The official Dragon Ball website’s sixty-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 the cover artwork to the PlayStation 2 video game Dragon Quest: Young Yangus and the Mysterious Dungeon, released twelve years ago today (20 April 2006):

Released exclusively in Japan seventeen months after Dragon Quest VIII, the spin-off/prequel finds Yangus — one of the hero’s main companions in the original Dragon Quest VIII — sucked into a “Bottle Land” with randomized dungeons. The game is another entry in the “Mysterious Dungeon” series which began in 1993 with Torneko’s Great Adventure: Mysterious Dungeon, another Dragon Quest spin-off. Torneko makes an appearance here in Young Yangus, as well.

This artwork was recently included in the “Akira Toriyama Dragon Quest Illustrations” hardcover book released in 2016. Viz recently announced their forthcoming translation and release of the artbook coming December 2018, which is now available to pre-order on Amazon. Nice!

The official Dragon Ball website’s sixty-eighth 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 Toriyama’s emblem for the koala house at Higashiyama Zoo in Nagoya.

The emblem was created in 1984 when these koalas were introduced in the zoo. In 2014, the emblem was decorated and updated to celebrate the exhibit’s 30th anniversary:

Toriyama mentioned this emblem in his comment accompanying chapter 223 of Dr. Slump in the 1984 No. 26 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump (released 29 May 1984):

The official Dragon Ball website’s sixty-seventh 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 “Golden Freeza” from the 2015 theatrical film, Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’:

As referenced in the website’s write-up, Toriyama commented on the design in the Volume ‘F’ booklet given to theater attendees in Japan:

Since there was no way I could possibly make his design any simpler than it already was, I opted to mostly just change his color. This color feels strongest, maybe because I associate it with Gold Medals?

Freeza and his golden form returned in the film’s re-telling in the Dragon Ball Super television series, followed by his replacing Boo in the Universe 7 lineup for the Tournament of Power.

The official Dragon Ball website’s sixty-sixth 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 Japanese cover artwork for Blue Dragon, released on the Xbox 360 in Japan in December 2006 (with an international release coming later in 2007):

Following Hironobu Sakaguchi’s departure from Square, the Final Fantasy creator formed his Mistwalker development studio in 2004. The studio developed Blue Dragon as an Xbox 360 exclusive, with Sakaguchi recruiting Akira Toriyama for character designs and Nobuo Uematsu for musical composition; Sakaguchi had previously worked with Toriyama on Chrono Trigger (alongside Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii), and with Uematsu on a wealth of Final Fantasy titles.

Blue Dragon expanded into a franchise with two sequels on the Nintendo DS (Blue Dragon Plus and Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow), a loose manga adaptation, and a television series.

The original Xbox 360 version of Blue Dragon is available digitally and is backward compatible on the Xbox One family of systems (along with the development studio’s unrelated follow-up RPG, Lost Odyssey).

The official Dragon Ball website’s sixty-fifth 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 another look at the FineMolds “1/12 Fighter Collection” of models circa 1994, this time the WWII Soviet infantry woman Corporal Tanya:

The accompanying instructions give a run-down on how to assemble and paint the figure, plus some background information on this type of soldier and her weapon:

This particular model includes a Shpagin PPSh-41, a Soviet-issue submachine gun used in the U.S.S.R. from 1941 to the 1960s. The description in general notes how many female soldiers filled combat roles in the Red Army (an implicit nod to the fact that this was not a common feature of the other nations’ armed forces at the time). The PPSh-41 description notes that the PPD40 and predecessors were complicated mechanically and relatively expensive, so Georgy Shpagin developed the aforementioned model. It was widely used and well-known for its simple use and maintenance.

In the cartoon accompanying the assembly instructions, two IJA soldiers (a corporal and a sergeant major) are talking. The corporal scoffs, “Hmph! Damn enemies! When it comes to women, the Yamato Nadeshiko [editor’s note: ideal of demure Japanese femininity] is best. Eh, Sergeant Major, sir?” The sergeant major (with a nosebleed) responds, “W- well, yeah…”

The additional comic and Toriyama quote reads:

SGT. MAJ.: All right~ lemme try and get some information out of her.
CPL.: Yessir…
SGT. MAJ.: H-… Hello. Hello, you are pretty! What’s your name?
CPL. TANYA: ?
CPL.: Haha… Sergeant Major, sir, that’s English.
SGT. MAJ.: You little… How do you know that?!! I bet you’re an enemy spy!!
CPL.: Noooo!!

TORIYAMA: To be honest, I was no match for the style of Russian soldiers, let alone female ones. Neither FineMolds nor I had much in the way of resources, so there are many areas that remain a mystery. Therefore, I believe there could very well be parts that are mistaken, but please be understanding. I am terribly sorry for my lack of study.

The line of models — including this specific Tanya entry — were featured alongside an extensive interview with Akira Toriyama in the Vol. 117 issue of Model Graphix from 1994 (and while we do not currently have a complete translation of this interview, rest assured that it is on our pile for the future!):

See Work #041 in this series for additional context regarding these figures. Special thanks to Justin for the scans!

The official Dragon Ball website’s sixty-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 a selection from the “Cartoon Classroom” column in 1991’s Jump Gold Selection: Dragon Ball Z Anime Special II book.

The column teaches readers how to draw Dragon Ball characters by way of Freeza also playing along, with the caveat that he will personally take care of Toriyama should he not be able to master the drawings by the end of the lesson.

In this particular section, Toriyama explains some of the intermediate-level techniques and refinements used to draw the characters Son Goku, Piccolo, and Vegeta. For Goku, Toriyama notes how he is, “…not the thinking type, so at any rate, it’s good to make him look energetic”. For Piccolo, Toriyama focuses on the nose, saying it, “…looks like it’s bent to the left, but that’s to express his nose’s shadow. Because of that, when the light is coming from the left, it has to be bent to the right.” For Vegeta, Toriyama reveals one of his secrets: “Goku’s, Piccolo’s, and even Vegeta’s faces are all basically drawn the same way. If you change the eyes and the hairstyle, he can even change into Goku! And if you change just the hairstyle, he’s Super Saiyan Goku!!”

Even with Toriyama’s expert coaching, Freeza’s drawing ability ultimately seems to be roughly in line with Jaco’s:

Check out our complete translation of the column for the beginner, intermediate, and advanced drawing tips for Son Goku, Piccolo, Son Gohan, Vegeta, and Freeza.

The official Dragon Ball website’s sixty-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 full packaging artwork for Dragon Quest Monsters 2, originally released on the Nintendo Game Boy Color (compatible with the original Game Boy as well as the Super Game Boy) in Japan 17 years ago today.

Similar to Pokemon games of the era, Dragon Quest Monsters 2 was released in two versions with different protagonists: Ruka’s Journey and Iru’s Journey. In each game, the player goes on a quest to save their kingdom while collecting and fighting with monsters from the Dragon Quest mainline series. When put side-by-side, the cover artwork seamlessly combines for a complete visual.

The artwork was recently included in the “Akira Toriyama Dragon Quest Illustrations” hardcover book released in 2016.

The original Game Boy games were released under the Dragon Warrior name in America as “Cobi’s Adventure” and “Tara’s Adventure”.

Dragon Quest Monsters 1 & 2 was released on the Sony Playstation in Japan in May 2002, remaking the original Dragon Quest Monsters as well as both versions of Dragon Quest Monsters 2. Both versions of Dragon Quest Monsters 2 were combined into a new version in February 2014 for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan. Neither of these remakes were released internationally.