I spent 4 days with Takashi Matsuyama (Toriyama's main assistant during Dr Slump and DB until 1990), AMA

[Von]

Heya, it's your fave euro-nerd Von!

Matsuyama was Toriyama's close friend and he was one of the guests of Manga Barcelona (Friday 5th to Monday 8th of November -> https://www.manga-barcelona.com/es/inicio.cfm).
Being a dirty mexican adoptee I do Speak Spanish So I Went There

I was able to interview him for the one and only ANIMELAND magazine (as I was closeby and I said I'd jump him, which I fully did lol) and attend all of his Masterclasses / Meet and Greet / live drawings and QnAs.

You can watch his QnA on the salon's VOD on twitch (available for a few days still) at around 4h27: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2636722765

(sadly they did a solid part of it in Catalan lol, but if someone understands japanese well enough, please do a JPN transcription!!)

He said his impression of Torishima was that Torishima was someone who "scolded Toriyama a lot" (but after reading his recent book BOTSU, "he's a good person after all" he said)
He also gave his schedule when it came to working with Toriyama (arriving at his house during the evening, having dinner, having a bath after the family, then working until midnight, having a snack, then working until 4am)

Due to obvious stuff, he wasn't willing to sign anything "by Toriyama", such a DB books or merch, (or even Dr Slump), but in the case of BIOSPHERE, where he did all the colors and backgrounds, he accepted signing it (or at least he accepted signing mine, but I had extra aura so maybe I was given an exception lol).

He was also happy to see a LOT of people bring the spanish fanzine BirdlandPress2.0, where he was an interviewee for number 1, and a contributor for number 2 (and onwards). (https://birdlandpress2.com/ pdf for n°1 is free and up for grabs here, and the physical copies are Spain only, and of course it's all in Spanish...)

Soooo... yeah. Since there was so much stuff that was asked / said / commented / shared, please AMA about anything here and I'll do my best to tell you all about it

[bahhma]

He also gave his schedule when it came to working with Toriyama (arriving at his house during the evening, having dinner, having a bath after the family, then working until midnight, having a snack, then working until 4am)

Interesting! What was the reason given for this particular schedule?

[MuscleRobo]

Did Toriyama already have a family while writing Dr. Slump? I feel like the series goes from real "single guy" to "married guy" energy in how he draws a lot of the female characters, haha.

[JulieYBM]

Did Toriyama already have a family while writing Dr. Slump? I feel like the series goes from real "single guy" to "married guy" energy in how he draws a lot of the female characters, haha.

Toriyama married Katou Yoshimi in 1982, about two years after starting Dr. Slump.

[Von]

He also gave his schedule when it came to working with Toriyama (arriving at his house during the evening, having dinner, having a bath after the family, then working until midnight, having a snack, then working until 4am)

Interesting! What was the reason given for this particular schedule?

educated guess: a mix of deadlines and "wanting to get it over with and go back to playing with model cars"
(Toriyama had the nemu / draft validated by Torishima, then he'd draw the manuscript in a day or two and call it a day ; working at night seemed like the easiest to meet the "next morning deadline")

WSJ deadlines were (and still are I think) as follows:
if the issue goes out on Monday the 15th, the magazine needs to go to print on Monday the 1st, so the deadline is usually the Friday before that.
(you can see this with author comments about Toriyama's passing on WSJ n°17 from 2024, which came out on March 25th, when Toriyama's passing was announced on the 8th)

[Von]

Did Toriyama already have a family while writing Dr. Slump? I feel like the series goes from real "single guy" to "married guy" energy in how he draws a lot of the female characters, haha.

As Julie said above, they were married by then. When Matsuyama worked with him, Toriyama was already with her (if not married already)

[Von]

Some details were shared in the Kanzenshuu podcast so go have a listen, maybe you'll have a niiiice new piece of special unknown tidbit?!


Also Manga Barcelona recorded the Masterclass panel, you can check it and see him draw!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwz4nOCqtnw

[Saiya6Cit]

Being a dirty mexican adoptee I do Speak Spanish So I Went There

I am not the only dirty mexican here? meh that's ok. Me imagino que te la pasaste muy bien se ve que fue un evento de calidad. que bien por ti amigo. Hopefully posting in other languages is not forbidden here, it was brief... hopefully we are safe.

Did Toriyama already have a family while writing Dr. Slump? I feel like the series goes from real "single guy" to "married guy" energy in how he draws a lot of the female characters, haha.

Oh can you please explain more about it? What do you mean?

[Von]

Being a dirty mexican adoptee I do Speak Spanish So I Went There

I am not the only dirty mexican here? meh that's ok. Me imagino que te la pasaste muy bien se ve que fue un evento de calidad. que bien por ti amigo. Hopefully posting in other languages is not forbidden here, it was brief... hopefully we are safe.

Orala carnaaaal!

It was very nice, I was incredibly happy and the event was lovely.

I wish there were more broadcasts of certain events, BUT there were many signing sessions, everyone was kind and welcoming, Matsuyama himself was adorable and quite moved to see how much people loved his work and his own contributions to DB (and Dr Slump)