Why was Toyotaro the chosen one to draw DBS Manga?

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Why was Toyotaro the chosen one to draw DBS Manga?

Post by Vegeta_Sama » Wed Mar 21, 2018 2:50 pm

First off I just want to say that this is not a post against Toyotaro: I enjoy a lot of his manga, I think he's pretty good. However, I wonder, why was he the one chosen to continue such a popular franchise like Dragon Ball?? Was he just the best choice they had at the time? He didn't have much experience, it seems a bit dangerous to put someone who's still learning in such an important position. I think this shows, especially in the first chapters, when there were homages (kinda traced) everywhere. From what I've read, and heard, he's not the best in panel structoring either. Since there are lots and lots of better artists (such as the Yamcha manga guy) why did they (or Toryiama) decided to put their faith in him? Sure, he did the AF manga, but while it's good and all, it's nothing spectacular.
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Re: Why was Toyotaro the chosen one to draw DBS Manga?

Post by VegettoEX » Wed Mar 21, 2018 2:54 pm

There has been no real insight publicly stated about this. Shueisha has furthermore never publicly acknowledged Toyotaro as Toyble in the first place, so as far as you're "supposed" to know it's an entirely new/different person.

All we really have to go on are some of the comments Toriyama has made in their joint interviews, which are all very safe, approved, extremely non-candid tidbits of faux-promotion that don't really tell us anything anyway.

Dragon Garow Lee is thus far the only fan artist that is drawing new, official material under his existing pen-name; both Toyotaro and Ooishi adopted new names.
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Re: Why was Toyotaro the chosen one to draw DBS Manga?

Post by Kenneth La Torre » Wed Mar 21, 2018 2:58 pm

That my friend, is a question that we will never probably have an answer for.

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Re: Why was Toyotaro the chosen one to draw DBS Manga?

Post by prince212 » Wed Mar 21, 2018 6:16 pm

Vegeta_Sama wrote:Since there are lots and lots of better artists (such as the Yamcha manga guy) why did they (or Toryiama) decided to put their faith in him? Sure, he did the AF manga, but while it's good and all, it's nothing spectacular.
i want to think that Toriyama and Shueisha put their faith on him because they liked his draws and work speed , may be there are better artist that create a good poster but that takes for them 2 weeks ... I dont know .
i think dragon ball heroes victory mission manga and resurrection f manga by toyotaro were a test that they approved to be the chosen for this bigger dbs work .
I don’t wanna bad think that he was chosen because something not related with his work quality while there’s lots and lots of artist better than him like you said .
Db af by toyble is the only fan art that I read and I liked it , so if there’s lots and lots of better artist doing fan manga , not just some random pictures , tell me the best and I’ll take a look and read it ...ah Yamcha manga guy ( dragon lee)is already working in same company as toyotaro . Not sure but looks like he’s delivering less pages per month , I like his work too.
One thing is clear , they wanted a Japanese guy and that had a weight when they chose an artist , and has sense .
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Re: Why was Toyotaro the chosen one to draw DBS Manga?

Post by Cetra » Wed Mar 21, 2018 8:30 pm

VegettoEX wrote:There has been no real insight publicly stated about this. Shueisha has furthermore never publicly acknowledged Toyotaro as Toyble in the first place, so as far as you're "supposed" to know it's an entirely new/different person.
But at least we have Toyotarou's statement in which he admitted that he is Toyble so that is worth something, right? (somewhere buried in the forum where macho_man showed pictures with him).
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Re: Why was Toyotaro the chosen one to draw DBS Manga?

Post by The gr » Thu Mar 29, 2018 11:59 am

Yeah I've also been asking this question when I re read the manga from the beginning, I'm guessing because he worked in a lot of promo manga before and DBS manga definitely started out like this until chapter 13 where it made some big changes.
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Re: Why was Toyotaro the chosen one to draw DBS Manga?

Post by Hawk9211 » Thu Mar 29, 2018 1:51 pm

The gr wrote:Yeah I've also been asking this question when I re read the manga from the beginning, I'm guessing because he worked in a lot of promo manga before and DBS manga definitely started out like this until chapter 13 where it made some big changes.
It's from an interview in 2017.I will give the link later.
. Ok, for starters, this interview was made back in 2017, apparrently just before the end of Black Goku Saga, so don't think you'll find more info about ToP.

