March 20, 2024 • 46 mins
Today we discuss the life of one of Mangas most beloved creators, Akira Toriyama.
In this first episode we talk about his motivation to make money using his love of manga and his early struggles doing so. Then we get to talk about his success that launched him into superstardom.
All this and tons more on this episode of Oft Off Topic
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Shaun (00:00):
Akira Toriyama, the man, the myth, the legend, the god of
manga, whose artistic skill isso powerful it may even prevent
organized crime.
Or, as we'll talk about later,perhaps he also uses his power
to commit crimes.
Hmm, We'll find out soon.
Nathan, what do you know aboutAkira Toriyama?
A?
Nate (00:18):
lot, not everything, I mean.
Like the dude himself, I don'tknow, I don't know.
I don't know much about himother than the fact he hated the
Dragon Ball movie.
Um, yeah, the dude himself, Idon't really know.
Let's see.
I will say this like DragonBall Z was the first animated
ever scene that I ever watched,so it was the first one I ever
got into.
Um, yeah, dbz really was likemy introduction to Japanese
(00:42):
animation.
Shaun (00:43):
You are not alone in that .
In fact, I would say that'sprobably the majority of
people's story of the anime Istheir first one being Dragon
Ball Z it was also the firsttime I was disappointed in
showing someone what I thoughtwas a really badass scene and
they're like, okay.
Nate (00:57):
I was like, oh, come on, man, it was.
And I don't remember the scenetoo.
It was a scene there in theSaiyan saga, so it was very
early on and like, um, it was a.
Gohan gets knocked down and youknow Goku's getting his ass
kicked and Gohan's like, leavemy daddy alone.
He, you know, basically gets areally good hit on Reddit.
So I thought it was a reallyawesome scene.
(01:18):
I mean maybe it was alsobecause I was baked, but I mean.
I thought it was a great sceneand I'm showing my buddy's like
okay.
Come on, man Wait a minute.
Shaun (01:25):
I deserve more than that.
You just kicked me right in thenuts.
Basically, You're like isn'tthat good?
Nate (01:31):
They're just like, eh, You're like, oh well, I have to
go rethink life now.
That was the first time I waslike, okay, this is obviously
not for everybody.
Shaun (01:40):
Yeah, here's your sign Right.
All right, so you're aboutready to get into the story of
Akira Toriyama, all right, ourstory takes place April 5, 1955,
in the town of Kyoso, in theEichi Prefecture of Japan.
Karuzu Toriyama looks at hiswife, tombi, whose face is awash
in the sweat from the pain ofchildbirth.
(02:01):
Go my wife, fight, surpass yourlimits and give me a child.
Upon hearing this encouragement, tombi screams, a powerful
scream, and her hair turnsblonde and spiky.
She then rockets a newbornAkira Toriyama with such force
that he shoots through two wallsand clides with the hillside
and the resulting shockwavelevels half a city block.
Thankfully, as the narratortells us, it was an abandoned
part of town, as the gods ofcensorship would demand out of
(02:23):
them.
Nate (02:24):
Hey that's so much.
I'm gonna blow up this city.
Oh, thankfully no one was there.
What are you talking about?
No one was there.
Shaun (02:31):
Or I'm saying, hey, the helicopter blew up.
Oh, it's okay, I saw theirparachutes, even though there's
obviously no parachutes there.
Nate (02:38):
Great Well also whenever that's like the first time they
show up and blew like again wayearly version, say in Saga.
When Vegeta or Napa blew up,there were people nearby.
They were staying near theirlife, what's in this hole?
And they think oh, thank God,that place is abandoned, like
what happened to the people whowere there like five seconds ago
.
Shaun (02:55):
Yeah, dragon Ball Z of Bridge did a great take on that
too.
Where it's the helicopter sceneand they blow up the helicopter
, they're like, oh no, they blewup the helicopter.
Oh good, it was just a cargohelicopter, but the cargo was
people.
So Karazu holds his wife in amoment of tender love as the
camera pans to the floor to showthe blob of after birth smiling
(03:16):
and laughing evilly.
This sinister, sentientplacenta would go on to be
Akira's greatest enemy in lifeand the inspiration for Majin
Buu from the Dragon Ball Zseries.
So there you go.
Every word of that is true,nate.
Did he learn it?
Yeah, well, I was taking ashower and I looked down and
noticed there's some mushroomsgrowing out of the shower drain
and I was like, hey, free food.
And then I learned a lot ofstuff while researching
(03:37):
Off-to-off topic branded yeah,off-to-off topic branded shower
drain mushrooms by them today.
So, speaking about his childhoodin a January 2014 issue of
Men's Magazine, Toriyama saidhad described his childhood as I
was a cheeky little brat, thekind who is strong to the weak
and who wouldn't approach thestrong.
(03:57):
On top of that, my grades atthe time were quite good, so I
always had the privilege ofbeing designated as a class
officer by the teacher, sosounds like he might have been
kind of insufferable as a childat least two other children.
Yeah, that sounds like.
Yeah, it's like.
That's an odd quote toattribute to yourself.
I was a cheeky little brat,piff, piff, piff, as many
Japanese children of the time.
(04:19):
Toriyama loved himself someAstro Boy and Gigantor or, as a
Japanese knew it at the time,tetsuo 28 Go, and one thing that
totally blew his young mind waswhat turned out to be one of
his favorite animated movies ofall time Disney's 101 Dalmatians
.
Toriyama was blown away by thehigh quality, super smooth
animation that it had.
That was kind of heads andtails above anything at the time
(04:40):
, which actually is kind of true, because I remember as a kid
watching 101 Dalmatians, you'dbe like, hey, this looks pretty
slick compared to other moviesaround that time.
I don't know, everything justseemed a little bit smoother.
I think it's because they useda lot of rotoscoping in it,
maybe.
Nate (04:53):
Yeah, I mean, I've seen that movie more times than I
hear I think about.
But I mean, oh, me too.
Shaun (04:56):
I mean we had a limited selection as a kid.
So oh, no, I'm talking aboutrecently.
Oh, recently, okay, gotcha yeahlike Disney Plus.
Nate (05:02):
It's like they that and the Rista Cats and, oh my God,
princess and the Frog I've seenit's their go-to.
Shaun (05:12):
Yeah, they just put it on pre-key.
Nate (05:14):
One of the ones they still on there.
Shaun (05:16):
Yeah, I would assume that they mostly watched the newer
ones.
Kind of neat, they watched theolder ones too.
Nate (05:21):
Yeah, they'll go all the way back.
They don't do Snow White andCinderella stuff but they really
do dig the yeah like one of theanimations they love it.
Shaun (05:28):
Yeah, from there on probably, which I guess would
become the start of the modernmovie.
There's something those veryfirst, like the Snow White
movies.
They're really short, they'relike 60 minutes or something
like that, if I recall.
Nate (05:38):
Yeah they're not there.
They aren't long.
Yeah, they're not 60, they'relike a little longer, we're not
by much 75 minutes or somethinglike that 80 minutes.
Shaun (05:45):
Something Toriyama's love of animation spilled over into
his childhood in the form of himgetting into drawing Lies most
kids.
He doodled his favorite mangaand anime characters.
But eventually he'd get tiredof that and start doing
something his friends weren'tdoing.
He started drawing his friendsand family in an anime style,
which occurred credits forToriyama credits with being an
important progression in hisartistic career.
Whereas most of his friendswere just sitting around just
(06:06):
doodling what they knew, hewould move on and be like, hey,
maybe I can anime-ify thesecharacters and just things
around on his day-to-day lifeand as a young lad, him and his
drawing buddies would often headdown to the local art studio
that would hold art classes tothe public and Toriyama and his
friends would learn as much asthey could and learn from the
older kids and practice all theycould there and use their free
art supplies to practice with.
Toriyama even won a contest atthe studio for drawing one of
(06:29):
his dogs from 101 Dalmatians.
And he was a good student withgood grades right up until high
school when he decided to ratherhave fun and hang out with
friends instead of studying forschool and college.
He did wind up being thepresident of the manga club in
high school.
So that was one thing.
He still had his love of comicsthen.
But in high school he also madethe decision to give up on the
idea of college and just gostraight into the working world,
(06:50):
much to the horror of hisparents.
They were not happy with hischoice.
But Toriyama did not care.
He was like I just don't wantto go to school anymore, I just
want to go straight to a job.
I'll deal with it after that.
So right out of high school hegets a job at an ad agency as a
graphics designer.
The job started off alright forhim and he did well at start.
But by Toriyama's own admission, he was not a morning person
(07:13):
and he hated the day-to-daygrind and having a schedule and
everything else.
So eventually he would justkind of not show up for work
some days or show up super late,wouldn't wear his uniform and
stuff showing up in a suit, hewould just show up in like
sweatpants and a t-shirt.
And this did make the bossesexactly happy.
But as you may know, inJapanese culture they don't like
to fire people, they justpunish them in multiple ways and
(07:34):
he has Toriyama.
Yeah, they don't like firingpeople.
They kind of do the same wordslike hey, we'll hire you for
life, and instead of firing youthey'll do weird stuff like lock
you in an office with nothingbut just your phone for eight
hours a day and try to get youto quit.
Nate (07:48):
Yeah, that sounds right.
Shaun (07:49):
Yeah, at least this was kind of the way it was back in
like the 70s and 80s and beforethen.
I think it may have changedsince then a little bit.
Nate (07:55):
Yeah, I mean, you're probably right, but I've heard
similar stuff happening.
Shaun (08:00):
Yeah, and obviously this is slightly the case because
with that attitude he stillmanaged to last for three years
at that job before he quit.
He wasn't fired, he quit.
So in 1976, we have anunemployed Akira Toriyama, so
Toriyama was an so they won.
What was it?
They won, they won, yeah, kindof, although I don't know if
they actually punished him ordid anything, or if he just
(08:21):
stopped showing up one daybecause he was like I just
didn't like working, I justdidn't like working up in the
morning.
Nate (08:25):
He's still employed there.
They don't like firing you andthem, and they're like yeah,
turns out he's still at work.
Shaun (08:31):
He's still just got his pile of checks sitting there
waiting for him.
So Toriyama was unemployed forabout a year, just hanging out
cafes reading comics, being alayabout sponging off of his
parents where he stayed.
But this would all change.
One fateful day Went.
To his absolute horror,toriyama looked into his pockets
and realized he was out ofcigarettes and had no money to
get more.
This will not stand.
(08:52):
Toriyama shouted to the heavensand put to task every brain
cell.
He had to come up with a way tomake some money for them, sweet
, sweet cigarettes.
Well, at the time there was acouple of manga magazines out
there that would accept fansubmissions and if they deemed
these stories good enough, theywould print the story and then
fans would get a vote on thesestories and if your story won
(09:12):
the fan polls you'd win money,sometimes up to a thousand
dollars.
That can buy lots of cigarettes, nate, especially back then.
Nate (09:19):
Yeah, that's not back then .
That is actually a decentamount.
Shaun (09:22):
Yeah it was.
It was up to and including.
A thousand Sounded like if youmade the top five in the voting
polls you would get money, andthe higher up you got, the more
you'd make.
The up to is yeah.
Up to and include Up to is avery yeah.
I got fifth place.
What do I get?
Ten dollars.
What Ten dollars.
Nate (09:40):
Yes, you do.
That's what always gets meabout these that you know you go
go store and see some ads.
They're like oh you this up to75%, like that's 1% is up to 75%
.
Shaun (09:52):
Yes, exactly, and all they have to do is just like
have one item that's at 75% andboom everything else one percent
there, just technically right.
Nate (10:00):
Yeah, I'm good working game stop, that's where I just
you have those bins out up to75% and, like you're right, the
one thing like we sports with75% off.
Shaun (10:10):
Ha, that'd be the one that they would throw in there,
that and we fit, or somethinglike that.
It'd be like, right, like thegame that came, system, yeah,
everybody become to do that.
He's 75% off call of duty.
You're like ha ha, no, enjoyyour, we fit, we do in the ps1.
Yeah, everything you don't wantis on steep discount.
Also read here what they can do.
Where's a for like jobs.
They'll be like you can make upto 25 or 30 dollars an hour and
(10:33):
then small print will be likeincluding tips and working
overtime kind of stuff.
Yeah, so way no, exclaimtoriama at the realization.
Realization he could use hislove of man guy and his ability
to draw to make himself somemoney.
So he sits down and he juststarts drawing away and writing
some small stories to submit.
First he tries to submit tocodon shows, weekly shonen
(10:54):
magazine.
He sends in that what he thinksis gonna win him the Contest
and he misses the deadline.
No money there.
However, weekly shonen jump didessentially the same thing.
So to shonen jump goes afirst-ever manga.
The toriama would writeSomething named a wah wah world
or a way will world sawpronounced a couple of different
ways.
This was a committee world, away world world.
(11:15):
It's spelled a w a w, a world.
