Akira Toriyama's Process to Designing Characters

Over the years Akira Toriyama has given us a glimpse into his process of designing some of the most iconic characters in shonen from Frieza to Goku. Join me today as we discuss his process collected from several interviews over the decades to somewhat gather a better understanding of these characters came to be!
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#1 come up with characters personality #2 Come up with design of the face with loose pencil sketches #3 then move on the body and clothing #4 Then lastly move on the color #5 Simplify your characters as much as possible! #6 sometimes take inspiration #7 give characters a distinguishing silhouettes Golden nugget: Simplify your design in a interesting way!

[@RealityKun]

Elaborate on silhouette

@RealityKun Basically the very shape of the character that is very striking. Look at frieza and goku. We all know goku by his height and hair. We know vegeta by his hair and body shape. We know Majin buu by his banana head shape and his fat body with the cape big gloves. That stuff!

[@RealityKun]

@ Thank you!

[@mechajay3358]

Toriyama's Designing Philosophy: _"Less is More."_

[@DankMayogetsnogirls]

Pretty sad to hear Toyotaro didn't follow that philosophy :(

[@Timidogenerico]

That's architecture usual philosophy and it works

[@user-gk6nt5gi5n]

Minimalism art movement

[@RedShadowAMV]

unless it's ssj3

[@jasonone8726]

Dank Mayo Huh?

[@SoulsOfWisdom]

It's interesting how the rejected examples sometimes get morphed into other characters.

[@migy9k599]

saw a buu lookin monaka

[@SoulsOfWisdom]

@@migy9k599 The one that stood out for me is the Yakon looking Buu.

[@justajobro1266]

In the buy sketches there was a guy who looked like botamo

[@dustmasterflex1541]

@@justajobro1266 His characters look the same.

[@turbonx]

I think that Frieza prototype may have inspired Dodoria

[@snowsugardashietheaircatgi932]

RIP Mr. Akira, thank you for making one of the greatest anime series in the whole universe, fly high and keep collecting those Dragon Balls. 🙏🙏 For those unaware, yes, Akira Toriyama died on March 1st from acute subdural hematoma, his family and some people he worked with announced it today. He was 68, and his funeral was already held, but his family does not want to be interviewed at the moment, so in the meantime, pay your respects by watching DB and collecting manga too, it’s a proper way to honor a legend. 🙏🙏😇😇

[@2eze_]

I feel like Toriyama has a goldmine of unused character designs like his early designs for buu saga gohan were pretty cool especially one where gohan had his base form cell saga hair cut a bit shorter and a trunks like jacket

[@aegisreflector1239]

Check out Toriyamas character designs for Tobal number 1 and 2. He put really cool shoes on most the cast

[@maxithalo7796]

If you look at his early designs for cell, one of the faces is exactly like beerus, so yeah, the guy does keep tabs on a lot of good designs that he can ocasionally use later

[@polterghost_]

Theres this one Cell design which was reused recently in Dragon Quest 11

[@tumamaeswatona7827]

I believe this design ended up being used for Goten in GT, except for the jacket

[@BlazeCon97]

@@polterghost_ And there's the Abbot in Dragon Quest IX which looks like an alternate version of second form Cell when he gets transformed

[@busymike]

Toriyama is a genius. I love his clean designs.

[@vivthevov]

Fat frieza isn't real, fat frieza can't hurt you Fat Frieza:

[@pinball-wizard]

I’ve dubbed him Fredoria

[@Kruegernator123]

Super Kami Frieza

[@theoneandonlykyle9800]

Frieza the hutt

[@taylorbenson6284]

"Its no good if you can't tell who's who." Goku, bardock, goku black, turles, goten, goku jr.

[@forgottenrelics1197]

Lol but to be fair only Goku and Goten where created by Toriyama. The rest where from Toei, although he did redesign Bardock so that kinda counts haha

[@taylorbenson6284]

@@forgottenrelics1197 lol you're right. I'll let that one slide...for now

[@tastedivinefury2198]

Well u can tell😭

[@pumpingpriest5893]

to be fair though, all of these characters never share the same chapters for the exception of black and turles. For example: Goten looks like kid goku but goku is grown up for a long up until then and the same thing goes for bardock.

[@tastedivinefury2198]

@@pumpingpriest5893 Goten looks like Mini adult goku at best but u can sorta distinguish them

[@maxw9833]

Damn a lesson can be learned from Toriayama, "simple is sometimes better" look at final form Frieza that is as simple as it gets. Take away the weird horns, body shapes, body armors, and just make him look humanoid, his simplistic, weak-looking design is what makes him more menacing, especially the eyes......damn those red eyes gives me chills

[@impact9546]

makes a lot of sense that he would start with heads and faces. those features tend to be the most focused on in comics and storytelling do to their ability to express and emote character feelings better than any other body part. great video as always, i always learn something new and useful from them.

