this got me lol
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What do you think of Akira Toriyama's art style?
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this got me lol
Dice//
Banned
I'm not crazy about it, if there was any artist who had his characters suffer from 'same face' it's Toriyama.
But two things stop me from dismissing it.
1) He has very unique designs. Take even the DQ heroes, one has a turban, the other matches red yellow and blue, a female has short curly hair (name any other leading anime character in the last decade that does this), one's goth-ish, another has long hair, another has short hair, one does spikes, another wears pink, etc, etc.
Contrast this against other RPG giant Final Fantasy and a majority share light-coloured spikey hair, have a cold/cool personality and where about half the heroes sport blonde hair.
2) How many other artists actively draw fat/bald people?? In the world of anime, it's surprisingly...surprising to see.
Not my favorite artist, but I love his designs.
But two things stop me from dismissing it.
1) He has very unique designs. Take even the DQ heroes, one has a turban, the other matches red yellow and blue, a female has short curly hair (name any other leading anime character in the last decade that does this), one's goth-ish, another has long hair, another has short hair, one does spikes, another wears pink, etc, etc.
Contrast this against other RPG giant Final Fantasy and a majority share light-coloured spikey hair, have a cold/cool personality and where about half the heroes sport blonde hair.
2) How many other artists actively draw fat/bald people?? In the world of anime, it's surprisingly...surprising to see.
Not my favorite artist, but I love his designs.
Prime crotch
Banned
He's a really great manga artist, at his peak he really knew how to structure an action story, plus, he's iconic. But he is a bit too overexposed, especially his character designs.
PancakeBurglar
Member
Love his style, dragon ball, dragon quest, chrono trigger its all good. His monster designs are classic in my eyes.
This is basically where im at. I never want to see another spiky haired dude with a massive widows peak ever again.
UnemployedVillain
Member
His style has definitely gotten worse over time. I think it peaked at early Dragonball Z, like Frieza saga
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
There's nothing like him when it comes to unique aetstyles, wouldn't change him for the world
You mean his return to more soft round lines?
I love it. I was never a big fan of his extreme, angular DBZ style.
moozoom
Member
Toriyama has been a big influence for me growing up, the problem is you can clearly see when he's having fun and when he's just doing "work".
Although I hated the way Dragonball Z degenerated in endless fights, I still love his work and his style especially shines on personal projects and illustrations.
My favorite style of characters is from his early works in Dr. Slump and early Dragonball arcs.
But there also are gems in his one-shot stories, where you can see he can experiment and do original settings like COWA, where you can see a clone of Yangus
interacting with a kid vampire and his monster friends - funny and cute. The french edition has many colour pages.
Also I love Sandland, post apocalyptic story with great art :
And the recent JACO Galactic Patrolman - which has a little surprise for Dragon Ball fans... Spoiler :
Of course his character and monster art for the DQ games, helps adding the humor and quirkyness that has forever left the Final fantasy games. I find the great diversity of the characters in these games refreshing ( A fat merchant, a knight in bright Pink Armor, a Wolf turned human...) and full of personality.
Although I hated the way Dragonball Z degenerated in endless fights, I still love his work and his style especially shines on personal projects and illustrations.
My favorite style of characters is from his early works in Dr. Slump and early Dragonball arcs.
But there also are gems in his one-shot stories, where you can see he can experiment and do original settings like COWA, where you can see a clone of Yangus
(best DQ character)
Also I love Sandland, post apocalyptic story with great art :
And the recent JACO Galactic Patrolman - which has a little surprise for Dragon Ball fans... Spoiler :
It's a prequel !
Of course his character and monster art for the DQ games, helps adding the humor and quirkyness that has forever left the Final fantasy games. I find the great diversity of the characters in these games refreshing ( A fat merchant, a knight in bright Pink Armor, a Wolf turned human...) and full of personality.