So world, yeah, world.
This was a comedic manga takingplace in ancient Japan with
modern situations at it and likesomeone parking there is like
someone's horse gettingimpounded for parking in a no
parking zone and you know thatkind of stuff.
We've seen that kind of humorbefore, and also, for some
reason, there's a Supermanknockoff in it too, for some
(11:35):
reason, for some reason you mayI don't know how much old manga
you've seen as anime.
Superman makes an appearance ina lot of old Japanese culture
like a lot like, say you know,pre-85, pre-90s and I think it's
kind of yeah Actually, at leastfrom what I've seen or been
privy to and I think is one ofthose is a pulse post world war
two occupation thing and All theAmerican soldiers just reading
(11:58):
Superman comics.
So kind of just bled over, sure.
What up?
Yeah, well, this story isofficially Unpublished.
It would be included in issuefive and six of Birdland Press
at the official fan magazine ofa toriama and Some of the
original manuscripts that hewrote up, for those two would
actually travel around Japan inthe mid 90s as part of a toriama
art exhibit.
Nate (12:18):
Yeah, oh, this.
Once I didn't really like it,but now it's museum.
Shaun (12:24):
Yeah, and now it's something that you can see.
You can see my beginning works.
You can see how far I've comesince then.
Undeterred, undeterred at thisfailure, he writes a second
short manga, this one titledmysterious rainjack.
This one the editors reallyliked.
However, since it was a parodyof Star Wars, he was ineligible
to be submitted or voted on bythe fans.
So, again, they were unable topay him.
(12:44):
This one also, too, would showup in his a newsletter some
years later.
Did they do that like?
Nate (12:49):
he actually did it.
He's like yeah, he's just abitch.
And they're like well, we'dlike to pay you a bud, yep
because here's the deal.
Shaun (12:55):
You know well, for some people the toriama would be
crushed by this whole thing.
But no, he like doubled down.
He's like don't you dare tellme I'm not good enough, because
he says he was very competitiveat this point His life.
So he's like don't you tell meI'm not good enough, I'm just
gonna start writing a bunch ofstuff and I'll prove you wrong.
So Also, he said by his ownaccord to his probably best, he
didn't loop, he didn't win thesecontests because his idea was
(13:16):
if he won these contests he wasliterally just gonna take his
prize money by his smokes and goback to his former state of
life.
But uh, losing these contests,little fire on his butts and he
decided he had to go prove thathe's good enough to win this
money.
But what's good then?
Yeah, and this is actually kindof good because that mysterious
range accurate, just ask you ifthey actually like gave him
input on.
They actually did what,especially one of the shonen
(13:37):
jump editors, a man namedKazuhiku Torishima.
Yeah, this guy was actuallyjust starting out in the
industry.
To his an editor, he actuallysaw a Torishima or a blah, blah,
blah.
What's his butt?
Toriyama's Work and he reallyliked.
He's like hey, there's somepotential here.
We can't print this stuff, butI like your work.
So he actually started writingToriyama and being like hey, I
(13:57):
like you, here's what you do toimprove and here's what we think
you can do to make yourselfbetter and keep sending in the
work Also to for you from hereon out.
Yeah, from here on out, though,we've got Kazuhiko Torishima,
who is the editor, and a KiraToriyama, who's the guy we're
doing it on.
So between Torishima andTorishima and Toriyama, we kind
(14:17):
of got close names, so I'm gonnacall the one dude editor
Torishima, and then we gotToriyama, so whatever here,
editor Torishima, that's a KiraToriyama's editor.
Sweet, yes, also.
I like editor Torishima.
This one quote I found, becauseit is like the most Japanese
Editorry sounding thing I'veever heard.
He was talking about decliningsales in a manga titles.
Declining popularity means thatyou are not appreciated by your
(14:41):
readers, so you need to takemeasures.
Isn't that the most Japanesesounding thing you've ever heard
?
I don't know why.
It's just yeah, it's not likesales are down.
You gotta get these things up.
Notes declining popularityDecying popularity means you are
not appreciated coffee orwithers yeah, so editor
Torishima had read Toriyama'swork and he saw that town there
(15:02):
and he actually said in aninterview he started
telegraphing Toriyama, whichshows you how old this is.
Remember telegraphing was athing and somebody wire me a
Western, we, I know what it is,but I remember oh well, I've
never really well actually, Ithink I actually had to do it
once too for like legalpaperwork.
Also, I remember back in the80s to his tons of stuff like a
Western Union, the cheapest wayto wire money.
Well, that I remember.
(15:22):
Do you are you sure, or?
you just made that up for thesake of this conversation.
Nope, I actually do that once.
Okay.
So in 1978 Toriyama submitsWonder Island and this makes it
into issue 52 of weekly shonenjump, the first time he would
actually get published.
Wonder Island huh, yay, yay.
Wonder Island is a story thatcenters around a kamikaze pilot
(15:44):
who crashes into the PacificOcean and wakes up to find
himself on a Strange island.
In an effort to get off theisland and return home, he
adventures with a caveman andhis fairy friend and learns to
hang light from a gorilla andother weird wacky hijinks.
And this is the first time heever gets printed and fans rush
to the polls to vote it deadlast in those stories of the
week.
And Toriyama gets no moneybecause he came in last.
(16:06):
Remember that.
Up to a thousand dollars.
Mm-hmm up to involves zero insome cases.
Nate (16:11):
Especially how the you know ended by.
He finally made it home wherethey're like yeah, you're home.
Now get back on that plane andblow up.
Yeah.
Shaun (16:18):
Right, that's actually was kind of the plot of Godzilla
minus zero to a point, yeah,okay.
Toriyama again refused to loseand, over said, submitted
several more stories over thenext year, including Wonder
Island 2, and Actually WonderIsland 2 did have a dirty Harry
Godzilla C through Pio andUltraman parodies in it.
(16:38):
That also failed to get printed.
And he kept on submittingstories over and over again.
Toriyama says during this timehe wrote around 500 pages of
stories and sent them in andnone of them clicked.
However, during this entiretime of submitting all these
stories, editor Toriyama hadstill been in contact with
Toriyama, giving him pointers,telling him what he could do
next, being like hey, I want toencourage and watch you grow.
And at some point Toriyama toldeditor Toriyama about his next
(17:02):
project, a comic called dr Slump, which was gonna be a gag manga
about a scientist and hisrobots going on adventures.
Editor Toriyama liked the idea,but he had one suggestion for
Toriyama.
He wanted Toriyama to make thedoctor less of the main
character and have like a wackygirl is like the main character,
cuz he thought that would goover with fans a little bit
better.
(17:23):
Toriyama was very unreceptedthrough this idea.
It's like nope, don't want todo it.
I'm stubborn.
But editor Toriyama gave him aproposal do a one-shot manga
with a woman as main characterand we will print it and see how
it does.
If this manga is voted in thetop three, you change that main
character to be a girl in drSlump.
If it comes in fourth or lower,you can keep doing your idea
the way you want to.
Toriyama agreed, and this minicomic to test out the idea we
(17:46):
have is called 1979's tomatogirl detective.
1979's part, not part of thetitle, that's what year this is
released tomato girl Tomato.
Yeah, okay, it's a man.
It's a?
Yeah, okay, all right, whatever, it's a man.
Go about a clumsy butwell-meaning girl detective who
seems un Incompetent right upuntil the end, when she is
competent enough to save the day.
(18:07):
You know those kind of storieslike, ooh, look, she's so, you
know wacky, and blah, blah, blah, and then the end is like, oh,
look, she knew what she wasdoing all along.
Anyways, the readers voted on,did she though?
I don't know, I didn't actuallyread the story.
The readers voted on it and itcame in third place.
So editor Torishimo's right andsaid Haha, now you get to
change it over.
And Toriyama said Alright, fine, I'll do that.
(18:30):
But in one act of stubbornness,toriyama demanded to keep the
name Dr Slump.
So Dr Slump gets released andthis series would be the big hit
that would start Toriyama'spath to superstardom.
This series would run from 1980through 1984.
It takes place in PenguinVillage and follows the
adventures of a young girl robotnamed Areli Norimaki and her
creator, senbei Norimaki, asthey go on adventures and deal
(18:52):
with the nefarious deeds of thedastardly Dr Masahiro Mash Mash
Mashirito, mashirito.
There we go.
Where's the slump from?
Where's the slump from?
Where's the slump come from?
You know, I looked repeatedlyand I could not find any
instance of why it's called DrSlump.
Even, yeah, the main characteris Dr Senbei Norimaka and I saw
(19:14):
him kind of referred to as DrSlump, I think, in some of the
synopsis.
But yeah, I don't really know,man, I cannot.
Yeah, I looked several timesand it was just like, hey, dr
Slump, and so I'd be like DrSlump's the character in this.
But then every time I'd likeclick on links to that, it'd
take me to a Senbei Norimaki.
Nate (19:33):
Well, it's that also.
Like look man, this is notabout Dr Slump.
Like I got this information onthis, move on, yeah this is true
.
Shaun (19:41):
So yeah, originally Senbei the doctor was supposed
to be the main character butthey made Arali the main
character and apparently thatwas a genius move because Japan
absolutely loved her and she wasa merchandising goldmine back
in the day and still kind of is.
And well, maybe you wouldn'thate, but if you're an old
school anime guy, if you Googleher name you might actually
recognize her.
She was like a little robotgirl.
(20:02):
She's wearing overalls andshe's got a hat on with little
baseball hat on with littlewings on the side.
She's also known to kind of dothat.
She was one of the early animecharacters who do like a little
Naruto airplane run thing.
What a dumb way to run.
Uh, do you know why they runlike that?
It's an old school ninja trickand it's you're supposed to let
your arms kind of hang limp atyour sides and just sort of flop
there in the wind, because itsaves energy and you don't burn
(20:23):
as many calories as you dopumping your arms.
Nate (20:25):
Well, look at that.
There's a live action on thisone too.
Shaun (20:27):
Yep, there is Well actually getting to that in just
a moment.
Wait, oh, there you go.
So, anyways, she was a huge hit.
In fact, actually we'll get tothat right now.
There is even a live actionsection.
Uh, part of a movie with, uh,with a rally in it, and uh, are
you seeing the one where it'slike her in a mascot kind of
suit?
Was it one of?
Nate (20:46):
those clicks or no.
I mean, I'm looking at um CC.
Shaun (20:50):
Okay, well, anyways, in the early 80s there was a Jackie
Chan movie that uh has Samohung in.
Jackie Chan in Jackie Chanactually gets to play a rally in
a moment of it.
Jackie Chan also a huge fan ofa rally, norimaki.
But yeah, in the movie JackieChan dresses up like a big
mascot outfit and takes a swordand sword fights a bunch of
dudes dressed as her it's.
It's kind of cool actually.
Nate (21:11):
Okay, I see it.
It's kind of creepy.
Shaun (21:14):
Ha, well that creepy, creepy uh a rally goes around
massacring people with the sword.
Good times Again.
Creepy Fun fact about the DrSlump uh manga.
This uh manga had a characternamed Poop Boy, which was a
sentient poop created by DrNorimaki while on the road with
no toilet.
This poo had a mouth and eyesand could talk and interact with
(21:34):
people, and apparently it isthe inspiration for the modern
poo emoji.
When Google came out the modernpoo emoji with eyes and a mouth
, they uh credited this anime tobeing the uh source of it.
Yes, google Dr Slump Poop Boyand you will see what I mean.
It literally just looks like apoop emoji.
Nate (21:50):
I definitely have Dr Slump in front of that.
Shaun (21:52):
Yeah.
Nate (21:53):
But it's taking my sanity.
Shaun (21:55):
Ha.
So Dr Slump is also the firstappearance of Robot Toriyama
Since uh well this is going tobe one of those things that just
bugs you.
I mean, is it the fact that thepoop is pink and human poop is
in pink, or is the fact that theuh Google emoji poop is in pink
?
Nate (22:13):
No, I mean, I'm fine with the Google emoji not being pink.
It'd be ridiculous.
Shaun (22:15):
But yeah, okay.
Nate (22:16):
Yeah, I mean it's.
I can see why they ripped thisguy off.
I mean it's pretty iconic.
Shaun (22:21):
Just the fact he's pink makes you angry, though.
Nate (22:24):
Well, just makes it too close to the officer ice cream.
He doesn't eat ice cream.
Shaun (22:28):
So Dr Slump is also the first appearance of Robot
Toriyama Since uh Toriyama wasan overall shy guy.
He used an animated avatar ofhimself in every situation that
he could, like interviews or toshow up in the uh, the mangas
and uh, you've probably seenbefore.
It's a cute little robot dudelooking thing, that kind of
looks like he's wearing a gasmask, sort of kind of Just
Google Robot Toriyama, andyou'll find it.
(22:50):
He's also known as RobotToriyama or Robotomyama, I don't
know.
