In Torishima’s new book, he and Toriyama chat: once DB shifted to battles, Toriyama decided Goku’s small body was an obstacle to drawing action, and wanted him to grow up. Torishima was opposed to changing their star, but Toriyama said otherwise he couldn’t continue the series…
So Torishima discussed it with the editor-in-chief, who rather apathetically said “sure, why not?” Despite Torishima’s worries, adult Goku’s debut got a single phone call of complaint, but otherwise went over fine. The series remained at No.1 in Jump’s popularity poll.
Torishima has told this story before, in Daizenshuu 2’s Shenlong Times, although there he notably didn’t provide any specific reason for why Toriyama was so insistent that Goku grow up. Now we learn it was to make the action easier to draw. kanzenshuu.com
(Less notably, in Shenlong Times Torishima claimed there weren’t any phone calls complaining about adult Goku, while in his new book he says there was one, but only one. Averaging these accounts out, we can say there was half a phone call)
Torishima’s editing style was mainly to rate (or reject) what Toriyama drew, rather than suggest specific things to draw. But there were exceptions: like when Toriyama complained of the difficulty of one-chapter stories, Torishima suggested a multi-chapter sports tournament
(Another notable Torishima suggestion is him telling Toriyama to do a kung-fu manga after Dr. Slump, as mentioned in Toriyama’s mini-comic. Saying he should make Arale the main character of Slump might count as more of a “evaluate what Toriyama has already drawn” scenario)
Thus we get Dr. Mashirito’s origin: Torishima told Toriyama to come up with a bad guy, but Toriyama’s first attempt wasn’t quirky enough. “Make something eviler” “OK, I’ll think it over”. And that’s when Toriyama thought of making an evil(er) version of his editor…
When Torishima saw the manga manuscript of Mashirito’s debut, he knew he’d been burned good, but Toriyama intentionally turned it in too late for any further corrections. And after that, Mashirito proved too popular for Torishima to tell Toriyama to stop using him.
Not only was this pre-internet, but Toriyama didn’t even have a fax yet. So each week he had to drive through the night to the Nagoya Airport to air mail that week’s completed manga manuscript, plus the rough draft for next week. This process was even depicted in Dr. Slump:
Toriyama still struggled to draw truly evil bad guys in DB’s early days. But when Piccolo Senior attacked Goku with a mere swing of his hand, Torishima praised Toriyama for finally getting the hang of bad guys. Toriyama still remembers this as a rare bit of praise from Torishima.
While the praise made Toriyama happy, he also thought it was an odd thing for Torishima to be impressed by. Meanwhile, Torishima thinks he praised Toriyama plenty, though Toriyama denies this.
(Torishima is also rumored to be the model for OG Piccolo just as he was for Mashirito, although elsewhere Toriyama has denied doing this intentionally. kanzenshuu.com)
Toriyama is famous for writing DB’s story without thinking ahead (supposedly because it’s more exciting, but really because it’s easier). As a result, characters can unexpectedly start to shine. Toriyama is still surprised at baddies like Vegeta coming in No.1 in popularity polls
Indeed, Torishima notes that it seems Vegeta has consistently been the most popular DB character in France. Toriyama: “Really? I wonder why.” And then they change the subject.
Next they turn to Toriyama’s time-saving measures: destroying the complicated tournament arena as soon as possible, and of course Super Saiyan hair, which in a B&W manga means leaving it blank. Torishima: “I could tell you were cutting corners, but I bet the readers couldn’t”
The tough part about action manga is each new battle must outdo the last. Toriyama felt this was particularly tough after the battle with Freeza, and Torishima thinks it would have been best to just end the series there. Toriyama: “…You’re a fine one to talk (laughs)!”
But Torishima recognizes DB was too popular for that. Naturally, this ties into the whole “intended endings” kerfuffle. Long story short, DB’s popularity made Toriyama continue it longer than he liked, but he never had a master plan to end it with Freeza. kanzenshuu.com
Toriyama credits his early office job for teaching him that turning in his work late will inconvenience others. Besides Toriyama, Torishima has only heard this concern from Kochi-Kame’s Osamu Akimoto and Yu-Gi-Oh’s Kazuki Takahashi (RIP), who all likewise had office experience.
Toriyama thinks he might never have become a manga artist if he hadn’t gotten Torishima as his editor. Torishima likewise thinks he would’ve had a harder time in the editor department if he and Toriyama hadn’t made a hit.
Finally, Toriyama says he’s lucky to have gotten Torishima’s advice. While Torishima thinks fans might be shocked to hear this, Toriyama knows that if he’d drawn Slump and DB the way he really wanted to, they never would have caught on. The End.
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