Now, the first questions are about Toyotaro, how and why he was chosen to work on the manga, and whether he cooperates with AT while drawing the manga. Toyo replies stating that he simply asked shueisha if he could work with them, at first they "tested" him by letting him take care of the videogame Dragon Ball Heroes: victory mission, and after 3 months he was moved to the DBS section. AT usually only outlines the general plot of an arc, while he takes care of the storyboard. All the dialogues and minor plot points are also made mostly by Toyo. One of the few exceptions to this is the first scene of DBS, with Goku looking bored, because AT himself asked him to draw Goku that way, to make it clear that our hero doesn't want to work. Overall, Toyo's goal is to make DBS's style to look similar to DBZ, but he also wants it to be original. He also says that according to AT the manga should be first of all entertaining.

Toyo then gives us more info about his experience while drawing the manga. For instance he tells us that the most difficult panel to draw was when Mai was hit by Black. It was hard to draw trunk's face,his emotions, because he had just lost his mother, and there was this new enemy before him, so he was kinda angry and sad at the same time. He talks about Skinny SSG Goku, stating that it was AT's will to draw him like this, and toyo thinks it's hard to draw him. SSBlue is easier to draw because it's bascially ssj with blue hair.

He then talks about his personal realationship with the dragon ball franchise. He watched DB as a kid, and even now he watches DBSuper. He acts like a fan,wondering how strong goku is,if he is stronger tahn a certain chracte or not etc, and would like to listen to fans' opinions, but he doesn't get the chance too. He also recalls how when he was a kid he was attending a party, and he was angry because he couldn't be the DB episode, the one when gohan destroys raditz's pod.
He says his favourite chracter is goku, but his favourite fight is gotenks vs buu because its funny, while SSJ4 and SSJBlue's design are his favourite

He concludes stating how he mostly learned how to draw on his own. He also uses a secret method to paint: he draws a sketch with his pencil, then has it printed using blue color,then he adds the ink. He says Bakkuman influenced him in his youth, while now he likes Boku No Heo. He also adds he met some italian artist and took interest in them.

I left out a few question about how Black saga ends, because now we know its end already. Also yeah he states how SSB Vegeta vs Beerus is controversial
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Re: Why was Toyotaro the chosen one to draw DBS Manga?

Post by Vegeta_Sama » Thu Mar 29, 2018 1:54 pm

Hawk9211 wrote:
The gr wrote:Yeah I've also been asking this question when I re read the manga from the beginning, I'm guessing because he worked in a lot of promo manga before and DBS manga definitely started out like this until chapter 13 where it made some big changes.
It's from an interview in 2017.I will give the link later.
. Ok, for starters, this interview was made back in 2017, apparrently just before the end of Black Goku Saga, so don't think you'll find more info about ToP.

Now, the first questions are about Toyotaro, how and why he was chosen to work on the manga, and whether he cooperates with AT while drawing the manga. Toyo replies stating that he simply asked shueisha if he could work with them, at first they "tested" him by letting him take care of the videogame Dragon Ball Heroes: victory mission, and after 3 months he was moved to the DBS section. AT usually only outlines the general plot of an arc, while he takes care of the storyboard. All the dialogues and minor plot points are also made mostly by Toyo. One of the few exceptions to this is the first scene of DBS, with Goku looking bored, because AT himself asked him to draw Goku that way, to make it clear that our hero doesn't want to work. Overall, Toyo's goal is to make DBS's style to look similar to DBZ, but he also wants it to be original. He also says that according to AT the manga should be first of all entertaining.

Toyo then gives us more info about his experience while drawing the manga. For instance he tells us that the most difficult panel to draw was when Mai was hit by Black. It was hard to draw trunk's face,his emotions, because he had just lost his mother, and there was this new enemy before him, so he was kinda angry and sad at the same time. He talks about Skinny SSG Goku, stating that it was AT's will to draw him like this, and toyo thinks it's hard to draw him. SSBlue is easier to draw because it's bascially ssj with blue hair.

He then talks about his personal realationship with the dragon ball franchise. He watched DB as a kid, and even now he watches DBSuper. He acts like a fan,wondering how strong goku is,if he is stronger tahn a certain chracte or not etc, and would like to listen to fans' opinions, but he doesn't get the chance too. He also recalls how when he was a kid he was attending a party, and he was angry because he couldn't be the DB episode, the one when gohan destroys raditz's pod.
He says his favourite chracter is goku, but his favourite fight is gotenks vs buu because its funny, while SSJ4 and SSJBlue's design are his favourite

He concludes stating how he mostly learned how to draw on his own. He also uses a secret method to paint: he draws a sketch with his pencil, then has it printed using blue color,then he adds the ink. He says Bakkuman influenced him in his youth, while now he likes Boku No Heo. He also adds he met some italian artist and took interest in them.