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
Its probably good to show how characters grow, even when goku "grew up" he still had those round lines which make him still look like a teenager or at the very least very early adult hood, it worked the same with vegeta aswell
I definitely prefer his work during the Dr. Slump/Dragon Ball 80's/early 90's era when he used to draw more cute/funny, as that seems to be his strong suit. I also love his vehicle illustrations (seriously, this guy is a motorcycle nut) & his watercolour work for Chrono Trigger.
Don't really care for his later stuff, however.
Don't really care for his later stuff, however.
Brian_FETO
Banned
Dragon Ball style is iconic and a huge part of my childhood
The fact that that style permeates through all of his work and just makes other characters look like Dragon Ball knockoffs is pretty weird though
The fact that that style permeates through all of his work and just makes other characters look like Dragon Ball knockoffs is pretty weird though
DragonGirl
Member
I like his style. It's far from my favorite but it's distinct, and not a lot of anime is distinct.
Yah I agree
Black characters look pretty bad.
In Dragonball females look good for the most part but in DQ it's pretty bad. DQ9 warrior class is my goto for bad women armor.
Nocturnowl
Member
Unique but a touch too samey at times, I just don't care for that trademark smug face that occupies a number of his characters. I tend to vastly prefer his more monster like designs.
Though I don't think Dragon Quest counts for him here, which is a shame because then it would confirm him for great in my books.
Then again looking over all the examples here there's still a lot to like about his human design, it's like a contradiction where he can create so much variety yet all I remember is that DBZ esque same face syndrome.
Though I don't think Dragon Quest counts for him here, which is a shame because then it would confirm him for great in my books.
Then again looking over all the examples here there's still a lot to like about his human design, it's like a contradiction where he can create so much variety yet all I remember is that DBZ esque same face syndrome.
Spiritwalker
Member
I'm not a huge fan, but it has grown on me over the years thanks to DQ and CT. His non-human stuff is pretty cool.
Kai Dracon
Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
I really like his work when he isn't rubber-stamping generic DBZ designs because DBZ ended up being dragged out so long, it seems to have created some bad habits.
He is not afraid of bold color and displays remarkable attention to detail in environments, costumes, and mechanical design. So iconic you can spot his stuff from a mile away. He's consistently more imaginative (outside later DBZ) than most comic artists I can name off the top of my head. His monster and animal characters are legendary.
His illustrations for RPG fantasy worlds are among the best, telling elaborate stories in a single frame and implying a vast world beyond the edges of the page.
I think it's unfortunate that many see his art as being "awful generic anime" because DBZ ran the look into the ground. The cheap TV animation just made it worse. So Toriyama, in the west at least, seems to be associated with deviant art hackiness and children drawing ani-may, when he is anything of the sort.
He is not afraid of bold color and displays remarkable attention to detail in environments, costumes, and mechanical design. So iconic you can spot his stuff from a mile away. He's consistently more imaginative (outside later DBZ) than most comic artists I can name off the top of my head. His monster and animal characters are legendary.
His illustrations for RPG fantasy worlds are among the best, telling elaborate stories in a single frame and implying a vast world beyond the edges of the page.
I think it's unfortunate that many see his art as being "awful generic anime" because DBZ ran the look into the ground. The cheap TV animation just made it worse. So Toriyama, in the west at least, seems to be associated with deviant art hackiness and children drawing ani-may, when he is anything of the sort.
I just love his style. When I was younger I read Dragon Ball every other month. Sadly most of the uniqueness of his style was lost in the transition to TV - especially during DBZ.
His Dragon Ball and The World Special Artbooks are fantastic though. Seeing all those detailed colored artworks really show of what he's capable.
And since someone brought up his capabilities in composition of an action scene: I never thought about it, but I was really confused by the flow of the panels when I tried reading Batman Comics a few years back (Hush) - the action just didn't flow very well and the transitions didn't make sense to me. I mostly read European Comics and a few Manga up to that point which have a completely different style and flow.
I've problems with this to this day, even if the quality is top notch, like in many Hellboy comics, the flow is often not as natural as in something like Dragon Ball.
