The official Dragon Ball website’s twenty-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 a postcard the author sent to his fanclub in February 1984. The website’s commentary notes the cute scene between Arale and Obotchaman being a rarity for Toriyama, who is not good with romance. It also notes that the postcard has, “Give me chocolate!… I don’t need any from boys!” written, though this is not visible on the side shown here; in Japan, chocolate is traditionally given by girls to boys on Valentine’s Day, which is reciprocated a month later on White Day.

February 14th is Valentine’s Day!! Do you have someone to give chocolate to? Will you get to receive chocolate? Tee hee hee. To be frank, right after I got married, I stopped receiving almost any chocolate, and that makes me sad! Please! Give me chocolate~! I don’t care if I get cavities!!

Come to mention it, thank you very much to those who send me New Year’s cards and fan letters. I’m extremely bad about writing letters, plus with how busy I am, there’s no way I could possibly send out responses. I apologize. I’m sorry. But I am actually reading them. Please don’t be discouraged, and keep sending me your letters!

By the way, if you see me driving my Honda City around my neighborhood, please wave. I’ll at least acknowledge you.

Toriyama mentioned Valentine’s Day several times in his author comments over the years, beginning with chapter 6 of Dr. Slump in the 1980 #10 issue of Weekly Shonen Jump:

The fallout of this was addressed alongside chapter 11 in the 1980 #15 issue:

During Dragon Ball‘s serialization, Toriyama began his Valentine’s Day mentions alongside chapter 211 with a disappointed reflection on who actually ate that year’s chocolate, followed by notes alongside chapters 214, 264, 313, and 362 thanking everyone for their chocolate.

The official Dragon Ball website’s twenty-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 title page from the debut chapter of Dr. Slump, published in the 1980 #5-6 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump released 05 January 1980.

The chapter is labeled as “Part 1” because, as Toriyama later recounted in his interview with Men’s Non-No (incidentally the fourth entry in this Toriyama works series), he had no idea how many pages went into a series’ first chapter; chapters 1 and 2 ended up running together to get the page count correct.

Before starting the serial, I hurried and drew two chapters’ worth of material, but because there were too few pages or something, they ended up being run together, and all at once I was left without any stock (material prepared ahead of time). That was the start of my hell. (laughs)

In his author comment alongside the first chapter — “Arale is Born!” — Toriyama, true to form, notes a word from his Nagoya dialect:

Toriyama would not begin signing his comments with <Akira> until chapter 6 of Dr. Slump the following month, something he would continue forward from that point on.

The official Dragon Ball website’s twentieth 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 main packaging artwork for 1988’s Dragon Quest III on the Nintendo Famicom. As the official site only posts weekdays, and the game’s 30th anniversary is 10 February 2018, this is likely the reason for the citation coming at this particular time.

The website notes how the image was drawn on pale gray Kent paper, giving it an antique-like texture. The image has since been reused several times over for things such as the game’s symphonic soundtrack and modern remakes:

In his comment accompanying chapter 141 of the Dragon Ball manga in September 1987, Toriyama mentioned wrapping up design work on the game:

Dragon Quest III marked a major turning point in the franchise’s popularity; the incorrect notion that a law was passed in Japan banning Dragon Quest games from being released on a weekday is attributed directly to the third entry, which saw many a Japanese student and adult alike adjusting their priorities. The first issue of Nintendo Power (July/August 1988) included a full-page “World News” piece on the game, noting its massive lines and growing popularity.

The first Dragon Quest game would not make its way to America — renamed as Dragon Warrior — until a year later in 1989. Dragon Warrior II came in 1990, followed by Dragon Warrior III in 1992.

Check out Work #010 from last month, outlining Toriyama’s work on Dragon Quest II in 1987 and some of its fun cameos in the Dragon Ball manga.

The official Dragon Ball website’s nineteenth 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 look at Toriyama’s 2003 children’s book, Toccio the Angel, about a naughty angel who befriends a sentient tank.

In the book’s author comment section, Toriyama explains his motivation for and experience trying his hand at a children’s picture-book:

Since I was originally more interested in design and illustrations, I really got to enjoy drawing this picture book. But since I’m new at it, it ended up taking a fair amount of time, and in a number of ways, it made me reflect upon the fact that I’m still in training. I’d like to study more and aim for a fun picture book that little kids will look at intensely again and again.

To tell the truth, since a few years ago, I’ve indulged my selfish whims and done nothing but enjoyable practice on things like picture books and design, and I’m virtually retired as a cartoonist. Nevertheless, I am very thankful to Shōnen Jump and the others involved who kindly gave me their cooperation in the production of this picture book.

