With a new anime series titled Dragon Ball Super premiering next month, Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball franchise really does seem like an immortal series which will never really end, however, did you know that one of the men who contributed much to its success thinks it was supposed to end right after the defeat of Frieza?
Kazuhiko Toshima is now the Senior Managing Director (or CEO) of Shueisha, which is responsible for publishing various magazines like Weekly Shounen Jump, which serialized Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Nisekoi, and of course, Dragon Ball. These days, he’s pretty much the head honcho when it comes to the various manga magazines, however, in his earlier days, Toshima was the editor of Dragon Ball and worked very closely with Toriyama. In a recent interview with Livedoor News, Toshima shocked a lot of people when he revealed that Dragon Ball “should have wrapped up with the Frieza saga”.
He was asked about his impressions on Dragon Ball now that he’s not involved in the franchise directly, and he wondered “when was a good time to end it?” and then said that shocking statement. He then clarified the statement by saying
“This is just a ‘what if,’ but I think if Toriyama had ended it at the Frieza Saga, then he would’ve gone on to write a third hit manga”
In his opinion, the logical ending for Dragon Ball should have been with the Frieza saga, as he was clearly not a huge fan of the Android saga and the Cell saga. He famously said “If you’re going to have an old fart fight ladies, then it’s best to call it a day.”, and this is regarding the DBZ villains, Dr. Gero and Ardroids 17 and 18.
However, at that time, Dragon Ball was really popular and ending it just then and there would be illogical as it became the “cash cow” of sorts for Shueisha. However, around that time, Toshima was already transferred to fellow-Shueisha magazine, V-Jump and he admitted that he regretted to not be able to help Toriyama during that period, as it proved to be a tough time for the legendary manga artist.
As Toshima stated, Toriyama could have started a third manga title, which would be different from his Dr. Slump or Dragon Ball mangas, if he ended it at the Frieza saga, however, that is still a huge “What If?” scenario as we wouldn’t know if that series would have lived up to the hype at that time. Well, I guess we would never find out as Dragon Ball is still as immensely popular today.
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Source: Livedoor News via Kotaku
"Dragon Ball should have ended in the Frieza saga" - former Dragon Ball editor
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