I saw a few different terms forhim and there's another fun
fact actually about that.
So the bad guy, Dr Masherito,there we go.
Masherito, his name is ananagram for uh Editor Torishima
and apparently that's who uh thecharacter is actually modeled
after is Editor Torishima, andthe reason for this is Toriyama
(23:13):
submitted the look for thevillain originally and Editor
Torishima said this bad guyneeds to look more sinister and
he instructed Toriyama to modelthe character after the man you
hate the most.
Then all of a sudden in the mail, editor Torishima gets a letter
from Toriyama, basically withthe new character design, and it
looks just like Torishima.
That's awesome.
I was like, yes, do that, yeah,um, and I think the whole thing
(23:35):
was in good fun, but everyinterview I saw where they talk
about it, there was no likelaughing or ha ha ha.
That made me laugh.
It was just like, yes, I toldthe send in some picture of the
person he hates the most and hesent in a picture of me.
So, uh, he might have actuallyhated the man at the time,
because there is what Seemuralike an early comics doodle of
Toriyama about his equipmenthe's using, and one of them is
(23:55):
like a picture of a pack ofsmokes and it's like cigarettes
to prevent irritation from theeditors.
Nate (24:00):
Ha, ha ha.
Shaun (24:01):
Yeah, being mad at the editors a tale is oldest time
itself, I'm sure.
Nate (24:06):
Oh yeah, I put my heart and soul into this.
And you think it's crap?
Well, f you, buddy.
Shaun (24:10):
Yeah.
So not only was it serious hot,but the girl robot, she was
massive too.
I mean, she was really big inJapan.
We're talking like almost Gokulevels of big, and she is
actually still big.
In fact, she was so big that,uh, during the run of this
series, uh Toriyama's made amulti-millionaire out of the
deal.
By the end of the run he wasworth five million dollars just
from this series alone,apparently.
And uh, here's another fun facttoo.
(24:32):
So in 1996, shigeru Miyamoto,when discussing Mario's center
of gravity and how Mario ran inSuper Mario 64, he refers to his
sort of runs like a rally-chanwith the correct sense of weight
and body.
So basically that translates toMario runs like a robotic child
, which kind of makes sense too,because uh, mario does kind of
do that.
Uh, ninja, run to a little bitwith his little arms at the side
(24:53):
when you run fast.
Nate (24:54):
Well, at least not like behind him it's like to the side
.
Shaun (24:57):
Well, that's because Mario's fat and you can't run
fast enough that his arms flapbehind him.
I can't believe your bodyshaming Ha, only because it's
Mario.
So at the end of 1980, theweekly Shonen Jump Raiders were
asked to name their favoriteauthors and Akira Toriyama was
named the top 10 for the time ofuh, for the first time in his
career.
Uh, so this actually kind ofthis voting him as their
(25:21):
favorite, I mean, it was a greathonor, but also it kind of
sucked for Akira Toriyamabecause in order, because since
he won this contest, he had tosubmit a 40 to 50 page story to
uh for the readers, because hewon this award, because that we
got the comics uh known as Polaand Royd, of course, named after
the Polaroid camera.
Nate (25:39):
So he won the opportunity to make a 50 page story.
Shaun (25:42):
Yes, exactly, they're like hey, we know you're really
busy, but our readers voted youtheir favorite and, as a quote
unquote honor, you get to writea 50 page story.
You didn't know you're going tohave to enjoy, right, yeah,
yeah, this would actually havehappened to him a couple more
times too, and from the story'sarray it kind of sound like it
was more of a burden than agreat thing to have done.
(26:04):
Everyone was like, hey, I'mhonored, yeah, but stop heaping
all this extra work on me.
I don't like it Seriously, man,stop it.
Yeah, yeah, it's like flattered, but for love of God, one thing
, that uh, the Pola and Royd manget did win him, though,
because.
Or one thing, the winning thatcontest uh the readers poll
contest did get him.
It did win him free trip toSwitzerland.
So I guess that might be kindof cool.
(26:25):
Unless you hate Switzerland orthe Swiss, then probably not
such great gift.
Nate (26:30):
Why not Free?
Shaun (26:30):
to switch.
Nate (26:31):
Free to switch.
I mean yeah, yeah, I mean I'mswitching.
It's supposed to be reallybeautiful.
Of course it gets really cold,but still.
Shaun (26:37):
Yeah, and also once again , if you hate Swiss people right
, I mean who hates Swiss people?
Nate (26:43):
I'm sure Normans, but still yeah.
Shaun (26:46):
Like two thing I hate people are intolerant of other
people's culture.
In the Swiss Right 1981, drSlump Wood earned Toriyama the
uh Shogakuken Manga Award forbest manga series of the year.
Yay for him, which apparentlyis a pretty big award.
1982 he marries manga artistNara Mikami, and those two will
wind up having two children, onewith a son named Sasuke and
(27:07):
then a daughter whose name Iforgot to write down.
Yeah, they were actuallymentioned in uh.
If you get the best ending in achrono trigger, they're
actually mentioned at the end.
You can run into a curatoriyamain one of the like studio rooms
and they're like hi, I need tolist his kids' names.
He's like dad's just working onsome stuff right now.
I'll be home soon, somethinglike that Cute little least rig.
It's hard to get that ending,though, because you got to beat
(27:29):
the last boss at the verybeginning of the game.
Oh, for real.
Yeah, it takes some effort, oryou just got to do new game plus
a couple of times and it'sreally easy.
Nate (27:36):
Yeah, man, I couldn't.
I couldn't do it.
I tried, I really did.
I tried to beat the game.
I've never beaten.
I've only been the game onceand it was with my main
character dead.
Shaun (27:46):
Chrono trigger.
Nate (27:47):
Yep, you know he dies.
He's just getting back andthere's just like this stupid um
throwing game.
You're supposed to hit a sheep.
I could never get the timingright and I think it was because
I think I was playing on my.
What was I playing on?
I think I was playing on my,let's say, ds or 3DS, I don't
know.
I was playing on something andI could not Get the timing right
.
Shaun (28:05):
So, finally, just like throwing game, huh.
Nate (28:07):
What she's throwing game, huh?
Well, yeah, when she came out,you to throw a ball at him, did
you?
Shaun (28:13):
ever play that right.
Nate (28:14):
Well, you had to get the doll, to get him back.
Shaun (28:16):
Oh, okay, yeah, I've probably played Crone trick more
than you ever have.
Nate (28:20):
Right, seriously, I'll pay the time through.
It's like you know, he dies.
Shaun (28:24):
Also keep mine.
Nate (28:24):
Last time I played it was 1994, so oh there you go, yeah,
yeah, you're supposed to bringit back.
I can never die.
Shaun (28:31):
I remember doll, I just don't remember throwing stuff at
sheep.
Nate (28:34):
Mm-hmm, of course.
Maybe, it's very beginning ofgame.
It was, it was the fair yeah oh, you go in there, you play that
game, you get a doll and thenyou use that doll to bring him
back.
But I could never beat thatstupid game, so he just stayed
dead.
Shaun (28:47):
Gotcha.
Nate (28:49):
Huh, in the next game I try to do it again.
I just couldn't.
I mean, I was just fine.
I said, you know what?
I guess he's just staying dead.
Yeah.
Shaun (28:56):
Look it up and see what the try to remember that
throwing game, because Iremember being like relatively
easy or automatic or somethingLike that, because you got like
a minimum a copy, because Well,also, you played the remake too,
so right with all the addedstuff and added cutscenes.
Mine was like the bare bonesoriginal version no cutscenes or
nothing.
Nate (29:16):
Yeah, on this mess.
Shaun (29:17):
Yep, on the Super Nintendo.
I've probably, I think I beatthat game eight or nine times
because I got all like eight ornine endings.
Not all of them were superdifferent.
Yeah, some of them were justslightly different, like a
little bit of text different atthe end, but yeah, or a
character's not there at theEnding, so not all of them were
like super different.
But anyways, it's not so much atestament to how good of a
gamer I am, it's just more of atestament to how lonely of a
(29:39):
child I was.
So Dr Slump series is smash hitand people love it.
Like I said, it goes on forfour years and this series also
made Toriyama millionaire.
However, just six months intothis four-year run, toriyama is
tired of the story and he wantsto move on.
But since dr Slump is so wildlypopular, the powers of be told
Toriyama that the only way hecould end dr Slump as if he had
(30:01):
another million dollar idea inthe wings for them.
So boy.
Yeah, yeah, this took some time,though, and Eventually, editor,
she must said hey, you want tomove on?
Well, I've got an idea for you.
Look, you're a huge Jackie Chanfan, right?
Toriyama said, yes, yeah, hewas even playing a rally.
And he's like yeah, yeah, shutup.
Anyways, I say you do a kung fumanga.
(30:22):
And Toriyama thought for a manis a kung fu manga, huh, hmm?
And he said no, I really don'twant to.
I want to be a gag manga writer.
No kung fu mangos for me.
However, after after somepondering and thinking, and
probably an introspective walkon the beach while dust in the
wind plays in the background,toriyama does have a change of
heart.
But before he goes all in onhis long-running manga series
(30:43):
that he would be known for, hedecides to dip his toes into the
action comics water with aShort series that would be
1983's Dragon Boy.
So if you look up Dragon Boyand you're gonna see a young
Goku, no doubt about it.
The story is two issues, 45pages, and follows Dragon Boy
and his quest to return Princessof the flower kingdom to her
hometown, or home kingdom.
Yeah, if you look at it, shecan really tell us a prototype
(31:06):
for early Dragon Ball.
It even has a Dragon Ball in itthat summons a dragon.
Nate (31:11):
Yeah, well, there's even a .
Shaun (31:12):
Dragon Ball in it and also summons your dragon.
Yeah, but only one Dragon Ball.
Much easier to collect them all.
This time, right, just the one.
Right after this, toriyama alsoreleases another mini series,
the adventures of Tong Poo.
This one is more modern styleadventure with you know the
hover cars and guns and thecapsule machines and modern
buildings and modern life, likeyou get in Dragon Ball and
(31:33):
basically Think Dragon Ball isthe old-school whimsical fantasy
and Tong Poo is the modern-daysci-fi Fantasy.
Smoosh them together and youliterally have Dragon Ball.
Okay yeah, one of thosebasically old-school, one of
those new school just jam themtogether and boom, dragon Ball
Melting together.
And also, every time I saw thename Tong Poo, I all I could
think of is the movie title toTong Poo.
(31:54):
Thanks for everything, julieNeumar.
Yeah yeah 30 year old reference,yeah, I know, but still, once
you hear it you can't unhear it.
Once you see Tong Poo also TongPoo is just kind of fun to say
so Yep, tong Poo and Dragon Boyare all done, and you can
probably guess what's up nextfor Toriyama and the main thing
(32:14):
he's known for Dragon Ball.
Yes, yay, the manga thatchanged it all, the manga that
actually run from 1984 to 1995over in 500 night, or, excuse me
, with 519 individual chaptersthat totaled over 9,000 pages,
and it has sold 260 millioncopies all together, according
to the studio.
This whimsical Series followsyoung Sun Goku on all sorts of
(32:37):
adventures and the overall storyis kind of inspired by the
Chinese tale Journey to the West.
And also, it should be notedtoo that in the manga there is
no Dragon Ball Z, just DragonBall.
There's a reason for that too,but in case you didn't know,
there's no.
Nate (32:49):
Dragon Ball Z.
Dragon Ball Z was acontinuation.
Shaun (32:52):
Yeah, no, I mean in the comics there's literally no
manga Dragon Ball Z period.
Oh, for real?
Yep, the Dragon Ball Z isstrictly an anime thing, and
we'll talk about that.
Why, then, a little bit, didyou ever read any of the Dragon
Ball manga?
Nate (33:05):
Not really.
Shaun (33:05):
Yeah, neither of I, really.
To be honest, I assume thecartoon is close enough as it is
.
Nate (33:10):
Yeah, I mean, I think I picked one up here and then,
like I'm walking through Gobookstore and I'll pick it up,
okay, but yeah, I didn't.
I'm not like I'm reading thismanga.
Shaun (33:20):
Yeah, and then halfway through you're like this doesn't
make any sense.
And then you realize you'rereading it backwards because
they do manga thing.
You know what I'm talking about.
You're right.
I do know you're talking about.
Nate (33:29):
Yeah, yeah, I did that the front, of course, I did the
first time a diva.
Now I read so much manga now.
I mean that I primarilyremember it actually is
problematic because I'll look at, I'll look at a great regular
comic book and I'm like thisdoesn't make any sense.
Oh, I'm reading backwards.
Shaun (33:45):
Right, I've done that before, I still do it, every
once in a great blue moon.
But after half a second mybrain just like oh yeah, 1986
and Enix, japan is starting newseries, dragon Quest, and he
needs someone to do the art andcharacter designs for it.
