The artwork of the DBS manga

[ahill1]

Since discussions here generally revolves around story telling, I decided to get into something not many people talk about: the artwork.

How do you see the artwork of Toyo's manga? This doesn't involve just the character designs, but the fights, the surroundings. 

I think Toyo can pretty accurately depict Toriyama's characters, with a few exceptions like Piccolo -- I dunno, look at Piccolo's face in the latest sagas of the original manga, it has something that goes beyond Toyotaro's depiction. Toyotaro can't totally convey those manly features imo.

As for the fights, Toriyama once said Toyo's fights lack a little in roughness... they aren't as edgy as they should be. I personally think he rehashes too many attacks and movements from the original manga, which gets a little tiring.

[supersaiyanZero]

Hit or miss, with mostly a hit. I agree that he's not as "edgy" but I think he does a splendid job when he needs to. (see Zamasu vs Full power Goku)

As for people complaining about him "tracing" or referencing certain panels, it's generally a non-issue and I find the anime much more offensive in their lackluster "homages" to previous scenes from Z. If anything I think my biggest gripe is that his storyboarding skills aren't where they need to be.

[Dbzfan94]

Quite honestly, I really don't like his art. His faces look really same-y, the proportions are off and the panel composition still needs a lot of work. As for the fights, they really lack a lot of the oomf Toriyama had in his prime, like he's just checking off boxes.

[Shaddy]

His characters tend to be a little frumpy and weird. It's clear he practiced a lot of anatomy from only certain perspectives, so whenever he goes for a different angle it falls apart. Even aside from that though, the shapes he tends to use just aren't very attractive and give this very flat look most of the time. Tori's artwork always had a pop to it, even disregarding the panel flow. The fact that Toyo gives his art no room to breathe is secondary to most of said art just being bland to look at.

I think the big indicator in all of this is that Toriyama has stated that Toyo was chosen because he was good at emulating Tori's style. And that's true, sometimes, but his criteria should have been the artist whose work is actually of the highest quality, and of all the other mangaka working on spinoff stuff, I thought Toyo was the weakest from the start. Ooishi, Lee, Nagayama, almost all of them have more charm and personality in their work, or at least in Lee's case are so much better at drawing through the same theory as Tori rather than trying to copy the result.

It doesn't help that actually trying to make any of this clear is usually met with excuses and whataboutism that ignores the actual point of what's being said.

[emperior]

His art is a weird mix of GT Nakatsuru and Buu arc Toriyama, although the way he draws muscles is definitely unique.

I wouldn’t mind his art so much if it was actually expressive, but he always rehashes the same faces which is quite obvious with Goku.
Not to mention how he is also always reusing the same poses, and how his anatomy can get very bad.
All of this make his manga look quite boring unfortunately.

If he followed Toriyama’s advice of “cutting corners” (less panels especially for fights), actually started using (or come up with) more expressions for his characters and tried to fix his anatomy I believe his manga would improve a lot visual-wise.

[superfan2024]

I kind of don't like it tbh. It all seems pretty square-y and angular and it doesn't really match Toriyama's older rounder approach or even Toriyama's modern approach. Like what another user said, it just seems like some sort of Toriyama Boo Arc blend along with some other approaches.

I kind of wish Fenyo_N drew the manga instead. His artwork for Dragon Ball is pretty incredible and he's great at matching OG Toriyama, Shintani, and Yamamuro's approaches.

Here's his media feed of his Twitter account to see what I mean (keep scrolling): https://twitter.com/fenyo_n/media

[omegacwa]

I think his artwork is good. It looks like Toriyamas and he's consistent. Problems with flow and storytelling are another issue.
I know this is blasphemous but even Toriyama had his off days. Some of the manga's artwork is not great in parts plus his style kept changing over time, which isn't entirely unusual for an artist.

I think another question is would people accept dragon ball drawn in a completely different style?

[Dbzfan94]

I think his artwork is good. It looks like Toriyamas and he's consistent. Problems with flow and storytelling are another issue.
I know this is blasphemous but even Toriyama had his off days. Some of the manga's artwork is not great in parts plus his style kept changing over time, which isn't entirely unusual for an artist.

I think another question is would people accept dragon ball drawn in a completely different style?

A big part of what makes Dragon Ball what it is is Toriyama's unique artstyle. Take that away and make it something drastically different, and it's not Dragon Ball anymore.

