Originally released as 3 separate volumes, but collected into one big hardcover omnibus here, Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater is a collection of a lot of Toriyama's shorter works, ranging from his earliest published story, Wonder Island from 1978, up through Go! Go! Ackman, which concluded in 1994.
There are also one-page strips after some of the stories about what was going on with Toriyama at the time, or the reaction to the stories. For example, Toriyama (whose rendition of himself is a lot like those Shyguys from Super Mario Bros. 2) excitedly calling his editor after Wonder Island was published, only to get some bad news about its reception. Or, after the flop of Wonder Island 2, that his editor recommended he try doing a comic with a female lead (Tomato the Cutesy Gumshoe, which is what the panels at the top are from), and that its success spurred him on to eventually create Dr. Slump.
Given the massive, ongoing, success of Dragon Ball, with the tournaments and power-ups and screaming and ass-kicking (which Toriyama's very good at drawing), it's easy to forget Toriyama might be more of a comedy writer. Early Dragon Ball had a fair amount of that, even during the fights (see Krillin winning against Bacterian when he remembers he doesn't have a nose and can't smell anything) and I think Dr. Slump was primarily an absurdist comedy series.
The earliest works are almost entirely comedy. Toriyama's characters in Wonder Island wouldn't look that out of place in an issue of MAD Magazine, with their bizarre heads and almost miniaturized bodies. The stories themselves are an almost constant string of jokes, puns, sight gags or just strange shit that happens for seemingly no reason. The World War 2 pilot hoping to escape gets hit with fire from an artillery gun. When wondering how he's alive, the characters demonstrate they use the gun as part of a giant slingshot to shoot rocks at birds. When their shot misses the target and the little fairy asks the caveman what they'll eat now, he shrugs and suggests coal. If there's a logical progression to that, it's either lost in the translation or the logic is, "anything goes."
Toriyama doesn't abandon comedy over time, but he does dial it back. Mad Matic involves some guy and his winged dog finding a giant fridge in the desert being guarded by a couple of jungle gals. There's still a fair amount of silliness, but there's also just enough plot and character interaction that the story breathes a bit, allowing the comedy time to land.
The tone of the humor is questionable at times. Gropey old men (The Elder, which is otherwise a fun car chase/battle between an old man with a souped up jeep and a super-spy with a roadster full of James Bond gimmicks), or characters accidentally (accidentally would need to be in quotations some of the time) walking in on a girl bathing. Ackman's repeatedly thrown off his attempts to kill humans by things like a gust of wind revealing a young mom is wearing a g-string. Lot of upskirt shots in this collection, so depending on your tolerance for that, be aware.
And there are some gags that just don't translate well, or at all. Ackman's angel rival hires a big martial artist by the name of Yakimo Heederu, and an editor's note informs us this translates to, "potatoes make you fart." If I knew Japanese, that would probably make me laugh. I think there's a similar one in Tomato where she adds an ant to her hostage collection and the crook threatening the baby does a pratfall at such a great "pun."
His art style slides back-and-forth over a sort of continuum across the stories. Sometimes the characters are very much in the Dragon Ball style, tall and a bit lanky, long heads. Big, bald grinning guys with Fu Manchu mustaches. Other times, he shifts back more towards his earlier style, with all the characters being exaggeratedly short and squat, their heads out of proportion to the rest of them. Or some combination of the two. The two Chobit stories involve a hick cop protagonist very similar in look to Goku, but one of the villains is dressed like a cowboy with a head the size of his entire body. That's more of a comedy, including a bit where the cop tries to demonstrate his marksmanship and only succeeds in shooting holes in the panel they're in.
Overall, I found it really interesting to see a lot of his lesser known work. See the change in what he wrote and drew, and how. Also, what elements crop up frequently. Dragon Boy feels like a dry run for Dragon Ball, with a young martial artist protagonist with curious extra appendages, who protects a pampered girl on a long a perilous journey. He even has a teacher named Master Roshi (who looks much different from the Turtle Hermit.) Toriyama also really likes desert wastelands with rocky columns and arches scattered about. Easier than drawing a crapload of trees, I'll bet.
No comments:
Post a Comment