Earlier this week, the Chunichi Shimbun published an article/interview with Takashi Matsuyama, Akira Toriyama’s second assistant, reflecting on the creator’s passing this month. The article corroborates other reports of Toriyama apparently undergoing surgery for a brain tumor.
“Never gave an inch with his creations” — former assistant
Illustrator Takashi Matsuyama (66, pictured, of Seki, Gifu), who worked as an assistant on Dragon Ball, continued his close relationship with its creator even after the serialization ended. “His competitive streak was really something else,” he says.
Matsuyama-san, who was a master of military model-making, was scouted without warning by Toriyama-san, who had similar hobbies: “I want you to help me with the serial.” The next day, he quit his job at a design agency and moved near Toriyama-san‘s home, where he worked.
He would go to the studio in the evening, and leave the next day. Listening to programs they had recorded off the radio, the two laughed as they worked. In their free time, they would play video games for a breather. It was in that sort of free-spirited, at-home atmosphere that an adventure tale full of dreams was spun.
Toriyama-san never acted high-and-mighty, but he wouldn’t give an inch. He would go all-in against his tough editors when it came to his creations. He would face his desk with pride on full display. Matsuyama respected his professionalism, and was inspired by it. “Starting when I was a kid, I would draw pictures of all the things I wanted, like pets.” Through such statements by Toriyama-san, Matsuyama really felt his sheer power.
When Matsuyama-san, who remarried last fall, asked Toriyama-san to be his witness, he happily accepted. At that time, Toriyama told him that he would be undergoing surgery for a brain tumor in the new year: “It’s on the outside, so it’s not such a big deal.” He was nonchalant about it, but Matsuyama recalls him struggling with quitting smoking: “I need a cigarette,” he had groused.
Having promised to pay him a get-well visit once he was discharged from the hospital, the sudden news of his death came as an understandable shock to Matsuyama. “The experience of working with Toriyama-san was like a dream come true. I’m struck all over again by the fact that I had the privilege of doing something amazing. Everything I know, I learned from him.”
(Article by Atsushi Okamura)
This article has also been formally archived in our “Translations” section.
Akira Toriyama’s first assistant, Hisashi Tanaka, left working with Toriyama on Dr. Slump to work as a full-time cartoonist. Toriyama’s new assistant was Takashi Matsuyama, an illustrator and fellow model-builder who got to know Toriyama after he submitted a Dr. Slump-based piece to the Tamiya figure-modification contest.
Toriyama announced the arrival of Matsuyama in his author comment alongside chapter 155 of Dr. Slump in the 1983 #8 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump (released 25 January 1983):
I’ve decided on Matsuyama-kun as my new assistant! He’s a country bumpkin from Gifu who’s a lot like me.
Matsuyama stayed with Toriyama through almost the very end of Dragon Ball. In his author comment for chapter 517 in the 1995 #23 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump (released 09 May 1995), Toriyama noted:
I’m drawing without an assistant right now, so I’m really feeling the deadline crunch. Yeeeargh!
Toriyama drew at least the last three chapters of the series alone. Matsuyama was reunited with Toriyama once more in 2009 when he was tapped to assist Toriyama for the special comic published in the pamphlet “Biosphere”: Mr. U of the Delicious Island. Toriyama said at the time that he was contractually obligated not to draw comics or illustrations for entities other than Shueisha, had to receive special permission for this project, and that he was grateful both for the editorial team at Shueisha as well as Matsuyama for stepping in during such a busy time.