Dragon Ball Artist Honors Manga's Oldest Heroes With New Sketch

This week marked the date (Sept. 16th) of Japan's 'Respect for the Aged Day', and one manga [...]

By Kofi Outlaw

This week marked the date (Sept. 16th) of Japan's "Respect for the Aged Day", and one manga illustrator celebrated the occasion in the most respectful way he could think of. That celebration to the for of a nice little sketch, which brings together some of the most iconic elderly figures in manga/anime for an epic group shot. From O.G.'s of the genre like Dragon Ball's Master Roshi, to more recent breakout figures like One-Punch Man's Bang, Take a look at the sketch below and see if just how many of these old coots you can identify!

Here's the full, finished "Elderly of Anime" sketch, courtesy of manga writer/artist Dragon Garow Lee!

"Today is Respect for the Aged Day, so I would like to add some grandma characters to the previously drawn G20 picture. 💡 I only have 4 hours before the date changes 💦"

So much great manga/anime that's represented here. Here's a list of many of the titles included in the picture above:

Spirited Away, Dragon Ball, One-Punch Man, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Yu Yu Hakusho, Gintama, Doraemon, One Piece, Summer Wars, My Neighbor Totoro, Sazae-San ,Chibi Maruko Chan, Hajime no Ippo, Heidi, Girl of the Alps, Toriko, Fullmetal Alchemist, Ranma 1/2, Crayon Shin-chan, Karakuri Circus, Nintama Rantarou, Dragon Quest 5,

The real joy of this sketch is that the images in it invoke so many great anime/manga memories that there's got to be at least one image in the bunch that strikes a chord with many different levels of fandom. Whether it's the longtime studio Ghibli fans, or the modern mainstream fans of Dragon Ball and One Piece, or the hardcore fans that like some of the older or more obscure works on the list - this is a nice big tent for everyone to gather under.

It's also nice to see a great lineup of strong and wise elderly characters balancing out the old pervert types in the bunch. That's especially true of the ladies: anime doesn't get enough appreciation for its legacy of badass grandmas! Seeing those ladies squaded up is indeed a fitting ode to respecting the aged among us.

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