Oft Off Topic
Akira Toriyama Pt 2: The After Dragon Ball Years
In the conclusion we discuss more about the Dragon Ball years and continue into what he did afterwards. Then we also discuss the Paradise Papers that show Toriyama may have been up to no good at some things.
All this and more on the Toriyama conclusion of Oft Off Topic
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https://oftofftopic.com/
Our host Nathan also does art in addition to this podcast, including having is own sticker store. Please check it out and purchase anything that strikes your fancy.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/stickersbytownsend
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review us on your favorite podcast platform. Even if you didn't like the show, please do it, we appreciate it. You can also email us at OftOffTopic@gmail.com and let us know what you like or don't like, maybe we will even read your email on our show!
Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more Oft Off Topic!
In the conclusion we discuss more about the Dragon Ball years and continue into what he did afterwards. Then we also discuss the Paradise Papers that show Toriyama may have been up to no good at some things.
All this and more on the Toriyama conclusion of Oft Off Topic
Feel free to check out our website for links to our YouTube channel and more!
https://oftofftopic.com/
Our host Nathan also does art in addition to this podcast, including having is own sticker store. Please check it out and purchase anything that strikes your fancy.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/stickersbytownsend
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review us on your favorite podcast platform. Even if you didn't like the show, please do it, we appreciate it. You can also email us at OftOffTopic@gmail.com and let us know what you like or don't like, maybe we will even read your email on our show!
Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more Oft Off Topic!
Part 2 of our series on Akira Toriyama. In the first episode, we discussed Toriyama's childhood, his reason for getting into the manga industry and his difficulties doing so. We pick up this episode with Mihane discussing Dragon Ball Z. So there, dragon Ball Z is where the series goes from whimsical adventure to a testosterone fueled fight fighting anime. It's when Goku went from little kid to full grown adult that it became, you know, action packed and far more fighting in this and that.
Shaun:And there's actually kind of a reason for this, believe it or not. You want to know why Nate Do ya? Well, the reason was is because when Goku was tiny, with his little stubby kid arms and stuff, it was actually kind of tricky and hard to have him fight adults and keep the proportions right and everything you know, trying to, you know, angle his arms and legs and stuff you know inside of like somebody full grown adult. That's actually why they gave him a stick early on is because these are just drawing like hitting somebody with a stick. Then it was getting close and kicking and punching him. So when they started to get around this, they were just like, well, let's just make him adult. So he has, you know, normal proportions. Granted, you know they stuck to it with Krillin and stuff. But Well, also, you know, as Krillin didn't really do much, Exactly, he really didn't, he had a couple of fight scenes, but yeah, usually Krillin goes in for the kick and then gets leveled.
Nate:So yeah, even kind of the same with Gohan too.
Shaun:Off the start he would just sort of do his like powered up, headbutt, fly at ya. So yeah, when I read that, it totally clicked. They even have like pictures from the manga too, where it's like a picture of young Goku fighting somebody and it's kind of like they had to draw his leg, so it's actually like twice as long as it normally is to make it look good. But in order to make that look right, they had to like lock it off a little bit by somebody's gi. You know what I'm talking about. Yeah, it's like you know, if you break this down, goku's leg is a lot longer. It should be. So anyways, they're like, hey, this is hard to draw, so let's just make him full sized. And Dragon Ball Z Toriyama did have some input on that too, which was like he had, you know, yamcha's baseball career. He had that story that was not in the manga, added for the anime alone. Toriyama also helped design Snake Road and he was also.
Nate:Yamcha is a total pus. I mean, in comparison to the rest of the Z fighters, I mean he's like the weakest but he's still struggling to have achievements. So it was totally not fair for him to join like a baseball league.
Shaun:He is, I think, like technically the second strongest human behind Krillin on the planet for actual, like straight humans.
Nate:And there's a guy, with I mean the guy with three eyes again, like he doesn't, he doesn't count.
Shaun:I think he's a god or something like that.
Nate:Okay, because again he's from Dragon Ball. I know he shows him Dragon Ball Z, him and that little baby Chouzu. And I mean the guy who blows himself up with the noise. Yeah, chouzu like well, that sucks.
Shaun:I don't know who he was you know.
Nate:And then the guy with three eyes shows up like oh okay, he's got his three eyes, sure, why not as many as anime, why not? So I just watched a little, you know, the little bit of Dragon Ball I've seen in passing. I was like oh okay, oh okay, I see they're introducing this guy. Oh, he was a bad guy originally. I well, whatever. So Yamcha.
Nate:Like when they first introduced Piccolo Dragon Ball Z. They're like clearly there was some kind of history there and they kind of allude to him being a bad guy at the beginning.
Shaun:But it was like brief because yeah, rattus was there the first, you just they kind of like here the whole crowd is here all of a sudden, just accept it.
Nate:Yeah, and like here he is. They're like oh, piccolo, you're mean, you don't know, you like. Well, clearly he's on the side of you're on your side now because of Rattus.
Shaun:Which it feels like a downgrade, because in the original Dragon Ball part, piccolo was actually considered a god. Because you know they're like who is the god of the planet? The evil side of the god is yet Kami and Piccolo, which is, you know, good and bad gods, right, yeah, so he's got a really good one.
Nate:Kami was like so old he was, who cares whatever.
Shaun:Also, too, piccolo had that cool like arm like length, anything where he could make his arms really long, that was really big at the beginning of the series, kind of went away and then started to become big at the end again. Or also his ability to make himself huge, which I never really saw. The point, that, because it makes them bigger but doesn't make them more powerful, well, that's, yeah, this is basically a bigger target. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Nate:And then, of course, once you start introducing characters that can like blow up planets by accidentally Right.
Shaun:Oh yeah, dude, just point two fingers forward and blow up a planet, although I did hear.
