Dragon Balls Prototype Comes Stateside in Akira Toriyamas Manga Theater

Dragon Ball’s Prototype Comes Stateside in Akira Toriyama’s Manga Theater

The one-shot that inspired Dragon Ball will be officially translated into English for the first time, alongside dozens of other Toriyama projects.

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Dragon Balls Prototype Comes Stateside in Akira Toriyamas Manga Theater

Fans of legendary manga artist and Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama are in for a treat this year, as a collection of his older shorts, one-shots, and projects gets translated for an English release for the first time. Among those in the collection is the short that preceded his world famous franchise and proved that martial arts manga had a place on the shelf.

Akira Toriyama’s Manga Theater was a three-volume set of books first released in Japan in the ’80s and ’90s, containing many of his earliest works, most of which didn’t pan out. Since there wasn’t much of a market for manga in the US at the time even for someone as big as Toriyama, the collections went untranslated in an official capacity until February 2021, when Viz announced that all three would be compiled and released in one hardcover edition. A release date of December 7 was finally revealed this week, just two months away.

The stories within the collection include projects both before and after Dragon Ball, many of which were written when Toriyama first tried to move on from his original hit, Dr. Slump. Toriyama created several one-shots and brief series in the early ’80s to test the waters and see what could match the success of Dr. Slump. Most notable among these is the two-part story from 1983, Dragon Boy, a martial arts adventure following a skilled boy named Tanton who’s tasked with escorting the Princess of the Flower Country back to her home. The similarities with Dragon Ball, which would begin serialization just one year later, are hard to miss. Like its spiritual successor, Dragon Boy draws heavily from the well-known Chinese tale Journey to the West, including things like a cloud for the protagonist to ride on and a shapeshifting creature who becomes their ally. Dragon Boy’s protagonist Tanton has a background that’s nearly identical to Goku’s, although Tanton sports bat-like dragon wings rather than a monkey’s tail. While the Princess visually resembles Chi Chi, her characterization and role are far more similar to that occupied by Bulma. Rather than being a princess, Bulma was recast as the heir to the fabulously wealthy Capsule Corp.

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Much of the humor is in the same vein as that of Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump, often a bit puerile but overall good-natured. Perhaps most interesting is the fact that an object referred to as the Dragon Ball is present in Dragon Boy, although it doesn’t grant wishes so much as summon a small, weak dragon who offers no help at all. As it turned out, Dragon Boy was quite popular, so Toriyama began reworking the idea, changing the characters and goals around to better fit long-form serialization. Thus, from this prototype Dragon Ball was born, and its popularity has been almost unmatched ever since.

Aside from this peek at “what could have been,” the Manga Theater collection also offers some anecdotes from Toriyama’s life, as well as many more obscure works of his, showing how surprisingly diverse his work as been over the years. For example, it seems inevitable that Dragon Ball eventually wound up in space, when several of the one-shots are sci-fi in nature. The insight into the mind of such a renowned creator makes the collection worth a look alone, and serves as a healthy reminder that even someone like Dragon Ball’s creator Akira Toriyama had to go through a lot of failed ideas before hitting it big. Akira Toriyama’s Manga Theater will be available from Viz starting on December 7, 2021.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/dragon-ball-akira-toriyama-manga-theater-collection-english/

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