His Dragon Ball and The World Special Artbooks are fantastic though. Seeing all those detailed colored artworks really show of what he's capable.
And since someone brought up his capabilities in composition of an action scene: I never thought about it, but I was really confused by the flow of the panels when I tried reading Batman Comics a few years back (Hush) - the action just didn't flow very well and the transitions didn't make sense to me. I mostly read European Comics and a few Manga up to that point which have a completely different style and flow.
I've problems with this to this day, even if the quality is top notch, like in many Hellboy comics, the flow is often not as natural as in something like Dragon Ball.
Megalosaro
Banned
Japanmanx3
Member
It's my childhood and I love it.
Omegasquash
Member
My first exposure to Toriyama was, oddly, a Dragon Quest anime. I think it had like 4 or 5 episodes, and I stopped looking for it awhile back. It was on a random TV channel out of Baltimore early on a Saturday morning, but it could've been a Sunday. Almost 25 years go, I think.
I'd kill to have a quality version of that on hand. Memories, man. I love that style. Lots of charm which, of course, I understand is subject. Eye of the beholder and all that.
I'd kill to have a quality version of that on hand. Memories, man. I love that style. Lots of charm which, of course, I understand is subject. Eye of the beholder and all that.
GuitarAtomik
Member
I like his actual style a lot and I think it's really fun, but I think his character design is REALLY limited. Most of his humanoid characters feel like they come from a Toriyama character creator where any character wouldn't look that out of place in a totally different Toriyama franchise. I'd like to see him push his costume design further.
Prof. Bathtub
Member
One of the artists with an instantly recognizable design idiom. From that I mean, another artist could draw his dome-houses and high-windshield cars and they would still be recognizably Toriyama.
Of the three general periods of his style (Round, Angular, and Digital), I'm with most people and prefer his rounded drawings (even the editors complained when he got pointier, which of course made him increase the spikiness to annoy them.) However, Chrono Trigger and Sandland show that this style can look very good when he puts time and effort into it.
Though Jaco might be a bit stiff, computers have helped him and his studio retain the spacial layout that gives the characters presence in their world.
Here's another article about some of the vehicles he based designs off of: http://www.zimmerit.moe/akira-toriyama-mechanical-designs/
Of the three general periods of his style (Round, Angular, and Digital), I'm with most people and prefer his rounded drawings (even the editors complained when he got pointier, which of course made him increase the spikiness to annoy them.) However, Chrono Trigger and Sandland show that this style can look very good when he puts time and effort into it.
In general, I like that he doesn't abuse forced-perspective like a number of other action manga artists.
Though Jaco might be a bit stiff, computers have helped him and his studio retain the spacial layout that gives the characters presence in their world.
Here's another article about some of the vehicles he based designs off of: http://www.zimmerit.moe/akira-toriyama-mechanical-designs/
Mechas and monsters are where he shines. The human males have about 10 different designs/faces between them, and the human females have less. The animal people are alright, but you can swap out any human character for another counterpart in a different series and you'd not lose a single thing. Like there's no uniquely Dragon Quest Humans, no uniquely Blue Dragon Humans, no uniquely Dragon Ball humans, etc...
Frozenprince
Banned
I love it when he's not being lazy as fuck with it. Which is a lot nowadays. But when he's on top of his game with DQ or something like Tobal, it's up there among my favorites.
I think he's an incredible artist who seems to be able draw just about anything and yet make it look distinctively his. It's incredible. His mechanical and creature designs are particularly stunning.
People joke about the spiky hair, but whatever. So the dude has some stuff that that makes his designs immediately recognizable? So what? Even then, it's not like everyone he draws looks like a Super Saiyin. I'd say that was more his style in the 90s
People joke about the spiky hair, but whatever. So the dude has some stuff that that makes his designs immediately recognizable? So what? Even then, it's not like everyone he draws looks like a Super Saiyin. I'd say that was more his style in the 90s
well said.
He is one of my favorite artists and his art is my #1 reason I'm pushing into practicing drawing.
