Dragon Ball Super Manga Artist Captures Gohan Beast’s Mental State In The Manga As Toriyama Envisioned
The Shueisha Mirai Bunko version of the film’s Light Novel described Gohan Beast’s smile as originating from a Saiyan’s love for battle.
The author of the Dragon Ball Super manga, Toyotaro, comments on Gohan Beast and the Super Hero arc in V Jump’s DBS Interval Special Vol. 2 – Master & Student, where he drew an illustration of Gohan Beast with a devilish grin that matches with the movie.
Source: Dragon Ball official site
This was published on May 21, 2024, when the interval special revisited the history of Goku’s training with his successive masters, as well as the development of the master-disciple relationship between Piccolo and Gohan!
For this illustration, Toyotaro comments that he drew Gohan Beast with a fearless smile just to respect the movie makers, despite the manga having a different version of the Super Hero arc.
(Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero)
In addition, he emphasizes that the manga provided ample opportunity for him to delve into the narrative and intricately develop Gohan Beast, as the author depicted the shifts in Gohan’s mental condition in his beastly form with greater intensity than Toriyama first conceived for the film.
Oftentimes, the screenplay for films becomes excessively lengthy for filmmakers to accommodate. Toriyama’s original script may have been reduced by eliminating minor sections while retaining the core essence of the final movie. This occurrence has transpired in the case of Dragon Ball Super: Broly, and there is no reason as to why it would not have occurred in the case of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
Toriyama likely provided a description of Gohan Beast to Toyotaro during the manga’s writing process, which is likely what Toyotaro meant when he said, “He wanted to draw the Gohan his master envisioned.”
The Shueisha Mirai Bunko version of the film’s Light Novel described Gohan Beast’s smile as originating from a Saiyan’s love for battle:
“…Quite the contrary, he even started to show a grin on his face.
Was this perhaps caused by his instincts as a Saiyan, who were so famously fond of battle?”
Toyotaro’s exact comment on his illustration is as follows:
“In the manga version of the Cell Max battle, there were specific reasons for omitting the “Gohan Beast Smiling Scene” that was featured in the movie. However, I was able to include this fearless smile in the manga now, and it truly looks impressive when Gohan snaps!
In the “Super Hero” arc, having more pages allowed me to depict Gohan’s mental state with even greater intensity, just as Toriyama-sensei envisioned. I hope this aspect captures your attention.”
About Dragon Ball:
Dragon Ball is a manga series by Akira Toriyama. It first began its serialization in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1984.
The manga was later adapted into a multitude of animated series, movies, and games.
The franchise consists of five different anime series, about 21 animated movies, and around 10 games spanning various platforms, from Famicon to Playstation and Xbox.
Synopsis of the Dragon Ball anime:
The story of Dragon Ball follows the life of Son Goku, a monkey-tailed boy loosely based on the traditional Chinese folk tale Journey to the West, from his life and adventures as a child all the way up to being a grandfather.
During his life, he fights many battles and eventually becomes (arguably) the strongest martial artist in the universe. He is not without help, however: the comic boasts a large ensemble cast of martial artist heroes and villains which provide the conflict that drives the story.
Source: Twitter
