Akira Toriyama’s rise to fame may be credited to his most renowned work, Dragon Ball, but his journey began much earlier. As the mastermind behind Dr. Slump, there was an experience that helped him understand the rights and wrongs of what can make a manga work. The manga created a foundation for him that helped shape his second series into existence.
With the fame it gathered, it would be difficult to believe just what his original plans were with Dr. Slump. The series is regarded to be brilliant, even with Dragon Ball’s shadow looming over it. Toriyama was under the impression of stereotypes that shaped much of what Shonen Jump was for many years. However, it was his editor Kazuhiko Torishima who pushed different ideas into the forefront.
Akira Toriyama Didn’t Want a Female Protagonist
Dr. Slump is a highly successful manga by Akira Toriyama with a female character standing front and center. It was highly uncommon to see female protagonists in his era and the mangaka was just as hesitant about working on the idea as well. During an interview with Forbes, his editor Kazuhiko Torishima discussed how the mangaka needed a push.
As the title says Dr. Slump, originally Arale was not meant to be the main character. She was just a guest character for episode one. However, I really loved the girl characters Toriyama created so I wanted to use Arale as the main character. Toriyama thought differently, as Weekly Jump was meant for boys, surely a girl could not be a protagonist. So we made a gamble on making Arale the main character.
When the series first came into being, Arale wasn’t introduced to take the spotlight. She was supposed to leave just as quickly as she came. However, it was Torishima who saw great potential in her. He wanted to turn her into the protagonist and help her lead the series in a way no other character could.
Toriyama was dumbfounded by the suggestion and couldn’t understand why boys, who the Shonen genre was stereotypically targetted towards, would read about a girl. His editor was adamant about his decision, not wanting to bend to norms even if the mangaka believed in them.
Akira Toriyama Lost a Bet
There have been multiple moments when female characters have been undermined due to twisted beliefs about who or what a target audience of the Shonen genre should be. Hiromu Arakawa, the mangaka of Fullmetal Alchemist hid her identity for the longest time in fear of her series getting rejected simply because of her gender.
So I challenged Toriyama to make one special issue with a girl as the protagonist and we made a bet on where it would come in the ranking. The result of that being, whoever got the closest to the final rank could have the final say. Naturally, I won and I made Arale the main character. While I won the bet, Toriyama is quite stubborn and he refused to change the name of the manga from Dr. Slump to something else. So I compromised on that.
The same problem plagued Akira Toriyama’s mind, making him believe that Shonen simply wasn’t for women. Torishima stood against such ideals and pushed for Arale to be a formidable protagonist. The two bet on the thought, giving both their ideas a chance by giving Arale her own special issue. Seeing that the latter won, things took a turn in his series.
To keep to his word, she was made the protagonist, but with a slight demand from Toriyama. The title of the manga was to remain the same. The editor obliged to the demand, seeing that it wouldn’t do any harm to the series anyway.
Dr. Slump is available to read on Viz Media.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
