Last week, the Chunichi Shimbun published an interview/article (both on the front page of the morning print issue on March 9, as well as paywalled on their website) with Hisashi Tanaka, Akira Toriyama’s first assistant, reflecting on the creator’s passing this month.

His First Assistant Bids Farewell

“The fact that I was able to continue as a cartoonist while living so far out here is largely thanks to him.” Hisashi Tanaka-san (age 66, of Ichinomiya, Aichi), a cartoonist who worked as Akira Toriyama-san‘s first assistant, and who now heads the Department of Art and Design at Ōgaki Women’s College in Gifu Prefecture, laments the sudden parting.

In 1980, he was working a company job while pursuing a career as a cartoonist, when he received a shock from Dr. Slump, which had started running in Weekly Shōnen Jump. “From facial expressions to movement, the human depictions were really solid. It wasn’t the kind of art you’d expect from an artist on his very first serial,” he reflects. Then, several weeks later in the same magazine, he learned that Toriyama-san was seeking an assistant in the vicinity of Nagoya. “I had thought you had to move to Tokyo if you wanted to become a cartoonist. I jumped at the opportunity without a second thought.” After sending in two test illustrations to the editorial department, he was hired without issue.

Work as an assistant started the morning before deadline, once Toriyama-san had finished penciling. As they worked, “We were constantly shooting the breeze about music, comics, current events, hobbies, you name it,” but Toriyama-san‘s hand would never stop moving. By the time they finished, it would already be night. They typically sent the manuscript out to Tokyo via plane from Nagoya Airport.

In the two years that Tanaka-san worked as an assistant, he says he was never once reprimanded. Even as Toriyama-san found himself busier than ever with the worldwide popularity of Dragon Ball and the megahit status of the Dragon Quest video games (for which he did the character designs), he would always entertain an idle conversation with a smile. That impression of him never changed, from the very first time they met. “He was like a good-natured big brother, four years my senior.”

(Article by Hiroshi Ōyama)

An interview with Toriyama’s second editor, Takashi Matsuyama, was published on page 32 of the same issue; the Matsuyama piece was previously translated and shared here on Kanzenshuu.

Both this Tanaka piece and the Matsuyama piece have been formally archived in our “Translations” section.

Toriyama’s search for an assistant was noted in his weekly author comment alongside the third chapter of Dr. Slump in the 1980 #7 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump (released 14 January 1980) — only the second time the series had been printed thus far, as the first two chapters ran alongside each other for its series debut the prior issue:

Urgently seeking an assistant! Limited to persons living in the vicinity of Nagoya. Those interested, please contact my editor, Torishima.

The call was echoed two weeks later alongside the fifth chapter in the 1980 #9 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump (released 29 January 1980):

Persons living in the vicinity of Nagoya, and capable of being my assistant. Please draw a cut of buildings and cars, and contact my editor Torishima!

Alongside the 10th chapter of Dr. Slump in the 1980 #14 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump (released 04 March 1980), Toriyama announced the arrival of and camaraderie with Tanaka:

My assistant Tanaka-kun‘s skill at conversation is the greatest! He’s more interesting than a radio DJ!

In an interview with Monthly Starlog for the magazine’s 1980 #11 issue (released 01 October 1980), Toriyama touches on his reasons for submitting to Shueisha and his early work with Tanaka:

In that case, why did you choose Jump?
Because I could apply to them every month.

What about what weekly magazine your comics were suited for, that sort of thing?
I didn’t give it any thought at all. …Or rather, I didn’t know.

I think about that immediately. (laughs) Judging by those illustrations, you draw by yourself, don’t you, Toriyama-san?
Yes. My kid assistant only does the blacking. Really, I just want to draw my own things by myself.

Tanaka worked with Toriyama through the first phase of the Dr. Slump series under the pen-name “Hiswashi,” and even made cameo appearances by way of Toriyama’s end-of-chapter bonus comics:

Alongside chapter 162 of Dr. Slump in the 1983 #15 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump (released 15 March 1983), Toriyama congratulated Hisashi on the launch of his own manga series (CAN☆Can Everyday, which debuted in Shueisha’s Fresh Jump in 1982, had a brief serialization in Weekly Shōnen Jump in 1983, and then moved back to Fresh Jump through to its completion in 1985):

My former assistant Hiswashi has started his own series. You won’t beat me that easy!!

Alongside chapter 301 of Dragon Ball in the 1990 #51 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump (released 20 November 1990), Toriyama congratulated Tanaka on his marriage:

The other day, Hiswashi-kun, who was my assistant way back, got married. That’s great news. Congratulations!!