The official Dragon Ball website’s seventeenth 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 citation for the original Chobit chapter from the 1983 #10 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump, released 08 February 1983. Chobit — not to be confused with Clamp’s Chobits from the early aughts — was Toriyama’s entry in the 11th “Jump Readers’ Award” competition from 1983, in which popular Jump artists entered one-shots and readers voted for their favorite contribution.

Toriyama won the competition in 1981 with Pola & Roid, getting a trip to Europe out of it; although he did not win again in 1983, he would take third place. This was the last year until the competition was (briefly) revived in 1997 as the “Jump Readers’ Cup”; Toriyama won again that year with Bubul of Demon Village, which became the prototype for Cowa!

The story of Chobit follows Mugifumi Yamano, a young policeman in sleepy Tonton Village, who has a close encounter with a tiny teapot-shaped flying saucer. Out from inside comes the titular Chobit, a teensy alien who is also a young woman.

The first Chobit chapter was printed alongside Dr. Slump chapter 157 (“Caramelman No. 5 Appears!”), and was referenced in his weekly author comment that issue:

In the later collection of Toriyama’s short works, the author describes being told how he would have plenty of time to draw his contribution so long as he is not first up; as luck would have it, of the ten authors, Toriyama gets the first slot. He is forced to draw it in a rush as everyone else gets a chance to enjoy New Year’s, and to add insult to injury, it was not particularly popular.

Chobit would later receive a sequel (aptly titled Chobit 2) in Fresh Jump‘s June 1983 issue, released 23 April 1983 (about two and a half months after the first).

The official Dragon Ball website’s sixteenth 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 set of character designs from 1986’s first theatrical Dragon Ball film, originally released 20 December 1986.

The set of designs feature the movie-original characters (from left to right): Pasta, Vongo, a soldier in King Gurumes’ army, Pansy, King Gurumes himself, and one of Gurumes’ robots. These original designs were then adapted by the film’s character designer, Minoru Maeda, for production on the film itself.

The first Dragon Ball film premiered as part of the Winter 1986 “Toei Cartoon Festival” along with two other movies from the GeGeGe no Kitarō and Kinnikuman franchises. A new GeGeGe no Kitarō series is set to take over in the Fuji TV timeslot currently occupied by the Dragon Ball Super television series this April.

The official Dragon Ball website’s fifteenth 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 sample from the second Bird Land Press release — the Akira Toriyama official fan club newsletter — from September 1983, with characters from “Ageha (Swallowtail Butterfly) Town Observation Diary”:

Toriyama-sensei comment: The title’s “Ageha Town Observation Diary”, and I drew it before “Dr. Slump”. It’s a phantom work that got rejected by Torishima-san!! There’s a kid with wings in it that became the basis for Gatchan. I really like winged kids like this, and I kept drawing them in previous works. And I was really gung-ho about making it the main character in this one… Anyhow, this work became my basis for creating “Dr. Slump”.

The official website’s writeup briefly details this same origin story, including some of the direct connections to Dr. Slump such as Gatchan, and its ultimate fate of being rejected:

The characters of “Ageha Town Observation Diary,” a comic drawn before Dr. Slump. Because it ended up being rejected, it’s an extremely rare work that wasn’t made available to the public anywhere else. Ideas that would form the basis for Dr. Slump, such as the little one with wings, are present in abundance.

The official Dragon Ball website’s fourteenth 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 four-panel comic drawn for the 1984 #5-6 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump, released 05 January 1984. The #5-6 issue contained four-panel comics by several different artists. The issue also contained chapter 202 of Dr. Slump from Toriyama.

The website’s listing incorrectly identifies this as the 1984 #6 issue (no such issue exists; the 1984 #1-2 and #5-6 issues were combined, double-issues). Furthermore, the site lists the 23 January 1984 issue date from the front cover as its release date, as opposed to its actual (correct) publication date of 05 January 1984.

In the comic, Momotarō is traveling to Ogre Island to drive out the monsters. He asks a dog to come along with him, and if it does, he will give him a dumpling. When the dog does not answer, he repeats his demand more forcefully, until the dog starts growling and barking at him. A passerby wonders what this kid is doing, talking to a dog (Momotarō befriends a talking dog in the original tale).

“Momotarō, Best in Japan”

Narration: Momotarō goes to Ogre Island to vanquish the ogres.
Momotarō: “Hey! A dog.”

Momotarō: “If you come with me to Ogre Island, I’ll give you this dumpling. How about it?”

Momotarō: “Well, how about it? This sure is tasty. Will you come with me? Huh?”
Dog: *pant* *pant*

Momotarō: “Hey you, if you want this, then say so!!! Hey!!”
Dog: *growl* *bark* *bark*
Bystander: “What are you talking to that dog for?”

While not present in the original manga, Dragon Ball episode 123’s scene of Piccolo being found in an egg by an elderly couple is itself a clear reference to the original Momotarō story.

The official Dragon Ball website’s thirteenth 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 Dragon Ball chapter 187 title page from the 1988 #37 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump (released 09 August 1988); this is incorrectly identified on the official website’s entry as being for chapter 87. The official website’s rationale for sharing the image today is that January 31 is “Aisai no Hi” (“Beloved Wife Day”), with 1 looking like the letter “I” (ai) and the number set 3-1 roughly sounding like sa-i in Japanese.

The image is mislabeled in its original serialization as being for chapter 137; this was corrected for the tankōbon release (and subsequent reprintings, including the 2016 Digest Edition version). Chapter 187 originally included its title page and two additional pages in full color, with the rest of the chapter presented in a limited color palette.

In his “Super Interview” from the “Super Art Collection” (Chōgashū) in 2013, Toriyama commented on Goku’s physical growth, and specifically Goku’s newfound height allowing for the motorbike pose:

If I left Goku with the same proportions as when he was a child, there would always be things difficult to show in depicting the fights, so I started wanting to make him grow by a lot. It was at a time when Dragon Ball‘s popularity had only just started to stabilize, and manga where the main character’s appearance changed drastically were rare, so people like my editor were quite opposed to it. But, thanks to his getting taller, I came to be able to draw illustrations such as him sitting astride a motorbike.