The official Dragon Ball website’s eighty-fourth entry in “The Nearly Complete Works of Akira Toriyama” — an on-going series highlighting rare and important pieces of the author’s work over the years — is the design for “Junk Geezer” (ガラクタじじい Garakuta Jijī), a character used in a July 1991 commercial:

The design was shared in a fold-out poster within the 1991 No. 31 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump (which also contained chapter 332 of the Dragon Ball manga):

The commercial sees a little demon pushing a switch on an electric kettle that it found in a pile of junk, and transforming into the Junk Geezer (which is pink in the Jump splash and final commercial, as opposed to metallic in the original design). The role was played in the commercial by actor Shigeru Izumiya.

The official Dragon Ball website’s eighty-third entry in “The Nearly Complete Works of Akira Toriyama” — an on-going series highlighting rare and important pieces of the author’s work over the years — is the color title page from the fifth Dr. Slump chapter (“Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe” or even simply “Which One Should I Choose?”; Viz adapted this as “Which Will it Be?” in their English translation), released 29 January 1980 in the 1980 No. 9 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump:

Within the chapter, Arale tries to decide which school club to join. In his comment alongside the chapter, Toriyama appears to be conducting an open search for an assistant!

The first time Toriyama mentions his first assistant (Hisashi “Hiswashi” Tanaka) in a Jump comment comes alongside chapter ten just a few weeks later. Toriyama has mentioned in interviews that, when starting out, he had no idea about using assistants, among other things Japanese cartoonists generally treat as a given. Even after procuring an assistant, Toriyama never had more than one at a time, and preferred to work by himself on the shorter serials following Dragon Ball.

The official Dragon Ball website’s eighty-second entry in “The Nearly Complete Works of Akira Toriyama” — an on-going series highlighting rare and important pieces of the author’s work over the years — is the cover art for an orchestral CD put out as part of the Kiyosu Town Tourism Association’s 15th Anniversary Commemorative Project.

Kiyosu in Aichi Prefecture is where Japanese warlord Oda Nobunaga first consolidated power; it also happens to be Toriyama’s hometown where he still lives, though it is now a city. The website’s write-up notes that is a very Toriyama-esque Nobunaga, who, while comical, is also full of dignity.

The official Dragon Ball website’s eighty-first entry in “The Nearly Complete Works of Akira Toriyama” — an on-going series highlighting rare and important pieces of the author’s work over the years — is the character design for No. 21 in her untransformed state, originally from the video game Dragon Ball FighterZ released earlier this year:

In the second half of the Dragon Ball Official Site‘s “Artizans” interview with regarding Dragon Ball FighterZ, Bandai Namco producer Tomoko Hiroki and Arc System Works director and technical artist Junya C. Motomura spoke to the creation of No. 21:

Please tell us how the birth of the story’s central focus, Artificial Human No. 21, came about.

Motomura: At first, we were thinking of having an existing character be the one pulling the strings, but in the context of making it fit in with new elements such as the Link System, we thought it might be better to have an original character… except, at that stage, nothing was set, including Toriyama-sensei‘s supervision.

Hiroki: The first time the idea came out was when we went to Shueisha for consultation. With an entirely original character, or an entirely new concept, there might be those among the fans who would find it difficult to accept, so there became talk of wanting to come up with something using existing concepts. Then, starting from the place of, “What about using the Artificial Humans concept?” the thoughts of “Artificial Human No. 16 comes back to life” or “a new Artificial Human appears” arose, and there we had it. I believe that the power of Shueisha’s had a lot to do with No. 21’s birth.

In creating a new character, we imagine you must have struggled quite a bit with the design.

Hiroki: Yeeeeah, we really struggled. (laughs) This was also when we were talking with Shueisha, but in terms of really making a character with a strong image, they wanted us to have them transform. All the most powerful enemies in Dragon Ball — Freeza, Cell, Boo — transform, after all. But when it comes to an artificial human who transforms, there’s already the image of Cell, and when we tried to incorporate female elements, it just wouldn’t quite come together cleanly. And while we were consulting with Arc System Works on the design, we ended up having Toriyama-sensei put it all together.

The official Dragon Ball website’s eightieth entry in “The Nearly Complete Works of Akira Toriyama” — an on-going series highlighting rare and important pieces of the author’s work over the years — is, in celebration of “Dog Day” (May 13) in Japan, the author’s “Me These Days” column from the Shenlong Times accompanying the fifth Daizenshuu in 1995. In it, Toriyama tells the story of losing their Siberian Husky “Mato” due to kidney issues, and gaining a new family member in the form of their Corgi “Toma”; the name is a reversal of syllables which Toriyama first used as a joke, but caught on with his children.

Since I passed on doing a “Me These Days” last time, and on top of that, my kids had their summer vacation, I naturally have a little to report. First off, at the end of July, I went to Kanazawa as a guest at a Jump event. Then, I immediately went on a family trip to one of those southern isles I like so much (this time, it was Guam), and in the middle of August, like we do every year, my sister’s family and mine went to Tokyo Disneyland. This year, it was ridiculously hot, and it seemed kind of crowded, but no matter how many times we go, my sister always consults a professional’s model, so I’m grateful. Naturally, I’ve been doing a variety of designs and such, as well. Also, for traveling, I used my spare time to get out here and there by car. Naturally, I’m happy to have a bit more leeway now that I’m not doing a weekly serial. I still haven’t drawn one iota of manga.