I left out a few question about how Black saga ends, because now we know its end already. Also yeah he states how SSB Vegeta vs Beerus is controversial
Thanks for the answer man, I was really curious about how he got the job
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Re: Why was Toyotaro the chosen one to draw DBS Manga?

Post by Hawk9211 » Thu Mar 29, 2018 2:09 pm

Vegeta_Sama wrote:
Hawk9211 wrote:
The gr wrote:Yeah I've also been asking this question when I re read the manga from the beginning, I'm guessing because he worked in a lot of promo manga before and DBS manga definitely started out like this until chapter 13 where it made some big changes.
It's from an interview in 2017.I will give the link later.
. Ok, for starters, this interview was made back in 2017, apparrently just before the end of Black Goku Saga, so don't think you'll find more info about ToP.

Now, the first questions are about Toyotaro, how and why he was chosen to work on the manga, and whether he cooperates with AT while drawing the manga. Toyo replies stating that he simply asked shueisha if he could work with them, at first they "tested" him by letting him take care of the videogame Dragon Ball Heroes: victory mission, and after 3 months he was moved to the DBS section. AT usually only outlines the general plot of an arc, while he takes care of the storyboard. All the dialogues and minor plot points are also made mostly by Toyo. One of the few exceptions to this is the first scene of DBS, with Goku looking bored, because AT himself asked him to draw Goku that way, to make it clear that our hero doesn't want to work. Overall, Toyo's goal is to make DBS's style to look similar to DBZ, but he also wants it to be original. He also says that according to AT the manga should be first of all entertaining.

Toyo then gives us more info about his experience while drawing the manga. For instance he tells us that the most difficult panel to draw was when Mai was hit by Black. It was hard to draw trunk's face,his emotions, because he had just lost his mother, and there was this new enemy before him, so he was kinda angry and sad at the same time. He talks about Skinny SSG Goku, stating that it was AT's will to draw him like this, and toyo thinks it's hard to draw him. SSBlue is easier to draw because it's bascially ssj with blue hair.

He then talks about his personal realationship with the dragon ball franchise. He watched DB as a kid, and even now he watches DBSuper. He acts like a fan,wondering how strong goku is,if he is stronger tahn a certain chracte or not etc, and would like to listen to fans' opinions, but he doesn't get the chance too. He also recalls how when he was a kid he was attending a party, and he was angry because he couldn't be the DB episode, the one when gohan destroys raditz's pod.
He says his favourite chracter is goku, but his favourite fight is gotenks vs buu because its funny, while SSJ4 and SSJBlue's design are his favourite

He concludes stating how he mostly learned how to draw on his own. He also uses a secret method to paint: he draws a sketch with his pencil, then has it printed using blue color,then he adds the ink. He says Bakkuman influenced him in his youth, while now he likes Boku No Heo. He also adds he met some italian artist and took interest in them.

I left out a few question about how Black saga ends, because now we know its end already. Also yeah he states how SSB Vegeta vs Beerus is controversial
Thanks for the answer man, I was really curious about how he got the job
Here's the link for anyone interested:
http://teamsaiyajin.it/dragon-ball-al-n ... -toyotaro/
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Re: Why was Toyotaro the chosen one to draw DBS Manga?

Post by batistabus » Thu Mar 29, 2018 2:17 pm

We've gotten the tagline "Toriyama's chosen successor", as well as interview snippets like this...
Akira Toriyama wrote:You might actually be the closest to my style. There aren’t many people who can manage that! Well, maybe there are people who can imitate my pictures, but not many artists can pull off an entire chapter the way you can! Your storyboards are really tight!
http://www.kanzenshuu.com/translations/ ... b-version/
Akira Toriyama wrote:That’s not true! You might be the closest person to match my art style, even counting the animators.

You’re really good at composition! It looks so cool; these days there’s no way I could draw such energetic artwork! Whenever I supervise anime and whatnot, there’s always something that bugs me and that I’ll ask to have fixed. But when I look at your storyboards, I can just take it easy. I can give it the OK in no time flat; it really makes things convenient (laughs).
http://www.kanzenshuu.com/translations/ ... k-version/

Despite the nature of Japanese promotional interviews, Toriyama is clearly impressed by Toyotaro's storyboards.

Additionally, Toyotaro stated that he approached Shuesha about the possibility of drawing a manga detailing the events of the DB films. This ended up coming to fruition when Toyotaro drew three promotional chapters for RoF.

My opinion:

While Toyble might not have been the most impressive Dragon Ball doujinshi artist based on the quality of his art alone, I believe his storyboards/choreography and original stories are what set him above his piers. While someone like YoungJiji does well while drawing character portraits, his manga "in motion" lacks the energy and personality of Toyble's works. Toyble/Toyotaro is extremely passionate about and motivated by the series, and that seems to have stood out to Toriyama (who prioritizes the readability of manga over polished artwork).

