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Legendary mangaka Akira Toriyama was not only the creator of series likeDr. SlumpandDragon Ball, but he had also ventured into the world of video games. Toriyama had worked on multiple games, likeChrono TigerandBlue Dragon. But his biggest achievement in the gaming world was his character designs for the popular role-playing gameDragon Quest.
While Toriyama earned a lot of recognition withDragon Quest, he was not particularly a fan of his works in the series. In 2017, whenDragon Questcelebrated its 30th anniversary, Toriyama shared a special letter where he claimed that he would have never agreed to work on the video game if he had known that it would have gone for so long.
The manga creator also gave a reason why he was not interested in working onDragon Questanymore and would rather have someone else take his job and design the characters.
Akira Toriyama Would Have Never Signed Up forDragon Quest
Toriyama’s letter was shared on theAnd Now Towards a New Legend~ TV special to mark the 30th anniversary of the game. This letter was later translated byCrunchyroll. In the letter, Toriyama admitted to the fact that he had no knowledge aboutDragon Questwhen he was signing up as the character designer of the game.
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Toriyama stated:
“It was very easy to convince me to take on the job of character designer for Dragon Quest. “What the heck is a role-playing game?”, I thought. That was the sort of time it was. Really, if I had known that it would still be going on after 30 years, I don’t think I would have taken the job! Honestly, if I had known how long it would last, I would have politely declined.”
The manga creator claimed that he had been working on the series for thirty years and that he would never have agreed to work on the game if he had known it would run for as long as it does.Akira Toriyama’sBird Studio has been the game’s designer, and they co-own the copyrights with a few other companies.
Akira Toriyama’s Reason for Losing Interest inDragon Quest
In the letter, Toriyama also listed his reasons for not wanting to work onDragon Quest. He claimed that he was running out of characters to draw for the game and that there were other capable designers who were doing a better job than him, which ultimately made his work easier than it was when he started.
Toriyama claimed:
“I’m not good at doing the same thing over and over again. Designing characters for Dragon Quest is fun but difficult work. Nowadays, there are a lot of people working on the series, and all of the ones responsible for designing characters are good and serious people, so I don’t have to do as many designs. I’m personally not terribly interested in designing wholesome characters, so I don’t have many variations to offer.”
“He wasn’t ultimately the right one”: Akira Toriyama Almost Killed Goku Forever to Have a Different Dragon Ball Lead Before Change of Heart
According to Toriyama,Dragon Questwas based on a fixed time period, which limited his imagination to drawing the characters. However, he still contributed to the character designs ofDragon Quest XI, which was the last game he worked onbefore his demisein March 2024.
Tarun Kohli
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2959
Tarun Kohli is the Senior Anime Writer at FandomWire, with over 2,900 published articles. He currently specializes in critiquing One Piece and other Shonen anime. A passionate fan of the genre, his love for thoughtful analysis reflects his genuine appreciation for the art of anime. His deep understanding of anime culture has earned recognition from industry figures such as Adi Shankar and the creators of Blood of Zeus.
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Akira Toriyama
