Has Toriyama ever said his true feelings about GT?

[GS7X7]

Earlier Toriyama kinda-sorta defended the live-action movie, then later he bragged that he worked hard on the new DBZ movie as "revenge" for the awful live-action movie.

Has he ever said what he really thinks about GT? It seems likely that he hates it, especially since "Gomenasai, Toriyama-san" is the Japanese fanslation for what GT stands for. ("I'm sorry, Mr. Toriyama")

[Hellspawn28]

I would like her his true feelings as well. His old opinion was from years ago when GT was on TV from what I can remember. He wouldn't bad-mouth something on he just worked on seeing that he did character designs and background designs for the show.

[Blade]

In public he has only ever went with the Toei party-line, calling GT a 'fun sidestory' that he feels he can enjoy alongside fans as a viewer himself outside of the production - which even then were only opinions expressed in various official GT supplemental information.

I'm sure a lot of fans would like the popular rumor of Toriyama hating GT to be true, but if I were to hazard a guess - I'd say he's probably pretty apathetic towards the whole thing. And why would he resent it? He was as involved in production as he wanted to be, the creative influence wasn't ripped out from under his feet - he consentingly signed it away, and was likely remunerated handsomely for it.

It's quite funny, actually, for all of the media hype that Toei made of Toriyama's involvement in Battle Of Gods, his initial involvement in GT was pretty similar in apparent workload.

[GS7X7]

Did Toriyama ever hand-inspect every script for GT and order rewrites til he was satisfied?

[Blade]

Did Toriyama ever hand-inspect every script for GT and order rewrites til he was satisfied?

Did he ever do that for Battle of Gods? Beyond the initial premise he was consulted on story elements and asked for small changes during discussions with the writers. In the media both people involved with the production and Toriyama himself have explained that his extended influence was largely in things such as directing 'I don't think [Insert Name Here] character would say that' or 'let's keep things light and not get too dark'.

I wouldn't call that hand inspecting every script and ordering re-writes until he was satisfied. He said he enjoyed the experience of not being particularly hands-on, but that's about it.

I'd also be wary about making too much of his involvement. It was largely a marketing ploy, and as such in the media campaign surrounding the film they have clearly made as much of it as they possibly could.

[KingofWisdom]

With BoG, Toriyama basically wrote the majority of the story (aside from coming up with the God of Destruction and SSJG), and then Yuusuke Watanabe turned it into a screenplay. It sounds like with GT, other than doing some character designs, he basically just had stuff run by him.

[Blade]

With BoG, Toriyama basically wrote the majority of the story (aside from coming up with the God of Destruction and SSJG), and then Yuusuke Watanabe turned it into a screenplay. It sounds like with GT, other than doing some character designs, he basically just had stuff run by him.

Wasn't the 'Black Star Dragonball search' plot his idea? Or at least the 'grand tour' aspect. In later GT I don't think he was involved at all - but in the early stuff I think they were running off his loose premise.

[KingofWisdom]

He might have come up with the title, but when it comes to the plot, he said (Shenlong Times — 7th Issue), "To think they’d make Goku little." To summarize, he basically says he wasn't very involved, just giving a bit of advice and some illustrations. It's clear that he was more involved with the recent film ("Ultimately, I ended up writing almost everything, including the dialogue. I am reflecting on the fact that I did something terribly rude to the scriptwriter," Asahi Shimbum Digital: Akira Toriyama Interview).

[GS7X7]

How is he being rude to the scriptwriter? He made DBZ, and he wanted to be sure the new movie didn't suck like the American one did.

[Herms]

It seems likely that he hates it

Based on what?

Wasn't the 'Black Star Dragonball search' plot his idea? Or at least the 'grand tour' aspect. In later GT I don't think he was involved at all - but in the early stuff I think they were running off his loose premise.

No, Toriyama didn't come up with any story ideas for GT. In Shenlong Times #7 he says "I'll check the stories that come up from Toei Animation, and give them a little bit of advice", and in his introduction to the GT Dragon Box he further says that "For GT, all I did was just come up with the title, design the initial main cast and some of the machines, and also do a few images.”

