Akira Toriyama × Shōko Nakagawa Interview

The theme is that there is no theme! At any rate, I thought it’s good if people can enjoy watching through to the end. I wrote it, not to make people emotional, but to cherish the feeling of refreshment after having finished watching. I’ve aimed to have simple developments that will be as easy as possible for small children to understand, and I feel that being exclusively devoted to entertainment is my role and my distinguishing trait. I try to avoid teaching some kind of heavy-handed lesson.

Vegeta was a nasty guy at first in the serialization, and I had thought about bringing an end to [his story] as just a villain, but as I was writing, I felt that his villainous sort of warped straightforwardness was unexpectedly interesting. I couldn’t imagine that a guy with this kind of hairstyle would become popular, and yet he’d get more votes than Goku in favorite-character polls, and even I consciously began to actively have him appear. He has a well-defined character, as a resentful presence with both a strong pride and a desire to get even stronger, so I could draw him without difficulty; the character would sort of move on his own, so to speak. It was fun to draw people like Piccolo, Vegeta, and Mr. Satan.

The only parts I really wanted to have in there were the God of Destruction and Super Saiyan God, as well as everyone being there. Although the truth is, I wanted to bring out each individual character even more.

The “gods” that I draw don’t have much of a high-and-mighty feel to them. (laughs) I like a god who munches on takoyaki just like one of the plebs.

I don’t like enemies who seem unquestionably strong, and I’d done plenty of humanoid enemies already, so this time, I took a look at the cat we have at home and went, “Maybe I’ll make him like this.”

To tell the truth, nobody [else] in my family has watched Dragon Ball. (laughs) I’m also basically a shut-in, doing my work, and building models… By the way, about the Oracle Fish in this movie, I’m terribly sorry about having you go to the trouble of coming out, only to have one line.

It was interesting! I would have liked to bring out a little bit more liveliness in the exchanges, but I think you did really well. I thought, there were so many different battle scenes, it was amazing!

I guess number one is the battle scenes that are greater than I imagined while I myself was writing the story.

[The staff] gave it great treatment in completing it, so I’m happy. I like the inconsequential scenes the best. In a way, I like the feeling of pouring my heart and soul into characters who don’t have to be there. Incidentally, I didn’t imagine the Oracle Fish as being this size; I pictured it as being bigger than human height. Although, since I didn’t draw a chart for scale, it ended up this size. (laughs)

Recent anime have also gotten to have pretty complex character relationships, but in that area, I developed things simply while leaving in a whiff of Shōwa⁴, so I’ll be happiest if I can get them to understand the fun of the characters. Something this simple and pure isn’t depicted all that much, so I’d like for them to enjoy simply seeing something that’s easy to understand!!

I always take care in drawing with the premise that it shouldn’t make people feel bad. I don’t like when something ends on a dark note. By all means, I’d like it if they’re excited.