What's the origin of Dragon Ball? Did Toriyama ever workshop this idea or did he just plow forward?
Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by remaining off the show itself, and delving into some background information on Dragon Ball, specifically, by tackling the genesis of Dragon Ball, and its prototypes via some of Akira Toriyama's one-off manga he created leading up to Dragon Ball's inception
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney encounter a massive power reading in the deep recesses of space
- We talk about WHY we're jumping back, to uncover some of Dragon Ball's genesis
- We discuss the brainstorming between Toriyama and Kazuhiko Torishima (Toriyama's Editor)
- The spark of idea from Toriyama's wife, Nachi Mikami, that clicks a tumbler into place and makes Torishima push Toriyama to create a kung-fu manga
- We discuss the concept of yomikiri manga, which are essentially akin to comic one-shots such as Marvel's What If...? or DC's Elseworlds.
- We talk about the manga Dragon Boy and its similarities to Dragon Ball
- We mention the existence of Viz Media's Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater, a collection of his early works and yomikiri manga spanning his career
- We also shed light on Tong Poo's Great Adventure about a young boy traveling through space and meeting a human girl
- We unveil the similarities between Dragon Ball and his yomikiri Pola & Roid, from 1981
- We talk about the 1982 story Pink: The Rain Jack
- We discuss how Dr. Slump helped Toriyama develop his style and voice and build an audience over the decades
- We discuss the similarities between Akira Toriyama and Peter Jackson, and how one can be somewhat popular from their previous work, before exploding into massive popularity from Lord of the Rings, and how the differ, as Jackson's early works such as Braindead/Dead Alive, Meet the Feebles, and Bad Taste belie his abilities in epic storytelling, as opposed to Toriyama's work very much being in his style
- We discuss how Toriyama is pretty similar to Stan Lee (and Jack Kirby) in creating prototypes for various characters in comics headlined by other characters (ie, Punisher in Amazing Spider-Man or Wolverine in Incredible Hulk)
- We discuss Stan Lee's awesome response to "Who would win in a fantasy fight?"
- We talk about how Toriyama and Torishima's relationship is different from "Batman creator" Bob Kane and his collaborations with Bill Finger
- We talk about Toriyama's building of a shared universe and how that's similar in some ways to Stephen King's crafting of his Dark Tower franchise
- and more, including some general pop culture, trivia, and editorializing, as usual
Join us as we continue to uncover the cultural meanings, publication facts, inspirations and more behind the wildly popular Dragon Ball franchise.
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