Fist of the North Star and Dragonball

[samuraix123]

Hey guys! I hated to make a topic about this but I recently just got into The fist of the north star anime from the early 80s and I was just curious, Did Toriyama get inspired by that series or anything to want to create Dragonball etc? It's not a big deal if he didn't. I was just curious because here lately shows that I either discover or what not are connected to other shows that I have enjoyed. like, I flipped out when I saw D from Vampire Hunter D standing in the background of a scene in FOTNS Movie and I looked into it and the person who made or helped made? VHD also was with FOTNS and they had D in there as a easter egg. I was just curious is all.
I figured if anyone had any knowledge about this that it'd be ya'll. haha

[Polyphase Avatron]

I'm pretty sure he did take inspiration from it. Kenshiro did the Kamehameha pose before Goku did IIRC.

[samuraix123]

I'm pretty sure he did take inspiration from it. Kenshiro did the Kamehameha pose before Goku did IIRC.

Really? Ha. That's neat. i'm not too far into the anime so i'll keep my eyes open for stuff.

[jjgp1112]

Toriyama's editor, Kazuhiko Torishima said he specifically looked to Fist of The North Star and tried to steer Toriyama towards that series' style, basically using that as a bible in his editorial direction while also weeding out the parts of it that he didn't like in order to perfect its formula through Dragon Ball.

[Melee_Sovereign]

I'm pretty sure he did take inspiration from it. Kenshiro did the Kamehameha pose before Goku did IIRC.

Did he? I know he shoots a ki blast in the series, but I don't remember it being the Kamehameha pose.

[MyVisionity]

The only one of Kenshirō's attacks that I recall resembling the Kamehameha is his Tenshō Honretsu during the battle with General Han, which was Raō's technique.

Being that both Hokuto no Ken and Dragon Ball are both rooted in Chinese martial arts fiction, it's only natural that they might share certain traits such as Qi-based fighting attacks and poses.

In the interview with Torishima mentioned above he states that he only read the first three volumes of HnK, and one of his biggest takeaways was that he thought it was too "preachy". He decided that DB should instead be a series without substance and just focus on being fun. He was also inspired by the action sequences in the HnK manga which led to the development of the Tenka'ichi Budōkai.

[kei17]

As already said in the above posts, Torishima used Hokuto no Ken as a reference, and there must have been a big influence on Toriyama as well. However, speaking of Raoh's technique that is occasionally considered to be the idea source of Kamehameha, initially it was actually more of a kiai sort of technique. It was later changed to a Kamehameha-like laser beam when it was used by Kenshiro. This happened after Dragon Ball had become popular. In this particular case, it seems that DB influenced HnK.

Spoiler:

[samuraix123]

As already said in the above posts, Torishima used Hokuto no Ken as a reference, and there must have been a big influence on Toriyama as well. However, speaking of Raoh's technique that is occasionally considered to be the idea source of Kamehameha, initially it was actually more of a kiai sort of technique. It was later changed to a Kamehameha-like laser beam when it was used by Kenshiro. This happened after Dragon Ball had become popular. In this particular case, it seems that DB influenced HnK.

Spoiler:

I'm not sure how old you are Kei but did you grow up watching fist of the north star when it aired? Just makin conversation haha

[UpFromTheSkies]

There is an interview with Toriyamas editor where he says that he had Toriyama turn Dragon Ball into a martial arts manga because of how popular Fist of the North Star had become. Without Fist of the North Star, Dragon Ball would have probably ended shortly after the first story arc and never become what it is today.