[@GeekedOutNeckbeard]

"it's no good if you can't tell who's who" *Toyotaro has left the chat*

[@jasonone8726]

What do you mean?

[@zamasu3563]

?

[@najmashahin9427]

What?

[@SCRPN_OFFICIAL]

What does this even mean.

[@kda9x]

​@@SCRPN_OFFICIALscientists have been pondering for years now

[@h.bblaze8969]

Toriyama has perfected the "less is more" technique when it comes to art style and storylines 😆

[@tenyson4187]

Rest in Peace Toriyama-Sensei

[@vindicsun5894]

R.I.P Goat

[@labeilleautiste6318]

I love how we certainly discovered so many aspect of Toriyama as an hommage its beautiful

[@dlbutters7164]

Aw man, i wish your videos were like 1 hour long, they're so good!

[@Ben-hw7wn]

@@ajmusiq6742 you’d watch 1hour bruh 😂😂😂😂😂 doubt it

[@riturajrabha4214]

no

[@robinthestate6548]

@@Ben-hw7wn i would if it's as good as this 5 minutes.

[@rudtastic]

less is more.

[@DarkNinja-bf6hk]

@@Ben-hw7wn i put on hour long vids while im doing something else

[@SentinalSlice]

Rest in peace

[@thecool_dude7490]

3:53 Wow, im not use to seeing krillin that tall!!!

[@forgottenrelics1197]

Same lol and especially different considering how Toriyama drew him so short in BoG!

[@Punchout101]

@@forgottenrelics1197 I heard that the character models in BoG were changed by the animators, though don't quote me on that

[@TroisB]

I think the new animated series made him a little bit shorter than he used to be in the manga (+ Goku was only a teenager on this screenshot)

[@mpoops2936]

well, Krillin was in fact taller than we've depicted him. sometimes they make him shorter for some jokes in DBZ but without anyone knowing he gets gradualy shorter during the series. Just watch the Piccolo Jr. arc once more and you can see how tall Krillin actually is when he's a teenager like goku

[@beezelsub]

@@mpoops2936 He's supposed to be 5'0 I believe. Short, but they're drawing him like a foot shorter in super.

[@Dewaynesite1]

To me the removal of Goku jumpsuit logo or Vegeta armor changes felt like the characters were growing like real life people. If you look at Goku and the gang and Vegeta in the Saiyan's arc vs. The Cell's saga you see the big change in each character from attitude to their style.

[@billpk49]

Rip Akira...

[@FredMains]

Rest In Peace Akira Toriyama

[@Matisyahuc]

a 4 min video that will helps lots of people who are trying to come up with characters.. my friend, this is like finding a diamond in the desert

[@nikodemoliniak4482]

Rip Akira toriyama Thanks Akira for everythink

[@openingdown3051]

No matter how long your videos are, they’re always really fun to watch because I always learn things that I probably wouldn’t know without you. These analysis videos have taught me a lot about Toriyama and other mangaka and animators’ styles to the point where I decided to start a project where I redraw frames from DBS, so I can thank you for inspiring me to do things such as that.

[@forgottenrelics1197]

That's awesome man and no problem :)

[@lonecolamarine]

0:05 That is just creative AF bloody hell xD

[@superbn0va]

I definitely prefer “SIMPLE” designs

[@JaydenNwakuche]

Rip to the goat

[@MisterBirju]

"A green human feels unnatural, which is good."

[@Tricolorrr533]

1:31 there's a Majin Beerus there wtf

[@doggyfizzle719]

Looks more like a skinny babidi

[@cavemanbuddyolpal]

0:09 that’s not a forehead that’s a fivehead

[@demetrius459]

No, it's an over 9000 head

[@abdouaboud7490]

Man looking like frieza third form if he go bald

[@IronLordFitness]

Toriyama won the title of "art genius". I think he and Matt Groening are the greatest graphic artist of the last 30 years. Their respective style is so recognizable, they had so much success with what they created that yeah, to me they're true geniuses.

[@jamaaldagreatest2748]

If we’re talking comics too then I’d have to give Alex Ross a vote too. All three styles are incredibly different but they’re all amazing for what they try to convey with their art.

[@JBAnti]

I felt the impatience in my legs imagining drawing all that over and over

[@cardinalrule6810]

When I was younger, I thought Trunks had one of the coolest character designs I had ever seen. And Dragon Ball Z is the greatest anime of all time.