Editor Torashima gets on theHornetails.
Enix that Toriyama would beperfect for this, and Despite
the fact Toriyama had no ideawhat a role-playing game was, he
(34:08):
agreed to do the job andPerfect for he would be, because
role-playing games would neverbe the same.
Dragon Quest, arguably morepopular and more influential
than Final Fantasy, at leastearly on.
Nowadays, yeah, I don't know,but early on it was definitely
bigger than Final Fantasy.
Oh yeah, like I mean.
Yeah, dragon Quest 2 is myfirst RPG game actually to rent
it with from a video store.
(34:28):
And also, too, there was aDragon Quest law that almost
went into effect to where theycouldn't release Dragon Quest on
a week Day or on a work.
I heard about that, yeah,apparently it wasn't that close
to becoming law, because youneed was like fine, we'll move
it to all the Saturdays andstuff, and they are great games.
Oh I, thoroughly enjoying them.
Nate (34:44):
Oh I carry a toy I'm gonna go on to really are good games.
I See I only beat one Like nine, I think, didn't you?
Yeah, it was the one for thePia, like it was one came off
the phone.
That's how, that's why I beatit.
It's cuz on my phone.
Shaun (34:58):
Yeah, I think it's originally from the ps2 as well,
or ps3 Maybe it was.
Nate (35:02):
It was yes too.
Shaun (35:03):
It was a really good game though.
I thoroughly enjoyed that one.
I really did.
It was a really good game.
Yeah, they're all actuallypretty good in their own ways,
especially some of the early NESones too, because you know
they're kind of ahead of thecurve on things you could do,
like multi-character stories andthis that you know Storylines
and bounce around betweendifferent characters and
eventually like tidy itself upin the end and tight stuff
together Need a little bow.
So the way the drag quest gameswork out, was the writer for
(35:25):
Yuji Hori first would send roughsketches of the characters with
their background information toToriyama, who had redraw them
and Fine-tune them and hone theminto what you'd finally see and
send them back to Yuji Hori,who had approved the finish work
.
In 2016 interview, toriyamarevealed that because of the
drag quest series was basicallystuck in the medieval kind of
times.
(35:45):
He said that that limited hisartistic options and it made
every iteration of that gameharder to design over and over
again, because, yeah, you knowyou can't really go, so go
sci-fi kind of with the guys,because you know it is stuck in
old-school swords kind of eras.
And it is kind ofunderstandable too, because then
I kind of say this is a generalthing too.
Then I mean this is the mostloving way possible.
(36:06):
But Toriyama kind of suffersfor like I don't know, like
Simpson syndrome, where that manhas designed so Many characters
over the years.
Eventually they kind of alllook alike in a way like you
could play it like six degreesof Kevin Bacon with any of his
characters and be like so and so, looks like so and so, who
looks like so and so who looksjust like blah, blah, blah.
Yeah, and that's not knock onhis town, that's more of just a
(36:28):
slight on how many charactershe's had to design over the
years and that's got to be hard.
Nate (36:34):
Especially what his specific art style is.
Almost so many things you do.
Shaun (36:37):
Yeah, I know, yeah, cuz it does it's.
I mean, he does.
His style does improve andbranch out over time, but not a
whole lot.
Really, one of the things thatwho would Design for Dragon
Quest would be one the mosticonic Video game characters of
all time.
The Dragon Quest slime notquite as huge in America's is
Japan, but it's still pretty bigover here because you know, you
(36:58):
see the slime, you're like, hey, that's cute and adorable.
Nate (37:01):
He's probably enough.
I mean, I I've definitely takenhim and used him for my needs,
yeah.
Shaun (37:07):
I've got stickers on my car cuz my car kind of looks
like a little blue slime yeah,and if you think about Dragon
Quest, slime is kind of just asmooth, that poo emoji, hmm, oh
yeah, I guess I think about that.
Yeah, yeah, I knew that Ireally so.
Nate (37:20):
So when a?
Shaun (37:20):
slime gets old and wrinkly, they become a poo emoji
.
Oh, I like that.
That sounds like we could makea Pixar movie out of that.
Now not Pixar, that's too nice.
Dreamworks movie out of it Now,that's still too nice.
Let's do like a Fox Studiosmovie, yeah.
Nate (37:36):
Fox Studios presents.
Yeah, that's why.
Shaun (37:41):
Fox Studios presents a smooth poo.
It's like the ladies man with apoo emoji, hey ladies.
Anyways, I gotta say the Toryup, his monster designs are also
really good.
In the Dragon Quest series theygot some really cool-looking
monsters.
The point I was actually likelegitimately excited, some games
be like I'm going to a newcontinent.
Look, there's gonna be newmonsters to see.
Yay, yeah, also doing thisresearch I learned there's
(38:04):
actually a Dragon Quest animethat was in that came out 1989,
that he did have designedcharacters for.
Never knew it existed, didn'tbother to look it up and see how
it was.
Maybe I'll do that later.
Yeah, well, screw you guys.
Also in the Dragon Quest gamesthere's a running gag about the
puff puff.
Where I don't, usually girlsare dragging it back room, it'll
go puff, puff, puff, puff overagain wherever a blank screen
(38:26):
simulating stuff.
Probably you've seen that inthe one game you played.
Probably, I'd assume, maybe notanyways.
Yeah, puff, puff start out likeDragon Quest 2 or something
like that.
You go talk to some bunny girl.
She's like would you like afree puff puff?
And you're like yes or no.
And if you pick yes, the screenlike goes black.
All of a sudden she goes puff,puff, puff, puff, puff, giggle,
(38:46):
puff, puff, and then the screenlike fades back and it's like
you've been puff puff, did youlike it?
Nate (38:52):
I beg the room.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was likeokay.
Shaun (38:55):
Yeah, like I hope this is going somewhere, sean, but yeah
, that whole thing apparentlythat is a gag that started in dr
Slump and it made in DragonBalls drag quest games is a nod
to Toriyama.
And speaking of Toriyama,specialty character design If
you want to know his process forcoming up with characters, it
is thusly First he comes up witha concept idea for a character.
(39:17):
Two, then he comes up with apersonality for them Three.
Then he just starts drawingheads heads alone, until he
comes up with a head thatmatches the personality that he
likes.
Then he designs the rest of thebody around the head and then,
finally, he does all thecoloring and he needs a little
extra details of Flair that heneeds on it.
And as far as coming up with theideas himself, he usually takes
inspiration from things thathappens in life.
(39:38):
A good example of this is, uh,at one point, his kids were
really into a TV genre known asSentai Heroes, which is where a
group of people, uh, you know,transform from, transform from
everyday Joes into superheroesto go fight bad guys, power
Rangers being the most obviousexample of this.
Well, his kids were huge intothat and they were watching one
of these and Toriyama justwalked in there and he was
(39:59):
watching them for a minute,watching this, and goes.
You know, it'd be pretty fun tomake a bad guy version of this,
and thus the Ginyu Force wasborn.
Or another example he got a petCornish Rex cat and he loved
the look of it and he kind ofliked the aloof personality this
cat had.
And boom, dragon Ball God Cat,god Beerus, was designed after
that cat.
So yeah, basically somethinghappens in his life and he's
(40:19):
like huh, I might be able todesign a character after that.
So there's some advice if youever hit a block, just be like
hey, here's an event thathappened, I could make a
character out of it.
Maybe you know walking down thestreet and there's a homeless
person like whizzing on the wall, be like pfft, there's Sir P's
a lot, or Brick P Engton orsomething.
And also as far as characterdesign, toriyama has some advice
(40:41):
for you.
If you're just doing a one-timecharacter drawing, like he
would do for Dragon Quest andthe such, feel free to go nuts
with the detail.
Make them, as you know, exoticand fancy looking as you want,
all sorts of like little spotsand horns and this and that on
them.
However, if it's a characteryou're going to be drawing over
and over again, say for a manga,you want to keep it simple,
because if you make it toodetailed, you're going to hate
(41:02):
drawing that character over andover and over again.
Toriyama uses the example ofCell from Dragon Ball for that.
Uh, the Cell characters has abunch of cool looking spots all
over him in his transformations.
Uh, akira's like.
I like the look at first.
By the end of it, I absolutelyhated drawing those spots.
He hated it with a passion.
Yeah, you see where he's goingwith that.
Though he made each spot.
(41:22):
Yeah, he, honestly, the waythis man sounds, he probably did
.
And now I am making you ChesterP Spottington.
I hate you most of all.
Happy you divorced your wife.
Yeah, uh, it sounds likesomething I would do actually.
And now I'm going to give you afun.
Toriyama quote An interviewerasked him do you take notes?
Toriyama responded no, I don'tdo that.
(41:45):
That's why I keep forgettingthings, and if I don't forget
stuff, new ideas won't come tomind.
I kind of feel that.
Yeah, yep, so 1986 and we are63 chapters into the Dragon Ball
manga series and Dragon Ballthe anime starts up.
You don't know how much aboutthe original Dragon Ball anime
do you?
Nate (42:05):
Not much.
Shaun (42:05):
I watched a bunch of it and honestly, I really liked it.
It's less actiony but it's morewhimsical fun.
Hey look, we're going to comeacross a giant angry pig man and
have to fight him or outsmarthim or this of that.
I liked it.
It has simplicity and, you know, more jokes in it, more
perverse pig discussions andstuff like that.
Heh yeah.
So how much did Kiritoriamahave to do with the Dragon Ball
(42:28):
anime?
Hmm not a ton really.
He helped pick the voice actors, he did some design notes, he
did, like you know, some of theworld designs for stuff and,
yeah, nothing.
A whole lot to report for theactual Dragon Ball manga.
It is a huge hit in Japan and1989, though that's when Dragon
Ball Z finally arrives and, likeI said earlier, that's the one
(42:50):
that probably 85% of everybodysays is their first anime
they've ever seen Including you,nate, not me, though.
Not me, I'm better than all ofyou.
That honor goes to 1984'sRobotech, for me Saw a couple of
episodes of we Won, loved it,and then never, ever saw it
again because I don't know, itjust wasn't on that channel
anymore.
That was a bummer.
Nate (43:08):
Yeah, it's actually the first time I watched.
It was on TV for some reason.
I remember it like just beingon and I was like what is this
Cartoon Network?
Shaun (43:16):
That was pretty cool.
Yeah, that moved on.
Nate (43:17):
And then, yeah, then I after that, the first anime I
actually like, sat down my buddywas like, hey, you should watch
this, really cool, with somekind of like the demon city,
something where you know endedup the giant monster with nine
long laser shooting penises Notthe city.
So yeah, it was.
It was definitely like I don'tknow if I like anime.
But then I started working forMr Gatties out here it's a pizza
(43:39):
place and they have in theircartoon room they play, start
playing Dragon Ball.
And I was like, okay, I'll see,and it was.
That was when it was fromadults.
No, it's adults, and it was aman.
Was the anime block on CartoonNetwork to Nami?
Yep, they played to Nami.
And then I was like, oh man,it's pretty awesome.
And then I started buying theVHS and then I got all the VHS
(44:00):
up to sell saga.
Shaun (44:02):
And one thing the one thing, too, that this anime does
so good is it leaves you on acliffhanger that makes you have
to watch the next episode.
Nate (44:09):
Well, it does but it doesn't because of a God like,
especially when you're watchingthe VHS, like this time on
Dragon Ball.
Last time all this happenedgreat, and they played the
episode and they stand aroundgrowling at each other for a
long time.
Shaun (44:22):
Oh yeah, well, it depends on all in which episodes you're
watching, because, yeah, thereare some times they could
definitely cut out some things.
Oh my God.
Hey look, I'm going to build upthis spirit bomb for eight
episodes?
Yeah.
I think, it's going to be awhole lot of flashbacks, with
Goku just standing over theheads above his head, hands
above his head, going to thenext time.
Nate (44:42):
on Dragon Ball Z, they show you a clip and then they
again on the VHS.
So the next episode last timeon Dragon Ball.
Shaun (44:47):
Yeah right, I actually chose to make that joke to her.
It's like last episode is likea 10 minute recap and like on
this episode, another 10 minutepreview.
And then it's like and we'reover, because, yeah, some of
them really did feel like that.
Also, I just think you had apizza place that would have like
a little kids cartoon roomplaying Dragon Ball Z.
That must have been fun.
Hey, come down to your pizzaplace, get your kid all excited
(45:09):
and full of sugar, each soda,and put him in a room with a
violent cartoon with other kids.
Nothing bad could happen.
Nate (45:15):
No, nothing.
Shaun (45:16):
I just literally like is like his, like suplexing each
other into the wall and stuff.
And that's going to do it forpart one of our series on Akira
Toriyama.
Stay tuned for the conclusionnext week, where we discuss why
the Z in Dragon Ball Z exists,why Toriyama wanted to cut off
Goku's tail, akira Toriyama'swork after Dragon Ball.
