One of the most notable and iconic aspects of Dragon Ball is its wild and unique set of character names. Taking a cue from his past work on Dr. Slump and several one-shots, Akira Toriyama crafted the Dragon World filled with memorable character designs and names alike.
Why are character names puns on items like food?
Toriyama’s first editor was Kazuhiko Torishima, then an editor at Shueisha evaluating Toriyama’s contest submissions and providing feedback and encouragement to continue. Torishima worked directly with Toriyama from his professional debut all through Dr. Slump, and then onward into Dragon Ball (up until the end of the 23rd Tenka’ichi Budōkai).
Why are character names grouped together into sets?
In the second part of his “The Truth About the Dragon Ball Manga” interview series from 2009’s Dragon Ball Super Exciting Guide: Character Volume, Toriyama explained that it was difficult always coming up with new names, and so coming up with a theme for a group of characters made it easier:
It’s tough coming up with names for a lot of characters. If you group the names into sets, it’s easier to think of them. For example, the one in control of the Saiyans and other villainous aliens is Freeza. Strictly speaking, Freeza is “freezer,” but I envisioned a refrigerator when I named him. So, I grouped the names according to foods that go inside it. The Saiyans are vegetables [yasai, “vegetables”], and the Ginyu Special-Squad are dairy products [gyūnyū, “cows’ milk”], like that.
Why are characters usually introduced in pairs?
Thinking over the course of the series, we see characters introduced in pairs fairly often — from the very beginning it’s Goku and Bulma, all the way on through to Nappa and Vegeta, as well as Whis and Beerus.
That way, I’m able to explain the characters and their relationship to each other through their interactions. In my case, I feel that it isn’t good to insert too much narration. I suppose Goku and Bulma are representative of that.
Toriyama expands on this in a Q&A session from Volume 4 of the Freeza arc in the Dragon Ball “Full Color” manga release:
If there’s only one character, you have to either have them talk to themselves or use narration, but if you have two, you can explain things through their conversational interaction, no narration necessary. So, in manga as well, I try to bring them out in pairs. Even Goku is someone who wouldn’t say anything if Bulma & co. weren’t around. (laughs)
Editor #3: Fuyuto Takeda
Toriyama’s third editor was Fuyuto Takeda, who took over when Cell reached his perfect form, and oversaw the series from there until its end. Takeda’s tenure also coincided with that of Nobuhiko Horie taking over as editor-in-chief of Weekly Shōnen Jump in the mid-1990s alongside other editorial staff turnover.
Toriyama Incorporating Editors Into His Stories
Toriyama regularly incorporated real-life events and people into his stories. Toriyama himself appeared in Dr. Slump before the “Robotoriyama” charicature was later adopted, and Toriyama’s first assistant — Hisashi Tanaka — also occasionally appeared in some of his bonus comics for the series’ collected edition.
Most notably, Toriyama adapted Kazuhiko Torishima as the villainous mad scientist “Dr. Mashirito” (to-ri-shi-ma ›› ma-shi-ri-to), up through and including the iconic exclamation of “REJECTED!”, referencing Torishima’s penchant for recommending changes or even outright rejecting drafts and story ideas from Toriyama.
Toriyama later incorporated his editors into Dragon Ball as villains, though not necessarily as directly as he did during the Dr. Slump days. Torishima was rumored to be the basis for Demon King Piccolo (an idea toyed with in the 2005 Nintendo DS game Jump Super Stars, where Piccolo and Dr. Mashirito can perform the fusion dance as a special move).
Kondō was rumored to be the basis for Freeza, and Takeda the basis for Majin Boo. These rumors were prevalent enough to even be mentioned in the Shenlong Times #2 pamphlet, where the editors discussed them briefly (Kondō, for his part, had always imagined himself as the basis for Trunks). However, when asked about this in the 2004 guidebook Dragon Ball Forever, Toriyama denied consciously basing these characters on his editors, but admitted that he might have done so subconsciously.
Editors Post-Dragon Ball Serialization
The identity and involvement of editors was not always as transparent with Toriyama’s later series. We do know, however, that Toriyama’s editor on his 2013 manga Jaco the Galactic Patrolman was Kōhei Ōnishi.
“Victory Uchida” serves as the editor on the Dragon Ball Super manga. Uchida has (only somewhat jokingly!) described the power relation between Toriyama, Toyotarō, and himself as one-hundred million, ten million, and negative 100, respectively.
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