The Star Wars franchise has been around for a very long time, and some of its elements have made its way into anime and manga stories. It’s not surprising to find out prominent creators are fans of this franchise, and one such fan is the notable creator of Dragon Ball, Akira Toriyama. Toriyama once shared fan-art for the franchise back in 1999, and this special fan-art has resurfaced online.
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Akira Toriyama once shared a special sketch of a young Anakin Skywalker to celebrate the upcoming release of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace back in 1999, and you can check it out below!
Fun fact: Toriyama drew lil Ani as a Star Wars tribute for the Prequel Debut in 1999. (Translation in the comments) from r/dbz
Toriyama included a special message with the young Anakin Skywalker sketch as well and it’s a real blast from the past, “Whew! It feels like forever but finally, Star Wars is back!! To say nothing of the story, the atmosphere of the world and the designs are wonderful. I am one of those who have been bitten by the bug and I am bursting with excitement. It’s been a loooooooooooooong wait for the 4th movie. I’m really excited!”
Elaborating further, Toriyama even threw shade at the idea of a young Darth Vader, “Personally, I don’t have much interest in the people in this series, so Darth Vader appearing as a child doesn’t do much for me, (I’m only looking forward to Ewan McGregor). But watching the trailer, the mecha, robots, aliens and such, all have really great designs. The SFX also look considerably impressive. It’s going to be really fantastic! I can’t wait!”
Who would have guessed that both Star Wars and the Dragon Ball franchise would still be producing new projects 20 years later after Toriyama shared this sketch? Though it is hilarious to see just how on the money Toriyama was about the following poor reception to Episode 1‘s young Anakin Skywalker.
Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block Saturday evenings at 11:00 p.m. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release of the series is complete, and available to stream on FunimationNOW and Crunchyroll. The manga has chapters that can currently be read for free thanks to Viz Media. Dragon Ball Super: Broly is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.
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