Nate:So I mentioned their theory. I'm sure they didn't think of it, but it was until just enough that I was like you know, I'll roll this. It's actually pretty easy. You know the whole joke of Frieza's like I'm gonna blow this planet up and find like five minutes or whatever, even though he previously blown up a planet in seconds and so did Vegeta. But he goes to blow the planet up and then meanwhile, 25 episodes later, the planet's still there and someone was saying, well, they're fighting but they're moving so fast that to them was a long time. But for like the average view, like if someone was there on the planet, it'd be like just you know seconds or whatever, in minutes I guess, but they still show the trees blowing the same Say one, it is true that the time goes by faster when they're fighting.
Shaun:Two, it doesn't work for that scene because there's plenty of times where they zip over to, like the Namek towns, and everybody's just talking, acting normally.
Nate:So yeah, it's like I wanted. I wanted to go. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. But the moment you start put some real pressure on that, okay, thinking it's like now.
Shaun:Here's my theory too. You'll like this one better. It's Frieza, is doing the old school villain thing like Red Death from Venture Brothers. Was his name Red Death, red Skull, red Skeleton or whatever?
Nate:Yeah, yeah.
Shaun:It's just like I gotta build up the suspense for it. I'll blow up this planet slowly, tick tock, tick tock. Will I blow it up now or soon? You have a time limit. Panic now, mortals, I mean. So that seems kind of frizzy, doesn't it?
Nate:And I think actually that's more Frieza. I mean, I don't know, I think he's more of a, I think he's less a mustachioed villain tying people to turn to act some more, just like I'm gonna blow this place up. Yeah, oh, that they have that ticked on the mad bomber who bombs at midnight.
Shaun:Mad bomber. What bombs at midnight. There you go, yeah, oh yeah. Dragon Ball Z a bridge to actually have had a reason for the freeze, a thing that we were talking about, but I don't remember what their rationale was.
Nate:it behind it was behind it that really is like I think it was literally just like hey, freeze the catch.
Shaun:you just blow this up quickly like shut up, that's why, or something like that.
Nate:Yeah, which is good enough reasons they. I like their interpretation what happened way better.
Shaun:Dragon Ball Z a bridge is the best way to watch it. Everybody listening to this right now go on YouTube and watch Dragon Ball Z Abridge. Here's the thing. The first season is kind of rough, but it gets better really quick. And also keep in mind this the first season. Well, the whole thing is just done by a very small group of people on like a very limited budget. So, all things considered, even their roughest episodes are really good quality, all things considered.
Nate:Yeah, you two the very first, hmm good.
Shaun:Oh, I was gonna say the very first scene too is that when Radis flies down and crashes in front of that farmer, the farmer like runs angles. Oh no, not my weed farm.
Nate:Anyways, good. Oh, just I was flashed to Vegeta's laying there and I don't remember the scene. But like the geez in the water and he's like, says some, what is this feeling? The feeling of pride and somebody else. Unfortunately, it's overshadowed by my Rage.
Shaun:They actually make Vegeta such a good and layered character in that. Also one thing about Yamcha, too, that he has over most people. He actually got to have sex with Bulma. So there's that. Oh, there you go. Yeah, he always gets to hold that over Vegeta's head too.
Nate:And why Vegeta doesn't kill him like even off, like offhand.
Shaun:I was like, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to blow up his house with him in it and I think it was a dragon ball Z, a bridged Vegeta miss it because he respects Yamcha, because he's so weak, yet he still shows sass towards Vegeta. He still has the ability to talk back. He's like you know what, I could kill you in a heartbeat, but I respect the fact that you just tell me off anyways, kind of thing. That's great, yeah. So here's a fun fact like we're talking about in the manga there is no dragon ball Z, only dragon ball and zoo. Uh, there is no dragon ball, only zoo.
Shaun:Apparently, the reason for the dragon ball Z coming about is actually sort of clever. So see, when they're doing the Dragon ball anime, the actual cartoon, every time they were like Negotiating off their original contract. So, you know, the dragon ball anime came out. They're like, hey, we're gonna do an anime on this. And you know, as all students are like, this will probably be a hit, but we're not sure, so we're not gonna give you a ton of money right off the bat, right?
Shaun:So, anyways, as dragon ball goes along and gets more and more popular, they only have so much negotiating power off the base contracts. They're like, hey, we're gonna go over to this big transition. Now we cancel the dragon ball series relaunches, dragon ball Z, get a brand new contract to start out with and we can negotiate off of that one and start getting more money. So basically, if they had kept it as dragon ball, they would have still had their initial like Face line contract they'd have to negotiate off of from way back, when that wasn't that much. But rebooting is dragon balls. You'd be like, hey, we're restarting this and you know how popular it is, so give us, give us, give us money, lots of it. It's kind of like an Elvira level move for negotiating on that. Remember she just kind of like nickel and dimes all the rights away from them.
Nate:Yeah, we can't pay you more money.
Shaun:They're like yeah, check out that episode of off-topic on Elvira. So here is a little fun side fact. You will see a meme that says after every new dragon ball Z release, there's a two-day dip in Mexican cartel crime. There's no hard evidence of this, though, and also, if you want to go conspiracy theory mode, some people think that the cartel put out that mean to humanize them and make them seem like not such bad guys.
Nate:So we killed your family, but we're not that bad guys.
Shaun:Hey, well, he's like hey, big old gang war over drugs, oh, that's bad. Big old gang war over argument of dragon ball Z. I can see that. Yeah, I mean honestly, it sounds stupid, but it kind is yeah, uh, who's better? Yamcha Vegeta.
Nate:Well, that's not even question. I think, anybody.
Shaun:I guess I should say who's a better, who who is a better spouse to Bulma see, here we go.
Nate:We're going to the territory I'm not that familiar with, but I would say Vegeta. But uh, he was the one to put the baby in her, very true, I mean, he also disappeared a lot.
Shaun:So here's another fun fact. You remember how Goku had a tail at the whole start of the thing, the whole dragon ball adventure? Yep, eventually the tail gets removed and uh, do you want to know why this is Nate? He hated drawing it, sort of. Do you want to know the reason why he hated drawing it? Because it looked like a penis? No, I never thought it looked like a penis. I mean, maybe it looks like. Maybe it looks like.