(45:39):
We dispel a common Dragon BallZ myth and we find out if
Toriyama is a no good dirtycrook.
All this and more on nextweek's episode.
Akira Toriyama, the man, the myth, the legend, the god of
manga, whose artistic skill isso powerful it may even prevent
organized crime.
Or, as we'll talk about later,perhaps he also uses his power
to commit crimes.
Hmm, We'll find out soon.
Nathan, what do you know aboutAkira Toriyama?
A?
Nate (00:18):
lot, not everything, I mean.
Like the dude himself, I don'tknow, I don't know.
I don't know much about himother than the fact he hated the
Dragon Ball movie.
Um, yeah, the dude himself, Idon't really know.
Let's see.
I will say this like DragonBall Z was the first animated
ever scene that I ever watched,so it was the first one I ever
got into.
Um, yeah, dbz really was likemy introduction to Japanese
(00:42):
animation.
Shaun (00:43):
You are not alone in that .
In fact, I would say that'sprobably the majority of
people's story of the anime Istheir first one being Dragon
Ball Z it was also the firsttime I was disappointed in
showing someone what I thoughtwas a really badass scene and
they're like, okay.
Nate (00:57):
I was like, oh, come on, man, it was.
And I don't remember the scenetoo.
It was a scene there in theSaiyan saga, so it was very
early on and like, um, it was a.
Gohan gets knocked down and youknow Goku's getting his ass
kicked and Gohan's like, leavemy daddy alone.
He, you know, basically gets areally good hit on Reddit.
So I thought it was a reallyawesome scene.
(01:18):
I mean maybe it was alsobecause I was baked, but I mean.
I thought it was a great sceneand I'm showing my buddy's like
okay.
Come on, man Wait a minute.
Shaun (01:25):
I deserve more than that.
You just kicked me right in thenuts.
Basically, You're like isn'tthat good?
Nate (01:31):
They're just like, eh, You're like, oh well, I have to
go rethink life now.
That was the first time I waslike, okay, this is obviously
not for everybody.
Shaun (01:40):
Yeah, here's your sign Right.
All right, so you're aboutready to get into the story of
Akira Toriyama, all right, ourstory takes place April 5, 1955,
in the town of Kyoso, in theEichi Prefecture of Japan.
Karuzu Toriyama looks at hiswife, tombi, whose face is awash
in the sweat from the pain ofchildbirth.
(02:01):
Go my wife, fight, surpass yourlimits and give me a child.
Upon hearing this encouragement, tombi screams, a powerful
scream, and her hair turnsblonde and spiky.
She then rockets a newbornAkira Toriyama with such force
that he shoots through two wallsand clides with the hillside
and the resulting shockwavelevels half a city block.
Thankfully, as the narratortells us, it was an abandoned
part of town, as the gods ofcensorship would demand out of
(02:23):
them.
Nate (02:24):
Hey that's so much.
I'm gonna blow up this city.
Oh, thankfully no one was there.
What are you talking about?
No one was there.
Shaun (02:31):
Or I'm saying, hey, the helicopter blew up.
Oh, it's okay, I saw theirparachutes, even though there's
obviously no parachutes there.
Nate (02:38):
Great Well also whenever that's like the first time they
show up and blew like again wayearly version, say in Saga.
When Vegeta or Napa blew up,there were people nearby.
They were staying near theirlife, what's in this hole?
And they think oh, thank God,that place is abandoned, like
what happened to the people whowere there like five seconds ago
.
Shaun (02:55):
Yeah, dragon Ball Z of Bridge did a great take on that
too.
Where it's the helicopter sceneand they blow up the helicopter
, they're like, oh no, they blewup the helicopter.
Oh good, it was just a cargohelicopter, but the cargo was
people.
So Karazu holds his wife in amoment of tender love as the
camera pans to the floor to showthe blob of after birth smiling
(03:16):
and laughing evilly.
This sinister, sentientplacenta would go on to be
Akira's greatest enemy in lifeand the inspiration for Majin
Buu from the Dragon Ball Zseries.
So there you go.
Every word of that is true,nate.
Did he learn it?
Yeah, well, I was taking ashower and I looked down and
noticed there's some mushroomsgrowing out of the shower drain
and I was like, hey, free food.
And then I learned a lot ofstuff while researching
(03:37):
Off-to-off topic branded yeah,off-to-off topic branded shower
drain mushrooms by them today.
So, speaking about his childhoodin a January 2014 issue of
Men's Magazine, Toriyama saidhad described his childhood as I
was a cheeky little brat, thekind who is strong to the weak
and who wouldn't approach thestrong.
(03:57):
On top of that, my grades atthe time were quite good, so I
always had the privilege ofbeing designated as a class
officer by the teacher, sosounds like he might have been
kind of insufferable as a childat least two other children.
Yeah, that sounds like.
Yeah, it's like.
That's an odd quote toattribute to yourself.
I was a cheeky little brat,piff, piff, piff, as many
Japanese children of the time.
(04:19):
Toriyama loved himself someAstro Boy and Gigantor or, as a
Japanese knew it at the time,tetsuo 28 Go, and one thing that
totally blew his young mind waswhat turned out to be one of
his favorite animated movies ofall time Disney's 101 Dalmatians
.
Toriyama was blown away by thehigh quality, super smooth
animation that it had.
That was kind of heads andtails above anything at the time
(04:40):
, which actually is kind of true, because I remember as a kid
watching 101 Dalmatians, you'dbe like, hey, this looks pretty
slick compared to other moviesaround that time.
I don't know, everything justseemed a little bit smoother.
I think it's because they useda lot of rotoscoping in it,
maybe.
Nate (04:53):
Yeah, I mean, I've seen that movie more times than I
hear I think about.
But I mean, oh, me too.
Shaun (04:56):
I mean we had a limited selection as a kid.
So oh, no, I'm talking aboutrecently.
Oh, recently, okay, gotcha yeahlike Disney Plus.
Nate (05:02):
It's like they that and the Rista Cats and, oh my God,
princess and the Frog I've seenit's their go-to.
Shaun (05:12):
Yeah, they just put it on pre-key.
Nate (05:14):
One of the ones they still on there.
Shaun (05:16):
Yeah, I would assume that they mostly watched the newer
ones.
Kind of neat, they watched theolder ones too.
Nate (05:21):
Yeah, they'll go all the way back.
They don't do Snow White andCinderella stuff but they really
do dig the yeah like one of theanimations they love it.
Shaun (05:28):
Yeah, from there on probably, which I guess would
become the start of the modernmovie.
There's something those veryfirst, like the Snow White
movies.
They're really short, they'relike 60 minutes or something
like that, if I recall.
Nate (05:38):
Yeah they're not there.
They aren't long.
Yeah, they're not 60, they'relike a little longer, we're not
by much 75 minutes or somethinglike that 80 minutes.
Shaun (05:45):
Something Toriyama's love of animation spilled over into
his childhood in the form of himgetting into drawing Lies most
kids.
He doodled his favorite mangaand anime characters.
But eventually he'd get tiredof that and start doing
something his friends weren'tdoing.
He started drawing his friendsand family in an anime style,
which occurred credits forToriyama credits with being an
important progression in hisartistic career.
Whereas most of his friendswere just sitting around just
(06:06):
doodling what they knew, hewould move on and be like, hey,
maybe I can anime-ify thesecharacters and just things
around on his day-to-day lifeand as a young lad, him and his
drawing buddies would often headdown to the local art studio
that would hold art classes tothe public and Toriyama and his
friends would learn as much asthey could and learn from the
older kids and practice all theycould there and use their free
art supplies to practice with.
Toriyama even won a contest atthe studio for drawing one of
(06:29):
his dogs from 101 Dalmatians.
And he was a good student withgood grades right up until high
school when he decided to ratherhave fun and hang out with
friends instead of studying forschool and college.
He did wind up being thepresident of the manga club in
high school.
So that was one thing.
He still had his love of comicsthen.
But in high school he also madethe decision to give up on the
idea of college and just gostraight into the working world,
(06:50):
much to the horror of hisparents.
They were not happy with hischoice.
But Toriyama did not care.
He was like I just don't wantto go to school anymore, I just
want to go straight to a job.
I'll deal with it after that.
So right out of high school hegets a job at an ad agency as a
graphics designer.
The job started off alright forhim and he did well at start.
But by Toriyama's own admission, he was not a morning person
(07:13):
and he hated the day-to-daygrind and having a schedule and
everything else.
So eventually he would justkind of not show up for work
some days or show up super late,wouldn't wear his uniform and
stuff showing up in a suit, hewould just show up in like
sweatpants and a t-shirt.
And this did make the bossesexactly happy.
But as you may know, inJapanese culture they don't like
to fire people, they justpunish them in multiple ways and
(07:34):
he has Toriyama.
Yeah, they don't like firingpeople.
They kind of do the same wordslike hey, we'll hire you for
life, and instead of firing youthey'll do weird stuff like lock
you in an office with nothingbut just your phone for eight
hours a day and try to get youto quit.
Nate (07:48):
Yeah, that sounds right.
Shaun (07:49):
Yeah, at least this was kind of the way it was back in
like the 70s and 80s and beforethen.
I think it may have changedsince then a little bit.
Nate (07:55):
Yeah, I mean, you're probably right, but I've heard
similar stuff happening.
Shaun (08:00):
Yeah, and obviously this is slightly the case because
with that attitude he stillmanaged to last for three years
at that job before he quit.
He wasn't fired, he quit.
So in 1976, we have anunemployed Akira Toriyama, so
Toriyama was an so they won.
What was it?
They won, they won, yeah, kindof, although I don't know if
they actually punished him ordid anything, or if he just
(08:21):
stopped showing up one daybecause he was like I just
didn't like working, I justdidn't like working up in the
morning.
Nate (08:25):
He's still employed there.
They don't like firing you andthem, and they're like yeah,
turns out he's still at work.
Shaun (08:31):
He's still just got his pile of checks sitting there
waiting for him.
So Toriyama was unemployed forabout a year, just hanging out
cafes reading comics, being alayabout sponging off of his
parents where he stayed.
But this would all change.
One fateful day Went.
To his absolute horror,toriyama looked into his pockets
and realized he was out ofcigarettes and had no money to
get more.
This will not stand.
(08:52):
Toriyama shouted to the heavensand put to task every brain
cell.
He had to come up with a way tomake some money for them, sweet
, sweet cigarettes.
Well, at the time there was acouple of manga magazines out
there that would accept fansubmissions and if they deemed
these stories good enough, theywould print the story and then
fans would get a vote on thesestories and if your story won
(09:12):
the fan polls you'd win money,sometimes up to a thousand
dollars.
That can buy lots of cigarettes, nate, especially back then.
Nate (09:19):
Yeah, that's not back then .
That is actually a decentamount.
Shaun (09:22):
Yeah it was.
It was up to and including.
A thousand Sounded like if youmade the top five in the voting
polls you would get money, andthe higher up you got, the more
you'd make.
The up to is yeah.
Up to and include Up to is avery yeah.
I got fifth place.
What do I get?
Ten dollars.
What Ten dollars.
Nate (09:40):
Yes, you do.
That's what always gets meabout these that you know you go
go store and see some ads.
They're like oh you this up to75%, like that's 1% is up to 75%
.
Shaun (09:52):
Yes, exactly, and all they have to do is just like
have one item that's at 75% andboom everything else one percent
there, just technically right.
Nate (10:00):
Yeah, I'm good working game stop, that's where I just
you have those bins out up to75% and, like you're right, the
one thing like we sports with75% off.
Shaun (10:10):
Ha, that'd be the one that they would throw in there,
that and we fit, or somethinglike that.
It'd be like, right, like thegame that came, system, yeah,
everybody become to do that.
He's 75% off call of duty.
You're like ha ha, no, enjoyyour, we fit, we do in the ps1.
Yeah, everything you don't wantis on steep discount.
Also read here what they can do.
Where's a for like jobs.
They'll be like you can make upto 25 or 30 dollars an hour and
(10:33):
then small print will be likeincluding tips and working
overtime kind of stuff.
Yeah, so way no, exclaimtoriama at the realization.
Realization he could use hislove of man guy and his ability
to draw to make himself somemoney.
So he sits down and he juststarts drawing away and writing
some small stories to submit.
First he tries to submit tocodon shows, weekly shonen
(10:54):
magazine.
He sends in that what he thinksis gonna win him the Contest
and he misses the deadline.
No money there.
However, weekly shonen jump didessentially the same thing.
So to shonen jump goes afirst-ever manga.
The toriama would writeSomething named a wah wah world
or a way will world sawpronounced a couple of different
ways.
This was a committee world, away world world.
(11:15):
It's spelled a w a w, a world.
So world, yeah, world.
This was a comedic manga takingplace in ancient Japan with
modern situations at it and likesomeone parking there is like
someone's horse gettingimpounded for parking in a no
parking zone and you know thatkind of stuff.
