Dragon Ball series creator Akira Toriyama doesn't really understand how his beloved franchise became as popular as it has.
Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama doesn't really understand how his beloved series became as popular as it has. In his defense, few could have predicted how big the franchise would become when it first debuted as a serialized manga in the pages of Weekly Shōnen Jump back in 1984.
Inspired by the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West, Toriyama's manga would eventually be adapted into two highly successful animated series (Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z) and be spun off into 19 different animated films, three TV specials, and two animated sequel series (GT and Super). The billions the franchise has accrued in merchandizing sales alone cements its place among the most popular fictional universes ever created. And yet we still can't get a halfway decent live-action adaptation. Go figure.
Related: 15 Secrets You Didn’t Know About Dragon Ball
In a recent sitdown with the manga anthology magazine that started it all, Weekly Shōnen Jump, Toriyama was pretty forthcoming about how baffled he continues to be by his creation's success. Check out the extent of his confusion (with translations provided by Twitter user @Herms98) for yourself below.
That doesn’t make any sense to me, since I think I draw things the wrong way. I guess because it’s too much of a world where anything goes. Once you’ve got that as your setup, you can draw anything and nobody can complain that it’s impossible.
When Toriyama was asked about the significant boost that his Dragon Ball series gave to Jump's sales, he was even more straightforward.
I'm happy to hear that, but...it doesn't really make sense to me. A while ago I reread the series for the first time in ages, and while the Frieza arc was suspenseful enough to grab my interest...I still wondered why it was so popular.
We won't attempt to dive into some deep explanation of why the franchise has become so popular (it's crazy awesome; we'll leave it at that). Instead, we'll simply say that Toriyama's probably being a bit too hard on himself here. The tales of Goku, Vegeta, and the gang have captivated millions for a reason, and their influence is as far reaching as any manga series in history. As to Toriyama's comment that he believes he draws things incorrectly...well, we'll just respectfully disagree and call it a day.
Do you share in Akira Toriyama's confusion regarding the immense popularity of Dragon Ball? Do you think the series may be a bit overrated? Sound off in the comments.
Next: Every Goku Transformation, Ranked
Source: Weekly Shōnen Jump, Twitter
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Corey Hutchinson is a writer/editor based out of Brooklyn, New York. A longtime Screen Rant reader before applying to work for the site, he's now been with SR for over two years. Corey attended The New School in Manhattan after a 4-year drinking stint at SUNY Cortland. His weaknesses include comic book movies, pepperoni/mushroom pizza, and puppies. His strengths are questionable at best, though it’s rumored that he’s pretty decent at following Bob Ross tutorials. He’s well versed in classic American sports, supporting the 49ers, Yankees, Bulls, and the NY Rangers. Corey’s career aspirations include commanding a Transformer to battle intergallactic space robots, fighting crime and injustice as a masked vigilante, and completing a bachelor-friendly cookbook utilizing dino nuggets, bbq sauce, cheddar Goldfish, and boxed mac & cheese as the main ingredients.
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'Dragon Ball Z' tattoos at a fan screening of 'Dragon Ball Super: Broly'.
This article originally appeared on VICE UK.
Dragon Ball Z was a revelation to 14-year-old me. Gone was the slapstick silliness of most children's cartoons, in were sprawling sagas full of drama, character development, and overblown fight scenes in which planets were destroyed by colorful heroes; and villains were as dedicated to hurting each other as they were to excruciatingly long pre-fight dialogue.
Although the original Dragon Ball was broadcast in Japan back in 1989, before making its way to western audiences via Cartoon Network and its spin-off channel Toonami in the late-1990s and early-2000s, its popularity has never faded. If anything, the fandom has grown, despite there being a 12-year absence of new episodes between the end of Dragon Ball GT in 1997 and the start of Dragon Ball Z Kai in 2009.
'Dragon Ball Z' fan Morgan
With the release of the new film Dragon Ball Super: Broly this month, the franchise looks set to attract an ever wider audience. What's strange is that—as we literally just established—a huge fanbase has existed for years, and while there have been 20 animated DBZ movies released since 1986, this is only the second to get a UK showing. So why did the powers-that-be decide to treat British audiences to a theater release of Broly?
"Because a shit-ton of fans demanded it," explains Jerome Mazandarani, COO of anime production giants Manga UK. "We discovered with the previous release, Resurrection F [2015], that the DBZ fanbase in the UK transcends normal anime fandom and is a multigenerational phenomenon. Outside of Studio Ghibli and Your Name, DBZ is the biggest anime movie franchise in the UK."
'Dragon Ball Z' fans Abigail and Chris
At a special screening for fans in London's Leicester Square, that multigenerational audience is clear to see. The fans lining up outside are more diverse in terms of age and ethnicity than I've seen among any other major cult following. Noticeably, though, that diversity doesn't stretch to gender: the fans are very much mostly men.
"I've been a Dragon Ball Z fan since I was 15, and I'm 33 now, so it's been the most influential thing in my life," says one fan, Winston. "Dragon Ball Z isn't my favorite anime—it's beyond that. It's my life story. It's beyond TV shows, beyond anime—it is what I do with my life. I got my pay rise just so I can buy more Dragon Ball Z stuff. Whenever there's a convention or [a chance to meet the voiceover actors], I just study really hard, put in the work and make sure I can get there. My next plan is to buy a house so I can fill it with Dragon Ball Z memorabilia."
I'd already been exposed to some manga and anime before being turned on to Dragon Ball Z, but for many of the fans here, it seems their dedication stems from the fact that DBZ was their gateway into this world.
"We were watching it from a young age, [on] Cartoon Network, before Toonami was even a thing," says Shakeel, from London. "We were, like, five or six when we first saw it, and the fight scenes just blew our minds. We'd watch Dragon Ball Z from, like, 12 AM all the way through to 12 PM, all day."
"It was the first anime we ever watched—it was the OG anime," adds his brother Kameel, whose arm is covered in anime tattoos. "If it wasn’t for Dragon Ball Z, I don't think anyone in the western world would even be into anime, at least the way they are now."
The author (left) kamehameha-ing
This is a sentiment repeated regularly over the course of the night: "I got into anime after watching Dragon Ball Z on Cartoon Network, and it changed my life." But for the majority of fans, that initial exposure happened a decade ago. Why is the franchise's fandom still as enthusiastic as ever?
"I think illegal streaming, [anime streaming site] Crunchyroll and Netflix have taken anime mainstream, which in turn has turned local television broadcasters back onto the medium in a bid to attract tweens, teens, and millennials to their channels," says Jerome Mazandarani. "Dragon Ball is the Iron Maiden of anime because its fans are multi-generational. You'd have an old gray metal dude in a denim jacket covered in heavy metal badges attending the gig with another, younger middle-aged metal dude in the same attire, and beside them would be a tween metal dude in matching paraphernalia. Dragon Ball is the same to me: We see dads and sons at Comic Cons all the time; it's been passed on organically over time through family and friends."
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