Dragon Ball’s momentous return in 2013 withDragon Ball Z: Battle of Godswas hailed by fans as a glorious comeback for the genre-defining franchise. However, it turns out that Akira Toriyama was actually far less enthused about the series' return to screens than fans were, according to those in the know.
Dragon Ball Zended its manga run in 1995, with the anime ending soon after in 1996. From that point forward, Akira Toriyama had little-to-no involvement in the franchise, which continued on for a few more yearswithDragon Ball GTbefore ending, seemingly for good. However, as fan adoration for the series remained well into the 2000s, there began to be talks about reviving the series. A Japanese-only short, “Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!” was created in 2008, which led to talks about reviving the series with movies, which eventually involved approaching Toriyama himself about involvement.
Dragon Ball’s Return Was Met With Reluctance by Toriyama
Toriyama Felt He Was Done With Dragon Ball
According to an interview, withhighlights translated by X (formerly Twitter) user @Venixys,Toriyama said when approached that “he didn’t find it fun anymore.“Even by the end of the Buu Saga of Dragon Ball Z, Toriyama’s lack of inspiration was becoming apparent, so the idea of returning, even 15 years later, was simply an unappealing prospect. While Toriyama still did have some affection for some of the characters and would enjoy seeing them again, the sheer amount of work involved was enough to scare him off of the project entirely… or at least, that was the case initially.
It’s not clear what exactly changed Toriyama’s tune on the matter. In 2012, when the movie was announced, Toriyama was already committed to being very involved in the film’s production, and later that year it was confirmed that he was writing the script and doing the new character designs. By this point, Toriyama was concerned with keeping the series' tone right, ensuring it would be enjoyable to grown fans as well as the original intended audience of children. Toriyama remained involved for the next film as well, working onResurrection Fand its new transformations.
This, of course, laid the groundwork forDragon Ball Super’s creation, which adapted these two movies before moving on to more original content, creating a new era ofDragon Ballfor fans. WhenDragon Ball Super’s manga began in 2015, Akira Toriyama was officially writing it, with a new artist by the name of Toyotarou, a dedicatedDragon Ballfan himself. Toriyama remained involved withDragon Ball Superuntil his death in 2024, and wasalso quite involved in the development ofDragon Ball Daima. One can’t help but wonder what influenced Toriyama to embraceDragon Ballonce again.
Dragon Ball: Battle of Gods Managed to Hook Toriyama’s Interest
Toriyama Found New Motivation in the Movie’s New Characters
Looking at other interviews with Toriyama from around the time ofBattle of GodsandResurrection F, it would seem that the characters of Beerus and Whis are what captured Toriyama’s attention again.According to a comment from a pamphletdistributed with the movie in Japan, Toriyama was given the terms “God of Destruction Beerus” and “Super Saiyan God,” from which he created the story from scratch.In other interviews, Toriyama admitted that “it was fun” to work on the film, so it seems that despite his initial reluctance, he really did enjoy making moreDragon Ball.
With Beerus, Toriyama set about creating a characterunlike any he had done before. Instead of a humanoid god, like Kami or Supreme Kai, Beerus was designed to be cat-like, and the idea of a cat god immediately made him think of Egypt, lending Beerus his ancient Egyptian theme. He was careful to keep things light when dealing with gods to avoid the problems of religion, and decided to introduce Beerus alongside a partner, Whis, like he had with previous gods (Mr. Popo for Kami, and Kibito for Supreme Kai).
Toriyama has said in interviewsaboutDragon Ball Superthat Beerus and Whis were instrumental in opening the world ofDragon Ballback up to him. “If it hadn’t been for those two, making any more story after that would have been a nightmare.” Perhaps, then, it was the intriguing prospect of a God of Destruction, one who was not completely evil and could even become an ally to Goku and friends, that helped Toriyama find his love ofDragon Ballonce again.