We've seen that kind of humorbefore, and also, for some
reason, there's a Supermanknockoff in it too, for some
(11:35):
reason, for some reason you mayI don't know how much old manga
you've seen as anime.
Superman makes an appearance ina lot of old Japanese culture
like a lot like, say you know,pre-85, pre-90s and I think it's
kind of yeah Actually, at leastfrom what I've seen or been
privy to and I think is one ofthose is a pulse post world war
two occupation thing and All theAmerican soldiers just reading
(11:58):
Superman comics.
So kind of just bled over, sure.
What up?
Yeah, well, this story isofficially Unpublished.
It would be included in issuefive and six of Birdland Press
at the official fan magazine ofa toriama and Some of the
original manuscripts that hewrote up, for those two would
actually travel around Japan inthe mid 90s as part of a toriama
art exhibit.
Nate (12:18):
Yeah, oh, this.
Once I didn't really like it,but now it's museum.
Shaun (12:24):
Yeah, and now it's something that you can see.
You can see my beginning works.
You can see how far I've comesince then.
Undeterred, undeterred at thisfailure, he writes a second
short manga, this one titledmysterious rainjack.
This one the editors reallyliked.
However, since it was a parodyof Star Wars, he was ineligible
to be submitted or voted on bythe fans.
So, again, they were unable topay him.
(12:44):
This one also, too, would showup in his a newsletter some
years later.
Did they do that like?
Nate (12:49):
he actually did it.
He's like yeah, he's just abitch.
And they're like well, we'dlike to pay you a bud, yep
because here's the deal.
Shaun (12:55):
You know well, for some people the toriama would be
crushed by this whole thing.
But no, he like doubled down.
He's like don't you dare tellme I'm not good enough, because
he says he was very competitiveat this point His life.
So he's like don't you tell meI'm not good enough, I'm just
gonna start writing a bunch ofstuff and I'll prove you wrong.
So Also, he said by his ownaccord to his probably best, he
didn't loop, he didn't win thesecontests because his idea was
(13:16):
if he won these contests he wasliterally just gonna take his
prize money by his smokes and goback to his former state of
life.
But uh, losing these contests,little fire on his butts and he
decided he had to go prove thathe's good enough to win this
money.
But what's good then?
Yeah, and this is actually kindof good because that mysterious
range accurate, just ask you ifthey actually like gave him
input on.
They actually did what,especially one of the shonen
(13:37):
jump editors, a man namedKazuhiku Torishima.
Yeah, this guy was actuallyjust starting out in the
industry.
To his an editor, he actuallysaw a Torishima or a blah, blah,
blah.
What's his butt?
Toriyama's Work and he reallyliked.
He's like hey, there's somepotential here.
We can't print this stuff, butI like your work.
So he actually started writingToriyama and being like hey, I
(13:57):
like you, here's what you do toimprove and here's what we think
you can do to make yourselfbetter and keep sending in the
work Also to for you from hereon out.
Yeah, from here on out, though,we've got Kazuhiko Torishima,
who is the editor, and a KiraToriyama, who's the guy we're
doing it on.
So between Torishima andTorishima and Toriyama, we kind
(14:17):
of got close names, so I'm gonnacall the one dude editor
Torishima, and then we gotToriyama, so whatever here,
editor Torishima, that's a KiraToriyama's editor.
Sweet, yes, also.
I like editor Torishima.
This one quote I found, becauseit is like the most Japanese
Editorry sounding thing I'veever heard.
He was talking about decliningsales in a manga titles.
Declining popularity means thatyou are not appreciated by your
(14:41):
readers, so you need to takemeasures.
Isn't that the most Japanesesounding thing you've ever heard
?
I don't know why.
It's just yeah, it's not likesales are down.
You gotta get these things up.
Notes declining popularityDecying popularity means you are
not appreciated coffee orwithers yeah, so editor
Torishima had read Toriyama'swork and he saw that town there
(15:02):
and he actually said in aninterview he started
telegraphing Toriyama, whichshows you how old this is.
Remember telegraphing was athing and somebody wire me a
Western, we, I know what it is,but I remember oh well, I've
never really well actually, Ithink I actually had to do it
once too for like legalpaperwork.
Also, I remember back in the80s to his tons of stuff like a
Western Union, the cheapest wayto wire money.
Well, that I remember.
(15:22):
Do you are you sure, or?
you just made that up for thesake of this conversation.
Nope, I actually do that once.
Okay.
So in 1978 Toriyama submitsWonder Island and this makes it
into issue 52 of weekly shonenjump, the first time he would
actually get published.
Wonder Island huh, yay, yay.
Wonder Island is a story thatcenters around a kamikaze pilot
(15:44):
who crashes into the PacificOcean and wakes up to find
himself on a Strange island.
In an effort to get off theisland and return home, he
adventures with a caveman andhis fairy friend and learns to
hang light from a gorilla andother weird wacky hijinks.
And this is the first time heever gets printed and fans rush
to the polls to vote it deadlast in those stories of the
week.
And Toriyama gets no moneybecause he came in last.
(16:06):
Remember that.
Up to a thousand dollars.
Mm-hmm up to involves zero insome cases.
Nate (16:11):
Especially how the you know ended by.
He finally made it home wherethey're like yeah, you're home.
Now get back on that plane andblow up.
Yeah.
Shaun (16:18):
Right, that's actually was kind of the plot of Godzilla
minus zero to a point, yeah,okay.
Toriyama again refused to loseand, over said, submitted
several more stories over thenext year, including Wonder
Island 2, and Actually WonderIsland 2 did have a dirty Harry
Godzilla C through Pio andUltraman parodies in it.
(16:38):
That also failed to get printed.
And he kept on submittingstories over and over again.
Toriyama says during this timehe wrote around 500 pages of
stories and sent them in andnone of them clicked.
However, during this entiretime of submitting all these
stories, editor Toriyama hadstill been in contact with
Toriyama, giving him pointers,telling him what he could do
next, being like hey, I want toencourage and watch you grow.
And at some point Toriyama toldeditor Toriyama about his next
(17:02):
project, a comic called dr Slump, which was gonna be a gag manga
about a scientist and hisrobots going on adventures.
Editor Toriyama liked the idea,but he had one suggestion for
Toriyama.
He wanted Toriyama to make thedoctor less of the main
character and have like a wackygirl is like the main character,
cuz he thought that would goover with fans a little bit
better.
(17:23):
Toriyama was very unreceptedthrough this idea.
It's like nope, don't want todo it.
I'm stubborn.
But editor Toriyama gave him aproposal do a one-shot manga
with a woman as main characterand we will print it and see how
it does.
If this manga is voted in thetop three, you change that main
character to be a girl in drSlump.
If it comes in fourth or lower,you can keep doing your idea
the way you want to.
Toriyama agreed, and this minicomic to test out the idea we
(17:46):
have is called 1979's tomatogirl detective.
1979's part, not part of thetitle, that's what year this is
released tomato girl Tomato.
Yeah, okay, it's a man.
It's a?
Yeah, okay, all right, whatever, it's a man.
Go about a clumsy butwell-meaning girl detective who
seems un Incompetent right upuntil the end, when she is
competent enough to save the day.
(18:07):
You know those kind of storieslike, ooh, look, she's so, you
know wacky, and blah, blah, blah, and then the end is like, oh,
look, she knew what she wasdoing all along.
Anyways, the readers voted on,did she though?
I don't know, I didn't actuallyread the story.
The readers voted on it and itcame in third place.
So editor Torishimo's right andsaid Haha, now you get to
change it over.
And Toriyama said Alright, fine, I'll do that.
(18:30):
But in one act of stubbornness,toriyama demanded to keep the
name Dr Slump.
So Dr Slump gets released andthis series would be the big hit
that would start Toriyama'spath to superstardom.
This series would run from 1980through 1984.
It takes place in PenguinVillage and follows the
adventures of a young girl robotnamed Areli Norimaki and her
creator, senbei Norimaki, asthey go on adventures and deal
(18:52):
with the nefarious deeds of thedastardly Dr Masahiro Mash Mash
Mashirito, mashirito.
There we go.
Where's the slump from?
Where's the slump from?
Where's the slump come from?
You know, I looked repeatedlyand I could not find any
instance of why it's called DrSlump.
Even, yeah, the main characteris Dr Senbei Norimaka and I saw
(19:14):
him kind of referred to as DrSlump, I think, in some of the
synopsis.
But yeah, I don't really know,man, I cannot.
Yeah, I looked several timesand it was just like, hey, dr
Slump, and so I'd be like DrSlump's the character in this.
But then every time I'd likeclick on links to that, it'd
take me to a Senbei Norimaki.
Nate (19:33):
Well, it's that also.
Like look man, this is notabout Dr Slump.
Like I got this information onthis, move on, yeah this is true
.
Shaun (19:41):
So yeah, originally Senbei the doctor was supposed
to be the main character butthey made Arali the main
character and apparently thatwas a genius move because Japan
absolutely loved her and she wasa merchandising goldmine back
in the day and still kind of is.
And well, maybe you wouldn'thate, but if you're an old
school anime guy, if you Googleher name you might actually
recognize her.
She was like a little robotgirl.
(20:02):
She's wearing overalls andshe's got a hat on with little
baseball hat on with littlewings on the side.
She's also known to kind of dothat.
She was one of the early animecharacters who do like a little
Naruto airplane run thing.
What a dumb way to run.
Uh, do you know why they runlike that?
It's an old school ninja trickand it's you're supposed to let
your arms kind of hang limp atyour sides and just sort of flop
there in the wind, because itsaves energy and you don't burn
(20:23):
as many calories as you dopumping your arms.
Nate (20:25):
Well, look at that.
There's a live action on thisone too.
Shaun (20:27):
Yep, there is Well actually getting to that in just
a moment.
Wait, oh, there you go.
So, anyways, she was a huge hit.
In fact, actually we'll get tothat right now.
There is even a live actionsection.
Uh, part of a movie with, uh,with a rally in it, and uh, are
you seeing the one where it'slike her in a mascot kind of
suit?
Was it one of?
Nate (20:46):
those clicks or no.
I mean, I'm looking at um CC.
Shaun (20:50):
Okay, well, anyways, in the early 80s there was a Jackie
Chan movie that uh has Samohung in.
Jackie Chan in Jackie Chanactually gets to play a rally in
a moment of it.
Jackie Chan also a huge fan ofa rally, norimaki.
But yeah, in the movie JackieChan dresses up like a big
mascot outfit and takes a swordand sword fights a bunch of
dudes dressed as her it's.
It's kind of cool actually.
Nate (21:11):
Okay, I see it.
It's kind of creepy.
Shaun (21:14):
Ha, well that creepy, creepy uh a rally goes around
massacring people with the sword.
Good times Again.
Creepy Fun fact about the DrSlump uh manga.
This uh manga had a characternamed Poop Boy, which was a
sentient poop created by DrNorimaki while on the road with
no toilet.
This poo had a mouth and eyesand could talk and interact with
(21:34):
people, and apparently it isthe inspiration for the modern
poo emoji.
When Google came out the modernpoo emoji with eyes and a mouth
, they uh credited this anime tobeing the uh source of it.
Yes, google Dr Slump Poop Boyand you will see what I mean.
It literally just looks like apoop emoji.
Nate (21:50):
I definitely have Dr Slump in front of that.
Shaun (21:52):
Yeah.
Nate (21:53):
But it's taking my sanity.
Shaun (21:55):
Ha.
So Dr Slump is also the firstappearance of Robot Toriyama
Since uh well this is going tobe one of those things that just
bugs you.
I mean, is it the fact that thepoop is pink and human poop is
in pink, or is the fact that theuh Google emoji poop is in pink
?
Nate (22:13):
No, I mean, I'm fine with the Google emoji not being pink.
It'd be ridiculous.
Shaun (22:15):
But yeah, okay.
Nate (22:16):
Yeah, I mean it's.
I can see why they ripped thisguy off.
I mean it's pretty iconic.
Shaun (22:21):
Just the fact he's pink makes you angry, though.
Nate (22:24):
Well, just makes it too close to the officer ice cream.
He doesn't eat ice cream.
Shaun (22:28):
So Dr Slump is also the first appearance of Robot
Toriyama Since uh Toriyama wasan overall shy guy.
He used an animated avatar ofhimself in every situation that
he could, like interviews or toshow up in the uh, the mangas
and uh, you've probably seenbefore.
It's a cute little robot dudelooking thing, that kind of
looks like he's wearing a gasmask, sort of kind of Just
Google Robot Toriyama, andyou'll find it.
(22:50):
He's also known as RobotToriyama or Robotomyama, I don't
know.
I saw a few different terms forhim and there's another fun
fact actually about that.
So the bad guy, Dr Masherito,there we go.