[@supremerose8716]

Forgottenrelics is so underrated he does such good videos and he has a fraction of what he deserves

[@AristoSwizzy]

I really hope that you will post more often because I really enjoy your videos,keep it up man we will always support you

[@forgottenrelics1197]

I do this part time and getting one video out a week is hard enough haha so sorry about the lack of content and thanks also for your support :)

[@user-fg9dc9nn4o]

That hybrid of perfect and first form cell looks sick.

[@ykoijin1310]

Cell if he absorbed 18 first

[@songoku7715]

Thank you for this analysis

[@erockbrox8484]

I will tell you the secret to good character design. Make the character easily identifiable. Make the character cool. Make the character something that once you see it, you can never forget it Give the character some personality. Sit down with the character and really try and bring this character to life, such that, you can predict how the character will act in certain situations. This makes the story telling so much easier and convincing.

[@black.sasuke.uchiha]

This was a really insightful video. I subscribed!

[@bonkingtimez]

1:25 We just gonna ignore that badass dragon face buu sketch. Honestly prefer that design from the original

[@zamasu3563]

It's really cool

[@casual-disaster]

I'm glad I'm not the only artist who starts with the face first.

[@butternutbandit5722]

“Tries to design character types he hasnt done much of before”. He must have given up on that philosophy a loooong time ago

[@Easy420skate]

He hardly has a hand in things nowadays.

[@Easy420skate]

@Some characters aren't allowed nowadays compared to the time he is talking about

[@mikansan8216]

Toyotaro designs most of the new characters with help and advice from Toriyama.

[@devforfun5618]

what are you taking about, tournament of power has a lot of interesting characters, the gods, the robots, the angels, the sailor moon squad, he even managed to make different powers

[@Ineedgames]

@@patrickmulopo7957 I feel like the closest we got to Toriyama in the ToP were the magical girl universe. Even their strongest warrior turned into a fat buu which is very Toriyama.

[@onyxt3589]

I really enjoy these Toriyama vids.

[@rickysword3945]

I’m projecting my own manga and videos like this are gold… thank you Sir! 🙏🏻 Dragonball is such a great influence to me, not only for my art style, for my whole life. I started with martial arts long time ago and kungfu is my path. Still I read Dragonball and watch the anime and still it gives me emotions and inspiration to be stronger and to improve day by day

[@aaronrowell6943]

It's always interesting even though I'm not an artist to hear people's design philosophies Heard from a lot of artists that makes sense that he starts with the face because they bring up that the eyes are usually the most important part of a face and a design in general. The less is more approach certainly interesting and sometimes this the smaller character is usually the more powerful they are, not that you can't have big and imposing characters like King piccolo but a lot of his buildings would be especially in their final forms would be shorter than the protagonist: Vegeta, Frieza, kid Buu being examples. So when he makes them tall like Cell it makes a point like cell vs gohan

[@dusky9705]

Imagine if he went with the cell with hair like I wonder how would that work

[@wideface344]

Great video as usual man!

[@forgottenrelics1197]

Appreciate it!

[@GatSaiden]

Great video, as always. Saludos from Argentina!

[@TehWhiteTiger]

'It's no good if you can tell whos who' One of the reasons i struggle to enjoy a lot of action manga, so hard to follow but Dragoball despite its hugely action based premise was always a claen read to me.

[@DaniGerman1499]

Fun to think about some of those other designs and how they would have worked in the show

[@noisemarine561]

Thanks for keeping it brief

[@forgottenrelics1197]

no probs

[@oussamagharbi5419]

dbz staff : what design will we chose for freeza? toryama : yes

[@mr.purple250]

*toei

[@ahmedbenkhalfallah6502]

I swear if i had a dollar whenever someone shows Akira Toriyama and uses a picture of Go Nagai (creator of Devilman and Mazinger) id have enough to buy a PS5

[@lonecolamarine]

OOOH so that's why Dragon quest's art looks so much like DBZ

[@haniflawson9225]

Toriyama will sometimes swipe elements from his other designs, too. The most obvious example is Broly resembling Super Trunks, though that was on purpose. Other times, it's less noticeable. For instance, someone pointed out that Gohan's superhero costume has the same colors as Cell's first form. I doubt it means anything, rather, Toriyama probably needed a color scheme and decided on that. But those small details make his character designs even more interesting, like Easter eggs.

[@endergenesis2618]

In the thumbnail frieza looks like dodoria

[@keanusamuels1782]

Thank you for including me

[@bigoof4101]

farmer w the shotgun was definitely an unused character design that he somehow caught a liking to

[@sigiligus]

His early art was absolutely amazing, it's always been a shame to me that he kind of got burned out drawing and simplified everything.

[@kevincmejia]

Imagine being drawing weekly manga over 10 years with no rest, anyone would be burned out in less than that

[@nolahahnshouse3389]

Rest in peace Toriyama

[@codeninja100]

Bro this is gold thank you

[@GameArts1]

Cool take on his works!

