its protagonist Goku have been an inspiration for a lot of fans and manga creators since it became a media franchise. Dragon Ball is one of the most popular manga and anime series of all time, with the manga being published in over 40 countries. The manga’s 42 collected tankōbon volumes have sold more than 160 million copies in Japan and 260 million copies globally, making it one of the best-selling manga series.
However, initially Kazuhiko Torishima, the legendary manga editor thought that Goku, the protagonist of Akira Toriyama’s manga, was plain and simple.
Kazuhiko Torishima Thought Goku was Rather Plain
In an interview with Kanzenshuu, Toriyama revealed that Torishima believed that the protagonist of his story was rather plain and that’s why it’s not popular. He said:
“Up until the Tenka’ichi Budōkai began, the series hadn’t been all that popular. That’s what Torishima-san had told me. “Your protagonist is rather plain. That’s why it’s not popular.”, he said. Personally, since I was doing a fighting story for this series, I had intentionally made the protagonist’s clothing excessively plain. So this annoyed me, but then I figured it out. “Well, let’s increase its popularity,” I thought. When I had designed Goku’s character, the words that best represented him were “I want to become strong”. So I thought I’d bring that to the front.”
“Even during “Dr. Slump”, the tournament-like events such as the Penguin Village Gran Prix or the Mini-Event were amazingly popular. So I’d simply make the story into a tournament format. From there the Tenka’ichi Budōkai was born. I temporarily withdrew the other characters besides Goku, brought back Kame-Sen’nin, and added Kuririn as a new character. From there it got popular before I knew it.”
After introducing the Tenka’ichi Budōkai and other tournament-like events, the story hit a massive surge of popularity and over the years became one of the largest-selling manga and one of the biggest anime series of all time and Goku became the brand ambassador of the Tokyo Olympics.
Who is Kazuhiko Torishima?
Kazuhiko Torishima is a former manga magazine editor and Japanese publishing executive who presently serves as an advisor to Hakusensha. He formerly worked at Shueisha, where he began as an editor in 1976 before rising through the ranks to become a senior managing director (CEO) and, later, a Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions director. Torishima was honored with a Special Achievement Award at the 2022 Japan Media Arts Festival for his contributions to manga, including the discovery of Toriyama and the establishment of the now “indispensable cross-media production method.”
Torishima collaborated with Toriyama on the Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball manga. Toriyama is supposed to have drawn inspiration for the villains Dr. Mashirito and King Piccolo from him.
Source: Kanzenshuu
