'Dragon Ball Super: Broly' Art Director Discusses Akira Toriyama's Corrections

Dragon Ball Super: Broly saw a whole new set of character and art designs for the franchise which gave many characters a face lift. Not only that, the film also saw several corrections and oversights for these designs from original series creator Akira Toriyama himself.

In an interview with art director and character designer Naohiro Shintani after the film's release in Japan (via Kanzenshuu), Shintani opened up about how involved Toriyama was in correcting many of the designs used in the film.

When asked about what aspects of the design Shintani paid the most attention to, he mentioned how he tried to keep his designs as close to the spirit of Toriyama's work as possible, "I made a conscious effort to keep the characters' bodies slim since that was what Toriyama wanted. Though I personally liked the look Bardock had in the old television special, staying close to Toriyama's new style took precedence over my own image of him."

When asked about what kind of corrections Toriyama made to his designs following this, Shintani explained that Toriyama made the most corrections to the newest characters, Cheelai and Lemo, "[Toriyama] made corrections directly on top of my drawings digitally, so I could redraw them straight from that. Though he didn't change much about Broly, Lemo was heavily corrected. I believe he also made corrections to Cheelai's profile. His corrections were particularly exacting for female characters like Bulma."

These corrections went toward Broly's new designs as well as Toriyama had a particularly less muscular idea in mind for the new, more emotional portrayal of Broly, "Toriyama had stated that he didn't want [Broly] to be overly macho, so I aimed to make him look as huge as possible, yet still within the confines of not going overboard with it."

Given that the new character designs were one of the best received aspects of the film among fans, it appears that Shintani and Toriyama's efforts succeeded at the end of the day.

Opening in Japan last December, Funimation officially brought Dragon Ball Super: Broly to the United States on January 16, and the film has earned more that $100 million dollars worldwide. You can read ComicBook.com's spoiler-free review of the film here. The film is described as such:

"A planet destroyed, a powerful race reduced to nothing. After the devastation of Planet Vegeta, three Saiyans were scattered among the stars, destined for different fates. While two found a home on Earth, the third was raised with a burning desire for vengeance and developed an unbelievable power. And the time for revenge has come. Destinies collide in a battle that will shake the universe to its very core! Goku is back to training hard so he can face the most powerful foes the universes have to offer, and Vegeta is keeping up right beside him. But when they suddenly find themselves against an unknown Saiyan, they discover a terrible, destructive force. Locked into battle with the formidable Broly, Goku and Vegeta face their most dangerous opponent yet!"

via Kanzenshuu

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