As I write this article, it is just the day after the news of Akira Toriyama’s death and I’ve been contemplating my experience with his works. The impact he has had across numerous industries from manga to anime to video games and beyond has been immense but, understandably, many people only know him for Dragon Ball and perhaps Dragon Quest. Another series of his, Dr. Slump, is highly popular in Japan but, even though I think it’s better than Dragon Ball, there is no doubt that it’s relatively unknown in the West. However, his body of work is not restricted merely to those series and I thought I’d take a look at a few of Akira Toriyama’s titles that I’d consider to be much more obscure than Dragon Ball, Dr. Slump or Dragon Quest.
Akira Toriyama’s Manga Theater
Before we talk about any individual manga series, I think it’s important that we cover Akira Toriyama’s Manga Theater, a collection of short stories that Akira Toriyama released over the course of his career. Mostly consisting of stories told in a single chapter, they cover a wide variety of settings and are mostly comedic in nature. It’s also worth noting that several of the early stories inspired the characters and format of Dr. Slump, his first successful and long-running series.
Cowa!
Released from 1997-98, Cowa! follows the character Paifu, who’s amusingly a half-vampire half-werekoala, and his friend José, a ghost, as they search for a cure for the people of their village. The artwork is simpler than many other Akira Toriyama titles but it remains charming, visually appealing and recognisably his. The story is a blend of his trademark humour and charm and, while clearly aimed at a younger audience than his usual demographic, it remains an interesting title within his bibliography and is worth seeking out for fans.
Akira Toriyama’s Hetappi Manga Kenkyūjo (Akira Toriyama’s Clumsy Manga Laboratories)
Hetappi Manga Kenkyūjo is our first Akira Toriyama manga to have not been released, as of the writing of this article, in English. Originally published from 1982-84, the first part of the series actually consists of a series of lessons where Tori-bot, a substitute for Akira Toriyama himself, teaches his assistant, and thus the readers, many of the basics of drawing manga in a lighthearted manner. These lessons can be surprisingly in-depth in the scope that they cover while the rest of the book is made up of analysing Akira Toriyama’s manga and covering amateur manga where he explains how to improve and refine their works. While I understand that a manga like this might be a harder sell to Western audiences than his other titles, I would love to see something like this released in English someday.
Jaco The Galactic Patrolman
Jaco the Galactic Patrolman was originally released in 2013 and I distinctly remember reading the series on the digital Weekly Shonen Jump app when it came out. Following the titular Jaco, a galactic patrolman who’s sent to Earth in order to protect it, the story turns out to be a prequel to Dragon Ball! This has resulted in Jaco appearing in several other pieces of Dragon Ball media but I have to wonder how many people are aware that he first appeared in his own series. Despite this, I distinctly remember the manga being enjoyable even when examined solely as a standalone story.
Akira Toriyama’s contribution to popular culture in the form of the Dragon Ball series cannot be taken for granted but it’s worth remembering that the man was much more than simply “the Dragon Ball guy”. With his passing, now is the best time to go seek out more of his works and to see what types of stories he could tell. Let me know your thoughts on the more obscure titles of Akira Toriyama’s bibliography, which ones you’ve read, what you thought about them, what you think about Akira Toriyama’s legacy and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!