Akira Toriyama
Widely known and acclaimed mangaka best known for his work in the Dr Slump and Dragon Ball series.
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Chief editor: Rumors are arousing the possibility that this is your last work on Japanese animation. Is this true or do you have plans otherwise?
Chief editor: Yes, and how would you aim to prospect that?
Akira Toriyama: This may be my final anime, I'm a little worried [about it]. There's incredible pressure, but at the same time, there's a sense of accomplishment — that it's worth doing. Blue Dragon will be a masterpiece, not simply because I'm working hard on it, but because the staff is expecting nothing less.
Akira Toriyama: The offer to direct an animated version of Blue Dragon came in February of last year. Studio Pierrot approached me regarding it.
Akira Toriyama: I knew that Sakaguchi had been working on assembling staff to produce a game, although at the time Blue Dragon hadn't yet been formally announced. According to the materials, it was to be a fantasy world like "Lord of the Rings", with a detailed world view and story.
Chief editor: Thank you very much!
The method of producing comics in Japan is very hectic, but it's also rewarding because it's possible to do both the story and art all by yourself. In this way, it's possibly to bring out one's individuality. If this idea appeals to you, I call on you to try drawing your own manga.
I was an avid anime watcher until I was about 10, when I moved to manga. I think I am influenced by Osamu Tezuka's and Walt Disney's works which I watched during that time, such as Tetsuwan Atom and 101 Dalmatians.
Shonen Jump: Several readers have asked if Namekians are plants. Of course, based on their names, they seem to be slugs... but they are green, they have a strange method of reproduction, and they live on water.
I believe mine would be Piccolo. He was the first character in my manga where I was like, "He has a scary face, but he's so cool!" It really is cliché when bad guys turn into good guys, but it just feels great drawing it!
Akira Toriyama: That's a tough question. I thought of Piccolo first, and I wanted to draw him as a scary character, and it was only afterwards that I had to come up with a species. Since they have antennae, I thought they looked like slugs. So "Namekian" is a play on words, but I didn't think too deeply about it. I don't think they're plants, but they may be hermaphrodites.
Drunken Master (the first one). If I hadn't seen this movie, I would never have come up with Dragonball.
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