Toriyama touched on Toccio in his “Akira Toriyama with Dragon Ball” interview in the 2004 kanzenban-focused guide book, Dragon Ball Forever:

Picture-book work is fun, but on the other hand, there are also parts where you build up frustration. With manga, it’s enough to leave some empty spaces and arbitrary lettering, but with picture-books, you have to draw it. There are character-description-type parts, so when I did Toccio the Angel, I thought it was pretty frustrating.

I only did it in the first place because talk of, “Why don’t you try drawing a picture book?” came to me. Really, I think I was a bit too conscious of picture-books in making the characters. There wasn’t much there that was exactly groundbreaking… I do wonder if it would have been better to go with that sort of characters, but it is a book I want little kids to read, after all. If I get the chance, maybe… I’d like to try doing an absurd picture book.

Toccio the Angel was released in January 2003, and was initially advertised (then still transliterated as “Tocchio”) in 2002 alongside what would ultimately be revealed as the kanzenban re-release of the Dragon Ball manga:

The official Dragon Ball website’s eighteenth 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 one of three main color drawings provided by Toriyama for the production of the anime-only Dragon Ball GT television series, which ran from February 1996 to November 1997 spanning 64 episodes and one television special.

Two of these images were printed in the 1995 No. 52 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump, and were later included in the seventh Daizenshuu and the first of the two Dragon Ball GT Perfect File volumes. The first shows the gang on a planet labeled “Mommath”, hiding behind a giant glass bottle as giants curiously check out their ship; Planet Mommath and the giants appear in Dragon Ball GT episode 6. The next picture shows them on a desert planet named “Kahra”; this picture strongly resembles Planet Ruhdeze, seen in Dragon Ball GT episode 16.

Finally, Toriyama produced a third GT picture — the one cited here by the official website — for a calendar included in the 1996 No. 3-4 double issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump (released in late December 1995); this one showcases Goku and company beating up a bunch of aliens on a mysterious planet, none of which were actually used in Dragon Ball GT. Perhaps most notably, Trunks is featured with a gun rather than, say, a sword (as would be seen in the Dragon Ball GT opening theme and the opening sequence to Dragon Ball: Final Bout on the PlayStation).

A few months later, in the 1996 No. 13 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump, Toriyama contributed a single-page bonus comic — “Dragon Ball, If You Please” — discussing his taking a break from serialization, and his thoughts on the upcoming 10th anniversary film as well as Dragon Ball GT.

As for Dragon Ball on TV, I believe that the new series Dragon Ball GT, which I didn’t draw, will have already started by the time this magazine comes out. I still haven’t seen any of it yet, but I’m both looking forward to and worried about what sort of developments there’ll be… I think if the story progresses at a brisk pace while also being leisurely, I have high hopes for it.

In his introduction for the fifth Daizenshuu in November 1995, Toriyama touched on the upcoming Dragon Ball GT TV series as well:

The Daizenshuu this time around covers the second half of the Dragon Ball anime. Come to think of it, apparently the TV series is going to continue for a little bit longer, as a brand-new story not present in the original. It seems well thought-out and promises to be interesting; or at least that’s what I gather from the rough scripts they’ve shown me, which give a broad outline of how it’ll be. From now on I can be just like everyone else, simply watching the TV broadcasts at home and wondering with bated breath what on Earth will happen next. I’m looking forward to it, and my thanks go out to all the staff.

Toriyama also provided input on the series’ title, its logo, and its main character designs (including their spaceship) — check out the Dragon Ball GT sub-section of our “Toriyama’s Contributions to the Anime” page in our “Production Guide“. Toriyama mentions these in his introduction to the 2005 Japanese Dragon Ball GT “Dragon Box” DVD release, where he also included a sketch of Super Saiyan 4 Son Goku:

My sincerest gratitude to all those who bought this Dragon Ball GT DVD box.

Being a lazy bum by nature, I was absurdly happy when I managed to safely finish up Dragon Ball‘s serialization, and finally be released from Deadline Hell. The TV anime people wanted to continue for just a little bit more, but I just couldn’t do any more than that… And so, I left the Dragon Ball anime completely up to the anime staff, story and all. That was Dragon Ball GT.

In car lingo, GT means “Gran Turismo”: a fast, high-powered car, in other words. But in this case, I had GT mean “Grand Touring”, a great journey, since the scenario was that they’d be running around the universe.

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. However, I was able to rest easy handing things over to the excellent staff, who had continued on Dragon Ball for all this time. In particular, the animator Nakatsuru-kun is amazingly skilled, and mastered the peculiarities of my drawings in no time at all, to the point where there were even times when I couldn’t tell whether I had drawn a certain character design, or if he had. For instance, one of Nakatsuru-kun‘s designs was “Super Saiyan 4”, which appears in GT, and the picture above is a portrait that I drew looking off it. Did I draw it well?

Dragon Ball GT is a grand side-story of the original Dragon Ball, and it’ll make me happy for us to watch and enjoy it together.