Jelli and Bekinney take a break from format and Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon Dragon Ball by pivoting and talking about the life and personality and career of one of the most influential creative minds behind Dragon Ball: Akira Toriyama's first editor Kazuhiko Torishima.
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney are fired upon!
- We have already discussed the life and career of Akira Toriyama, Daisuke Nishio, Toshiki Inoue, Takao Koyama, Chiaki Imada, and (one of the men who inspired the creation of Goku himself) Jackie Chan...let's talk about one of the key men when it came to the birth of Dragon Ball itself: Kazuhiko Torishima, Toriyama's first editor, the man who pushed and pulled Toriyama all the way from up-and-comer to one of the most successful manga ka of all time, and one of the most important men in the history of Shueisha and Shogakukan.
- Torishima's birth and childhood in Niigata prefecture
- His early career, in which he wanted to be an editor for Playboy
- How he wound up working for Weekly Shonen Jump
- His initial opinion that manga was a lower form of entertainment
- His first job working on Doberman Deka, created by Buronson, who would go on to create Fist of the North Star
- Torishima's role in pushing Akira Toriyama to make Arale the main character of Dr. Slump
- How Torishima's occasionally harsh style led to the creation of the antagonist of Dr. Slump, Dr. Mashirito
- Shueisha's desire for a hit to follow up Dr. Slump when it ended
- How Torishima kept pushing Toriyama to make Dragon Ball better when popularity initially slumped and again and again in order to make it more and more popular
- How Torishima helped make sure the Dragon Ball anime was more faithful to the manga than most anime at the time
- Torishima's general philosophy behind storytelling and his preferred reading, including philosophy (like Nietzche and Confucius)
- Torishima's work with Nintendo to create a fusion of manga and video games, in Famicon SHinken
- Other works Torishima helped launch including Yu-Gi-Oh, One Piece, Naruto, Dragon Quest, Bleach, Death Note, Gantz II, and Pokemon
- His rise to being the editor-in-chief of Shueisha and ultimately director of Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions
- Creatives who have been inspired by Torishima, including the minds behind Tottemo! Luckyman, Momotaro Dentetsu, Yudetamago, and Kinnikuman
- Why Torishima even became an editor in the first place
- Some of Torishima's activism as a face of the manga industry as a whole
- 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, and unspool what we all love so much about Goku, the Dragon Ball franchise, the Dragon Ball anime, Dragon Ball manga, and more.
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