Could Dr. Gero have been inspired by Dr. Robotnik?

[Kid Buu]

In the manga, the Namek arc ended on June 18th 1991, and the Cell arc started on June 25th 1991, between them was the release of Sonic 1.

Robotnik notoriously builds flickies into robots, which is kind of similar to how Gero made humans into cyborgs.

Sure, on paper, that seems like a reach, but we know Toriyama has let pop culture influence him in the past, so just a thought.

[The Monkey King]

Doubt it, mad scientist inventor is a very old and common trope.

[Hellspawn28]

Feels a bit stretching

[MasenkoHA]

Disclaimers, I know very little about Sonic the Hedgehog but the first Sonic game was released June 23rd 1991. The very first chapter of the Artificial Human saga was released a mere two days later so Toriyama was probably working on it before the game was released

Even taking into account that Gero wasn’t mentioned by name until the July 30th issue, I would still imagine Toriyama already had the vague concept of “Vegeta’s son from the Future warns Goku about killer robots created by mad scientist” well before he feasibly could have known what a Sonic was

[GokuHater]

I dunno...

Sonic already has much similarities to DB (Super Sonic, 7 chaos emeralds, the characters of Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow), still Gero as Eggman doesn't seem to have this kind of similarity.

[NeoZ Duwang]

Even taking into account that Gero wasn’t mentioned by name until the July 30th issue, I would still imagine Toriyama already had the vague concept of “Vegeta’s son from the Future warns Goku about killer robots created by mad scientist” well before he feasibly could have known what a Sonic was

Sonic 1 only came out in japan in july 26th so it's even more unlikely that Toriyama would've even been able too play the game before introducing Gero

[Goe]

I don't think so, is only some coincidence. Robotnik turn animals into robots and Gero did the same with A-17 and A-18 but technich is different, because animals were trapped into the robot while A-17 and A-18 didn't.

Differences are more numerous than coincidences this time.

However, I think Doctor Badvibes from american cartoons COPS (late 80s) has bigger resemblance with Dr. Gero. Both are evil doctors with transparent upper part of his head, so we can see his brain in both cases.

[Metalwario64]

Out of curiosity, do we even know if Toriyama even had or played Megadrive games? I know it wasn't as popular in Japan as the Super Famicom or PC Engine.

[Goe]

I don't know, but he said in an interview he played Super Famicon:

https://www.kanzenshuu.com/translations ... interview/

And I guess having both a SFC and a Megadrive is not statistically common, so I think he hadn't a Megadrive.

[GhostEmperorX]

but we know Toriyama has let pop culture influence him

Definitely not from the video game world though, if anything he himself was the one influencing that.
His chief influences were older JP media like Tokusatsu, along with Hollywood and Hong Kong films. Aside from Spartan X, contemporary games like Sonic (or even Mario for that matter) wouldn't have entered the discussion.

[Fizzer]

The Sonic series took a lot of inspiration (some things like Super Sonic are flat out references) from Dragon Ball. There are quite a few points of inspiration/reference.



I think Gero and Robotnik are just independently evil scientist characters though.

[90sDBZ]

Gero probably wasn't.

The Android arc takes a lot of inspiration from Terminator, although that movie never had a mad scientist character. Gero is pretty much a Dr Frankenstein type character.

I have always felt the Planet M2 arc in GT is very Sonic like though. The planet is turned into metal, its inhabitants replaced with robots, and Myu kind of does feel like Robotnik somewhat. And Pan's repeated failed attempts to reach Myu feel like playing through a Sonic stage, before dying over and over.

[Kid Buu]

I have always felt the Planet M2 arc in GT is very Sonic like though. The planet is turned into metal, its inhabitants replaced with robots, and Myu kind of does feel like Robotnik somewhat. And Pan's repeated failed attempts to reach Myu feel like playing through a Sonic stage, before dying over and over.

That gives me some Sonic CD vibes.

[jjgp1112]

Sonic is notoriously unpopular in Japan, especially before Sonic Adventure, so I doubt it. Mad scientist isn't a novel concept, and this predated Sonic CD anyway.

Since the chapters are done a few weeks ahead of time I doubt there was any chance of Sonic being on Toriyamas mind.

[nineko]

If we're drawing similarities, I think doctor Wily from Megaman has much more in common with doctor Gero, but still, I don't think Toriyama got inspiration from either of them (Wily or Robotnik).

[BernardoCairo]

And I guess having both a SFC and a Megadrive is not statistically common, so I think he hadn't a Megadrive.

The Mega Drive was not all that popular in Japan. Most of its audience was made up of hardcore arcade gamers who wanted to have arcade quality games in their homes. Judging by the games Toriyama liked to play on the original Famicom, I doubt he bought one. But who knows? He was rich and could afford pretty much any amount of consoles.

By the way, regarding the interview you linked, it's funny to picture Toriyama trying to beat Donkey Kong Country and dying over and over

That gives me some Sonic CD vibes.

I mean, we could just say Planet R2 then

[Jord]

Gero probably wasn't.

The Android arc takes a lot of inspiration from Terminator, although that movie never had a mad scientist character. Gero is pretty much a Dr Frankenstein type character.

You beat me to it. Especially considering Toriyama alsready used the Universal Monster designs before with Android 8. That's basically Frankenstein's monster, created by Gero.
Hell, Gero even performed a brain transplant on himself.

[WittyUsername]

There’s a far more likely chance that Dr. Gero was inspired by Dr. Wheelo from Movie 2 than him being inspired by a character from a game that was still extremely recent at the time. To be clear, I’m not necessarily saying that Gero was inspired by Wheelo either, although I wouldn’t be surprised if he was.

[Dr. Casey]

If we're drawing similarities, I think doctor Wily from Megaman has much more in common with doctor Gero, but still, I don't think Toriyama got inspiration from either of them (Wily or Robotnik).

What do Wily and Gero have in common? I know that they're both old (or at least look like they are, Wily is 55 but as a kid I always assumed he was in his 70s based off appearances).

[MasenkoHA]

There’s a far more likely chance that Dr. Gero was inspired by Dr. Wheelo from Movie 2 than him being inspired by a character from a game that was still extremely recent at the time. To be clear, I’m not necessarily saying that Gero was inspired by Wheelo either, although I wouldn’t be surprised if he was.

To be honest, I don’t think Dr.Gero was supposed to be anything but a name.. Originally 19 and 20 were supposed to be the androids that Trunks was talking about that killed their creator Dr.’ Gero and started their rampage on May 12th. It was only after Toriyama changed his mind about who the real androids were that 20 became Gero as a necessity to bring out the “real androids” and he ended up becoming Dr. Wheelo 2.0