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Summary
- New manga authors must prioritize individuality and pride in their work, as advised by industry icon Akira Toriyama.
- Toriyama commends modern manga quality but critiques lack of uniqueness and bold creativity in authors.
- To succeed, manga authors should break free from limits and be daringly inventive, like Toriyama was with Dragon Ball.
New manga authors would be wise to follow the advice of industry icons like Dragon Ball‘s Akira Toriyama. Creating a global cultural phenomenon demonstrates that Toriyama understands what is necessary to succeed in the ultra-competitive manga business. While Toriyama has tragically passed away in 2024, he left some wisdom to be picked up by modern authors.
In a 2018 talk with Weekly Shōnen Jump commemorating the legendary manga anthology’s 50th anniversary, Toriyama and Slam Dunk author Takehiko Inoue discussed a range of topics regarding their manga, their history and evolution in the business, and their thoughts on the future of the industry, with particular emphasis being on Weekly Shōnen Jump’s role in the growth of manga worldwide. The speech was uploaded to the well-known fan site Skullknight.net website by a member known as Hitoshura.
Toward the end of the conversation, Toriyama and Inoue are asked to say a few words to new and potential manga authors hoping to get a gig with Weekly Shōnen Jump. Toriyama’s immediate response to the query was:
I have the feeling that while the quality of the work itself is increasing, individuality and pride in one’s work are decreasing.
Toriyama Pointed Out the Main Issue with Modern Manga
While he praised the increased quality found in the industry, Toriyama also criticized the lack of individuality
While the response was short, its implications are significant. First, as a veteran mangaka who came of age and matured during modern manga’s most important periods, Toriyama suggests that there’s never been a better time in the industry in terms of the quality of the product than now. After all, Toriyama’s art style basically revolutionized the industry, so he was well-positioned to judge that modern manga has higher standard than prior generations.
On the other hand, while Toriyama complements the modern manga creator’s skills, he also questions their pride in their work, and their strive for uniqueness. Toriyama suggests that the modern manga author has less pride in or satisfaction with their work – or at least to a lesser degree than the mangaka of the past. This could be a consequence of the expansion of the media, which can come at the cost of originality. Also, modern authors may be less willing to take risks or go against their editors’ suggestions, as Toriyama was known to do.
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Toriyama’s Suggestion On What Manga Authors Need To Do
Despite his critique of the modern manga author, Toriyama does provide his suggestion on what they can do to overcome the situation: they need to “be nuts”. Of course, Toriyama is not suggesting authors need to be crazy to have pride and originality. Rather, Toriyama wanted them to free their imaginations from whatever limits are holding them back and use what they find to craft content that is so daringly creative and mesmerizing unconventional that it leaves the reader to believe that the author is one-of-kind.
Indeed, while Toriyama’s works may not be considered “unconventional” by modern standards, they broke away with tradition a lot. His art and composition were unlike anything seen before, and Dragon Ball established the majority of tropes found in shonen nowadays. For the creator of Dragon Ball, thus, an author who wants to catch Weekly Shōnen Jump‘s eye and have a successful career must possess not only excellent technical skills in art and storytelling but also thought-provoking inventiveness and that spark of rebellious, crazy spirit that made Akira Toriyama the legend he is.
Read on Manga Plus
Source: Skullknight.net
Dragon Ball
From the creative mind of Akira Toriyama, Dragon Ball is a mega multimedia franchise that spans back to the 1980s. Dragon Ball expanded quickly, starting as a serialized manga for Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan. It made its way overseas via manga and an anime adaptation that is enjoyed worldwide. Dragon Ball was the initial starting animated series that followed the adventures of the young Son Goku as he sought after the Dragon Balls. These mystical orbs would grant the wish of any who gathered them together. Then, the series would branch off into the immensely popular Dragon Ball Z, which followed Goku as an adult and featured high-intensity battles and Goku’s never-ending search to be the strongest. The series has also enjoyed several popular video game adaptations and continues to release several new animated series and theatrical films up to the recent popular Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
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