Incidentally, our family dog, a Siberian Husky named Mato who was with us for about 10 years, died of sickness this past March. For about half a year, I took her regularly to the animal hospital, and starting about a month before she died, I diligently went there every day for her intravenous treatments. (To be honest, it was a bit rough, right before deadlines…) But in spite of the vet’s and my best efforts, she unfortunately passed away. I felt down for a while, but it really is lonesome without a dog around. As a show of mourning, I waited just half a year, then rushed off to the pet store. I had already decided on the breed, called a Corgi, so I went around to a number of different places, and chose the pup that seemed the most energetic. Actually, when I got Mato, I was also looking to buy a Corgi, but at the pet store, I was told that they also had this sort of dog—a Siberian Husky, which was rare at the time—and I fell in love at first sight. And so, now, I’ve finally added a Corgi to my family.

Pembroke
Welsh Corgi

(caption) ← Our dog is still a puppy, but when she grows up, she’ll look something like this. I like how, if you just look at the top half, it’s pretty cool, but the legs are short and stubby, like a gag!

Properly, it’s the Pembroke variety of Welsh Corgi, which is a mouthful of a name; it originated in the UK. It’s a smaller dog, with a weight of about 10 kilograms, but in spite of its appearance, it originally herded cattle on ranches, and guarded them. Our Corgi chases after the rabbits in the yard and gets scolded. Quite a few people have this dog, even in Japan, so a lot of people have probably seen one before.

Our Corgi is a female, and her name is Toma. I fretted for quite a while about what to name her, but when I said, as a joke, that we could reverse the syllables in “Mato” and make it “Toma”, my kids started calling her that…. It’s kind of artless, which is embarrassing…

• Actually, I’m thinking about maybe adding one more canine companion, so I’m reading up on what sort of dog would be best. Whether to go with another Corgi, or a Husky again, or maybe a new breed; a mutt might even be fine… every day, I entertain myself with this indecision.

(right sidebar)
Mato
She passed away, but Mato’s child[ren] live[s] at my sister’s house. It’s/They’re [a] male, so he’s/they’re huge.³

Even so, Huskies got hit with the backlash to a stupidly big boom, so now their popularity has fallen. Truly, this country’s love of fads is a problem. It’s disgraceful. That’s why I prefer animals to humans.

Be sure to read the full Shenlong Times translation!

Toriyama wrote about Mato many times during Dragon Ball‘s serialization. In his introduction to volume 11 of the collected manga, Toriyama shares a photo of himself and his son, Sasuke, while also wondering if he should share some pet photos in upcoming volumes:

This is the first time I’ve put up my photo in this section of a volume. This is me with my son, Sasuke. In putting up a picture of my son like this, it is of course true that I’m quite the doting parent, but it’s also a lifesaver, because it’s a bother always having to draw an illustration for this column. Maybe I’ll start doing this from now on, is my lazy idea. Next time, maybe I’ll use a photo of my cat Koge, or my dog Mato. Hmmm… This is nice and easy….

True to his word, Toriyama shared a photo of Mato in volume 13:

This is our family dog, Matryoshka. We took her name from the traditional Russian dolls. It’s a pain to call her “Matryoshka” all the time, though, so her nickname is “Mato”. Being a Siberian Husky, she’s quite good against the cold, so as someone sensitive to the cold, I absolutely envy her. Even though she’s female, she’s got lots and lots of energy, so my son is always crying from her pushing him around. No matter how busy I am, I play with her every day.

Toriyama shares the news of Mato’s passing alongside chapter 506:

My dear old dog finally lost the battle with her illness and went to Heaven. Please play with Goku in the afterlife.

… as well as in volume 40, released the following month:

Our nearly ten-year-old family dog Mato, whose photo was published in volume 13, has died. She had had kidney problems starting about half a year ago. Since then, I had continued taking her to the vet for her IV treatments, even on the day of my deadline, and even when I was miserable with a cold. Mato put up a good fight too, but in the end, there was really nothing we could do. Our saving grace was the kindly neighborhood vet, who devoted himself with such compassion. Thank you so very much.

The official Dragon Ball website’s seventy-ninth entry in “The Nearly Complete Works of Akira Toriyama” — an on-going series highlighting rare and important pieces of the author’s work over the years — is his illustration for the ’89 Jump Anime Carnival special Kosuke-sama Rikimaru-sama –Konpeitō no Ryū– (“Kosuke and Rikimaru: The Dragon of Konpei Island”), screened on tour beginning in 1988 and later released on home video:

Originally screened as a part of Jump‘s 20th anniversary celebration, The Dragon of Konpei Island tells the story of orphaned brothers Kosuke and Rikimaru protecting the world’s last dragon, Pochi, from having the “dragon stone” in his head stolen. Toriyama worked on all aspects of the film, which was directed by Toyo’o Ashida; Toriyama touches on Ashida’s influence in his first Daizenshuu interview:

The way that you paint colors has also changed quite a bit.

Yeah. For example, in the old days I shaded off the light portions on hair, but shading it off took a lot of time. When I made an anime called Kosuke-same Rikimaru-sama (screened at the ’89 Jump Anime Carnival, and later became a Jump Video), I looked at the pictures of the animator Toyo’o Ashida-san, and I thought that the anime-style way of applying light and shadow wasn’t bad. I made my pictures like that from then on.

The truth is, Ashida-san is someone that I’ve always respected.

In his weekly author comments accompanying Dragon Ball‘s serialization, Toriyama first mentions The Dragon of Konpei Island alongside chapter 184:

In his comment published alongside chapter 192, Toriyama announces his intention to view the film in Kagoshima later that month:

Two weeks later alongside chapter 194, Toriyama reports on the screening and urges fans to check other the forthcoming screening in Oita:

Another two weeks later alongside chapter 196, Toriyama continues to relish in the special’s success:

In his comment alongside chapter 231, Toriyama continues to urge fans to check out the special:

Finally, in his comment alongside chapter 239, Toriyama asks fans into the Kanto area to check out an upcoming television screening of the special:

Konpeitō is a kind of hard Japanese candy; the original Gundam series made a similar pun.