Nate:I mean I don't really think so either, but it's like it's a long shaft thing.
Shaun:And now we know what Nate's penis looks like. It looks like Goku's tail long as a rapper around my waist.
Nate:Yeah, yes haha, I Try to look at these sexy ladies for fear of like smacking the body.
Shaun:Just get a wreck to your tail or your penis, just like unwraps around your whole face. All right, so the reason Toriyama Got rid of the tail, it's not because it's too hard to draw, but because Toriyama thinks a little too much. This is something you might relate to, nate, especially after our recent Dune conversation. Quote from Toriyama. This is his direct quote. Hmm, it's just that I'm always thinking about how things are supposed to work.
Shaun:So it was a real pain to figure out how he had put his pants on or stuff like that. That always bugged me the most. Is there a hole in the pants? Does he? Does he out his tail through the hole first, then put the pants on? So that just made me want to get rid of the darn thing, which I did. So, yeah, basically drawing it. He just had too many questions on how a tail would work in real life. There's a hole in the pants period. Yeah, hold the pants, I would assume so. After hearing your questions about Dune and the baskets on the back of the worm, oh, I was like you could probably relate to that a little bit. This makes no logical sense.
Nate:It doesn't mean they should. I don't know. Whatever do they do? Multiple passes, you know? Yeah do they catapult them on there?
Shaun:Yeah, Although it would be kind of weird having a hole in your pants and having to like thread your tail through first and put them on. I mean not that hard, but it would add kind of a weird step. It would be weird step. Yeah, yeah. Anywho, there you go. There's Toriyama's problem with Tails. Where do they go? I had another fun Toriyama effect. His favorite Dragon Ball character is Piccolo, which, uh, he's probably my second favorite behind Vegeta, just because he has kind of a badass with a hard to follow.
Nate:He is a badass. I'm Vegeta's my favorite, but yeah, vegeta's everybody's favorite. I think, no, no, no. I think Policolo, or Policolo, policolo. I don't think he's even on the board for me, like if top you know five, who's your top five? Then, Uh see, I didn't even ask that Well, piccolo's not my top five.
Shaun:Who is, I have no idea, but not him he's number one.
Nate:I wanna say probably it's like boo, but yeah, don't forgive me, I'm not like.
Shaun:Ha, it's okay, you actually know what you have to answer. That's just kind of Well. I called you out on your.
Nate:You're like I wanna know now, Well, but I just knew that he wasn't on there.
Shaun:Yeah, I shouldn't even say he's my second favorite, but I know he's up there. I just like his no-nonsense attitude.
Nate:Yeah, I mean honestly, I like I guess.
Shaun:I like Frieza. I guess I kind of like just all the bad guys.
Nate:Yeah yeah, cell's pretty cool, but then again I have to tell you Cell has been affected by all the side stuff. You know, like there's this 3D animation, you know. You know what I'm talking about online.
Shaun:A home for infant losers.
Nate:Well, there's a home for infant losers is definitely like a good one, but there's another one where he's like good friends with Kermit the Frog. Have you seen those?
Shaun:I have not. You haven't seen those you should tell me I don't know what it is, I don't know where it came from.
Nate:I get a lot of clips of it, but like him and Kermit the Frog are like buddies and it's just his bonkers. It is hilarious.
Shaun:Also, sometimes it's hard for me to pick my favorite Dragon Ball Z characters because I also conflate them with the Dragon Ball Z abridged characters and it's totally different. Like Dragon Ball Z abridged, mr Popo might be my favorite character almost, because, yeah, they change him up a whole lot.
Nate:Yeah, I definitely like how they deal with him.
Shaun:Yeah, and also Mr Popo, possibly one of the strongest characters in all of Dragon Ball Z, the whole Dragon Ball universe. They base it off of one scene where he goes up against who is it? It's like Vegeta and Goku's smallest kids show up in double team momentum. He whoops their butts pretty much. Anyways, let's get back to it. He's the strongest ever. Yeah, exactly that's how I prove how tough I am. I just hang outside of elementary school, pick the smallest one and just go to town on them.
Nate:Show them yeah.
Shaun:Give me your son Vajahog backpack, you little kid. So 1993 through 1995 and the Toriyama art exhibition hits museums in Japan. This is a pretty big deal, because he is only the second ever manga artist to achieve this milestone. The only other person to do it? One of Toriyama's heroes and the creator of Astro Boy Osama Tazuka. Oh, actually that dude might be the only manga legend bigger than Toriyama, I think, in Japan Maybe.
Nate:In Japan, but not really here.
Shaun:Yeah, no, not here because Astro Boy, wasn't that really big over here in LIS?
Nate:He wasn't. I mean, I knew of him. Yes.
Shaun:Speed Racer was kind of the big OG one around here that got everybody's interest. But even then I never really saw Speed Racer.
Nate:Yeah, I just. I don't know the few times I watched Speed Racer, it's whatever.
Shaun:Static images with the mouth barely moving, yep, and there's also great clips there, and the stories weren't even that great either.
Nate:Really, yeah, clips taking out context, I don't know. One was like, oh no, my mom's dad's like well, that sucks, get in the car, we have a race to go.
Shaun:Yep, that is one thing. The style of that does lead to really easy dubbing, or after dubbing.
Nate:What else is there? Oh, I'm a racist. You don't think what. I'm the best racist ever.
Shaun:May 23rd 1995. And the manga of Dragon Ball finally wraps up. All done, Yay. Toriyama can finally relax and move on to other things. The next year the anime Dragon Ball GT came out, and Toriyama didn't have a whole lot of input on this, as he was basically done with Dragon Balls.
Nate:He kind of burned out on it, but he didn't get the blessing to go ahead. I remember here he was like, took a step back. Yeah, like GT is not canon because he didn't do it.