While Toriyama only speaks to Toyotaro's work on a visual level, I believe he was also chosen for the quality of his original stories. There's hardly a doujinshi author out there that can come close to replicating the feel of a Toryiama story, but even if by default, Toyble's works are the closest. They're snippy and light with clever callbacks. The Super Saiyan God ritual and evil Shinjin concepts used in Super are oddly similar to concepts used in Toyble's Dragon Ball AF. While these similarities are likely coincidence, it shows that Toyotaro is at least thinking in the right direction when it comes to the future of Dragon Ball.

We'll probably never know how Toriyama ended up "selecting" Toyotaro to draw the Super manga, thus become his ""chosen successor"". There's no way that Toriyama performed the talent search himself, so while he may have chosen Toyotaro, he would've been selected from a small pool of candidates assembled by Shueisha. That's not necessarily a bad thing; it's the same way Nozawa was chosen to play Goku. I think it's likely that Naho Ooishi would have been in that pool, but perhaps her ongoing involvement with Dragon Ball SD prevented it. Regardless, it seems clear that Toyotaro was considered for this job in the first place based on the popularity of AF, as well as his demonstrated motivation to contribute to the series through an official medium.

At the end of the day, I think Toyotaro is doing an awesome job...and he seems to be improving at a rapid rate. Being compared to one of the greatest comic artists of all time is always going to draw scrutiny. While I'll always want Toriyama to be the creative force behind Dragon Ball, if someone else had to draw the manga, I'm glad Toyotaro was chosen. Toriyama seems to be having fun with him, anyway.

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Re: Why was Toyotaro the chosen one to draw DBS Manga?

Post by Jackalope89 » Thu Mar 29, 2018 6:40 pm

Although I can get iffy on some of his creative decisions, story-wise, for the manga, his art about perfectly reflects Toriyama's own, at least in drawing the characters and such.

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Re: Why was Toyotaro the chosen one to draw DBS Manga?

Post by prince212 » Thu Mar 29, 2018 8:37 pm

The guy sure has his feet on the ground , he’s humble and he’s working hard to be better , I think he’s doing better and better. :thumbup:

Volume 5 dbs manga introduction by toyotaro:
On one of my rough drafts, I got a correction back from Toriyama-sensei saying, “I suppose what makes Dragon Ball unique is how it takes the normal way of thinking about things and does something a bit more twisted.
Sensei… I guess that’s what separates geniuses from ordinary joes… I’m working hard to bridge that gap even by an inch!
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Re: Why was Toyotaro the chosen one to draw DBS Manga?

Post by Vegeta_Sama » Fri Mar 30, 2018 2:02 am

prince212 wrote:The guy sure has his feet on the ground , he’s humble and he’s working hard to be better , I think he’s doing better and better. :thumbup:

Volume 5 dbs manga introduction by toyotaro:
On one of my rough drafts, I got a correction back from Toriyama-sensei saying, “I suppose what makes Dragon Ball unique is how it takes the normal way of thinking about things and does something a bit more twisted.
Sensei… I guess that’s what separates geniuses from ordinary joes… I’m working hard to bridge that gap even by an inch!
No doubts. From what I've read in the interviews he sounds like a really nice guy.
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Re: Why was Toyotaro the chosen one to draw DBS Manga?

Post by jplaya2023 » Fri Mar 30, 2018 5:48 pm

Vegeta_Sama wrote:First off I just want to say that this is not a post against Toyotaro: I enjoy a lot of his manga, I think he's pretty good. However, I wonder, why was he the one chosen to continue such a popular franchise like Dragon Ball?? Was he just the best choice they had at the time? He didn't have much experience, it seems a bit dangerous to put someone who's still learning in such an important position. I think this shows, especially in the first chapters, when there were homages (kinda traced) everywhere. From what I've read, and heard, he's not the best in panel structoring either. Since there are lots and lots of better artists (such as the Yamcha manga guy) why did they (or Toryiama) decided to put their faith in him? Sure, he did the AF manga, but while it's good and all, it's nothing spectacular.
that's easy, it's becuase he is by far the best at drawing like AT, so it made sense he would be chosen to do it.

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Re: Why was Toyotaro the chosen one to draw DBS Manga?

Post by Miracles » Fri Mar 30, 2018 8:42 pm

Because the GOAT, Toriyama said Toyotaro is the closest to mimicking his style. Even better than animators, thus says Toriyama.

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