Anime and Manga
Subject: Toriyama and assorted notes

   I've just been reading the forwards and articles in the Akira
Toriyama exhibit book, and there are a couple things in it that are
worth mentioning.
   As a comment: These articles are mainly written by art curators, so
these guys have a little more background in the manga medium than we do.
This means that they've probably studied the history of manga as art for
a few days, maybe even a full week.

   1) The history of sweatdrops on characters faces:
   According to Yoshiharu Sasaki, Tezuka was the first manga artist to
create a "kind of coded language of images that portrayed his
characters' physical and mental states."
   A spray of water droplets around the head == surprise or excitement
   Water droplet on the cheek                == bewilderment or fear
   Bandage on the face                       == injury
   Bandages over the entire body             == Severe, but non-fatal
                                                injury (comic effect)

   2) Toriyama was the monster designer for the first Dragon Quest game,
and has remained so for all 5 games, according to Tatsu Inamasu
(Professor of Sociology.)  Yuji Horii, producer of the game, wanted to
pattern DQ after Wizardry and other American games.  (Wizardry was
partially the work of Robert Woodhead, president of AnimEigo.)

   3) Part of the life and energy that embues the Dragon Ball characters
during the combat sequences can be traced back to Jackie Chan, according
to Nobuhiko Horie (Editor-in-Chief of Shonen Jump.)
   Hokuto no Ken has a static personality resembling Bruce Lee.
However, Toriyama has reportedly watched Jackie Chan's movies on video
many times, to study the way Jackie moves.

   4) The popularity of manga in France in part is due to the
publication of Otomo's Akira, in French.  However, Akira is considered a
cult manga, and a cult movie.  When Akira was shown to be popular
enough, the publishers decided to translate Dragon Ball, which then went
on to completely eclipse Akira.

   5) Penguin Village is located on Gengoro island.
      Ga-chan was originally hatched from what Senbe thought was a
         dinosaur's egg.  Ga-chan later split into twins.
      Suppaman, the parody of Superman, was a space-going crime fighter
         who became a normal person in Penguin Village.  His name is a
         play on "suppai," meaning "sour taste" and he gets his powers
         by eating umeboshi (small, sour, pickled Japanese plums.)
      Mashirito, the evil scientist that always battles with Dr. Slump,
         is named after Toriyama's editor -- Torishima (the Japanese
         syllable are reversed.)  The character design is also a dead-on
         caracature of Torishima.


                                              -- Curtis H. Hoffmann
                                                 Feb. 4, 1994