Things that bother you about Toriyama's art style

[Ddd]

I really don't have a lot of problems with it quite honestly I love it but there's one thing that always bothered me a lot and that's the tiny torso's

[precita]

His classic style is fine. The new style where everyone is skinny really bothers me.

[Ddd]

His classic style is fine. The new style where everyone is skinny really bothers me.

I actually prefer the new body types cause I'm not a fan of the super bulky designs in any character be it comic books or dbz

[Gyt Kaliba]

Honestly the only time I've ever had a major issue with his art was for a lot of the smaller panels in the Boo arc. Things just got...really pointy and angular sometimes, especially on people's fingers, and it was a little off-putting compared to everything else. It's more than understandable given just how done he was with it all by that point, but still.

[ekrolo2]

I hate how roided out everyone looks by the end, especially in the chest areas where their muscles are so huge their clothes looks like its barely holding together most of them. Sorry for using anime pictures but I don't feel like hunting down perfect manga images.

Namek Piccolo:

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Android Saga Piccolo:

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The worst offender is by far Goku though:

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[KentalSSJ6]

Id have to say the gradual decrease in quality over time. Hes gone on to say he got tired and disinterested in continuing to draw the manga around the Buu arc and it shoes in comparison to his 23BT and Namek art. I get that he didnt want to keep going but the lack of consistency in the art quality can be off putting at times.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

Id have to say the gradual decrease in quality over time. Hes gone on to say he got tired and disinterested in continuing to draw the manga around the Buu arc and it shoes in comparison to his 23BT and Namek art. I get that he didnt want to keep going but the lack of consistency in the art quality can be off putting at times.

Eh. Depends on what you mean by lack of "quality". As much as I love Toriyama's art, there's been a lack of quality since the very beginning. There are panels in relatively early portions of the story where characters can stand perfectly upright and have arms of fairly different lengths, completely lopsided faces, etc. These sorts of errors do become a little bit more numerous as time goes on, but they also just stand out more in the later, sharper art style. The rounder stuff helps to kind of hide it/distract you from it.

[Vijay]

I dont buy the whole "disinterested" aspect

AT's sharp & angular artstyle in Cell~Buu Arc was absolutely gorgeous

Detailed, defined & to-the-point.

Various points in Buu Arc reflected AT's havin a fun time (whole Great Saiyaman arc, Tenkaichi Budoukai kids division, segments inside Babidi's ship, Gotenks vs Super Buu, etc)

His heyday rounded style was "cute". Thats about it

Had Frieza, Cell & Buu Arc drawn in rounded artstyle, it would've been funny

[Doctor.]

Detailed, defined & to-the-point.

DETAILED?! You can't be serious.

Here's Shenlong in his first appearance. And here's Shenlong in the Boo arc. Can you not notice the difference in the detail and effort put into it? Notice how many more scales there are on Shenlong in the first picture, notice how the shading's more detailed, when it was basically nonexistent in the second image, notice how Toriyama applied screen tones as well. Toriyama's art was at his best in terms of detail in the first arcs.

[Chuquita]

Sometimes the pupils are too far from the eyeballs so when he goes to color things in the whites of the eyes look displaced.

It's really only an issue when it's a full color page, it's not noticeable really in regular black and white.

[Lord Beerus]

I dont buy the whole "disinterested" aspect

No, Toriyama legitimately got burned out on fighting manga when he was writing and drawing the Majin Boo arc. He admits himself. It certainly would explain who his artstyle was much more rough, rigid and less detailed during the Majin Boo arc, in comparison to previous.. Not to mention the narrative being so scattered and less focused. He really lost the passion to draw Dragon Ball. Ironically, I love the Majin Boo arc.

[Son_Gohan]

When he used to draw the characters with a "three-pack":



I never could understand the thought process behind it. Did he find it more visibly appealing or was it just a simple lack of anatomical knowledge?

[Lionel]

I'm not sure what it is but the leg proportions just don't sit well with me for some reason. In many panels, especially from the early parts of the manga, they're essentially depicted as being two perfectly cylindrical bits of appendage instead of having a gradual broadening of the muscle and tissue the further up you go as would be seen with most people.

[VegetaSSJG]

When he used to draw the characters with a "three-pack":



I never could understand the thought process behind it. Did he find it more visibly appealing or was it just a simple lack of anatomical knowledge?

Speaking of anatomy,something that kind of bothered me is how their clavicles seemed to disappear:

Here's 23rd Budokai Goku,no problems here(dunno what's up with Tien's abs though):

Spoiler:

Here's Saiyan saga Goku.It's connected for some reason,but you can see it's still there.

Spoiler:

But by the Buu saga up untill the end of Z,it's completely fucking gone!

Spoiler:

But then,when Goku turns SSJG,it comes the fuck back out of nowhere!

Spoiler:

Wh...what?What the fuck?

It's not that I don't like how it looks,but it just bothers me.

[ArchedThunder]

When he used to draw the characters with a "three-pack":



I never could understand the thought process behind it. Did he find it more visibly appealing or was it just a simple lack of anatomical knowledge?

This drives me up the wall!

[Ddd]

The other thing that bothers me is that sometimes it seems like the torso problem is just that their belts are in their stomach

[Basaku]

Wh...what?What the fuck?

It's not that I don't like how it looks,but it just bothers me.

Clavicles line just seems to be replaced by top 'pecs line' in most muscular designs where pecs are most meaty:



Adding yet another line above it would be too much

[Analytical Delusion]

Id have to say the gradual decrease in quality over time. Hes gone on to say he got tired and disinterested in continuing to draw the manga around the Buu arc and it shoes in comparison to his 23BT and Namek art. I get that he didnt want to keep going but the lack of consistency in the art quality can be off putting at times.

Eh. Depends on what you mean by lack of "quality". As much as I love Toriyama's art, there's been a lack of quality since the very beginning. There are panels in relatively early portions of the story where characters can stand perfectly upright and have arms of fairly different lengths, completely lopsided faces, etc. These sorts of errors do become a little bit more numerous as time goes on, but they also just stand out more in the later, sharper art style. The rounder stuff helps to kind of hide it/distract you from it.

In addition to arm length, ear position/size seems inconsistent. Torso/belt position at times as well.

[Metalwario64]

When he used to draw the characters with a "three-pack":



I never could understand the thought process behind it. Did he find it more visibly appealing or was it just a simple lack of anatomical knowledge?

Wow... I've haven't read much of the manga (only a couple of "Z" volumes, for lack of better term), and the anime artists clearly corrected that. Even the lower tier ones like Uchiyama and Ebisawa didn't draw "3 packs".

[Theophrastus]

Detailed, defined & to-the-point.

DETAILED?! You can't be serious.

Here's Shenlong in his first appearance. And here's Shenlong in the Boo arc. Can you not notice the difference in the detail and effort put into it? Notice how many more scales there are on Shenlong in the first picture, notice how the shading's more detailed, when it was basically nonexistent in the second image, notice how Toriyama applied screen tones as well. Toriyama's art was at his best in terms of detail in the first arcs.

The first page is certainly more detailed than the second, but I don't think it's a very fair comparison. The first page is just Shenlong and the Pilaf trio. The second page is Shenlong, the Capsule Corp building, the characters in front of said building, various trees, and the surrounding cityscape. Toriyama could focus on detailing Shenlong in the first page because he was taking up almost the whole image, but in the second one Toriyama had to split his effort/time between Shenlong and all the surrounding things. I think the lower level of detail is fair and to be expected considering that.