New Dragon Ball Interview Shares Rare Peek at Akira Toriyama's Life Before Fame
The world of manga and anime is still reeling from the loss of Akira Toriyama, the legendary author who shaped the current entertainment landscape even more than people give him credit for. While Toriyama is obviously most known for Dragon Ball and his other manga such as Dr. Slump, few fans know that he got his start in another art-related business: advertising.
Japanese newspaper Kyoto NP recently published an interview with one of Toriyama's colleagues when he was working at the design company Daiichi Shiko in Nagoya. This interesting piece reveals details about Toriyama's life before fame that not all fans may know about, including an early design for a clothing store sign that is still displayed in Japan.
Akira Toriyama Did Not Fit the Corporate World
He Was Always a True Artist
Toriyama's former colleague, Yasuhiro Fujine, recalled details of the late manga maestro from the time they worked together. Hardcore fans should already know that Toriyama got his start in manga by chance, as his first career was as a designer for an advertising company. He admitted in interviews that he never wanted to draw manga, but he also disliked working in the corporate world, so he quit his job, which led him to send a submission to Weekly Shōnen Magazine.
According to Fujine, however, Toriyama was a serious and diligent worker, who often worked late nights. The company, however, deemed him lazy due to his habit of arriving late at work. This anecdote proves that Toriyama, rather than being lazy (an impossible trait for someone who serialized a weekly manga for 11 years), was a true artist who felt uncomfortable within the strict rules of the corporate world. Also according to Fujine, he encouraged Toriyama when the latter expressed interest in submitting a manga to a magazine, and the rest is history.
Toriyama's Early Advertising Work Already Showed His Artistic Skills
The Author Revolutionized Manga With His Detailed and Realistic Art
Toriyama's time as a designer, however, would prove far from useless. When he made his break in the manga world, Toriyama got instant recognition for how revolutionary his art was. While even the most successful manga at the time were highly stylized and crudely drawn, Toriyama brought in a new style, highly influenced by Western art, and standing out for the attention to detail and the careful use of paneling and composition. Some of these traits were already evident from Toriyama's work as a designer, as proved by a rare illustration from his time at Daiichi Shiko that was discovered in the company's storage earlier this year.
The illustration was for a clothing store sign, which is still displayed in its original place in Ena City, Gifu Prefecture. The attention to detail and knack for designing memorable characters were already evident here, all traits that gained Akira Toriyama a reputation during his two and a half years working for Daiichi Shiko and, later, as one of the most beloved and respected artists in the world, who is still inspiring other artists and fans today.
Source: Kyoto NP; translation by @Venixys (X)