Shaun:Yeah, and also, too, there's some like kind of mixed reports that I've seen, where it's like the official statement from like the animation companies and stuff and the mangas are always like oh, this new Dragon Ball thing has Toriyama's blessing and he's approved all this, that, that and he's been helping with it. But if you actually like read Toriyama's interviews, it's kind of like when they ask about all the new Dragon Ball stuff, like after the manga ended and Dragon Ball Z, he's just like I mean, they did hit me up for like my input on stuff, but I just kind of rubber stamped, yes, because you know they knew what they're doing and I didn't want to get too much. And again, he was basically done with it at the time. Yeah.
Nate:The stamp is like rubber stamp. The stamp saying Exactly and he did.
Shaun:There was a couple of things, apparently, that he was like yeah, I don't want you to do this, you just change this or, you know, change the tone of this. But yeah, basically you get what I'm saying, you get what I am laying down.
Nate:Why is Trunks? Why did Trunks give him a sword for a giant buildup?
Shaun:No, yeah, he's running around with a Puanas stick instead. There you go. Actually, puanas stick was one of the things they used in Dr Slump's weapon, which made me really happy.
Nate:Yeah, I saw that. I saw those things like there was Puanas stick.
Shaun:Yeah, Puanas stick being effective weapon. Nobody wants Puanas stick coming after them.
Nate:I was thinking. When I think Puanas stick, I was thinking of a Uprisingism Citizen Brigade. You ever see that they were like they actually went out in the streets and they had a vendor and they were advertising Puanas stick as a deterrent for crime. I don't think.
Shaun:I've seen that one.
Nate:They're like watch. And they just walk up to someone with a Puanas stick and they're like see, look he's back in the way.
Shaun:That probably is about how it works. You go to Mug something and they just have Puanas stick and you're like, yeah, then you got to carry around Puanas stick with you everywhere.
Nate:Yeah, that's the bad thing yeah. You don't carry Puanas stick.
Shaun:Right In 1995, this season contribute to arguably his third greatest work ever, or maybe his best opinion. You are Chrono Trigger, inarguably one of the top five JRPGs of all time.
Nate:Yeah, it really is, inarguably one of the greatest. I keep on being redowler for my phone so I can play it again and actually get the character.
Shaun:Yeah, wait, actually you know what? That's what it was. Oh, now you're playing on your DS and stuff on your phone.
Nate:I think I played on my phone. I think so happened. I played on my phone. That's why I couldn't beat that. That's why I couldn't do that.
Shaun:I know some of those phone ports are super buggy and crappy too, so that might be it, because I remember reading some people being like people getting really excited over the square, break into the phones and then immediately people being like these are awful, these are dog crap.
Nate:So I don't know. I mean Tranquist.
Shaun:We'll get you into Chrono Trigger.
Nate:The Tranquist 9 was actually really, really good. I played on my phone and again, that was really well done.
Shaun:That wasn't a square game getting remade.
Nate:Oh see, there you go. That was one of the things.
Shaun:Well, kind of different things, I guess, because Square and Enix used to be different companies, that's true. They were probably the better company because they knew what their fans wanted more a curator Yama. But yeah, some of the Chrono Trigger character designs are amazing, especially like Majus, one of my favorite bad guys turned good guy turned disappointment ever in a video game, right. Look at me, I have the powers of a god, I can wipe out your party in two spells. Oh no, now I've joined you and I'm a weak little boy.
Nate:I can only do bad things to good people. If you're a bad guy, my powers are severely diminished. Yeah, I need to re-level up.
Shaun:That could actually be an interesting story for a character. I have superpowers, but they only work on people of pure of heart.
Nate:Sorry, timmy, yep, I need some extra kills.
Shaun:So after Dragon Ball, akira Toriyama just kind of lays low enjoying doing small work and enjoying his hobbies. And one thing he's really into apparently, is those plastic models. You know those little like plastic models of cars and stuff back in the winter where little kids that you could buy and glue together. He's even helped design some of those. I had a hot moment where I was kind of into him too.
Shaun:But pro tip if you have cats, don't buy those models, because cats love to knock them over, especially if they're car-like and on wheels, because they'll just push them and watch them slide off the table Unapologetically and then the cat will stare at you, be like what you're going to do about it? But there's not much you can do about it, nate, not much at all. Anyway, anyways, after Dragon Ball he starts to do release a few more mangas, such as 1996's Alien X Peek, which is about an odd alien in his wacky hijinks while he's trying to invade Earth and it actually kind of gives invader Zim vibes. If you want to look it up, it's Alien X Peeky, p-e-k-e. Yeah, it's basically an alien who tries to invade Earth and it finds out Earthlings are kind of weird and has hij it literally looks a lot like an invader Zim kind of thing. Whether or not Zim is based off it, who knows? Because it's not like wacky alien invasions are a thing, alien.
Nate:X Peeky.
Shaun:Yep, I mean the alien doesn't really look like Zim, but I don't know. Just the overall vibe from the panels I watched.
Nate:Yeah, I mean if it's the whole thing, like alien comes down and tries to take a world and it's like just kind of living here.
Shaun:The main reason I mentioned this manga is because this would be the last thing Toriyama would do in standard art process as Toei. The company would send him a new Makintosh to help with his workflow, first mainly used for coloring and the such, but then you'd go on to use it for line working this and that, and right after you'd get that computer would be 1996's one shot, the manga Tokimeka, the cover of which would be the first instance of Toriyama using digital art. Outside the digital art for that fun fact, the pin he used for it was the Pigma Graphic One pin. Fun fact I just came across Also in 1996, here's a PlayStation game I forgot existed. He did the art for Tobol, the fighting game. Remember Tobol Fighting game is kind of like virtual fighter but with like really wacky guys you'd fight with like punk gorillas and stuff.
Nate:Tobol number one.
Shaun:Yep Tobol number one. He also worked on 1997's Tobol number two, which featured Lou Begga. One, two, three, four, five, everybody in the ring. Come on and fight Tobol guy anyways.
