Character Designs

[Chuquita]

Satan and Nappa barely look alike, that picture isn't even official...

... And? Okay, Satan's mustache is thicker, but Satan is Nappa with an afro.

Well AT is known for use of recycling characters since it's fairly common in his other works and designs. Just look at Reonald in Cowa!, and I believe one of the Dragon Quest games had a boxart where two of it's characters look like Roshi.

I was flipping through the 2nd volume of Mr. Toriyama's collected oneshots/shorts and it is FULL of male characters who look like Yamcha and female characters who look like Chi-Chi. Occasionally you'll see a person who looks like Bulma, Tenshinhan, or Kamesennin, but Yamcha and Chi-Chi's character designs just kept popping up again and again at different ages (sometimes Chi-Chi's the younger one, sometimes it's Yamcha) in this book.

Strangely enough, Goku's eye type rarely appeared at all in the book.

I want to find a way to buy the 1st and 3rd volumes to see if this pattern holds true for them as well.

[yunzabit]

Didn't Toriyama ask fans to send in new outfit designs for Goku?

I remember reading that in the DB Vizbig vol. 5, right before the 23rd Tenkaichi Budoukai. There was one design that showed Goku in about the same outfit except with a hexagon surrounding the turtle hermit symbol.

I guess Toriyama didn't think the designs were as good as what he had.

[Pitzu]

lol Yeah, most characters' faces look the same and so do their bodies. For example, if you put Vegeta's face with Goku's Super Saiyan hair, and had...hm...Satan's body and put Goku's gi on it, you'd think it's Goku.

What?
No.
No.
Nonono.
You are so wrong.
Vegeta has a totally different head than Goku, more angled and rough to Goku's curved and smooth
Gohan is a mix of angled and smooth.

And no, I would not think it was Goku if Mr. Satan had his clothes on.

[Godo]

lol Yeah, most characters' faces look the same and so do their bodies. For example, if you put Vegeta's face with Goku's Super Saiyan hair, and had...hm...Satan's body and put Goku's gi on it, you'd think it's Goku.

What?
No.
No.
Nonono.
You are so wrong.
Vegeta has a totally different head than Goku, more angled and rough to Goku's curved and smooth
Gohan is a mix of angled and smooth.

And no, I would not think it was Goku if Mr. Satan had his clothes on.

Never heard of fans thinking that Mystic Gohan was Yamcha?

[worldmonsters]

Ugh I hate Videl's post Buu redesign I loved her with the ponytails and I can tolerate her haircut, but damn, after that her design/appeal was destroyed!

[Kingdom Heartless]

Ugh I hate Videl's post Buu redesign I loved her with the ponytails and I can tolerate her haircut, but damn, after that her design/appeal was destroyed!

Actually, yeah... definitely one of my least favourite designs of the series. Not so much for the design, more that I really didn't like it for the character.

[Duo]

That always bothered me too, how Toriyama-sensei went and beat Videl with an ugly stick. The tails should have come back, those were cute.

[IncompetentOverlord]

I'm actually glad that Goten and Trunks have no tails. It helps me justify exactly why they came out of the womb being able to pound Muten Roshi into the ground.

[The Time Traveller]

Satan and Nappa barely look alike, that picture isn't even official...

... And? Okay, Satan's mustache is thicker, but Satan is Nappa with an afro.

Just like Vegeta is Raditz with shorter hair, or how Bulma is Chichi with green hair, or how Paikuhan is Piccolo with no nose.

Their designs just differ a lot, the way the eyes, nose, mouth and chin are drawn.

[SparkyPantsMcGee]

Goten in GT, I know you said no GT but its the only design that actually bothered me.

Well ok, there is another design I didn't like and its Freeza's third form. It's not bad but compared to the other forms it's just so weird.

[Chuquita]

Didn't Toriyama ask fans to send in new outfit designs for Goku?

I remember reading that in the DB Vizbig vol. 5, right before the 23rd Tenkaichi Budoukai. There was one design that showed Goku in about the same outfit except with a hexagon surrounding the turtle hermit symbol.

I guess Toriyama didn't think the designs were as good as what he had.

I did find that contest interesting. I'd have liked to have seen what some of the runners-up came up with though.

Did they ever print some of the entries to that contest in Jump back in the day? Or at least the entries that placed 2nd and 3rd?

[Kingdom Heartless]

That always bothered me too, how Toriyama-sensei went and beat Videl with an ugly stick. The tails should have come back, those were cute.

I think her design for GT was actually a vast improvement.

[Cold Skin]

It's a shame that high school Gohan didn't have that cool look that appears on the conception sketches (check the main website to see it). Guess he thought his shy/wise temper was not appropriate enough for that cool look!

[Kendamu]

There was some concept art floating around for awhile that involved Toriyama's ideas on what Super Saiyan 3 should look like. One of them looked like Super Saiyan 2 with the Super Saiyan 3 forehead and a golden tail. I would've loved seeing that instead of the version we ultimately got. I'm not too worried about it since Super Saiyan 3 turned out to not be too useful in the end, though.

[Gaffer Tape]

Geez, really? All this hate for 28th Budokai-era Videl? I thought the flapper-esque haircut was totally hot! Granted, I loved the ponytail look too. The Gohan-inspired haircut took a bit of getting used to, but I ended up liking that too.

Let's see, as for a design I didn't like, I sometimes don't like Yamucha's Cell-era look. It can occasionally be drawn looking relatively decent, but most of the time he just looks completely ridiculous. There wasn't much of a change between his hairstyle there and during the Buu arc, but it was enough to keep him from looking stupid half the time.

[Velasa]

SSJ3. It just looks... terrible to me- ten feet of hair is odd but I could live with it if they just had eyebrows. No eyebrows just makes them look like Neanderthals and makes for a terrible design aesthetic.

[Satan-Sama]

Yamcha's bowl cut around the time when Trunks arrived, was just awful. Although I did not mind Bowl cut Gohan, for some reason I thought Gohan looked good with that cut with Freeza's armour. Krillin's with hair didn't work either. Also I have always hated, hated Goku's outfit that he got from Yardjat (or whatever), the fucking thing isn't even close to being symmetrical.

[Velasa]

I've actually always loved Yamcha's bowl cut <_< It looks adorable on him. That and the mane with the stubble when he saves Bulma from the bus after Budokai training out in the wilderness, I believe.

[Terra-jin]

For a minor detail, I'd give South Kaioshin yellow gloves and boots. That'd explain Fat Buu's outfit a little better. That hulking Buu form could then have the gloves and boots, too, but not the cape and vest.

[Vhanos]

I like Cell's character design, but I never thought it made sense for what he is.

How about him having dots all over his body?