Akira Toriyama is a christian!??

[Bansho64]

Wait really!? That's awesome! Piccolo, a christian! I would've never imagined him to be one.

[Gaffer Tape]

Japan is a big capitalism country just like the US. So I can see why they have Christmas over in Japan. Not to mention Christmas is often celebrated in major cities in China from what I've read.

It's also a big business time for KFC since Japanese people tend to conflate Colonel Sanders and Santa Claus.

[RedRibbonSoldier#42]

Japan is a big capitalism country just like the US. So I can see why they have Christmas over in Japan. Not to mention Christmas is often celebrated in major cities in China from what I've read.

It's also a big business time for KFC since Japanese people tend to conflate Colonel Sanders and Santa Claus.

KFC seems to have hit the jackpot over there, sneaking in to become an unofficial official Christmas tradition.

[Kuririn Fan]

The answer is NO, he is not.
After the rumor, Toriyama clearly denied it in an interview included in a book named 消えたマンガ家 アッパー系の巻. In it, he also said "基本的に宗教は嫌い (I basically dislike religions)".

Nice, i respect this man even more now. What a legend.

[Protege]

The answer is NO, he is not.

In Japan, there once was a rumor that Toriyama is a believer in Jehovah's Witnesses, and he abandoned any rights related to Dragon Ball because he had noticed that he was controlled by Satan (I'm not talking about Mr. Satan here, of course) when he was drawing the manga. This strange rumor is believed to be originates in a local bulletin of Jehovah's Witnesses and their aim was to make their children stop reading/watching Dragon Ball for religious reasons, but the source hasn't been actually found yet.

After the rumor, Toriyama clearly denied it in an interview included in a book named 消えたマンガ家 アッパー系の巻. In it, he also said "基本的に宗教は嫌い (I basically dislike religions)".

There is still a possibility of him nominally being Christian, but only less than 1% of the population in Japan believes in Christianity, so it's unlikely.

That interesting. Because Jehovah Witnesses actually have their own different ideology when it comes to Christianity besides not celebrating their birthdays or Christmas. They dont believe in Jesus being an actual god but rather than he was an archangel named Michael before coming to earth. They also dont believe that people will instantly go to heaven or hell, but rather human soul will seize to exist upon death and humans are just placed in eternal sleep, and only believers then are reborn again during Christ coming which only 144,000 of them will be in heaven.

Even though it clearly says in Corinthians scriptures that our new bodies will be spiritual in heaven and very similar to how it is basically in dragon ball when Goku first died during Raditz Arc and his body was transported into after life but it still had flesh in it, which is also biblically accurate.

Ultimately this means that if Toriyama was religious or christian then he definetly wouldnt been part of jehovah witness since they have quite separate ideologies.

[Tanooki Kuribo]

Ofcourse take this with the grain of salt but on one thing i can definitely prove you that Toriyama is religious.

I like how you claim you have proof of something followed by advice to to take it with a grain of salt, then add "OK not Christian, but...".

I think instead of posting a claim, you should've posted a question. Basically what I'm saying is, if you're not sure of something, it's OK to ask.

[Black_Liger]

The answer is NO, he is not.

In Japan, there once was a rumor that Toriyama is a believer in Jehovah's Witnesses, and he abandoned any rights related to Dragon Ball because he had noticed that he was controlled by Satan (I'm not talking about Mr. Satan here, of course) when he was drawing the manga. This strange rumor is believed to be originates in a local bulletin of Jehovah's Witnesses and their aim was to make their children stop reading/watching Dragon Ball for religious reasons, but the source hasn't been actually found yet.

After the rumor, Toriyama clearly denied it in an interview included in a book named 消えたマンガ家 アッパー系の巻. In it, he also said "基本的に宗教は嫌い (I basically dislike religions)".

There is still a possibility of him nominally being Christian, but only less than 1% of the population in Japan believes in Christianity, so it's unlikely.

I always thought Toriyama-san's first name was Akira, not Christian.

Christians in Japan tend to have a traditional Japanese first name.

Any reason why Christians in japan tend to have traditional japanese names? This stuff is very interesting kei17!

If it's any consolation, Furukawa Toshio is a Christian. I assume his wife, Kakinuma Shino, is one, too. Kakinuma, of course, voiced Videl in Dragon Ball Kai.

So the demon king and the daughter of satan are christians, Who would have thought XD.

[rereboy]

Not all that surprising. If he was a Christian there is a good chance that he would have tried pleasing the fundamentalists through making DB with no perversity; no nudity; no blatant magic use unless the user is evil (Fortuneteller Baba wouldn't exist, but Bibidi and Babidi would); toned down violence ; Mr. Satan, Videl and possibly Pan not being called those names etc.

