Is Akira Toriyama a good writer?
- Thread starter Neuromancer
- Start date
FunkDoc1112
Heavily Armed
I think the biggest problem with the Android saga is Toriyama really wrote himself into a corner in the early stages...like where the fukk was that story gonna go before his OG hit him up like "Oh so the big killer Androids are just some old nikka and a clown huh
?" The initial premise was no different from one of the half-assed 40-minute movie plots. The Cell portion bailed everything out but even that came from left field.
Sir Charles Barkley
The Chuckster
Saiyan arc is my favorite of them all.
Not nearly as drawn out... shyt is like 30-35 episodes as opposed to the next 3 sagas which range from like 80-100.
I would say he was a good writer up until the frieza stuff, but since than he's just become lazy and the fandom and popularity of the show mostly being from casual anime viewers who dont really care about the writing and just action makes it easier for him to just be lazy
Also I disagree on the "Gohan couldnt be the main guy" opinion, I may be in the minority but I enjoyed the begining of Buu Saga with the show revolving around him/high school + the others lives. Tbh I wouldnt have minded Goku not be involved in Buu Saga at all
Also I disagree on the "Gohan couldnt be the main guy" opinion, I may be in the minority but I enjoyed the begining of Buu Saga with the show revolving around him/high school + the others lives. Tbh I wouldnt have minded Goku not be involved in Buu Saga at all
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Yeah, but then again I’m not so sure vegeta would be the same character either, I don’t think Goku should’ve died period because of how pivotal he is in making vegeta who he is, the chemistry between him and gohan would be too tame
FunkDoc1112
Heavily Armed
I think Gohan as the main character could've been cool, but Toriyama's never liked writing protagonists in the nature of Gohan's characters and the type of storylines associated with them. All of his main characters - Arale, Goku, Neko Majin, Beelzebub from Sandland, etc. are all spunky, simple minded folks. Gohan's more of a straight up hero and timid.
The best and most iconic characters and stories are simple at heart.
Somewhere along the line people seem to have gotten it confused with needing to have some dark, deep strong narrative to tell a good story.
Somewhere along the line people seem to have gotten it confused with needing to have some dark, deep strong narrative to tell a good story.
I want to say yes.
Like many other people I have him to thank for my introduction into anime but honestly the more series I watched the further down DBZ moved in my lists of personal favorites. The lack of focus on other characters, formula, characters coming back to life and the power ups all turned me off the older I got. Like has anyone ever felt sad at a death in DBZ? I felt worse for the death of a boat in One Piece than anyone dying in DBZ.
Like many other people I have him to thank for my introduction into anime but honestly the more series I watched the further down DBZ moved in my lists of personal favorites. The lack of focus on other characters, formula, characters coming back to life and the power ups all turned me off the older I got. Like has anyone ever felt sad at a death in DBZ? I felt worse for the death of a boat in One Piece than anyone dying in DBZ.
Ain't That Something
Superstar
I think brehs are missing the point. No one is asking if he is a great writer because obviously the answer is no, however you can not create one of the most iconic stories and influential stories of all time without being at least good at your craft.
T’Challa’s Heir
Superstar
He’s good. I know we all like to talk about how dumb it got at the end of DBZ, but the transition from from DB to DBZ is insane.
Think about it. Dragonball is basically an adaptation of journey to the west centered around fighting tournaments. The series ends with Goku finally becoming world champion with him an Piccolo being 1 and 1A.
How does Z start? Goku is an alien. His son is 3x stronger than him, and it takes the combined effort of him, Gohan and Piccolo to stop him, and Goku has to sacrifice himself to do it.
Flash forward a year. The Z fighters, who a year ago, weren’t that much weaker than Goku get killed. And this is before we knew death didn’t mean anything. Piccolo’s sacrifice. The team effort to beat Vegeta.
The transition alone makes him a good writer. I also think everyone is significantly discounting the character arcs of Piccolo and Vegeta.
Think about it. Dragonball is basically an adaptation of journey to the west centered around fighting tournaments. The series ends with Goku finally becoming world champion with him an Piccolo being 1 and 1A.