Nate:It looks familiar, but I didn't play it Tobol.
Shaun:I mainly remember it being one of those things that it was like big in Japan and everybody really wanted to copy in America, but it was like a hard game to find and thus it's probably worth tons of money. In 1997, he releases a Buu-Bull and a Majin village, which was a huge hit, winning the Shonen Jump's Reader Cup award for the year. Kawa and Kajiko were two more series he did in 1997 and 1998, and after that was one of the bigger things that he did of recent time, which was Sandland, which was a manga series that I forgot to write down some stuff on, sadly, but there's actually a video game coming out for real soon, in fact a game that I believe in Sandland.
Shaun:Sandland yes, a book. Back here, toyota. I remember what Sandland is about. It is about a post-apocalyptic wasteland where, basically, the king of the land has access to all the water in the world and just hordes in as a total D-bag. About it, this sheriff teams up with a demon and they go on an adventure to find new sources of water for everybody. High adventures happen and the day is saved, so on and so forth. Apparently it's a pretty good comic series. Heat yeah, if you see the pictures of it, it is very much Toriyama.
Nate:Oh yeah, it's 100% Toriyama. Yeah, yeah.
Shaun:Yeah, you actually see his style. You know it's him.
Nate:I mean, he has a very distinctive style.
Shaun:Yeah, he has very much.
Nate:I mean just in the eyes. You look at him and see the eyes, you're immediately like, okay, that's Toriyama.
Shaun:He also did the art for the Xbox 360 video game Blue Dragon, which everybody was super hyped for. But I remember being let down Not so much it was a bad game, but it was just an average game and everybody was hoping it would be the next great, second coming of everything.
Nate:Yeah it was. I would work to the game store. I'd make a game stop when I came out and I was like, oh, it's gonna be like new kind of Dragon Quest, and it was. I mean it sold. But it was just like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Shaun:I mean, I wanted to play it but I never got around to it. So would you like to know what kind of stuff Toriyama uses for his art projects? Nate, well, you're going to learn either way. Here's the fun fact he likes Pilot brand ink, he likes Zebra G pins for inking, and the type of paper he uses is Kent brand paper, b4 size, not A4, like a lot of people use B4, which is a standard manga size, I guess. And if you ever think you need expensive fancy pens or pencils to do your art with not necessarily For the majority of his career, toriyama, or the majority of the start of his career Toriyama just used a $1 mechanical pencil he bought at a dollar store, basically thing. And he eventually lost that pen and pencil and he was super bummed because, no matter how nice one he bought, he said it didn't feel the same. That sucks, yeah, and you probably know exactly what he's talking about, because, even though it's, cheap.
Shaun:He's just like yeah, he's just like I just love the way this pencil failed and even though it's a cheap one no matter what I buy, cheap or expensive, he's just like. It's just not the same the pencil he loved so much. It used a half millimeter 2B lead. I find all sorts of interesting things. Nate Also to make a panel outline. He uses a crow's beak pen holder slash ruling pen, which is kind of a neat little tool. And also he recommends hardly, when it comes to eraser choices, using an eraser whose shavings clump well together, because it's much easier to clean it off with a feather brush.
Shaun:That's one of those tips that you're like, that actually makes it yeah.
Nate:Yeah, for some reason, like a literal feather pump in my hand. Then I realized brush, hey, moron, yeah a feathering brush, I guess it probably was more technical yeah whatever.
Shaun:Also, another advice he does and this is a smart move on his part before moving on to the coloring stages of his art, he would photocopy the original page, just in case things went horribly, horribly wrong. I'm guessing he started this habit because something once went horribly horribly wrong. That's sometimes how these things come about. How'd you learn that neat little trick? Because I messed up so many times. Right March 2005, cq Motors Company begins selling an electric car designed by a caratoriyama, a one-person car called the Q-Volt. It's part of the company's Coro-Q line of small electric cars, but only nine were made. Cost only about $19,000, though, and had top speed of 19 miles per hour, available in five colors. It's really cool. I mean, it's not everybody's cup of tea, but I think it looks like one of those old roadsters from back in the day I would totally drive one everywhere. In regards to the car, it took Toriyama about a year to design, and his quote to this is but due to my genius mini-model construction skills, I finally arrived at the end of what was a very emotional journey designing this car, which probably just means it was very frustrating and didn't go the way it wanted it to. Yeah, and right after. This is 2006, and that's when the Xbox 360 Game Blue Dragon came out.
Shaun:2012, dragon Ball Z Battle of the Gods announced and this was kind of important because, um, this was basically Toriyama's first like actual, real involvement with a movie. For a 70. In about 17 years they would say, and yeah, basically this was just his return to doing Dragon Ball stuff. How much actual input he had into it too. But they very, I'm not sure, but they very proudly now it's like a curatoriyama is returning for this. Yeah, hey. And of course you know it's Dragon Ball Z in. Everybody loves Dragon Ball Z, so it went over like gangbusters. So, of course, yep.
Shaun:2013 to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the weekly shonen jump, toriyama launched a new Magnus series Titled Jack-O the Galactic Patrol man. This one's kind of cool because it actually takes place in the Dragon Ball world, but before the series of Dragon Ball events. That happens it would be the final manga that Toriyama would wrote right and illustrate himself, and he said it is also his personal favorite work. Yeah, I guess when Jack-O the patrolman ends, it like ends just as Dragon Ball. The series is starting up and there's like a Little bit of overlap kind of thing.
Shaun:And I think, they even do like a couple of those things where it's like, hey, during this big scene in Dragon Ball, jack-o's like in the background, we're gonna like retro, put him in there or he had something to do with it. I guess it's good series, so check that out. 2015, you should shout. I'll see if I can find us some nice, some purchasable copies online I can share with you.
Nate:It's the same way. That's the same thing, like up to it's pretty hot.