Also, him saying that he doesn't like religions might explain how complex and at times ridiculous the religious system of the DB Universe is.

Being a christian means one has to pander to fundamentalist views...? Of course not.

[Nightmare Wheel]

It can also refer to the Greek god, keeping with the religious theme of her family. I didn't say her name would definitely have been changed, however.

It COULD refer to that, just like it could potentially refer to a frying pan, but in this instance, it definitively doesn't. I mean, a Greek god doesn't tie into the devil naming scheme in the first place. But the fact is, Pan's naming scheme is in line with her father, not her mother.

Not saying Toriyama did this intentionally, but aspects of Pan's appearance, such as his goat legs and horns, are believed to have inspired certain iconography of the Christian Devil.

[Kamiccolo9]

The answer is NO, he is not.

In Japan, there once was a rumor that Toriyama is a believer in Jehovah's Witnesses, and he abandoned any rights related to Dragon Ball because he had noticed that he was controlled by Satan (I'm not talking about Mr. Satan here, of course) when he was drawing the manga. This strange rumor is believed to be originates in a local bulletin of Jehovah's Witnesses and their aim was to make their children stop reading/watching Dragon Ball for religious reasons, but the source hasn't been actually found yet.

After the rumor, Toriyama clearly denied it in an interview included in a book named 消えたマンガ家 アッパー系の巻. In it, he also said "基本的に宗教は嫌い (I basically dislike religions)".

There is still a possibility of him nominally being Christian, but only less than 1% of the population in Japan believes in Christianity, so it's unlikely.

I always thought Toriyama-san's first name was Akira, not Christian.

Christians in Japan tend to have a traditional Japanese first name.

Any reason why Christians in japan tend to have traditional japanese names? This stuff is very interesting kei17!

The same reason Christians in America often have American names, and Christians in Africa often have African names, and Christians in Russia often have Russian names, etc.

Being part of a religion doesn't have to change your name.

[Iberian_Saiyan]

In Japan, there once was a rumor that Toriyama is a believer in Jehovah's Witnesses, and he abandoned any rights related to Dragon Ball because he had noticed that he was controlled by Satan (I'm not talking about Mr. Satan here, of course) when he was drawing the manga. This strange rumor is believed to originate in a local bulletin of Jehovah's Witnesses and their aim was to make their children stop reading/watching Dragon Ball for religious reasons, but the source hasn't been actually found yet.

After the rumor, Toriyama clearly denied it in an interview included in a book named 消えたマンガ家 アッパー系の巻. In it, he also said "基本的に宗教は嫌い (I basically dislike religions)".

There is still a possibility of him nominally being Christian, but only less than 1% of the population in Japan believes in Christianity, so it's unlikely.

JWs are Christian too and even their own website confirms it -- JW.org Whilst they're technically Christians too in a way, JWs don't celebrate Christmas or Happy Birthdays. Aside that, JWs are pretty much normal people and the whole 'knocking at people's doors' joke has run out of steam by now. My family's JW but I'm not. I see myself more as an Agnostic person (I certainly don't believe the world was made without some superior being/force of nature).

[Polyphase Avatron]

Because Christianity is the only religion that involves a god? (In fact I'm pretty every religion has gods, except for some forms of Buddhism)

[namekiansaiyan]

Ofcourse take this with the grain of salt but on one thing i can definitely prove you that Toriyama is religious. Because in one of his interviews he did state that he turns to God in times of trouble which indicates why he has such a big respect for gods in general and even made Goku lose against Beerus

Now this is from his actual interview
http://www.kanzenshuu.com/translations/ ... interview/

Q:One part of the series’ version of the world are all of the gods that turn up. The fact that they’re also aliens is distinctive as well.

A: "I always turn to God in times of trouble. (laughs) Gods and aliens and other unknown beings like that make it easy to craft the story. After all, gods can do practically anything. I have my gods be straightforward and not too fussy, so that children can feel comfortable with them. The reason I give gods attendants… Well, I guess it’s because important people always need butlers, and it’s easy to develop the story through conversations"

There is also many Easter eggs in the series that hint that Toriyama was heavily influenced by Christianity in his story.

Such as naming one of his favorite characters Mr.Satan (which basically stands for christian devil)



Then we have after life and parts where you go to either Hell or Heaven.

Spoiler:

And we also see halos in dragon ball which come from christian religion


Ofcourse there is also a chance that Toriyama could be a false prophet or a satan worshipper for liking a character that is a deciever or humanity and is named as satan which draws some red flags for me.


But what do you guys think? Do you think Toriyama is a christian? And if he is do you think hes a satan worshipper or not? Personally i dont think so, but who knows...

Maybe he has a god complex?

