Toyotarō

I don’t know the precise reason. Ever since I was a kid, I kept on drawing manga with Dragon Ball’s supporting characters as the protagonists. In elementary school, junior high, high school, university… and even after heading out into society, I continued drawing, and then luck smiled on me. It’s like a dream, honestly.

I think it’s probably to draw a lot… I’ve drawn while thinking that.

Naturally, it’s Toriyama-sensei and Dragon Ball. Rather than “influence”, it’s more like my life in manga itself. However, what definitely caused me to become aware of my own style was the serialization of [The Brief Return of] Dr. Slump and Cashman in V-Jump, by Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru-sensei and Tadayoshi Yamamuro-sensei.¹

That would be Son Goku from Dragon Ball and Ai Amano from Video Girl Ai.

I of course try and make it resemble [Toriyama’s work], but since I’m drawing borrowed characters, I’m careful not to make the readers feel a sense of dissonance, or become unhappy, through the facial expressions or dialogue.

Son Goku! I don’t know why anymore! I love him!

The Kamehameha. Sorry for continuing with the predictable answers. (^^;) The naming, the pose, the way it’s fired: everything about it is so simple, yet so original! Just by doing the motions, people all the world know that it’s the Kamehameha. It’s the absolute coolest!

It’s got things like HG2-53 Gogeta, GPB-15 Paikuhan, PBC4-05 Gotenks, HG3-CP5 Janenba, and HG1-52 Dr. Mu; I gather up 10 Hero Energy in the first round, then then take the first turn in the second round using Dr. Mu’s system hacking and do a super unit technique, and such. It feels good when I pull it off. It seems that I can’t really use it in practice, though. (^^;)

I guess I’d really have to go for “immortality with eternal youth”. If it’s OK to add conditions, please allow me to add, “I can die if I truly want to”. It’d be the worst to end up like Garlic Jr., after all. (>_<)

Thank you very much for your constant support. Just like I’m sure all of you are, I’m also one fan who really likes Dragon Ball. I’d like to go on making one part of the Dragon World, together with all of you! Please [keep on giving me your support] in the future, too.