The uniqueness of Dragon Ball's art style in manga history

[Yuji]

My understanding is that Dragon Ball sort of pioneered a return to cartooney, Tezuka-style character designs in serious action series (well, about as "serious" as Dragon Ball got), whereas its predecessors and contemporaries mostly adhered to a gekiga style, or at least something much more detailed and hyper-masculine even if the tone were light. Dr. Slump and other Toriyama works of course existed before Dragon Ball but they were gag manga, which are categorically different. Shoujo manga also had a distinct art style, which was its own thing, too.

I would love to be educated on this subject. Are there examples of post-Tezuka battle Shonen in the 70s or 80s that use such a cartoon style before Dragon Ball?

[MasenkoHA]

Dragon Ball pretty much dropped the cartoony style when it did become more serious and martial arts focused though

Look at the Z era and compare it to like early Dragon Ball up through at least Red Ribbon

[Yuji]

Dragon Ball pretty much dropped the cartoony style when it did become more serious and martial arts focused though

Look at the Z era and compare it to like early Dragon Ball up through at least Red Ribbon

I don't think the art style as a whole was dropped just because the facial features become more angular and muscles were drawn. Shapes were still simple, faces still lack detail, muscles themselves are simple lines (compared to FOTNS or even Toyotaro's work now), the environments are also bright and lack shadows, and whenever Toriyama does use color, they're vibrant.

[JulieYBM]

Yeah, Dragon Ball still maintained a less-than realistic style in comparison to the slightly more contemporary title of, say, Yuu Yuu Hakusho, at the time. Not that Yuu Yuu Hakusho wasn't also quite cartoony, but Togashi would switch up his style quite a bit depending in the type of panel he was drawing.

I don't read a ton of older manga because the subject manner doesn't really do much for me, but if it says anything, I am drawing a bit of a blank on what other mid-1980s through mid-1990s titles could possibly fit that billing.

[rweasp]

Fist of the North Star and Dragon Ball are completely different in-terms of artstyle, even when Toriyama's style changed into the Z portion of the manga.