Masherito, his name is ananagram for uh Editor Torishima
and apparently that's who uh thecharacter is actually modeled
after is Editor Torishima, andthe reason for this is Toriyama
(23:13):
submitted the look for thevillain originally and Editor
Torishima said this bad guyneeds to look more sinister and
he instructed Toriyama to modelthe character after the man you
hate the most.
Then all of a sudden in the mail, editor Torishima gets a letter
from Toriyama, basically withthe new character design, and it
looks just like Torishima.
That's awesome.
I was like, yes, do that, yeah,um, and I think the whole thing
(23:35):
was in good fun, but everyinterview I saw where they talk
about it, there was no likelaughing or ha ha ha.
That made me laugh.
It was just like, yes, I toldthe send in some picture of the
person he hates the most and hesent in a picture of me.
So, uh, he might have actuallyhated the man at the time,
because there is what Seemuralike an early comics doodle of
Toriyama about his equipmenthe's using, and one of them is
(23:55):
like a picture of a pack ofsmokes and it's like cigarettes
to prevent irritation from theeditors.
Nate (24:00):
Ha, ha ha.
Shaun (24:01):
Yeah, being mad at the editors a tale is oldest time
itself, I'm sure.
Nate (24:06):
Oh yeah, I put my heart and soul into this.
And you think it's crap?
Well, f you, buddy.
Shaun (24:10):
Yeah.
So not only was it serious hot,but the girl robot, she was
massive too.
I mean, she was really big inJapan.
We're talking like almost Gokulevels of big, and she is
actually still big.
In fact, she was so big that,uh, during the run of this
series, uh Toriyama's made amulti-millionaire out of the
deal.
By the end of the run he wasworth five million dollars just
from this series alone,apparently.
And uh, here's another fun facttoo.
(24:32):
So in 1996, shigeru Miyamoto,when discussing Mario's center
of gravity and how Mario ran inSuper Mario 64, he refers to his
sort of runs like a rally-chanwith the correct sense of weight
and body.
So basically that translates toMario runs like a robotic child
, which kind of makes sense too,because uh, mario does kind of
do that.
Uh, ninja, run to a little bitwith his little arms at the side
(24:53):
when you run fast.
Nate (24:54):
Well, at least not like behind him it's like to the side
.
Shaun (24:57):
Well, that's because Mario's fat and you can't run
fast enough that his arms flapbehind him.
I can't believe your bodyshaming Ha, only because it's
Mario.
So at the end of 1980, theweekly Shonen Jump Raiders were
asked to name their favoriteauthors and Akira Toriyama was
named the top 10 for the time ofuh, for the first time in his
career.
Uh, so this actually kind ofthis voting him as their
(25:21):
favorite, I mean, it was a greathonor, but also it kind of
sucked for Akira Toriyamabecause in order, because since
he won this contest, he had tosubmit a 40 to 50 page story to
uh for the readers, because hewon this award, because that we
got the comics uh known as Polaand Royd, of course, named after
the Polaroid camera.
Nate (25:39):
So he won the opportunity to make a 50 page story.
Shaun (25:42):
Yes, exactly, they're like hey, we know you're really
busy, but our readers voted youtheir favorite and, as a quote
unquote honor, you get to writea 50 page story.
You didn't know you're going tohave to enjoy, right, yeah,
yeah, this would actually havehappened to him a couple more
times too, and from the story'sarray it kind of sound like it
was more of a burden than agreat thing to have done.
(26:04):
Everyone was like, hey, I'mhonored, yeah, but stop heaping
all this extra work on me.
I don't like it Seriously, man,stop it.
Yeah, yeah, it's like flattered, but for love of God, one thing
, that uh, the Pola and Royd manget did win him, though,
because.
Or one thing, the winning thatcontest uh the readers poll
contest did get him.
It did win him free trip toSwitzerland.
So I guess that might be kindof cool.
(26:25):
Unless you hate Switzerland orthe Swiss, then probably not
such great gift.
Nate (26:30):
Why not Free?
Shaun (26:30):
to switch.
Nate (26:31):
Free to switch.
I mean yeah, yeah, I mean I'mswitching.
It's supposed to be reallybeautiful.
Of course it gets really cold,but still.
Shaun (26:37):
Yeah, and also once again , if you hate Swiss people right
, I mean who hates Swiss people?
Nate (26:43):
I'm sure Normans, but still yeah.
Shaun (26:46):
Like two thing I hate people are intolerant of other
people's culture.
In the Swiss Right 1981, drSlump Wood earned Toriyama the
uh Shogakuken Manga Award forbest manga series of the year.
Yay for him, which apparentlyis a pretty big award.
1982 he marries manga artistNara Mikami, and those two will
wind up having two children, onewith a son named Sasuke and
(27:07):
then a daughter whose name Iforgot to write down.
Yeah, they were actuallymentioned in uh.
If you get the best ending in achrono trigger, they're
actually mentioned at the end.
You can run into a curatoriyamain one of the like studio rooms
and they're like hi, I need tolist his kids' names.
He's like dad's just working onsome stuff right now.
I'll be home soon, somethinglike that Cute little least rig.
It's hard to get that ending,though, because you got to beat
(27:29):
the last boss at the verybeginning of the game.
Oh, for real.
Yeah, it takes some effort, oryou just got to do new game plus
a couple of times and it'sreally easy.
Nate (27:36):
Yeah, man, I couldn't.
I couldn't do it.
I tried, I really did.
I tried to beat the game.
I've never beaten.
I've only been the game onceand it was with my main
character dead.
Shaun (27:46):
Chrono trigger.
Nate (27:47):
Yep, you know he dies.
He's just getting back andthere's just like this stupid um
throwing game.
You're supposed to hit a sheep.
I could never get the timingright and I think it was because
I think I was playing on my.
What was I playing on?
I think I was playing on my,let's say, ds or 3DS, I don't
know.
I was playing on something andI could not Get the timing right
.
Shaun (28:05):
So, finally, just like throwing game, huh.
Nate (28:07):
What she's throwing game, huh?
Well, yeah, when she came out,you to throw a ball at him, did
you?
Shaun (28:13):
ever play that right.
Nate (28:14):
Well, you had to get the doll, to get him back.
Shaun (28:16):
Oh, okay, yeah, I've probably played Crone trick more
than you ever have.
Nate (28:20):
Right, seriously, I'll pay the time through.
It's like you know, he dies.
Shaun (28:24):
Also keep mine.
Nate (28:24):
Last time I played it was 1994, so oh there you go, yeah,
yeah, you're supposed to bringit back.
I can never die.
Shaun (28:31):
I remember doll, I just don't remember throwing stuff at
sheep.
Nate (28:34):
Mm-hmm, of course.
Maybe, it's very beginning ofgame.
It was, it was the fair yeah oh, you go in there, you play that
game, you get a doll and thenyou use that doll to bring him
back.
But I could never beat thatstupid game, so he just stayed
dead.
Shaun (28:47):
Gotcha.
Nate (28:49):
Huh, in the next game I try to do it again.
I just couldn't.
I mean, I was just fine.
I said, you know what?
I guess he's just staying dead.
Yeah.
Shaun (28:56):
Look it up and see what the try to remember that
throwing game, because Iremember being like relatively
easy or automatic or somethingLike that, because you got like
a minimum a copy, because Well,also, you played the remake too,
so right with all the addedstuff and added cutscenes.
Mine was like the bare bonesoriginal version no cutscenes or
nothing.
Nate (29:16):
Yeah, on this mess.
Shaun (29:17):
Yep, on the Super Nintendo.
I've probably, I think I beatthat game eight or nine times
because I got all like eight ornine endings.
Not all of them were superdifferent.
Yeah, some of them were justslightly different, like a
little bit of text different atthe end, but yeah, or a
character's not there at theEnding, so not all of them were
like super different.
But anyways, it's not so much atestament to how good of a
gamer I am, it's just more of atestament to how lonely of a
(29:39):
child I was.
So Dr Slump series is smash hitand people love it.
Like I said, it goes on forfour years and this series also
made Toriyama millionaire.
However, just six months intothis four-year run, toriyama is
tired of the story and he wantsto move on.
But since dr Slump is so wildlypopular, the powers of be told
Toriyama that the only way hecould end dr Slump as if he had
(30:01):
another million dollar idea inthe wings for them.
So boy.
Yeah, yeah, this took some time,though, and Eventually, editor,
she must said hey, you want tomove on?
Well, I've got an idea for you.
Look, you're a huge Jackie Chanfan, right?
Toriyama said, yes, yeah, hewas even playing a rally.
And he's like yeah, yeah, shutup.
Anyways, I say you do a kung fumanga.
(30:22):
And Toriyama thought for a manis a kung fu manga, huh, hmm?
And he said no, I really don'twant to.
I want to be a gag manga writer.
No kung fu mangos for me.
However, after after somepondering and thinking, and
probably an introspective walkon the beach while dust in the
wind plays in the background,toriyama does have a change of
heart.
But before he goes all in onhis long-running manga series
(30:43):
that he would be known for, hedecides to dip his toes into the
action comics water with aShort series that would be
1983's Dragon Boy.
So if you look up Dragon Boyand you're gonna see a young
Goku, no doubt about it.
The story is two issues, 45pages, and follows Dragon Boy
and his quest to return Princessof the flower kingdom to her
hometown, or home kingdom.
Yeah, if you look at it, shecan really tell us a prototype
(31:06):
for early Dragon Ball.
It even has a Dragon Ball in itthat summons a dragon.
Nate (31:11):
Yeah, well, there's even a .
Shaun (31:12):
Dragon Ball in it and also summons your dragon.
Yeah, but only one Dragon Ball.
Much easier to collect them all.
This time, right, just the one.
Right after this, toriyama alsoreleases another mini series,
the adventures of Tong Poo.
This one is more modern styleadventure with you know the
hover cars and guns and thecapsule machines and modern
buildings and modern life, likeyou get in Dragon Ball and
(31:33):
basically Think Dragon Ball isthe old-school whimsical fantasy
and Tong Poo is the modern-daysci-fi Fantasy.
Smoosh them together and youliterally have Dragon Ball.
Okay yeah, one of thosebasically old-school, one of
those new school just jam themtogether and boom, dragon Ball
Melting together.
And also, every time I saw thename Tong Poo, I all I could
think of is the movie title toTong Poo.
(31:54):
Thanks for everything, julieNeumar.
Yeah yeah 30 year old reference,yeah, I know, but still, once
you hear it you can't unhear it.
Once you see Tong Poo also TongPoo is just kind of fun to say
so Yep, tong Poo and Dragon Boyare all done, and you can
probably guess what's up nextfor Toriyama and the main thing
(32:14):
he's known for Dragon Ball.
Yes, yay, the manga thatchanged it all, the manga that
actually run from 1984 to 1995over in 500 night, or, excuse me
, with 519 individual chaptersthat totaled over 9,000 pages,
and it has sold 260 millioncopies all together, according
to the studio.
This whimsical Series followsyoung Sun Goku on all sorts of
(32:37):
adventures and the overall storyis kind of inspired by the
Chinese tale Journey to the West.
And also, it should be notedtoo that in the manga there is
no Dragon Ball Z, just DragonBall.
There's a reason for that too,but in case you didn't know,
there's no.
Nate (32:49):
Dragon Ball Z.
Dragon Ball Z was acontinuation.
Shaun (32:52):
Yeah, no, I mean in the comics there's literally no
manga Dragon Ball Z period.
Oh, for real?
Yep, the Dragon Ball Z isstrictly an anime thing, and
we'll talk about that.
Why, then, a little bit, didyou ever read any of the Dragon
Ball manga?
Nate (33:05):
Not really.
Shaun (33:05):
Yeah, neither of I, really.
To be honest, I assume thecartoon is close enough as it is
.
Nate (33:10):
Yeah, I mean, I think I picked one up here and then,
like I'm walking through Gobookstore and I'll pick it up,
okay, but yeah, I didn't.
I'm not like I'm reading thismanga.
Shaun (33:20):
Yeah, and then halfway through you're like this doesn't
make any sense.
And then you realize you'rereading it backwards because
they do manga thing.
You know what I'm talking about.
You're right.
I do know you're talking about.
Nate (33:29):
Yeah, yeah, I did that the front, of course, I did the
first time a diva.
Now I read so much manga now.
I mean that I primarilyremember it actually is
problematic because I'll look at, I'll look at a great regular
comic book and I'm like thisdoesn't make any sense.
Oh, I'm reading backwards.
Shaun (33:45):
Right, I've done that before, I still do it, every
once in a great blue moon.
But after half a second mybrain just like oh yeah, 1986
and Enix, japan is starting newseries, dragon Quest, and he
needs someone to do the art andcharacter designs for it.
Editor Torashima gets on theHornetails.
Enix that Toriyama would beperfect for this, and Despite
the fact Toriyama had no ideawhat a role-playing game was, he
(34:08):
agreed to do the job andPerfect for he would be, because
role-playing games would neverbe the same.