So basically, with GT he did designs and offered "advice" in response to the story ideas the anime staff came up with.

[GS7X7]

It seems likely that he hates it

Based on what?

Wasn't the 'Black Star Dragonball search' plot his idea? Or at least the 'grand tour' aspect. In later GT I don't think he was involved at all - but in the early stuff I think they were running off his loose premise.

No, Toriyama didn't come up with any story ideas for GT. In Shenlong Times #7 he says "I'll check the stories that come up from Toei Animation, and give them a little bit of advice", and in his introduction to the GT Dragon Box he further says that "For GT, all I did was just come up with the title, design the initial main cast and some of the machines, and also do a few images.”

So basically, with GT he did designs and offered "advice" in response to the story ideas the anime staff came up with.

Based on the Japanese fan name "Gomenasai, Toriyama-san." If the J. fans are convinced he hates it, it seems likely he probably does.

I mean, he did lie about liking the live-action movie before out of that famous sense of Japanese politeness.

[Insertclevername]

So whatever the Japanese fans believe must be true, right?

And just because he hated Evolution doesn't mean we can come to any concrete conclusion that he despised GT. That's a tad ridiculous.

[TheBlackPaladin]

And just because he hated Evolution...

While that would not surprise me at all, I'm curious to know how we know this. Did he say so in an interview?

[Makaioshin]

And just because he hated Evolution...

While that would not surprise me at all, I'm curious to know how we know this. Did he say so in an interview?

He talked about it a few times while promoting BoG.

[Rocketman]

Which just proves that you can't always trust the creator of a work, since BoG was worse than Evolution.

[TheBlackPaladin]

And just because he hated Evolution...

While that would not surprise me at all, I'm curious to know how we know this. Did he say so in an interview?

He talked about it a few times while promoting BoG.

Thanks Makaioshin for the link, and thanks Kanzenshuu for the translation. That was a fun read...I couldn't help but chuckle a bit at how direct he was about just how much he didn't like it. I also couldn't help but chuckle and sigh at these words:

Also, at the time of the Hollywood movie, the live-action Dragon Ball, the script had too little of a grasp on the world and its characteristics, and on top of that, it had a conventional content that I couldn’t find interesting, so I cautioned them, and suggested changes; but in spite of that, they seemed to have a strange confidence, and didn’t really listen to me."

That "strange confidence" is otherwise known as the "Hollywood attitude," used by studios who have no passion for the source material from which they're making an adaptation. Sad but true.

[MCDaveG]

Which just proves that you can't always trust the creator of a work, since BoG was worse than Evolution.

What the fluff

[DBZGTKOSDH]

Which just proves that you can't always trust the creator of a work, since BoG was worse than Evolution.

How can DBE even be compared to BoG?!

[SaiyaJedi]

Which just proves that you can't always trust the creator of a work, since BoG was worse than Evolution.

Now, now. That's quite the subjective statement, there. Plenty of people disagree with you on that count.

At any rate, you have to also keep in mind the circumstances. With GT, it was 1996: Toriyama was still exhausted from having drawn over a decade's worth of Dragon Ball, and eager to move on. When he says in his Chōgashū interview that he drew the GT designs "without much enthusiasm", he's talking about his fatigue as a creator, not any lack of faith in the material itself. He has not, to my knowledge, ever said a single negative thing about GT, and he even drew Super Saiyan 4 Goku for the GT Dragon Box, so he at least liked that well enough.

With Evolution, on the other hand, it seems that, while he intended to treat it the same way he did he animated movies, he was stung by Hollywood's way of taking one person's concept and characters and changing them into something completely different over the course of rewrites in others' hands. His comments at the time, while positive on the surface, read as thinly-veiled disappointment: it's clear he's trying to find a way to convince himself along with the fans to keep an open mind. His comments about it four years later are more candid, and actually quite scathing (though perhaps directed equally at FOX as the movie itself).

[Rocketman]

How can DBE even be compared to BoG?!

Both are complete shit, but one claims to be worthy of inclusion with Dragonball, while the other does not.