Westerns ideas are big in japan, most weddings in japan are christian weddings. Western/Christian ideas are in a lot of manga and anime.

[Tyro]

After the rumor, Toriyama clearly denied it in an interview included in a book named 消えたマンガ家 アッパー系の巻. In it, he also said "基本的に宗教は嫌い (I basically dislike religions)".

Was that his only comment in the book?

[Cipher]

I support the idea that Toriyama is a literal Satan-worshiper and a false profit.

Seems plausible to me.

Real talk though -- The concepts of Heaven and Hell have roots in dozens of world religions, many pre-dating or developing independently from the Judeo-Christian version. It's actually fascinating. The versions presented in Dragon Ball are a hodge-podge of ideas, mostly Buddhist, but with some Christian trappings like halos. And of course everything is presented hilariously literally.

The "I always turn to God in times of trouble" is pretty obviously a joke about their being a convenient option to expand his story, which is why he laughs afterward and talks about his approach to writing them. He's just being cheeky about the idea that he always introduces a god when he's stuck.

[doomydoomydoom]

Even before kei gave that snippet from that book (interesting looking book BTW), anybody could have told you Toriyama is no Christian. The main evidence for this being, 1. he's Japanese, and Japan is a country with both contentious history with Christianity and much non-interest in religion, despite their carrying on of Shinto traditions due to cultural duties, and 2. I have Go! Go! Ackman sitting right in front of me. For those who have never read this manga or played the SNES games, it concerns a young demon boy and his antics as he tries to reap souls and evade the attacks from an angel bent on killing him. Demon = hero, angel = villain.

As I said, it's just a gag manga and no serious religious discussion is initiated, but it seems pretty obvious from all that that Toriyama doesn't take Christianity seriously, like many of his colleagues and many Japanese. Hirohiko Araki, Go Nagai, and Takashi Shiina have all used Christian elements in similar ways, ways which would be considered disrespectful and blasphemous by Western Christians. Even Eiichiro Oda, while not using Christian motifs, wove obvious criticism of religion into the Skypiea arc of One Piece. But to them using pentagrams and such is just fun imagery.

As a Catholic I don't go to artistic figures for theological discourse, so I just brush it off. If this stuff doesn't bother Toshio Furukawa and Gen Fukunaga (initial whitewashing of Kami-sama and insertion of Bible references aside), then I certainly won't bitch. Gotta enjoy secular entertainment from time to time. I find Go! Go! Ackman hilarious and fun despite the implications of demons being heroes and angels of God being villains, although the games can be fucking hard.

[Soppa Saia People]

@Protege no offense but you should probably retitle this, like "could Toriyama be Christian ?", this title looks like click bait.

[iop890]

Interesting fact that's semi-related:

Despite an absolutely tiny percentage(well under 1%) of Japan being Christian, there have been eight Christian Prime Ministers(13% of them).

[gokaiblue]

I would love for Toriyama to be a Christian, but I'm not do sure he is.

[Iberian_Saiyan]

Even before kei gave that snippet from that book (interesting looking book BTW), anybody could have told you Toriyama is no Christian. The main evidence for this being, 1. he's Japanese, and Japan is a country with both contentious history with Christianity and much non-interest in religion, despite their carrying on of Shinto traditions due to cultural duties, and 2. I have Go! Go! Ackman sitting right in front of me. For those who have never read this manga or played the SNES games, it concerns a young demon boy and his antics as he tries to reap souls and evade the attacks from an angel bent on killing him. Demon = hero, angel = villain.

As I said, it's just a gag manga and no serious religious discussion is initiated, but it seems pretty obvious from all that that Toriyama doesn't take Christianity seriously, like many of his colleagues and many Japanese. Hirohiko Araki, Go Nagai, and Takashi Shiina have all used Christian elements in similar ways, ways which would be considered disrespectful and blasphemous by Western Christians. Even Eiichiro Oda, while not using Christian motifs, wove obvious criticism of religion into the Skypiea arc of One Piece. But to them using pentagrams and such is just fun imagery.

As a Catholic I don't go to artistic figures for theological discourse, so I just brush it off. If this stuff doesn't bother Toshio Furukawa and Gen Fukunaga (initial whitewashing of Kami-sama and insertion of Bible references aside), then I certainly won't bitch. Gotta enjoy secular entertainment from time to time. I find Go! Go! Ackman hilarious and fun despite the implications of demons being heroes and angels of God being villains, although the games can be fucking hard.

I was always under the impression that religious people should and never curse, and according to the bible (or one of its iterations) it is true. But people are free to speak and live how desire though swearing doesn't prove a person's point.

I would love for Toriyama to be a Christian, but I'm not do sure he is.

As long as he doesn't force his views on others like western filmmakers then he's free to believe in whatever he wishes.