This article contains spoilers for Dragon Ball.
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TheDragon Ballseries suffered a massive loss last year with the death of its creator, Akira Toriyama. The manga forDragon Ball Superhas also gone on break, and as things stand, it’s not returning anytime soon.
Despite all that,Dragon Ballremains a legendary series. Its popularity never truly dies, and it continues to inspire anime and manga of sorts. That said, even a series this legendary isn’t immune to criticism, and this time, it comes from its own editor, who worked on this series for quite a few years.
Kazuhiko Torishima Is A Well Known Editor
He Was The Editor For Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball
Most anime and manga fans are familiar with theDragon Ballseries, and even people who have never touched anime before have, at least, heard of it. After all, it was a revolutionary manga that changed the trajectory of the industry and inspired major works after it, such asOne Piece, Naruto, and many other anime.
This series was created by Akira Toriyama. But of course,Dragon Ball wasn’t exactly a solo work, and he had help from an editor named Kazuhiko Torishima. Torishima was the editor for this gigantic series, and even helped with Toriyama’s work before that, a series known asDr. Slump. Dr. Slumpis nowhere near as popular asDragon Ball, but it was a major step in Toriyama’s mangaka career.
Kazuhiko Torishima has a lot of controversial opinions, and some of them are about the Dragon Ball series.
Dragon Ball Is Huge, But Its Editor Torishima Has Some Negative Comments About It
He Believes the Series Should’ve Ended with the Frieza Arc
Kazuhiko Torishima worked with Akira Toriyama for many years as his editor. The work of an editor is to help guide a mangaka with their creative process and ensure a manga is up to standards.
The bigger the series and the mangaka, however, the less they need to take advice from their editors. Torishima definitelyhad his gripes with the Dragon Ball series. Torishima even went on to say that he believed theDragon Ballseries should have ended at the Frieza arc, which has shocked many.
Here’s his full statement on the matter:
You can’t learn anything from Dragon Ball. But while you’re reading it, you forget about everything else, and that’s enough! The author was clearly struggling, so Dragon Ball should’ve ended with the Frieza arc. — Torishima
Torishima Has Trashed Many Other Big Series
Demon Slayer And One Piece Are Some Examples
Just as Torishima has made some controversial statements about Dragon Ball, a series he has personally worked on, he has also made some odd comments about other big series he had no involvement in.
For one,Torishima has trashed One Piece a few timesand never believed in its potential. WhenOne Piecewas first starting, he told Eiichiro Oda he didn’t believe the series would take off. This is definitely surprising to many fans, asOne Pieceis now, and has been for a long time, the best-selling manga ever, and by far. Torishima couldn’t have been more wrong aboutOne Piece.
Torishima has even hadhis fair share of criticism towards Demon Slayer, a series that has currently been taking the world by storm. He recently went on record saying theDemon Slayermanga is not good, and that it is only popular thanks to the anime. He also once said the battle scenes aren’t all that great, and that they needed work.
Torishima is entitled to not liking a manga, but the truth is theDemon Slayeranime couldn’t have done it without the manga and the story crafted by Koyoharu Gotouge. The series has become popular for a reason, and has now over 220 million copies in circulation, with just 23 volumes. This is a stupendous number, and most manga series will never even come close to it.
Torishima: Demon Slayer only got so popular because the anime was amazing. The manga itself wasn’t all that great. It’s like the manga was just raw coffee beans, and the anime roasted and brewed them into something truly special.
Kazuhiko Torishima definitely comes off as pretty rude to many fans of these series, especially with how brash he is about things he doesn’t like.
Available on Manga Plus
Dragon Ball Super, despite the current hiatus, has 107 chapters out at the moment that fans can check out. The manga for Dragon Ball Super is available to read on Manga Plus. When the manga returns, it will also be released over there.
Source: X (Formerly Twitter)
Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball is a franchise by Akira Toriyama which follows the adventures of Goku, a powerful warrior who protects the earth with his group of friends. A recent title from the series is Dragon Ball: The Breakers, an action style game where 7 players have to survive being hunted by the Raider.