Shaun:I spent to up to and including full cover price on this. 2015 Dragon Ball Super is announced and Toriyama is based like well, I'm not much for doing a Dragon Ball series anymore. You guys go right ahead and for this, he actually decides to hand pick a successor for the Dragon Ball series, a man named Toyotaru. He's a man guard as to as a lifelong fan of Toriyama, and Toriyama takes him under his wing and molds him into the Dragon Ball creator of the future. Enjoy that crushing pressure, mr Toyotaru.
Nate:Turn it over to yourself.
Shaun:Yeah, yeah, and he legit. Mr Toyotaru has legitimately been a lifelong fan of Dragon Ball. See, he's about our age and started reading the original manga back in the day. Actually, I think he started with Dr Slump even, because not only is a Dragon Ball fan, he's like an actual you know Toriyama fan as well, because who isn't?
Shaun:2017, the Paradise Papers are released. 13.4 million Confidantial documents are released, naming names of people using offshore tax havens to hide their incomes from the government. Toriyama is one of 12 Japanese people named on the list, along with Queen Elizabeth and Justin Trudeau are on this list as well. Well, I did some research in that, apparently mainly what comes down to his. He invested in a US real estate company and they were the one doing some really shady accounting methods, and Whether or not Akira Toriyama knew that they were doing shady stuff, who knows? Probably not, to be honest, cuz I'm guessing you would done a better job, but yeah, probably one of those things is just like hey, I have the deal for you, you want to throw some money my way? And he's like, yeah, I'm rich, sure, but here's the money.
Nate:I'm great.
Shaun:Yeah. So there you go, Kiritori.
Nate:I'm a tax dodger, maybe you can't prove it one way or the other.
Shaun:Yes, it's late 2017 and we'll have a fun little side story here. The Goku vs Jiren story line is huge in Dragon Ball Super and it's about to pay off in big ways with the final fight between the two Not final fight the Capcom game anyways. Um, and as you may or may not know, dragon Ball is huge in Mexico. It might be bigger in Mexico than anywhere else in the world and all of Latin America. This kind of goes yeah, this kind of goes back to the 80s, and what happened was is, back in the day, american cartoons were very expensive to get, like GI Joe, transformers and the such. To get those syndicated down to Mexico, that cost big bucks. What didn't cost a lot of money was anime, actually, because you could import that fairly cheap comparatively, and so Dragon Ball was basically got started getting shown all the time down there. You know how, like we got DuckTales showing on a loop constantly.
Shaun:Well, they kind of got that Dragon Ball and it got to the point too is so popular that they were actually getting Dragon Ball in Mexico and Latin America before America was by a good year or so.
Nate:It was actually getting localized.
Shaun:Yeah, it's getting localized there quicker than it was up here. So that basically leads to and just fact, mexicans love their Dragon Ball. It is massive. Everything was a few, a fever pitch for this showdown between Goku and Jiren Jiren, the strongest combatant that Goku would ever face. And this is so big that Arenas are actually hosting viewing parties for this, some as big as 15,000 people showing up at soccer arenas to watch this giant battle on a big screen.
Shaun:One problem for this particular episode, though the viewing rights of the anime didn't really allow for mass public broadcastings like that, especially in Mexico. So Bay, japan and their companies in the letter saying like you're not really allowed to do this, guys, this is a breaking a bunch of you know important trade treaties and this and that, or broadcast treaties. And Mexico wrote that being like well, we're doing this anyway, so what you're gonna do about it? Basically, the, the Japanese God, what's the term for it? The diplomacy place, yeah, thank you. The Japanese Embassy in Mexico had like draft up a whole lot of paperwork and be the in-between man for the Mexican Government in Japan, and at the last moment, they were basically able to handle, hammer out a deal, be like okay, you can show it this once.
Shaun:And Things went on as planned and all across Mexico and Central America and Latin America Are like soccer sized arenas were showing the fight on it and people just glued to their seats watching it. You're gonna actually see like Footages of it to a thousands upon thousands of people you know in a theater watching it, just losing their mind over the fight. I should say too, the animation has gotten really slick on some of those newer ones. Yeah, they've got it really good. So apparently the Jiren fight pretty cool too. I have yet to watch it, but yeah, everybody seems to really like it also.
Nate:I know the fact that the pussy look like see red with bald.
Shaun:whatever, yeah, it's kind of like, I think, red and white, bald sort of thing, smooth yeah, I need to watch it.
Nate:Does that yeah?
Shaun:Yeah, I guess. Um, he is not as strong as Broly, though I guess, according to, I guess Broly has like a higher ceiling, you know can become more powerful, because I guess Broly's got something kind of like the Hulk, where the angrier it gets, the stronger he gets.
Nate:Oh, I gotcha.
Shaun:Yeah, here's a fun fact, though Arale from Dr Slump, uh Kiritoriama flat out says that yes, she can beat Goku in a fight. And I agree, because the reason Kiritoriama says that he can beat her in a fight on the simple premise that she is a gag character. And when it comes to cartoons and comics, you can't beat a gag character because they can do gag character stuff like break the fourth wall and the such. They are not bound to reality's laws Makes sense.
Nate:I mean, that's why, like you know, Bugs Bunny would be a like a, really bad guy.
Shaun:Exactly that's why Bugs Bunny could beat Superman. Basically is the fact that you know Bugs Bunny could, just you know, reach up his butt hole and pull out Kryptonite randomly, for no real reason. Bet you didn't know. That's where Kryptonite came from, did you, nate?
Nate:You'll never guess where Kryptonite came from.
Shaun:Now we come to March 8th 2024. A Kiritoriama's family announces that Toriyama has passed away one week prior, on March 1st. Cause of death was an acute subdural hematoma. In case you don't know what that is, that's basically when you get concussion so bad your brain bruises and starts bleeding. That blood will pull up in your head and start pushing against your brain, kind of shoving it over to one side, causing all sorts of fun and bad problems leading to eventual death. Things that can cause this are basically just hitting your head really hard, can be exacerbated by both blood thinners or being drunk at the time of falling over.