How does Z start? Goku is an alien. His son is 3x stronger than him, and it takes the combined effort of him, Gohan and Piccolo to stop him, and Goku has to sacrifice himself to do it.
Flash forward a year. The Z fighters, who a year ago, weren’t that much weaker than Goku get killed. And this is before we knew death didn’t mean anything. Piccolo’s sacrifice. The team effort to beat Vegeta.
The transition alone makes him a good writer. I also think everyone is significantly discounting the character arcs of Piccolo and Vegeta.
Yea I dont trust Toriyama ablity to give the idea justice as we've seen in Super good ideas, awfully written/played out tho.So I guess in a sense the question of the thread is answered
After writing the original I realized Goku is apart of some of the best moments of the saga, so it'd be hard for him not tbe apart of it in some way, Buu Saga is such an enigma, has soo many flaws and plotholes but yet has most of the memorable moments of the entire show
King Koopa
All Star
Toriyama is a decent writer at best imo, but that doesn’t change the fact that Dragon Ball is all these Shonen series’ daddy 
Turk
Young, Gifted, and Black
Idk why this website sucks DBZ's dikk so much
fukking Dub watchers too is the worst part
Jojo and Hunter x Hunter >>>>>>>
fukking Dub watchers too is the worst part
Jojo and Hunter x Hunter >>>>>>>
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no one said safe writing is better. I do not know where you got that from, but hey I guess you gotta deflect to help your argument. My point was simple consistent writing >>>> layered bad writingSafe writing does not make it good writing or even better than Naruto. I think a lot of yall are caught up in the nostalgia of when you first saw DB and DBZ when you were young and it held a special place for yall but go back and look at that shyt with adult eyes and pay attention. shyt is just power levels to the point its crazy and the story falls apart quickly. I'm not saying the same thing didn't happen with Naruto towards the second half but at least they came up with ways to try and combat or form a strategy while fighting even when the opponent was stronger. How the hell is Naruto's world not rich compared to DBZ? They went into the whole back drop of how ninshu was created, how the tailed beast were created, how the village was formed, Clans that formed that village, how those villages earned income (bingo book), the spoils of those wars and the enemies it created (Nagato), the origin of the clans and how they all related. The dirt that was going on inside Konoha with Danzo and the Anbu, MUTHAfukkKIN ITACHI being a child soldier becoming a professional assassin at 11 and used to kill his whole clan at 13. fukkIN PERVY SAGE JIRAYA'S DEATH.They created rules and a hierarchy in every village. I really don't see how you can say DBZ's writing is better. How Sway? The writing is laughable man. At least with Naruto we got amazing fights from people not named Naruto and Sasuke. (I still love the 8 tails putting the beats to Sasuke's ass and almost killing him within an inch of his life). Gohan is literally the most disappointing joke of a character ever and Vegeta (I love this cat) is a literal punching bag that always ends up getting his ass kicked and getting embarrassed. Like I said safe does not equal good and this shyt is as plain as day that writing isn't Toriyama's strong suit
and safe writing =/= simple storytelling to give you a heads up on the art of storytelling. You can do risk taking narratives while still having it set up in a simple story format.
strategy in Naruto is what I give it credit for, but it has gone into the realm and systems of energy blast and big explosions as people give DBZ slack for. and similar to how power is the end all be all in in DBZ, so has Naruto. Naruto and Saskue cannot be beat no matter what by 99.99999999% of the verse. It will take asspullish power to stop them.
Now history, as I said naruto's history really isnt "rich". Naruto's history as a verse is rather vague. Besides the "How chakra got here" and "war" sections of history we dont know much about anything else. We only know about the mainstay/face of franchise clans like Uchiha and a few other sections that only involved or revolve around the main characters and their clans. I'll say it like this to sum up my point very quickly, Naruto's approach on "history" is similar to DBZs so if we're gonna call Naruto having "rich" history we might as well call DB having it as well. Both have vague histories with certain sections only shown/given attention to if their related to the main characters.