Summary
Toriyama's interest in animation extends beyond Dragon Ball, as he revealed his desire to create an anime series for all ages and audiences. COWA! (1997-1998) and Sand Land (2000) demonstrate Toriyama's efforts to create stories that appeal to a wide range of audiences. Despite his success with Dragon Ball, Toriyama still sought to create works that emphasized friendship, trust, and universal themes of good and evil.
Over the years, Akira Toriyama tried to give Dragon ball fandom's insight, understanding, and perspective on the story, its characters, and himself, which is not easily found in manga. In an October 1995 interview, the final part of his “Super Interview” series, translated and published in Kanzenshuu, Toriyama – among other topics – discussed his interests and passions. His passion for animation.
When a manga, like Dragon Ball, reaches a certain level of success and popularity, one of the next steps in its development is an anime adaptation. However, even though the story is similar, because manga and anime are completely different mediums, the original manga creator is rarely at the forefront and sometimes is not involved in the production of the anime at all. However, as author Akira Toriyama has revealed, this doesn't mean that the original manga creator doesn't care about the adaptation or, more importantly, doesn't care about anime in general.
In the interview, Toriyama said that although his role in the Dragon Ball anime series was largely given to a consulting role, at times, he also had some direct input in the production process, e.g. as was tasked with designing several characters, including Bojack. and Brol. However, what was more interesting about his conversation were his thoughts on anime in general.
Toriyama wanted to create the ultimate crowd-pleasing anime
Referring to the previous Kanzenshuu Super Interview, where he talked about the unlimited creative possibilities that animation gives an artist, Toriyama admitted to wanting to make an original anime story that everyone can enjoy .
I think “a work that both young and old, boys and girls alike can love would be great”. – Akira Toriyama
Coming from the author of a legendary manga series that caters to boys and young adults, published in a magazine – Shōnen Jump – with a title that suggests its target audience is teenage boys, comes the answer. Toriyama's was quite surprising. It will certainly surprise many people to see the master of a “macho” martial arts and fighting comic like Dragon Ball wanting to produce an anime series that serves a wide audience.
On the other hand, and more importantly, Toriyama's interest in making anime for all audiences also spoke volumes about his thoughts on the manga and anime industry at the time. It reveals and highlights Toriyama's very progressive and progressive attitude – a refreshing contrast to Japan's traditionally conservative shōnen anime and manga industry.
After Dragon Ball, Toriyama finally gets the anime he wanted?
Also, if possible, if I make a manga myself before it becomes an animation, I want to make it in a way that can easily convey the emotions of the work when it is adapted into animation. By drawing it myself, I can tell whether it's interesting or not; One photo at a time is fine, so I want to draw it. – Akira Toriyama
This is not to say that Toriyama is not up to the task of turning his vision into reality. In fact, in the two works he completed after the end of Dragon Ball in 1995, and after the launch of Dragon Ball Super in 2015, Toriyama came as close as possible to creating a story that people everyone can enjoy. He also had personal input which he believed would allow him to get the right feel for the story.
First up is COWA! (1997-1998). The series follows the adventures of three monsters and a human in their quest to find a cure for a disease that is decimating the monsters living in a village near a human city. The second and more famous work is Sand Land, first published in 2000 and most recently adapted into an anime for Disney in 2024. Sand Land follows three characters from a village that is often haunted by drought in the quest for a new water source and freedom from the King, whose water hoarding caused immeasurable damage to the village and its inhabitants.
Both series tell classic “hero's journey” stories that emphasize the friendship, trust, and camaraderie that develops between the group over the course of their missions. Both also include universal themes of good and evil, courage, growth, transformation and empowerment – such as Dragon ball‘S Toriyama desired – to appeal to audiences of all ages, genders and cultures.
Nguồn: Kanzenshuu (1), (2)