In an interview conducted in 1993, Akira Toriyama, the creator of “Dragon Ball”, revealed surprising details about the origins of the franchise and the evolution of its iconic character, Son Goku. Below is a translation and analysis of his most relevant statements:

Inspiration and beginnings

Here Toriyama explains that the idea of dragon ball It came from his love of kung-fu films and a suggestion from his editor. Although he wasn't initially interested, he agreed to give it a try.

• «Hello, my name is Akira Toriyama. Let's see... the inspiration for creating Dragon Ball came when Dr. Slump was about to end. My previous editor, a person named Torishima-san, knew that I really liked kung-fu movies, like those of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee, and I would watch them over and over on video. So he said to me, 'If you like them so much, why don't you try drawing one?' That's how it all started. (laughs) And, uh, as an individual, I really didn't want to do that. (laughs) That's because kung-fu movies were something I watched because I liked them, so I didn't want to turn it into work.».

Goku Character

Toriyama reveals that Goku was conceived as a character simple and simplebut due to his expressionless appearance, he made changes such as his hairstyle and tail to make him more striking.

• «At the beginning of Dr. Slump, the main character is Arale-chan, but I think I had a little less resistance to drawing a kung-fu story than I did to drawing a comic book with a female protagonist. Except, to put it simply, kung-fu movies were something I only watched on video, so I was really worried about whether I could draw a kung-fu story. Well, as for the character Goku, I initially planned for him to be an extremely simple character, avoiding giving him the defined characteristics that were typical of shōnen magazine characters up until that point. However, her appearance ended up having very little impact, so I did things like change her hairstyle a bit and add a ponytail that wasn't part of the original design.».

Evolution and difficulties

Here, Toriyama admits that Goku was not meant to grow or have an alien origin. This shows how the story and characters evolved organically and were often improvised.

• «To be honest, I'm a creator who's always improvising, unconsciously referring to next week's chapter, so being an alien wasn't originally part of Goku's story. In fact, it wasn't even going to grow in the first place. And because of things like that, it becomes very difficult to try to keep the story coherent.».

Battle escalation

Toriyama also mentions the difficulty maintaining consistency and escalation of battles in the series, a common challenge in long action stories.

• «Especially from the battle with Demon King Piccolo onwards it was particularly difficult, because they always had to become stronger and stronger. Even though he felt it was impossible to make them seem stronger, he thought putting it into words would be the easiest: 'This guy is different from anyone we've faced before!' But even saying that, the way they fought wasn't much different, so I always try as much as I can to at least make the battles seem more impactful. But I guess I didn't succeed.».

Personal motivations

Finally, Toriyama shares his personal motivation becoming a mangaka, which arose from economic necessity and competitive spirit.

• «What made me become a manga artist was that when I was in my early 20s, I was working at an advertising agency. I was always late and I would give up, but I gave up without thinking about what I would do next, so my money was running out fast. So I would borrow money from my mom: 'I want to go to a cafe, could you lend me 250 yen?' So. And in the cafeteria I was reading a comic book and there was an advertisement for a contest with a cash prize. I really liked manga when I was in elementary school, so I thought, why don't I draw something? I submitted it because I wanted the cash prize, but it was rejected. 'What the hell?' I thought, being a big fish in a small pond, and ever since then, because of the competitive spirit that comes with being a newbie, I thought, 'In that case, I'll keep drawing until I get the prize!' But in the end I made my professional debut without having received that cash prize. That's how I started.».

Source: Kanzenshuu