Did Akira Toriyama Need More Variety When Drawing Faces?

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thatdbzguy
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Did Akira Toriyama Need More Variety When Drawing Faces?

Post by thatdbzguy » Sat Jun 28, 2014 12:49 am

This was a discussion I saw on another site that interested me. Obviously, every artist has their own art style, but a problem some people have noticed is that Toriyama's characters mostly seem to share the same exact face. If you were to take a picture that just showed the faces of Goku, Vegeta, and Gohan, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Again, I understand it's Toriyama's art style, but is it a good thing when several of your characters share the same exact face?
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Re: Did Akira Toriyama Need More Variety When Drawing Faces?

Post by TheGmGoken » Sat Jun 28, 2014 1:10 am

I only notice this when Toriyama draws Blue Dragon or Dragon Quest. But for DBZ no. Unless they're the same family member most character while have the basic Toriyama style(You can do this with any artist honestly) they all each are different in their own unique ways. No seriously read other manga and you can pick this out with any artist. Everyone got a base and tends to built off of that. Kishimoto and his brother grew up together and drawing together(Funny aren't they twins?). Hence their style and "Bases" are the same(100%) in turn all their characters look alike. It's just the artist style. I had a thread about the Ginyu Force looking like Goku and Vegeta. I can find it if you want.

So in a nutshell. I know some basic shit about art thanks to my sister being an artist. Not alone but basic shit. She taught me every artist has a base they work from. Hence why you can tell when an artist draws something. My sister drawings always have a unique eye pair and eyebrows. For Toriyama his characters all have similar eyebrows and noses.

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Re: Did Akira Toriyama Need More Variety When Drawing Faces?

Post by DragonBoxZTheMovies » Sat Jun 28, 2014 1:11 am

thatdbzguy wrote:This was a discussion I saw on another site that interested me. Obviously, every artist has their own art style, but a problem some people have noticed is that Toriyama's characters mostly seem to share the same exact face. If you were to take a picture that just showed the faces of Goku, Vegeta, and Gohan, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Again, I understand it's Toriyama's art style, but is it a good thing when several of your characters share the same exact face?
Do you reckon you could provide a link to this discussion? Just wanna see if they provided any images as examples.

Which era of the Manga are we talking here? Are they Super Saiyan? Obviously, Kid Goku's face would be very different to an adult Vegeta's face. :lol:

I don't think it necessarily has to be a good or a bad thing. Sure, Toriyama has his lazy moments, but when you're drawing a chapter a week for 10 years by hand, you kinda expect the odd short-cut every once and a while.

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Re: Did Akira Toriyama Need More Variety When Drawing Faces?

Post by Kid Buu » Sat Jun 28, 2014 1:55 am

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No they just look similar from Chichi having affairs.
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Re: Did Akira Toriyama Need More Variety When Drawing Faces?

Post by Fionordequester » Sat Jun 28, 2014 2:03 am

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Re: Did Akira Toriyama Need More Variety When Drawing Faces?

Post by Zephyr » Sat Jun 28, 2014 2:59 am

Could Toriyama have used more variety in face designs? Certainly, that goes without saying.

Did he need more variety? No, not at all. The important characters all had designs that varied more than well enough for the reader/viewer to be able to distinguish between them, and that's all that really matters.

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Re: Did Akira Toriyama Need More Variety When Drawing Faces?

Post by FrogTrigger » Sat Jun 28, 2014 3:02 am

Zephyr wrote:Could Toriyama have used more variety in face designs? Certainly, that goes without saying.

Did he need more variety? No, not at all. The important characters all had designs that varied more than well enough for the reader/viewer to be able to distinguish between them, and that's all that really matters.
Isn't this kind of a thing with manga artists?

I mean even in comics guys like Frank Quitely or Ed McGuiness have stock faces. I agree with you though and I kinda enjoy that aspect of certain art styles

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Re: Did Akira Toriyama Need More Variety When Drawing Faces?

Post by DBZAOTA482 » Sat Jun 28, 2014 3:35 am

thatdbzguy wrote:This was a discussion I saw on another site that interested me. Obviously, every artist has their own art style, but a problem some people have noticed is that Toriyama's characters mostly seem to share the same exact face. If you were to take a picture that just showed the faces of Goku, Vegeta, and Gohan, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Again, I understand it's Toriyama's art style, but is it a good thing when several of your characters share the same exact face?
Gohan has a peach-like complexion and his eyes aren't completely outlined. Goku has a tan and his eyes aren't completely outlined. Vegeta is brown and his eyes are completely outlined and he always has that scowl look on his face.
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Re: Did Akira Toriyama Need More Variety When Drawing Faces?

