Akira Toriyama Script Comments

It’s really embarrassing to have this called a “screenplay”. It’d probably be more accurate to say it’s just a memo. It’s simply something I idly dashed off for the staff, just to help explain the flow of the story and the dialogue! Never in a million years did I think it would get published. If any of you are trying to become scriptwriters, please don’t use this as an example!!

I guess you could say that some things are difficult for anyone but the original author to write, because only the original author can freely mess around with what’s already been established. A scriptwriter would get tied up trying not to screw with the original story, so in that respect they’d probably have a harder time messing around with things.

Then there’s the dialogue. The original author knows each character’s personality and backstory, so they can naturally think up dialogue that suits them.

With new characters, I always try to introduce them in pairs. With one character, you’re stuck with just monologues or narration, but with two you can use their conversations to explain things, so you don’t need any narration! Even Goku would never say anything if Bulma and the others weren’t around.

Goku was the one who asked Whis, of course. It was on condition that he give Whis tasty food! Vegeta didn’t want Goku to leave him in the dust, so he had no choice but to come train too.

It’s because everyone didn’t want to risk losing the next generation of warriors. By the way, they also figured Mister Satan wouldn’t be any help at all, so he’s just relaxing at home in blissful ignorance.

The battle with Freeza! Also, thanks to Freeza’s voice actor, his characterization is even better in the film. And the Beerus and Whis combo are good too! And there’s Nozawa-san, of course. Every character was blessed when it came to voice artists. It helps a lot.

I think the reason the Galactic Patrol is afraid of Freeza is because he’s beaten the tar out of them before. I guess because of that experience, Freeza’s become a taboo subject among the Galactic Patrol.

Once I had decided on bringing Freeza back, it was relatively easy writing the story since his character was already developed. The battle with the huge horde of enemies would have been a pain in the neck if I were drawing it myself in a manga, but I guess I dodged that bullet. Things like that were a real lifesaver.

Looking back on it, Battle of Gods was a lot of fun for me, but there wasn’t much action, and maybe not enough fan service. So with Resurrection “F” I threw in a lot more action scenes!

Even Freeza is no match for the God of Destruction Beerus, no matter what he does! Since they both destroy stuff, they got along reasonably well, but one time Freeza had his clock cleaned when he got carried away and made Beerus angry.

With a manga, you personally draw everything from the story to the pictures, so there’s nothing there beyond what you thought up. But with an anime, you have to leave part of it up to others, so it’s possible for things to be created beyond what you had ever imagined. That’s the most fun part.