Toyotarō Wired interview

Q: How do you get from being a Dragon Ball fan to receiving one of the heaviest legacies in the history of Japanese manga?

T: Never changing what you feel for the franchise, which is love for me; this feeling ties me with Dragon Ball since I was a little kid. Quite different is the responsibility, at least the one I personally feel: Today, my job reaches the (numerous) fans, leaving them a message.
I don't want to betray them; I work very hard to keep intact the original charm of the franchise.

Q: Doesn't this leave you in an "expressive cage"?

T: If not disappointing the audience was the only goal, there would be less two more, just as important to me: having fun and being fun. My work is to give that feel to every page, and this doesn't give me limits to personal expressivity and creativiy.

Q: I've heard Toriyama has a direct role into your work, right?

T: Not only mine: he supervises every storyboard related to the Dragon Ball universe.

Q: Some time ago, he said you are the most faithful mangaka to his work and style. He even said that you, today, have a dynamism that he claims to have lost; he prompted you to express freely, stating that he would be very curious about the final result. How did you take it?

T: Letting me go. And even if, for a fan like me, it feels great to have Toriyama's approvation on more traditional drawings, some of my greatest satisfactions stem from seeing him approve my original ideas: new moves, new expressions. And something else, in the future.

Q: From the beginning of the Universal Survival arc, you have become a character designer for Super. How did you work on those characters, and how do you relate to such recognizable figures?

T: It was an heavy work, especially creating the new Gods of Destruction. For those who didn't know it, it is good to explain that contrary to the name, the gods are not, from a narrative point of view, heroes' enemies, and for this reason they can't have too much emphasis. Still, they needed to be charismatic and dignified figures.
Balancing these needs is what took me longer to express. In addition, it is through their very marked characterization and differences between the characters that I have tried to express the vastness of the Universe. And our universe is really large.
It is, in general, with this attention that I approach the characters of Dragon Ball. Their traits express worlds.

Q: Do you know or follow Western comics?

T: More than comics, I appreciate Disney's working style and their way of planning stories with not only multimedia, but also crossmedia approach. That's why, among their productions, the one that impresses me most is Star Wars.

Q: Dragon Ball has been an ante litteram example also for this: its universe was told on paper, later on tv, and with a huge amount of videogames, merchandise and related works.

T: What I call media-mix is certainly an effective strategy. Not only because it gives the opportunity to expand the narrative universes, but also because it intercepts a growing number of fans and brings them from platform to platform. How can I not be pleased by something that can increase people who follow my job?

Q: Does this change your way of drawing or scripting Dragon Ball Super?

T: No. My priority is the manga. I can't say to be influenced by so many expressive channels, or by how the manga will be adapted later.

Q: By the way, do you know some italian authors?

T: Actually no one before coming to Naples; in these days I've met Zerocalcare, Roberto Recchioni, Giacomo Bevilacqua, Sio, Mirka Andolfi and Riccardo Ferri. They gifted me their comic books, which I'm reading right now, and I really like them.

Q: What's the biggest difference between your approach to work and the italians' one?

T: I felt that in Italy a great deal of attention is paid to the beauty of the image, the figurative elegance, the composition of the boards. It must be your famous artistic background: as in many other things you do, you will perceive a strong aesthetic sensibility.
In Japan, it is not to be ruled out that a mediocre designer becomes famous: if the story he's telling is good, he will find many readers ready to read it, regardless of the drawings.

Q: Is there a Japanese manga that you're currently liking?

T: My Hero Academia, without a doubt.

Q: Tell us something about the upcoming Dragon Ball Super arc.

A: I can only say this: do not think you already know the definitive teams for the upcoming Tournament of Power. Even if they have been already revealed.