For quite some time, many shonen fans believed that Dragon Ball GT would always be seen as the “Black Sheep” of the Z-Fighters’ franchise. Luckily, Dragon Ball Daima took quite a few elements from the Grand Tour in order to add some serious excitement to the original anime story. Goku went Super Saiyan 4 for the first time in continuity, and Vegeta did the same with Super Saiyan 3, scratching off a major item from many anime fans’ bucket lists. Recently, at Anime Japan, artist Toyotaro and former Dragon Ball editor Kazuhiko Torishima discussed the Grand Tour’s influence on the franchise.
To kick things off, Torishima discussed how he felt about the series and why Dragon Ball GT felt like a necessity at the time of its creation, “I didn’t work on Dragon Ball GTso I can’t say much. GT came after Dragon Ball ended. Many parties – TV networks, Bandai Namco, partners – depended on Dragon Balland if it didn’t continue, we risked economic trouble. The easiest solution would’ve been to ask Toriyama to keep going but he had just finished and was done. The only thing we could ask was for him to design the characters and create a basic plot. Then we handed it off to a team and said, ‘Here, do your best with this.’”
Toyotaro Talks The Grand Line
The artist only known as Toyotaro has a big responsibility on his shoulders, as he is routinely thought of as the new sheperd for the Dragon Ball Super franchise. Following the tragic passing of Akira Toriyama, only one chapter was released and the manga remains on hiatus. During this same interview, Toyotaro discussed the Grand Tour and how it inspired him in his current artistic style,
“Story-wise, Dragon Ball GT takes place way after Dragon Ball Super. I think some GT elements ended up in Dragon Ball Daima. I don’t think GT gave me ideas for Super, but I did borrow some visual elements. Artistically, GT was also Nakatsuru’s work, it stayed very true to Toriyama’s style and that inspired me.”
Toyotaro had quite the wild origin story when it came to becoming a part of Weekly Shonen Jump. Before he had picked up a pen to ink the Z-Fighters in Dragon Ball Superhe was previously the main artist on the spin-off series, Dragon Ball Heroes. Even prior to this, Toyotaro worked on an unofficial manga dubbed “Dragon Ball of,” giving him quite the resume on Akira Toriyama’s works long before he worked on the “real deal.” While a return date has yet to be confirmed for Dragon Ball Super’s manga, at this same Japan Expo, Toyotaro said it would be difficult to continue making the printed story, but not impossible.
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Via DB-Z
