The manga industry is arguably driven just as much by its editors as it is by the individual artists and authors. Editors make regular suggestions to the authors based on current trends, general corporate mandates, as well as based on their own professional experience. Editors want their authors and illustrators to be successful, and for the series they oversee to thrive (and become massive hits!). It was Toriyama’s editors in particular — past and present! — that shaped the revolving cast of enemies during the Cell arc of Dragon Ball.
Kazuhiko Torishima, Yū Kondō, Akira Toriyama, and Fuyuto Takeda
Akira Toriyama had one editor over the course of Dr. Slump and three editors over the course of Dragon Ball, but he only had one editor at any given time:
Editor #1: Kazuhiko Torishima
Toriyama’s first editor was Kazuhiko Torishima (鳥嶋和彦), then an editor at Shueisha evaluating Toriyama’s contest submissions and providing feedback and encouragement to continue. Torishima worked directly with Toriyama from his professional debut all through Dr. Slump, and then onward into Dragon Ball (up until the end of the 23rd Tenka’ichi Budōkai).
It should be no surprise that Torishima went on to larger roles at Shueisha, later becoming the Editor-in-Chief of V-Jump for its proper launch in 1993, and Editor-in-Chief of Weekly Shōnen Jump itself from 1996-2001. Torishima then went on to even larger roles at Shueisha, including Director of Business starting in August 2004, Managing Director in August 2009, and onward again to Senior Managing Director in August 2010 through 2015. After this point, Torishima went on to take senior leadership roles at Hakusensha and Bushiroad.
Even when he was no longer Toriyama’s editor, Torishima was still a mentor, friend, a guiding force to Toriyama and his works. This relationship continued during and long beyond Dragon Ball itself.
Editor #2: Yū Kondō
Toriyama’s second editor was Yū Kondō (近藤裕), who took over for the Saiyan arc and continued up until when Cell reached his perfect form. Kondō came to Weekly Shōnen Jump from a shōjo magazine, bringing a slightly different perspective to his editorial oversight.
In a particularly memorable exchange from the Shenlong Times #2 roundtable featuring all three of Toriyama’s Dragon Ball editors, the group discusses Kondō’s time period and the changes made to the series’ storytelling:
Torishima: Goku grew up, and then during Kondō-san‘s time, Vegeta appeared and the number of female fans increased. (laughs)
Kondō: It’s because before I came to Jump, I worked at a shōjo manga magazine. (laughs) After I became editor, we decided what direction things should advance in. In a story manga the fights have to escalate, that’s all it was. I don’t think there was anything extra.
Takeda: That period was when Sensei began to try and make Dragon Ball more popular through its story line, and it certainly bore fruit.
Toriyama: At that time it began to be more fun to think up the story than to draw the pictures. But with the story, I basically only thought of each chapter. That’s why I end up getting caught in these quagmires. (laughs) Around the time of Trunks’ time travel, it was dreadful. I kept drawing, and it just got more and more incoherent.
Torishima: You couldn’t have done that if Kondō-san wasn’t your editor. I can’t stand that kind of troublesome stuff. (laughs)
Kondō served as the third Editor-in-Chief of V-Jump (following Kazuhiko Torishima and Hideo Yoshikura; Kondō was then succeeded by Akio Iyoku).
Editor #3: Fuyuto Takeda
Toriyama’s third editor was Fuyuto Takeda (武田冬門), who took over when Cell reached his perfect form, and oversaw the series from there until its end. Takeda came to Dragon Ball from working on Yamato the White Warrior by Yoshihiro Takahashi as well as Mammoth by Buronson and Takanori Konari. Takeda’s tenure also coincided with that of Nobuhiko Horie taking over as Editor-in-Chief of Weekly Shōnen Jump in the mid-1990s alongside other editorial staff turnover.
In the “DB Question Box” column from the Akira Toriyama’s ______piece Theatre REMIX, vol. 1 collection of short works, Takeda is credited as saying “This character is funny” in reference to Mr. Satan from his previous appearance at the Cell Games, giving him a new lease on life for the next story arc.
In the May 2013 issue of Nikkei Entertainment! (in conjunction with the launch of the theatrical film Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods), Takeda shared some of his memories from working on the series, and about this timeframe in particular:
The first time we met, he told me “I want to end Dragon Ball“. At the time, the series was insanely popular. Even within Jump, it was #1 in the rankings by a longshot, so that really put me in quite the pickle. (nervous laugh) However, I knew very well that Sensei was getting exhausted, so I suggested: “Draw whatever you want the most and what you think is most suitable, and then you can finish it when you are 100% satisfied with what you put out.”
Toriyama Incorporating Editors Into His Stories
Toriyama regularly incorporated real-life events and people into his stories. Toriyama himself appeared in Dr. Slump before the “Robotoriyama” charicature was later adopted, and Toriyama’s first assistant — Hisashi Tanaka — also occasionally appeared in some of his bonus comics for the series’ collected edition.
Most notably, Toriyama adapted Kazuhiko Torishima as the villainous mad scientist “Dr. Mashirito” (to-ri-shi-ma ›› ma-shi-ri-to), up through and including the iconic exclamation of “REJECTED!”, referencing Torishima’s penchant for recommending changes or even outright rejecting drafts and story ideas from Toriyama.
Toriyama later incorporated his editors into Dragon Ball as villains, though not necessarily as directly as he did during the Dr. Slump days. Torishima was rumored to be the basis for Demon King Piccolo (an idea toyed with in the 2005 Nintendo DS game Jump Super Stars, where Piccolo and Dr. Mashirito can perform the fusion dance as a special move).
Kondō was rumored to be the basis for Freeza, and Takeda the basis for Majin Boo. These rumors were prevalent enough to even be mentioned in the Shenlong Times #2 pamphlet, where the editors discussed them briefly (Kondō, for his part, had always imagined himself as the basis for Trunks). However, when asked about this in the 2004 guidebook Dragon Ball Forever, Toriyama denied consciously basing these characters on his editors, but admitted that he might have done so subconsciously.
Torishima called this editor-insertion out in the Shenlong Times #1 roundtable featuring all three of Toriyama’s Dragon Ball editors:
You can tell who was editor at the time by the enemy characters. After you’d been doing it a while you’d appear as an enemy. (laughs)
Editors Post-Dragon Ball Serialization
The identity and involvement of editors was not always as transparent with Toriyama’s later series. We do know, however, that Toriyama’s editor on his 2013 manga series Jaco the Galactic Patrolman was Kōhei Ōnishi.
“Victory Uchida” serves as the editor on the Dragon Ball Super manga. Uchida has (only somewhat jokingly!) described the power relation between Toriyama, Toyotarō, and himself as one-hundred million, ten million, and negative 100, respectively.
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