Post by coola » Sat Jun 28, 2014 5:12 am

In his early days, i guess you can say, that Mr. Toriyama really liked to reuse certain elements for human character.
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Re: Did Akira Toriyama Need More Variety When Drawing Faces?

Post by Looneygamemaster » Sat Jun 28, 2014 12:05 pm

While I've never had a problem telling characters apart, I do think Toriyama did himself no favors in that regard making so many people Super Saiyan.

Still, I think you only really notice how samey Toriyama's designs are when you compare different works. Like in Chrono Trigger, Crono is Goku, Marle is Bulma, Lucca's a grown-up Arale, Ayla is Lunch, Lavos' second form is Cell, etc. Within an individual work, though, he does a good job differentiating characters.

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Re: Did Akira Toriyama Need More Variety When Drawing Faces?

Post by Vijay » Sat Jun 28, 2014 12:18 pm

I can instantly recognize over 50+ characters frm DBZ due to distinct look Toriyama gave for each characters. Which means a great deal considering how recent shounen troops suffer frm Too Many Character Syndrome, while DB made 20 years back not only explored, but managed to overcome the problem.

Super Saiyans seems to lack variety. Goku, Gohan & Goten to be distinguished by mere bangs in Mid-Buu Arc became evident that inconsistency has slipped into Toriyama.

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Re: Did Akira Toriyama Need More Variety When Drawing Faces?

Post by Raykugen » Sat Jun 28, 2014 5:12 pm

Most principal male characters have the same face, same mouth and same nose. All super saiyans have the same eyes.
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Re: Did Akira Toriyama Need More Variety When Drawing Faces?

Post by FrogTrigger » Sat Jun 28, 2014 6:08 pm

Looneygamemaster wrote:While I've never had a problem telling characters apart, I do think Toriyama did himself no favors in that regard making so many people Super Saiyan.

Still, I think you only really notice how samey Toriyama's designs are when you compare different works. Like in Chrono Trigger, Crono is Goku, Marle is Bulma, Lucca's a grown-up Arale, Ayla is Lunch, Lavos' second form is Cell, etc. Within an individual work, though, he does a good job differentiating characters.
Frog's human form looks like Vegeta imo

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Re: Did Akira Toriyama Need More Variety When Drawing Faces?

Post by Marco Polo » Sun Jun 29, 2014 4:45 pm

DragonBoxZTheMovies wrote:Do you reckon you could provide a link to this discussion? Just wanna see if they provided any images as examples.
I'd like to see it as well.

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Re: Did Akira Toriyama Need More Variety When Drawing Faces?

Post by mAcChaos » Sun Jun 29, 2014 5:13 pm

The whole "sameface" syndrome plagues a lot of artists. For Type Moon 90% of the characters look like Saber.
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Re: Did Akira Toriyama Need More Variety When Drawing Faces?

Post by Cursed Lemon » Sun Jun 29, 2014 5:24 pm

This is an anime thing more than an individual artist thing.
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Re: Did Akira Toriyama Need More Variety When Drawing Faces?

Post by TheGmGoken » Mon Jun 30, 2014 2:49 am

Cursed Lemon wrote:This is an anime thing more than an individual artist thing.
Guessing you mean DB only?

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If you pull the hair down to be similar to Sasuke. You can very well convince someone it's Sasuke(Of course if they read the story they would know). It's a base for characters. Every(Almost) artist has one.

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Re: Did Akira Toriyama Need More Variety When Drawing Faces?

Post by Cursed Lemon » Mon Jun 30, 2014 10:16 am

No I meant anime in general.
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Re: Did Akira Toriyama Need More Variety When Drawing Faces?

Post by CaptainKatsura » Mon Jun 30, 2014 6:25 pm

Hey, Toriyama drew 18 and 17 different! Who cares they are samefaces to one another,

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Re: Did Akira Toriyama Need More Variety When Drawing Faces?

Post by Zephyr » Mon Jun 30, 2014 8:35 pm

CaptainKatsura wrote:Hey, Toriyama drew 18 and 17 different! Who cares they are samefaces to one another,
To be fair, weren't they supposed to be twins? Or am I getting that from somewhere else?

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