Dragon Ball 10 Times Akira Toriyamas Editors Changed Everything

Akira Toriyama wasn't behind all of the crazy plot twists in Dragon Ball. Toriyama's editors played a role in these decisions.

Akira Toriyama is one of the most well-known Japanese writers there is and a part of that success is, of course, the Dragon Ball series. Everyone knows Akira as the father behind this series and a great piece of the shonen genre in general but did you know he had a bit of direction from a few people behind the scenes.

Yup, Toriyama actually received criticism and had to implement a lot of changes to the series whenever one of his editors stepped in. These changes are quite numerous and this list will be taking a look at a few of them that actually helped make Dragon Ball into what it is today.

10 THEY MADE HIM ADD ANDROIDS 17 AND 18

Originally the Android Saga was supposed to just revolve around Androids 19 and 20/Doctor Gero. Thinking about this original vision of the saga, it makes a lot of sense and would be the perfect way to cap things off with Goku's original relations to the Red Ribbon Army he built in the original Dragon Ball.

However, one of his editors called and basically asked him, "What's up with fatso and the old geezer?" This made him add the much younger "villains" Androids 17 and 18.

9 THEY MADE HIM ADD CELL

Yeah, the addition of Androids 17 and 18 didn't go so smoothly with Toriyama's editor either. In fact, he cared even less for the new main antagonists than he did the "old geezer and fatso", saying " What, this time it's just some brats?"

This led Toriyama to finally introduce the final and true main antagonist of the saga, the ever famous Cell. However, the Android Saga story doesn't end there either.

8 THEY MADE HIM ADD CELL'S TRANSFORMATION

Every Dragon Ball fan remembers that Cell began his appearance in the series as a scary bug-like creature. Many fans even have this form of Cell at the top of the tier list when it comes to the character's transformation. Well, Toriyama's second editor wouldn't agree.

"He looks ugly. Of course he can transform right?" he remarked. This took Toriyama in a new direction and made him create Cell's second form.

7 THEY MADE HIM ADD PERFECT CELL

In the final big change to the Android Saga, Cell was given yet another transformation. Toriyama's second editor wasn't satisfied with his second transformation and said "This time doesn't he look like a moron? Hurry up and make him into his Perfect Form!"

Thus, the Android Saga became what it is and is praised for today, all thanks to a couple of complaints from Toriyama's editors.

6 THEY ALLOWED GOKU TO GROW UP

For a while it was just thought that Goku would remain a child for the entirety of the Dragon Ball series. Toriyama made it a point that if Goku couldn't eventually grow up then he couldn't continue on the series.

This time around his editor allowed him to have his way telling him, "You can have the protagonist grow up, just don’t scare me like that!"

5 THEY LET HIM MAKE GOHAN THE PROTAGONIST

When the Buu Saga came around Toriyama actually wanted for Gohan to take over as the new main protagonist of the series with Goku dead. While this plan didn't end up panning out for Goku's son, it definitely originally panned out for Toriyama.

His editors let him go through with this plan without any hassle which is a bit surprising. Too bad Gohan ended up right back in the back seat.

4 THEY MADE HIM KEEP THE SERIES GOING

While the rumors of Toriyama picking deciding to end the series in different areas may not be completely true but the fact remains that the famed mangaka planned to end the series before the Buu Saga.

This was confirmed with Toriyama during an interview when he stated, "I worked on the series for almost 10 years. When I reached about the third year, I was really pushing my limit, but the original editors of “Weekly Shōnen Jump” in Japan made me continue the story. I have to thank them because it was then that I really started to appreciate and enjoy creating the manga. I was able to continue for ten years, but ten years really was the limit."

3 THEY MADE HIM CONTINUE PAST THE FIRST ARC

Besides the rumors of the series ending in the Z Era before the Buu Saga, Akira Toriyama is confirmed to have originally end the series with the defeat of Pilaf and the retrieval of the Dragon Balls.

However, his editors told him he should bring back Master Roshi, create Krillin, and end up making the series into the battle shonen it is today.

2 THEY GOT TORIYAMA TO CHANGE THE SERIES'S TONE

Editor Yu Kondo began as a shojo manga editor before being brought over to Toriyama and Dragon Ball. He is the man that made Dragon Ball into what it is today.

Once the series hit the Z Era with the Saiyan arc, he got Toriyama to make the series get a lot more serious. This is one of the reasons that the situations got a lot more dire once Z hit.

1 THEY GOT TORIYAMA TO MAKE THE BATTLES A LOT BIGGER

Another thing that Yu Kondo got Toriyama to do is to introduce even more combat into the series. Due to him, the battles became the flashy light shows everyone knows them for.

He also came up with the idea of introducing a lot more villains with higher power levels which got the heroes to get a lot stronger as well.