[omegacwa]

I think his artwork is good. It looks like Toriyamas and he's consistent. Problems with flow and storytelling are another issue.
I know this is blasphemous but even Toriyama had his off days. Some of the manga's artwork is not great in parts plus his style kept changing over time, which isn't entirely unusual for an artist.

I think another question is would people accept dragon ball drawn in a completely different style?

A big part of what makes Dragon Ball what it is is Toriyama's unique artstyle. Take that away and make it something drastically different, and it's not Dragon Ball anymore.

And I think that's part of the issue. Whoever is drawing dragon ball that isn't Toriyama has a built in uphill battle of not only having to replicate another artists style, but also having to draw an exciting and well executed manga.
Most artists have their own unique style that comes about naturally. Trying to force yourself to draw in another artist's style is difficult to begin with. Now try taking over for another artist on an extremely popular and influential manga AND having to replicate their style to at least 80% accuracy. That sounds like a nightmare job. It might be fun but dealing with the fan response must be very difficult.

[Omniboy]

If you are referring to just his art style, it's extremely pretty IMO. It's a nice modern and stylized take on DB.

It's just that, you know, he has problem using too many references and reusing too many poses. It weird with how many of the same dashing poses he uses. It gets samey reading his manga from time to time.

When he's good, he's really good.. His Goku vs. Zamasu was great, Cauilfa/Cabba/Kale vs. Frieza was also great, and chapter 34 was fun as well as the best showing of a battle royale, from both the anime and manga.

It's just that his best moments are kind of sparse. That said he's still improving and becoming better.

[Lord Beerus]

Toyotaro still needs to work on how he draws necks, his panel composition is still a little bit too cluttered and crowded at times and his muscle anatomy can still be a little off. But apart from that, his art style in inoffensive and a decent streamlined take on Toriyama's art-style from the late Cell era to the end of the Majin Boo arc.

[Chuquita]

Sometimes Toyotaro's faces look too big and the hair looks too small. There's also not enough line variation leading me to think most of it is either done digitally or inked digitally. Other than that and the necks he's ok. I think he'll improve and change as time goes on.

[Kinokima]

A lot of people mention other artists but ignore the fact that other artists don’t have to draw a 40+ page monthly manga every month. Yes obviously there are a lot of other manga-ka out there that do this but could all the Dragon Ball artists people name do it?

I loved That Time I Got Reincarnated as Yamcha just as much everyone else. It was one of the best things from modern Dragon Ball and Id love to see another special manga from Garou Lee. But from what I understand Garou Lee is pretty slow at drawing and couldn’t necessarily handle the demands of a monthly series.

Is Toyotaro perfect, absolutely not. He definitely makes mistakes (though I see a lot of nitpicking from the fandom with things like far away shots) but I still find myself enjoying his work. Many of his panels and drawings make me smile. And I look forward to the new DBS chapter every month. I don’t see any good reason why he should be replaced.

[omegacwa]

A lot of people mention other artists but ignore the fact that other artists don’t have to draw a 40+ page monthly manga every month. Yes obviously there are a lot of other manga-ka out there that do this but could all the Dragon Ball artists people name do it?

I loved That Time I Got Reincarnated as Yamcha just as much everyone else. It was one of the best things from modern Dragon Ball and Id love to see another special manga from Garou Lee. But from what I understand Garou Lee is pretty slow at drawing and couldn’t necessarily handle the demands of a monthly series.

Is Toyotaro perfect, absolutely not. He definitely makes mistakes (though I see a lot of nitpicking from the fandom with things like far away shots) but I still find myself enjoying his work. Many of his panels and drawings make me smile. And I look forward to the new DBS chapter every month. I don’t see any good reason why he should be replaced.

Brilliantly said. Quoted for Truth.

[Super Murjin]

A lot of people mention other artists but ignore the fact that other artists don’t have to draw a 40+ page monthly manga every month. Yes obviously there are a lot of other manga-ka out there that do this but could all the Dragon Ball artists people name do it?

I loved That Time I Got Reincarnated as Yamcha just as much everyone else. It was one of the best things from modern Dragon Ball and Id love to see another special manga from Garou Lee. But from what I understand Garou Lee is pretty slow at drawing and couldn’t necessarily handle the demands of a monthly series.

Is Toyotaro perfect, absolutely not. He definitely makes mistakes (though I see a lot of nitpicking from the fandom with things like far away shots) but I still find myself enjoying his work. Many of his panels and drawings make me smile. And I look forward to the new DBS chapter every month. I don’t see any good reason why he should be replaced.

Totally agree