Nate:That's a bummer.
Shaun:Yeah, yeah, the actual. What actually happened nobody really knows. The family doesn't say so. I mean honestly, my guess probably getting out of the bathtub had a couple of beers in him, slipped, banged his head on this corner of the bathtub, which, honestly, is actually way more people died than you would think. Or even just like slipping and falling and hitting your head, the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk, that's how you died in that Rick and Morty episode, remember.
Nate:Slip fell, hit the corner table yep.
Shaun:Laying there just twitching. So yeah, that's bummer of a way to go. The world has said and he died on March 8th 2024. Also on March 8th 2024, 2.03 PM, g Fuel sends me a mass text email telling people the new caffeine free formula of their Dragon Ball Z flavors on sale. Get it while supplies last. Also on March 8th 2024, 4.31 PM.
Shaun:2.30 hours later, g Fuel sends out a mass text apologizing profusely to everybody, saying that was an auto text and pre-planned weeks in advance and they were not trying to disrespect Torh Elma as a name in any way. It was a very apologetic text to Kate. They were like hello, hold up, hold up, we know what you're thinking. We know what you're thinking. So, honestly, deep down inside I have a feeling they saw that text about going there and just like nah, let it go out, it'll get people talking. Apologize later, yeah, yeah, exactly, because I mean, you know, got people talking about their new flavor. Whether it's the discounted flavor of Dragon Ball Z, I don't remember what the flavor is. There's also caffeine free. What's the point drinking G Fuel?
Nate:on Twitter Drinking G Fuel with caffeine free.
Shaun:Some of them taste okay, but I don't know. I don't really like the G Fuel flavors as much as like GamerSupps or other such things, both of which could be a sponsor of off to off topic. If you want to hit us up, I'll gladly tell people how awesome you are. If you want to give us money, my opinion is purchasable. Tis read, and that line later in the future is what prevents Sean from becoming president of the United States of America.
Nate:Never mind all the other stuff.
Shaun:Yeah, never mind all the other stuff, just that one thing. On Twitter, the trending topic of Curatoriaama and Dragon Ball surpassed United States President's Joe Biden's State of the Union address, which was held at the same time as his death's announcement, which it does not surprise me, because nobody cares about the State of the Union address and everybody cares about Dragon Ball.
Nate:I think some people probably just skewed that, but I think by and large it's true.
Shaun:Yeah, I mean, I can't remember the last time I watched the State of the Union address.
Nate:I mean I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I. I kept the clothes notes in the very end.
Shaun:You know the very? Yeah, exactly, I'll just watch what SNL spoofs of it and then I'll just go off that and just take that as gospel right, this is what really happened. So, yeah, Toriyama's death hasn't announced. Everybody is really sad. Some of this fans are looking for dragon balls to this day to revive them. Some confused fans have even stole his body and they're burying it into a pet cemetery up in rural Maine, but that was a pretty good impression.
Nate:I would have a what's his face.
Shaun:Oh, yeah, what's? Yeah, that was a lot of lot of stories out there on that hill. You don't want to, yeah.
Nate:I only know him for three things. I know him for you know, of course, monsters. I know him for that. And then I know him for the judge on my cousin Vinnie.
Shaun:My cousin Vinnie, the two Utes. What is a Ute? What's a Ute? Yeah, I actually do that kind of impression like the Northeastern. Ah, a lot of history out there. You don't want to go up that way, mr Johnson. All right, so actually that's kind of all what I got.
Nate:Did you? I don't remember talking about the movie like the live action American movie.
Shaun:Oh yeah, I didn't really get into that because he didn't really have a whole lot of input on that. I should have written down something, because well, yeah, he just didn't like it.
Nate:Oh, of course he hated it. I mean because it was awful. I mean I don't know, I just I like that movie because of how bad it is, it's just it missed a mark on everything.
Shaun:Yeah, that's kind of why I didn't bring it up to Oaks, because I mean we're doing not, we'll go over when we do a Dragon Ball episode. That's why I also didn't do a whole lot in Dragon Ball Z, because I figure eventually we might do a Dragon Ball episode. This is more about the man, akira Toriyama. Fair enough, yeah, plus, I did actually not to mention, I did kind of want to look up one of those things to. I wanted to see if, like before the live action movie came out with one of those things where Toriyama was like yes, I fully approved, this will be wonderful, and then afterwards it was like no, because sometimes that happens, you know the movie studio backs up a movie studio backs up a truck full of money.
Shaun:It was like hey, yeah.
Nate:Who likes money? Yeah, we love money.
Shaun:Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama was initially supportive of the announcement of a live action adaptation, asked fans to treat the film as a different interpretation of his work. But after watching the film he was so horrified at this adaptation of his work that he said to revive the series with the animated dot dot dot Click link. Yeah, I got to scroll and find the thing. Chow Yun Fat was in that as Roshi was yeah, they put money behind that movie.
Nate:That's the upsetting thing is they put the real money by that movie. It's like the people who made the movie never clearly never watched a show.
Shaun:Yeah no, yeah, that came out before the Avatar movie too. Huh, that should have been like a blowing beacon of don't mess with the source material that much. Because, yeah, they were way off the mark on Dragon Ball Evolution, way, way off, way off the mark, way off. I actually I never even saw it, but I saw enough of it to be like, oh, oh, what have they done to my boy? What have they done? But, yeah, uh, apparently, according to this thing, the response to uh Toriyama hating this so much is actually what spurred him to revive the series with Dragon Ball Z, battle of the Gods.
Nate:Nope, they're gonna be talking. Yeah, I was just wondering.
Shaun:We were talking about the movie where they were just like a carat. Toriyama is back, finally, yay, which explains why they were so up to hype at being like you hated that movie.
Nate:Well, guess who's back to do another movie which you know again, makes total sense. I mean, well, it feels me I wouldn't want to keep my like the last thing. I don't think it's the last thing, but like they released that and it's like, okay, my name's attached to this. Whether I want to be one?