[@lucky_luck5411]

Thank you for this content.

[@0geekAlot0]

Video is neat and clean, very rare nowadays.

[@majinchu6938]

short and sweet. nice.

[@thrwwccnt5845]

you got a chuckle out of me for putting a picture of Go Nagai with the caption" Akira Toriyama"

[@JezzmanGAMES]

Plot twist: the drawing at 2:44 isn't sped up.

[@esophagoose]

This was pretty interesting

[@concretebreakdowns9656]

Great content 💯

[@Wutwut1n1]

Very nice

[@christianbanks7458]

You see Goku Gohan and vegeta look more and more older and mature as the saga’s progress, that is incredible skill from toriyama to pull that off 👏

[@vinceamaro1382]

I love the opening.

[@mgshadow155]

Therapist: Buures isn’t real, he can’t hurt you Buures: 1:25

[@skylean7268]

0:07 give us this frieza back 😤😤💯

[@forgottenrelics1197]

big facts

[@dl0680]

Imagine if we got that C h o n k y Frieza as his "Final form" in the series (From the thumbnail). Not even SSJ Goku could be able to ki blast that belly. 😂

[@MrMrannoying]

I liked the length of this one

[@dr._meme4290]

I love these videos

[@juanm.3840]

I wish I can draw like Akira Toriyama

[@ketamineaddict5659]

It’s ironic how the designs are all very different but every character more or less has a very similar face? Especially the humans

[@lucassantossj]

You notice it in his game character designs. There are basically a Gokuesk, a Bulmaesk, a Pilafesk...

[@ketamineaddict5659]

@@lucassantossj exactly, still great just very similar.

[@freeckotreecko]

Doctor: Chonky Frieza doesn't exist, he can't harm you. Chonky Frieza:

[@cantdestroyher7245]

I think the beauty of his design is that he doesn’t try to design anyone to look “cool”

[@xenogen372]

Yea I wish he did more stuff for DB. Nowadays characters are designed for people who don't watch the series and think that every character is supposed to have the badass, angry looking eyes that the Saiyans have

[@animzen7653]

@@xenogen372 i like grenola's charcter design but he is designed by toyitaro

[@Angel_mode]

i went back in time to 2011 when flashing pictures in the screen was funny

[@bigrhys8684]

I remember seeing an episode of dragonball when I was like 8 and the only character I remembered was piccolo and then when I was 12 I got into Dragonball more

[@bossman9259]

Thank god your vid is short otherwise i wouldn't click on it

[@connorbeith3232]

Now that thumbnail is what I call a glowup!

[@ddeviledart7519]

I saw a couple of the cell designs in the vid, and holy shitttt 🙌🏽🔥, kinda wish they used the horned on his head design

[@samantharawlins3404]

R.I.P Akira Toriyama😢

[@eggzisstenshulldredd1626]

SAME, I knew about Frieza and Dragon Ball (Z Kai) before I even knew it was anime! I just thought it was another cartoon on Nicktoons Primetime!

[@Egalemanly]

Genius

[@ObeseMommy]

when it comes to character designs noone can beat Akira Toriyama

[@queenskelaton6507]

I think my favorite part of his design process is his tendency to introduce double acts so you can get a feel for characters quickly

[@omega2460]

0:11 says "please help7" if you're wondering

[@elderlyinfant3917]

Reminds me a lot of Alex Toth's process: "Strip it all down to essentials, then draw the hell out of what's left"

[@dustybandit0214]

Oh god was Frieza originally supposed to be like dodoria I’m glad we have the current frieza instead of the one in the thumbnail

[@deanfenech]

Great Video!!!

[@forgottenrelics1197]

thanks :)

[@mymouseaintbroken8255]

give this man 520,000 subs

[@kaioken654]

I heard one time that final form frieza is what Toriyama thought aliens looked like

[@forgottenrelics1197]

Yeah I kinda remember hearing that although I know for certain that he based frieza's design of a queen so I'm unsure how accurate that is

[@kaioken654]

@@forgottenrelics1197 maybe it's just the final form with the round head, it looks alienish to me

[@roccygnus2570]

Frieza's third form is a definite reference to Alien

[@kaioken654]

@@roccygnus2570 that much is clear

[@antoniodbz5850]

So Krillin was designed to be up to Goku's shoulder? In "Dragon Ball" he was that much tall, but Z and Super made him super short!!! THIS MAKES ME MAD!!!

[@jasonone8726]

Nah, that was just in the character sheets, Krillin was much shorter in the DB manga.

[@affaaffaafjkfabhjkfa3708]

I didnt know Freezer and Dodoria fused

[@thedudecalledalan9095]

I love squad villains and would love to see a Ginyu Force 2.0