After ‘Dragon Ball Z’, many considered the series completely closed, especially considering that Akira Toriyama He did not want to know anything at the time about the anime sequel with ‘Dragon Ball GT’. It is seen that over time the goat threw the mountain and Toriyama returned to ‘Dragon Ball’ but with much more calm and with another artist to the pencils.
The physical reason, and the emotional reason
Although Toriyama has never given up drawing entirely and has released a short story from time to time, long manga serializations are a thing of the past. Being a successful cartoonist in the industry takes its toll, and there came a time when Toriyama realized that he couldn’t take it anymore. Already while he published ‘dr. Slump’, the mangaka sometimes spent several nights without sleep and noticed that his health was beginning to deteriorate and even said that “I felt like I was going to die”.
So when the bug bit him to continue Goku’s story, decided to leave the ‘Dragon Ball’ series in the hands of cartoonist Toyotarowho had gained a certain renown in Japan for his fan manga in which he imitated Toriyama’s style quite well.
Nowadays toyotaro He is the main creative force behind ‘Dragon Ball Super’, although Toriyama also collaborates with him on the manga script and even does some specific character designs. But Toriyama has completely distanced himself from drawing for years.
Now, according to Toriyama, there is also another reason why he no longer draws manga on a regular basis: because he lost his favorite pencil holder. For the mangaka, his drawing equipment has tremendous sentimental value and he had bought this pencil holder when he was 14 years old. It had been with her his entire career, and drawing without him felt too weird.
“Sand Land was finished and I was scanning the ink manuscript into a computer, using a program to apply solid colors with my own tones. Possibly I hardly slept… After finishing all the chapters, I lost my beloved wooden pencil holder that I had been using since before I started posting,” Toriyama explained. “I tried buying a new one and sharpening it, but it didn’t feel right. Since then, I’ve used it as an excuse to hardly draw manga.”
That this excuse could also be a joke by Toriyama to justify that he is now taking things more calmly, although it is true that for cartoonists his material is sacred. after posting ‘Sandland’ (which is premiering a film this year), Toriyama has continued to draw manga but at a different pace and publish small short stories for different series… although the longest series he has been wet with since he lost his beloved pencil holder was ‘Jaco, the Galactic Patrolman’ in 2013, and barely stayed in a compiled volume.
Since then he has stayed in the guiding seat with Toyotaro for ‘Dragon Ball Super’, and to create in a more sedate manner. That the teacher deserves the break.
In Espinof | ‘Dragon Ball’ would not exist without these stories of dragons, androids and martial arts: this is how Akira Toriyama’s previous mangas are that influenced his Goku saga