Shaun:All right, I because you know, over time, eventually people might be like oh yeah, of course Toriyama, you know, directed that whole thing, even though it doesn't say it on the credits. Let's see, god's destruction is when Beerus showed up, which was based off of his cat Neat. So now you know Beerus is not a one of those Egyptian hairless cats, he's actually a Cornish Rex.
Nate:Oh, okay.
Shaun:Yeah.
Nate:I thought it was a hairless cat.
Shaun:Yeah, Cornish Rex might be here. Well, let's see the Cornish Rex Watch. I'm gonna look it up and it's gonna be like, oh, this is the Egyptian hairless cat, Not an Egyptian hairless can sing. The breed originates in Cornwall, Great Britain. Cornwall, where cornholing was invented, because you know there's a hole in the wall. The Cornwall's got a hole. That's the cornhole, but if I don't, yes. So yeah, Cornish Rexes are actually not hairless. They just have very thin, fine down hair. Some of them have very short, corally, corally, corally hair, curly hair, corally hair. I like corally hair.
Shaun:Yeah, I like that movie, coraly Sue starring John Belushi or James Belushi who was in. Uh, let's see nine, the last resort, a future episode of off to off topic. Yeah, yeah, yeah they wanna. Yeah, well it is. I mean, we've got it uploaded.
Nate:That's, that is true, yeah.
Shaun:Yeah, yeah, we already did it.
Nate:Sorry, as I said, I'm not. I'm not doing well.
Shaun:Yeah. Yeah, you do sound kind of sick, but you're doing well though you don't. You don't actually sound sick, Although when I first heard you. I yeah, well, when I first heard you, I like he does sound kind of sick. But yeah, so there we go. Nathan, that is the story of a curatorial my, his life, his death and all sorts of fun stuff in between. Did you learn anything?
Nate:Actually I did. I didn't know a lot of the stuff, but there's a lot like more than intricacies. And again, dragon Ball was a blind spot for me because I did pick up to DBZ and even then, like I don't know, I didn't pay to. I know there's a new series, super is going on. For a while I started watching it.
Shaun:The animation was kind of disappointing, but um, I've heard Super was kind of depending on where you watch it, I think.
Nate:Yeah, I mean it's okay. I mean it's Dragon Ball, so Dragon Ball Z, I mean Dragon Ball Z people. You know they're there, it's just I don't know. I think I would have had to say that's a dead.
Shaun:Yeah, I do highly recommend Dragon Ball. Uh, abridged, it is wonderful. Not only is it humorous, but I also do some very emotional parts very well too, and also it ends right after the Cell Saga, so it's not super duper long either. So, yeah, yay, curatoria, this will be your one stop podcast for all your knowledge and Curatoria, because not a whole lot else to learn about them. Like I said earlier, I mean we could have gotten more into Dragon Ball and stuff, but I want to focus more on actual Toriyama and some of his other stuff, cause most people know Dragon Ball and there's enough stuff there for Dragon Ball that we could probably do a whole episode on it, talking about the characters, this, that, some of the behind the scenes things that happened with that.
Nate:I mean Dragon Ball itself is like a to. Well, I mean Dragon Ball.
Shaun:Dragon Ball Z. Yeah, yeah.
Nate:And GT and all that stuff. Yeah, dragon.
Shaun:Ball GT, dragon Ball Super, and I think there's even like another one out now too, potentially. Maybe I mean it just kept on going.
Nate:Yeah so.
Shaun:Yeah, as long as it makes money, it will continue to make more stuff. Yes, it will, and that series will continue to make money for a good long while, I have a feeling. Oh yeah, there's also Dragon Ball Z Kai, which only lasted a couple of years.
Nate:Well, Kai was just a redoing of the first one Like that was that one.
Shaun:that was okay.
Nate:Yeah, it's not, it wasn't its own series. They just when the first, like the, when the Saiyan saga and the Ginyu saga and the Frieza saga came to America, it was heavily, heavily edited.
Shaun:Gotcha, and I heard it wasn't even that good of an editing they did. Really that was stupid.
Nate:I mean like there's that one point, someone got their head cut off and it was just like they kind of super glued it back on. And then there's scenes where, like when Gilhaw's getting beaten up, they're a cloud kind of covered it and it was just. There was a bunch of other small things they did too. It just they're sticking them. Oh no, everyone's lived, you know, it's just, they did their best to sanitize it for Tunaami.
Shaun:Boo. Home for infinite losers. Da-da-da-da-da Right. Home for infinite losers. Yes, because having forbidden people see hell written on a shirt or a thing.
Nate:Go cue with that Right. And Mr Saint, this Mr.
Shaun:What's Mr Saint is Hercules, hercules, hercules, there's so many dumb changes, which is funny because, if you think about it, he is actually the strongest non-Z fighter human on the planet.
Nate:Right.
Shaun:Yeah.
Nate:He's also like. They painted him as a coward, though, but then again it's like well, is this a cowardice? Like, yeah, you're the strongest person on this planet, but motherfucker can. Like. He also Just go to a building.
Shaun:He netted up when he in the cell saga remember he had to grab Android like 18's head and throw it at cell or whatever it was, or no, he had to throw. Android's head sticks to go on or whatever. He kind of sucked it up and did some stuff there. Also, he did actually attack cell at one point. He just ran up and tried to punch him and got smacked and flew a quarter mile into a mountain and didn't die somehow.
Nate:Very true, yeah, I mean yeah I guess he's one of those like cowards until he needs to be stepped up. Well, I mean then again also, he only stepped up because there was a camera there.
Shaun:That is true. What you're saying is that for people to truly be brave, they must have a camera on them all the time. So our truly brave people are going to be the social media influencers and the camera always on them. Yeah Well, we've got enough stuff. Now we're kind of just rambling.
Nate:Yeah, I need to go down.
Shaun:I'm like yeah.