Dragon Quest, arguably morepopular and more influential
than Final Fantasy, at leastearly on.
Nowadays, yeah, I don't know,but early on it was definitely
bigger than Final Fantasy.
Oh yeah, like I mean.
Yeah, dragon Quest 2 is myfirst RPG game actually to rent
it with from a video store.
(34:28):
And also, too, there was aDragon Quest law that almost
went into effect to where theycouldn't release Dragon Quest on
a week Day or on a work.
I heard about that, yeah,apparently it wasn't that close
to becoming law, because youneed was like fine, we'll move
it to all the Saturdays andstuff, and they are great games.
Oh I, thoroughly enjoying them.
Nate (34:44):
Oh I carry a toy I'm gonna go on to really are good games.
I See I only beat one Like nine, I think, didn't you?
Yeah, it was the one for thePia, like it was one came off
the phone.
That's how, that's why I beatit.
It's cuz on my phone.
Shaun (34:58):
Yeah, I think it's originally from the ps2 as well,
or ps3 Maybe it was.
Nate (35:02):
It was yes too.
Shaun (35:03):
It was a really good game though.
I thoroughly enjoyed that one.
I really did.
It was a really good game.
Yeah, they're all actuallypretty good in their own ways,
especially some of the early NESones too, because you know
they're kind of ahead of thecurve on things you could do,
like multi-character stories andthis that you know Storylines
and bounce around betweendifferent characters and
eventually like tidy itself upin the end and tight stuff
together Need a little bow.
So the way the drag quest gameswork out, was the writer for
(35:25):
Yuji Hori first would send roughsketches of the characters with
their background information toToriyama, who had redraw them
and Fine-tune them and hone theminto what you'd finally see and
send them back to Yuji Hori,who had approved the finish work
.
In 2016 interview, toriyamarevealed that because of the
drag quest series was basicallystuck in the medieval kind of
times.
(35:45):
He said that that limited hisartistic options and it made
every iteration of that gameharder to design over and over
again, because, yeah, you knowyou can't really go, so go
sci-fi kind of with the guys,because you know it is stuck in
old-school swords kind of eras.
And it is kind ofunderstandable too, because then
I kind of say this is a generalthing too.
Then I mean this is the mostloving way possible.
(36:06):
But Toriyama kind of suffersfor like I don't know, like
Simpson syndrome, where that manhas designed so Many characters
over the years.
Eventually they kind of alllook alike in a way like you
could play it like six degreesof Kevin Bacon with any of his
characters and be like so and so, looks like so and so, who
looks like so and so who looksjust like blah, blah, blah.
Yeah, and that's not knock onhis town, that's more of just a
(36:28):
slight on how many charactershe's had to design over the
years and that's got to be hard.
Nate (36:34):
Especially what his specific art style is.
Almost so many things you do.
Shaun (36:37):
Yeah, I know, yeah, cuz it does it's.
I mean, he does.
His style does improve andbranch out over time, but not a
whole lot.
Really, one of the things thatwho would Design for Dragon
Quest would be one the mosticonic Video game characters of
all time.
The Dragon Quest slime notquite as huge in America's is
Japan, but it's still pretty bigover here because you know, you
(36:58):
see the slime, you're like, hey, that's cute and adorable.
Nate (37:01):
He's probably enough.
I mean, I I've definitely takenhim and used him for my needs,
yeah.
Shaun (37:07):
I've got stickers on my car cuz my car kind of looks
like a little blue slime yeah,and if you think about Dragon
Quest, slime is kind of just asmooth, that poo emoji, hmm, oh
yeah, I guess I think about that.
Yeah, yeah, I knew that Ireally so.
Nate (37:20):
So when a?
Shaun (37:20):
slime gets old and wrinkly, they become a poo emoji
.
Oh, I like that.
That sounds like we could makea Pixar movie out of that.
Now not Pixar, that's too nice.
Dreamworks movie out of it Now,that's still too nice.
Let's do like a Fox Studiosmovie, yeah.
Nate (37:36):
Fox Studios presents.
Yeah, that's why.
Shaun (37:41):
Fox Studios presents a smooth poo.
It's like the ladies man with apoo emoji, hey ladies.
Anyways, I gotta say the Toryup, his monster designs are also
really good.
In the Dragon Quest series theygot some really cool-looking
monsters.
The point I was actually likelegitimately excited, some games
be like I'm going to a newcontinent.
Look, there's gonna be newmonsters to see.
Yay, yeah, also doing thisresearch I learned there's
(38:04):
actually a Dragon Quest animethat was in that came out 1989,
that he did have designedcharacters for.
Never knew it existed, didn'tbother to look it up and see how
it was.
Maybe I'll do that later.
Yeah, well, screw you guys.
Also in the Dragon Quest gamesthere's a running gag about the
puff puff.
Where I don't, usually girlsare dragging it back room, it'll
go puff, puff, puff, puff overagain wherever a blank screen
(38:26):
simulating stuff.
Probably you've seen that inthe one game you played.
Probably, I'd assume, maybe notanyways.
Yeah, puff, puff start out likeDragon Quest 2 or something
like that.
You go talk to some bunny girl.
She's like would you like afree puff puff?
And you're like yes or no.
And if you pick yes, the screenlike goes black.
All of a sudden she goes puff,puff, puff, puff, puff, giggle,
(38:46):
puff, puff, and then the screenlike fades back and it's like
you've been puff puff, did youlike it?
Nate (38:52):
I beg the room.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was likeokay.
Shaun (38:55):
Yeah, like I hope this is going somewhere, sean, but yeah
, that whole thing apparentlythat is a gag that started in dr
Slump and it made in DragonBalls drag quest games is a nod
to Toriyama.
And speaking of Toriyama,specialty character design If
you want to know his process forcoming up with characters, it
is thusly First he comes up witha concept idea for a character.
(39:17):
Two, then he comes up with apersonality for them Three.
Then he just starts drawingheads heads alone, until he
comes up with a head thatmatches the personality that he
likes.
Then he designs the rest of thebody around the head and then,
finally, he does all thecoloring and he needs a little
extra details of Flair that heneeds on it.
And as far as coming up with theideas himself, he usually takes
inspiration from things thathappens in life.
(39:38):
A good example of this is, uh,at one point, his kids were
really into a TV genre known asSentai Heroes, which is where a
group of people, uh, you know,transform from, transform from
everyday Joes into superheroesto go fight bad guys, power
Rangers being the most obviousexample of this.
Well, his kids were huge intothat and they were watching one
of these and Toriyama justwalked in there and he was
(39:59):
watching them for a minute,watching this, and goes.
You know, it'd be pretty fun tomake a bad guy version of this,
and thus the Ginyu Force wasborn.
Or another example he got a petCornish Rex cat and he loved
the look of it and he kind ofliked the aloof personality this
cat had.
And boom, dragon Ball God Cat,god Beerus, was designed after
that cat.
So yeah, basically somethinghappens in his life and he's
(40:19):
like huh, I might be able todesign a character after that.
So there's some advice if youever hit a block, just be like
hey, here's an event thathappened, I could make a
character out of it.
Maybe you know walking down thestreet and there's a homeless
person like whizzing on the wall, be like pfft, there's Sir P's
a lot, or Brick P Engton orsomething.
And also as far as characterdesign, toriyama has some advice
(40:41):
for you.
If you're just doing a one-timecharacter drawing, like he
would do for Dragon Quest andthe such, feel free to go nuts
with the detail.
Make them, as you know, exoticand fancy looking as you want,
all sorts of like little spotsand horns and this and that on
them.
However, if it's a characteryou're going to be drawing over
and over again, say for a manga,you want to keep it simple,
because if you make it toodetailed, you're going to hate
(41:02):
drawing that character over andover and over again.
Toriyama uses the example ofCell from Dragon Ball for that.
Uh, the Cell characters has abunch of cool looking spots all
over him in his transformations.
Uh, akira's like.
I like the look at first.
By the end of it, I absolutelyhated drawing those spots.
He hated it with a passion.
Yeah, you see where he's goingwith that.
Though he made each spot.
(41:22):
Yeah, he, honestly, the waythis man sounds, he probably did
.
And now I am making you ChesterP Spottington.
I hate you most of all.
Happy you divorced your wife.
Yeah, uh, it sounds likesomething I would do actually.
And now I'm going to give you afun.
Toriyama quote An interviewerasked him do you take notes?
Toriyama responded no, I don'tdo that.
(41:45):
That's why I keep forgettingthings, and if I don't forget
stuff, new ideas won't come tomind.
I kind of feel that.
Yeah, yep, so 1986 and we are63 chapters into the Dragon Ball
manga series and Dragon Ballthe anime starts up.
You don't know how much aboutthe original Dragon Ball anime
do you?
Nate (42:05):
Not much.
Shaun (42:05):
I watched a bunch of it and honestly, I really liked it.
It's less actiony but it's morewhimsical fun.
Hey look, we're going to comeacross a giant angry pig man and
have to fight him or outsmarthim or this of that.
I liked it.
It has simplicity and, you know, more jokes in it, more
perverse pig discussions andstuff like that.
Heh yeah.
So how much did Kiritoriamahave to do with the Dragon Ball
(42:28):
anime?
Hmm not a ton really.
He helped pick the voice actors, he did some design notes, he
did, like you know, some of theworld designs for stuff and,
yeah, nothing.
A whole lot to report for theactual Dragon Ball manga.
It is a huge hit in Japan and1989, though that's when Dragon
Ball Z finally arrives and, likeI said earlier, that's the one
(42:50):
that probably 85% of everybodysays is their first anime
they've ever seen Including you,nate, not me, though.
Not me, I'm better than all ofyou.
That honor goes to 1984'sRobotech, for me Saw a couple of
episodes of we Won, loved it,and then never, ever saw it
again because I don't know, itjust wasn't on that channel
anymore.
That was a bummer.
Nate (43:08):
Yeah, it's actually the first time I watched.
It was on TV for some reason.
I remember it like just beingon and I was like what is this
Cartoon Network?
Shaun (43:16):
That was pretty cool.
Yeah, that moved on.
Nate (43:17):
And then, yeah, then I after that, the first anime I
actually like, sat down my buddywas like, hey, you should watch
this, really cool, with somekind of like the demon city,
something where you know endedup the giant monster with nine
long laser shooting penises Notthe city.
So yeah, it was.
It was definitely like I don'tknow if I like anime.
But then I started working forMr Gatties out here it's a pizza
(43:39):
place and they have in theircartoon room they play, start
playing Dragon Ball.
And I was like, okay, I'll see,and it was.
That was when it was fromadults.
No, it's adults, and it was aman.
Was the anime block on CartoonNetwork to Nami?
Yep, they played to Nami.
And then I was like, oh man,it's pretty awesome.
And then I started buying theVHS and then I got all the VHS
(44:00):
up to sell saga.
Shaun (44:02):
And one thing the one thing, too, that this anime does
so good is it leaves you on acliffhanger that makes you have
to watch the next episode.
Nate (44:09):
Well, it does but it doesn't because of a God like,
especially when you're watchingthe VHS, like this time on
Dragon Ball.
Last time all this happenedgreat, and they played the
episode and they stand aroundgrowling at each other for a
long time.
Shaun (44:22):
Oh yeah, well, it depends on all in which episodes you're
watching, because, yeah, thereare some times they could
definitely cut out some things.
Oh my God.
Hey look, I'm going to build upthis spirit bomb for eight
episodes?
Yeah.
I think, it's going to be awhole lot of flashbacks, with
Goku just standing over theheads above his head, hands
above his head, going to thenext time.
Nate (44:42):
on Dragon Ball Z, they show you a clip and then they
again on the VHS.
So the next episode last timeon Dragon Ball.
Shaun (44:47):
Yeah right, I actually chose to make that joke to her.
It's like last episode is likea 10 minute recap and like on
this episode, another 10 minutepreview.
And then it's like and we'reover, because, yeah, some of
them really did feel like that.
Also, I just think you had apizza place that would have like
a little kids cartoon roomplaying Dragon Ball Z.
That must have been fun.
Hey, come down to your pizzaplace, get your kid all excited
(45:09):
and full of sugar, each soda,and put him in a room with a
violent cartoon with other kids.
Nothing bad could happen.
Nate (45:15):
No, nothing.
Shaun (45:16):
I just literally like is like his, like suplexing each
other into the wall and stuff.
And that's going to do it forpart one of our series on Akira
Toriyama.
Stay tuned for the conclusionnext week, where we discuss why
the Z in Dragon Ball Z exists,why Toriyama wanted to cut off
Goku's tail, akira Toriyama'swork after Dragon Ball.
(45:39):
We dispel a common Dragon BallZ myth and we find out if
Toriyama is a no good dirtycrook.
All this and more on nextweek's episode.
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