Nowadays it is almost impossible to talk to someone you don't know Dragon Ball. Whether you have seen the anime that has also dominated the TV or that you have an enviable collection of manga at home, anyone has heard of or has deepened in the different possible ways the work of the master Akira Toriyama. In fact, born in the now particularly distant 80s, Dragon Ball has managed to conquer practically all current mediums.
Born as a "simple" manga, the work has come to conquer the videogame panorama too, with all the longtime gamers who fondly remember the chapters released for the old generations of consoles, perhaps not yet reached by the most recent video games. There are also many animated films that have characterized the evolution of a plot as simple as divinely multifaceted, given that there are 19 of them nowadays also arrived in Europe.
Despite though Dragon Ball is within everyone's reach, not everyone knows how this ambiguous story made of fights and breathtaking moments was born. Well, we are here today to talk to you about the events that led the master to produce the tables of this adventure. The birth of Akira Toriyama as a designer she is in fact particularly dated, and we would like to deepen it with you, also leaving you some interesting curiosities that favor the excellent success of this universe by now so huge and multifaceted.
From Dr. Slump to the 7 Dragon Balls
From the image that can be viewed above, you may notice a detail, actually quite evident ... the style of the drawings. This is an image of Dr. Slump & Arale, a work that shares the author and designer with the decidedly more famous Dragon Ball… own Akira Toriyama! Before thinking about the 7 dragon spheres, the master's experience was in fact given by the creation of this manga with undoubtedly lower expectations and perspectives. The work tells the story of Dr. Slump, an inventor who delights in the discovery and creation of more or less useful inventions, including one that certainly stands out more than the others: Arale. The arrival of a robot child who is not particularly awake and shrewd but excellent in physical performance is therefore what gives the opening words to these events.
It will seem absurd but the events of Dragon Ball were born in fact thanks to this work, or rather, thanks to its conclusion. Undecided on what to draw, Akira Toriyama in fact confided in his editor Kazuhiko Torishima hoping to receive the right inspiration to launch into a new project. Given the designer's passion for Jackie Chan, he was advised to dabble in a shōnen in which martial arts were present. Thus was born in 1983 Dragon Boy, a One-Shot chapter which had as its main objective that of knowing the opinion of the public, which was an almost infinite series of consents.
Inspired by the Chinese novel The Journey to the West, Akira Toriyama officially started her Dragon Ball project. To justify an absurd story like the one on which he wanted to be based, the author therefore decided to add a little spice to the situation, pepper which takes the name of Seven Dragon Balls. Initially he thought of making the manga last a relatively short time, since at first everything should have ended after the collection and use of the seven spheres, but that's not how it ended.
The huge success of Dragon Ball
Once they arrived at the iconic Tenkaichi tournament, the work began to gain more and more acclaim that the designer expected given that the arrival of popularity also occurred for his previous work in conjunction with certain competitions and disputes. The story then began to take another turn, completely different from the initial expectations that would therefore not have been clearly respected. New characters arrived, and it was certainly not Goku who won the first competitions as might have been expected, a peculiarity that wisely lengthened the broth.
Wanting to focus on the fight scenes and abandoning the idea of travel, Akira Toriyama decided to deliberately go against the advice of her publisher, and made Goku grow up. This happened mainly to allow him a smooth road on the design of the fight scenes, but we must not overlook the huge power-up that made all the events certainly more interesting. As we all know, after the tournaments, events took another turn, growing exponentially in the magnitude of what happened in the various tables.
The Saiyan warriors, after having become the strongest on Earth, have in fact also acted even in space - as for example in the specific Namec saga - as well as in the kingdom of the dead. While remaining strongly distant from what was initially decided, all the events were justified in any case, even if obviously exaggerated in the themes and in the fights. The technology present in the era that cannot be labeled has made every option possible, as the various volumes have surely taught us.
Curiosities you may not know about Dragon Ball
The ambiguous and certainly over the top themes of the work are surrounded by some interesting curiosities that are however to be found in some small things related to the characters, their names and their history. However, just think that almost everyone in the Dragon Ball universe has been derived from something or someone, even if only partially. The teacher Akira Toriyama has in fact vented all her artistic and editorial vein through a series of infinite inspirations, of which a good part is not even clear and official.
For example, did you know that the iconic Genius of the Turtles is actually a tribute to the world famous Hawaii? The designer is in fact very passionate about those places, and above all their history. Precisely for this reason he decided to create a rather multifaceted and important character, whose home is a desert island and whose clothes are basically indistinguishable themes.
Furthermore, many of the names present are inspired or clearly taken from some foods of obviously Japanese origin. For example, we find Crillin, which means chestnut, Broly which instead takes the name of broccoli, as well as the whole team Ginyu (milk), Rikuumu (cream) Chiizu (cheese) and Gurudo (yogurt), the obvious origin of Freeza and also many other sometimes edible names. Instead, the legend of Son Wukong inspired the protagonist Goku, which has been used in many other contexts of mediums, even very recent ones, such as Wukong from League of Legends to mention one above all.
Similar inspirations also came in the equally famous One Piece opera, with Zoro using moves named just like typically Japanese foods. Did you know that between Eichiro Oda and Akira Toriyama there is a relationship of friendship and above all esteem? The first of the two was in fact strongly inspired by Dragon Ball, and also insisted that the voice actor of the protagonist Luffy in the anime be the same as Krillin.
