At Anime Week, we look back at the undeniable influence of Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama and his direct influence on video games.
The whole world seemed to stand still following the announcement of Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama's passing on March 8, 2024. What his passing solidified was his undeniable influence on pop culture as a whole.
Since first publishing his hit comedy manga Dr. Slump, Toriyama's brilliant body of work has infiltrated the world. wrestling, american cartoonand hollywood blockbuster moviesFollowing the death of the legendary manga artist, creators around the world World-famous creator of Bleach, Naruto and One Piece and The same goes for up-and-coming manga artists. mourned his death and celebrated his pivotal influence on their work.
The father of shonen comics' influence on anime and manga goes without saying, but what's less talked about is Toriyama's influence on the field of video games. Sure, there are famous character designs for titles that became video game classics, like Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger, and Blue Dragon, but Toriyama's career has also inspired some of video game's biggest franchises.
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Dragon Ball Z and Dr. Slump are linchpins for numerous homages that have taken on a life of their own over time. While Dr. Slump exists unobtrusively as a series of deep-dive references for anime old boys, its Dragon Ball Z references are as recognizable as wild crosses. These Dragon Ball Z references range from Street Fighter duo Ken and Ryu's Kamehameha-esque fireball attacks, hadoukens, and the design and secret origins of Dragon Ball-era monkey boy Goku in Final Fantasy 9 protagonist Zidane, to Mega Man X6's villain. Everything about High Max is inspired by Cell. That final homage would come full circle in Dragon Ball Super, with Cell reborn as: Selmax.
The most common way that Dragon Ball Z influence seeps into video games is through a series of cheeky references and bold homages to Toriyama's magnum opus. The most popular reference in the DBZ gaming world is Vegeta's infamous quote about Goku's power level being “over 9,000.” Though the power level debate gets pushed aside as the series progresses, this famous quote would find a new home in countless video games as achievement flavor text. Games like World of Warcraft, Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, Devil May Cry 2, and even Red Dead Redemption all feature the iconic Dragon Ball Z phrase.
Apart from a string of subtle references that continue to this day in modern video games like Final Fantasy XVI and Overwatch 2, Dragon Ball Z's influence is more obvious in video games that even the most dedicated fans may not notice. Two characters that have deeply influenced the video games, but are less recognized as being influenced by Dragon Ball Z's creators, are Sonic the Hedgehog and red-overall clad Nintendo leader Mario.
Akira Toriyama's work also influenced Super Mario.
This is a special Manera that provides inspiration for Mario the raccoon dog and Arale from Dr. Slump. pic.twitter.com/yHBaNrGykz
— Nintendotos (@nintendatos) March 8, 2024
While Mario and Goku have nothing in common, Mario's raccoon suit form owes a lot to Arale from Toriyama's smash hit Dr. Slump. In Super Mario Bros. 3, Tanuki Suit Mario's cute walking animation closely resembles the stride of the raccoon-clad Arale from the opening of the Dr. Slump anime.Translation by SimplificationsMario creator Shigeru Miyamoto acknowledged the similarities between the two characters, saying that Arale's way of walking helped him perfectly replicate Mario's fluffy movements.
“The area around the waist is a large joint that controls the movement of the body. We created all the movements from the origin, such as when accelerating and leaning forward, and when changing direction and leaning left and right,” Miyamoto said. “In other words, Mario is running with the correct weight, just like Arale-chan.”
The raccoon suit, which would appear in numerous Mario games, also appears in the final episode of the Super Mario Bros. movie, where it helps a New York plumber save Luigi and the Mushroom Kingdom from destruction. Thank you very much, Arale-chan.
This isn't the first time Toriyama's work has influenced a gaming giant. In fact, Dr. Slump's anime opening, in which Arale-chan pops out from between a red ribbon and a circle with a star, inspired the iconic title screen of Sonic the Hedgehog. This resemblance may be just a coincidence, considering that in Chapter 8 of the 1994 sequel series “Dr. Slump's Miracle'', directed by Toriyama, there is a scene in which a grown Arale-chan overtakes Sonic the Hedgehog. isn't it.
Like many of the Blue Blurred Shadow legends, Toriyama's influence on Sonic is more than superficial.Sonic fans have long claimed that the blue blurred shadow Chaos Emeralds are an ironic reference to Dragon Ball Z's iconic wish-granting orb, but Sonic the Hedgehog 2 designer Yasushi Yamaguchi Denied the similaritiesstated that the Chaos Emeralds were not an influence from Dragon Ball, but rather a mechanical means to increase the stakes of the sequel game by having players collect seven Chaos Emeralds instead of six. That doesn't mean, though, that DBZ's influence on Sonic ended with the title screen.
Far from it. If anything, Sonic owes a lot of his cool factor to, you guessed it, Dragon Ball Z. In another thread, Yamaguchi revealed that Gohan and Piccolo's doting master-student relationship was the basis of Sonic and Tail's friendship.
“The relationship between these two characters in Sonic 2 was based on the image of Piccolo and Gohan,” Yamaguchi wrote. X/Twitter post following Toriyama's passing“So if you don't have a job [of] In Dragon Ball, the relationship between these two that exists to this day would not have existed. Thank you very much, Mr. Toriyama. ”
As I wrote in a previous Twitter post and in a series of columns, the relationship between these two in Sonic 2 was created based on the image of Piccolo and Gohan.
Therefore, without the work Dragon Ball, the relationship between these two people that continues to this day would not exist.
Thank you very much, Mr. Toriyama. pic.twitter.com/tKC8yg2hdm— Totoya (@judy_totoya) March 8, 2024
The Dragon Ball Z/Sonic rabbit hole goes even deeper. Aside from Super Sonic being a clear homage to Dragon Ball Z's Super Saiyan form, one of Sonic's time-traveling characters, Silver the Hedgehog, is directly inspired by Dragon Ball Z's Future Trunks. Like Future Trunks, Silver, who first appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), travels back in time from a post-apocalyptic world to help Sonic and friends save the timeline from catastrophe. A former Sega writer revealed in no uncertain terms: Silver based on future trunks During Sonic's 27th Anniversary Charity Stream on YouTube.
Furthering the fact that Dragon Ball Z's DNA can be found in almost every corner of the Sonic the Hedgehog series, Trunks' longtime Japanese voice actor also provides the voice Sonic in the 1993 Sega Sonic the Hedgehog video game.
Toriyama's influence on gaming is clear, but it also epitomizes the manga pioneer's awe-inspiring death hold on creators across disciplines and media for generations to come. All this beloved manga artist needs to accomplish with an already storied rap sheet is predicting that the launch of the PlayStation 6 will coincide with the release of Dragon Quest XIII. Mind you, this prediction came from a throwaway gag in the first Sandland installment, a chapter that dates back to 2000. Given that Dragon Quest XIII will be Toriyama's final contribution to the long-running RPG series, it's no surprise that Toriyama's early '08 gamer prediction would come true.
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN.
