To say that dragon ball is one of the best known animes internationally is not something far from reality. The creation of Akira Toriyama It has become a worldwide phenomenon, adored by a large number of followers. Although perhaps all this is due to dragon boy.
those who don’t know dragon boy it was a job of Akira Toriyama before dragon ball. This one told a much smaller story and was obviously not as well known as the adventures of Goku. However, we could say that this manga was a kind of prototype of what would be the author’s greatest work. Here we explain why.
What is Dragon Boy? Akira Toriyama’s precursor to Dragon Ball
dragon boy it was a one-shot manga that Akira Toriyama launched in 1983, a year before he started with dragon ball. The idea for this adventure arose because the author was a fan of martial arts movies, especially those starring Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. Plus, she added some of his passion for Chinese culture.
The story of dragon boy introduces us to Tangtong, an apparently normal boy who hides small dragon wings under his clothes. The adventures of this little one are full of humor in the style of dr slumpanother creation of Akira Toriyama, but with the element of martial arts. Is it starting to sound familiar to you?
As with his younger brother, Akira Toriyama took a lot of inspiration from chinese novel, Journey to the West to create dragon boy. Here Tangtong embarks on a long journey to escort a princess back to her country. Along the way they meet different characters, such as the main character’s martial arts teacher and a small cat that can change shape.
And if that was not enough, dragon boy has its own dragon balls. The difference is that these do not serve to make wishes, but rather they summon a small real dragon and later they cease to be useless forever. As I’m sure you already realized, dragon ball it has many similar elements. Now the question remains as to how much he reframed Akira Toriyama between both series.
A name change, a few minor tweaks, and you have one of the most successful franchises in anime.
A look at the protagonist dragon boy it is enough to see that it has many similarities with Goku. There are only three things that differentiate them: the hair, the dragon wings and their main weapon. As you may remember, the little Kakaroto he has an ape tail instead of dragon wings and chooses to face his enemies with his holy staff. The innocent personalities and the mastery in the art of combat is something that was maintained between both manga of Akira Toriyama.
The princess escorted by the protagonist of dragon boy It’s like a preview version of bulma. Both belong to a rich family and are not unsuitable for combat, in addition to having a rather strong and spoiled character. This in the aspect of the personality, since in the design the princess has a very marked resemblance to Milkthe wife of Goku.
So much Goku What tang They are children who live isolated from the rest of society, so their first encounter with someone of the opposite sex is quite an event. Both of them were used only to the presence of an older man, who is their caretaker. On dragon ball we had grandpa Gohan and here to the master of Tangtongwho is still alive. A curious extra similarity is that this trainer is transported on a flying cloud and teaches the protagonist to use his Ki.
We had mentioned that in their travels the protagonists of dragon boy they meet a cat that can change shape. This would make it the predecessor of puar and Oo Longprobably more of the friend of yamucha due to physical similarity. But perhaps one of the greatest similarities between dragon ball and dragon boy from Akira Toriyama are their scenarios inspired by Chinese culture. Full of high leafy mountains and green valleys.
The foundations of Akira Toriyama’s greatest work
So far it is not known why Akira Toriyama decided to leave dragon boy to start practically from scratch with dragon ball. It is evident that many ideas of the adventures of Tangtong liked them, as he made some adjustments to them and used them again with Goku and company.
Even though dragon boy is not very well known and is very difficult to find, there is no doubt that it has earned its place in the legacy of Akira Toriyama. His foundations were what gave strength to dragon ball to become the great global phenomenon that we know today. Did you already know this manga?
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