His style is iconic, there's no doubt about that. Instantly recognizable and likeable (for the most part). I'm also on the team that prefers his Dr. Slump/ Early Dragon Ball style. Round and cute characters surrounded with top notch detailed vehicles because Toriyama was/is truly obsessed with model kits of cars, airplanes and spaceships (especially from Star Wars, he is an absolute fan of SW). I love his artstyle so much but I gotta agree that his late work is not that charming anymore due to the digital manipulation of his illustrations with those color gradients all over the place. Looks average. But it's still iconic.
I read in an interview that he changed his style to be more "rough" during the Dragon Ball era so he could focus more into the story, especially during the Frieza/Cell saga and it seems he decided to stay with that style from that point forward because his art hasn't changed that much since then.
Wow, super interesting and even educating stuff if you are into drawing comics/manga. Thanks for sharing!
His style is iconic, there's no doubt about that. Instantly recognizable and likeable (for the most part). I'm also on the team that prefers his Dr. Slump/ Early Dragon Ball style. Round and cute characters surrounded with top notch detailed vehicles because Toriyama was/is truly obsessed with model kits of cars, airplanes and spaceships (especially from Star Wars, he is an absolute fan of SW). I love his artstyle so much but I gotta agree that his late work is not that charming anymore due to the digital manipulation of his illustrations with those color gradients all over the place. Looks average. But it's still iconic.
I read in an interview that he changed his style to be more "rough" during the Dragon Ball era so he could focus more into the story, especially during the Frieza/Cell saga and it seems he decided to stay with that style from that point forward because his art hasn't changed that much since then.
PSY・S;230009472 said:
Wow, super interesting and even educating stuff if you are into drawing comics/manga. Thanks for sharing!
Frozenprince
Banned
Miura has god tier backgrounds and detailing, but IMO the greatest comic artist ever at drawing minutiae like plants, trees, designing environments and ESPECIALLY drawing mechanical things, nobody touches Toriyama.
Sibersk Esto
Banned
Love it. One of the most recognizable and iconic art styles ever. While I think it peaked in Namek saga era, it's very comforting to look at.
That is to say nothing of his skills at composition and flow. Dude was/is a master.
Look at this:
Look at how clear, crisp, and concise these panels are. Look at how every panel seamlessly guides your eye across the page in a neat 'reverse Z' pattern. Look at Vegeta's movements and see how each panel sets up the next. The use of foreground and background + long panels to manipulate how much time each action takes. The use of negative space to establish geography, and how the speed lines perfectly mesh with the blacks of Vegeta's uniform.
That is to say nothing of his skills at composition and flow. Dude was/is a master.
Look at this:
Look at how clear, crisp, and concise these panels are. Look at how every panel seamlessly guides your eye across the page in a neat 'reverse Z' pattern. Look at Vegeta's movements and see how each panel sets up the next. The use of foreground and background + long panels to manipulate how much time each action takes. The use of negative space to establish geography, and how the speed lines perfectly mesh with the blacks of Vegeta's uniform.
NipplesAndToes23
Member
I'm alright with it as long as he stays away from drawing black people.
Frozenprince
Banned
General rule of thumb for 99% of manga artists.
disappeared
Banned
Love it. He's my fave anime/video game artist.
hurricanes
Member
He drew some iconic characters, but nowadays his arts are samey, and his female armor designs are consistently asinine.
So not a fan.
So not a fan.
DiipuSurotu
Banned
In Dragon Ball he creates the designs from scratch, whereas in CT and DQ his drawings are based on initial concept sketches from other people (Masato Kato in the case of CT, and Yuji Horii in the case of DQ).
Here's a translated version of that picture. He was supposed to be some guy (child?) in a monster costume... lol
Here's another sketch of him (bottom left) where he was starting to look more like a frog:
NipplesAndToes23
Member
Don't tell me most manga artists draw black folks the same way he does?
Frozenprince
Banned
Very very very few even try.
Kishi is the only artist I feel like doesn't just make radically offensive caricatures or just not try.
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