One Piece Creator Shares Reaction To Dragon Ball's Original Ending
Eiichiro Oda and Akira Toriyama are responsible for two of the biggest Shonen series in One Piece and Dragon Ball. While we've seen Luffy fight against Goku fight in the past, the two artists have mostly stuck to their anime universes. Now, Oda himself has taken the opportunity to share his thoughts on the original end of Dragon Ball and how it affected his work when it came to creating the world of the Grand Line.
For quite some time, many believed that Dragon Ball would never return following the conclusion of the Majin Buu Saga and the "End of Z" Arc, and while there was a brief respite via Dragon Ball GT, it would be many years before Dragon Ball Super hit the scene and continued the world from Akira Toriyama. In chatting with the creator of Case Closed, Gosho Aoyama, Oda had this to say about the conclusion of Dragon Ball, which actually took place a few years prior to the arrival of One Piece:
"One Piece started in 1997, so just two years after Dragon Ball ended its run. It was a shock for all of us. All the newcomers were like 'I want that spot!', starting a period where everyone was competing against each other to fill the void left by Dragon Ball. Then after two years, everyone realized that comparing themselves to Dragon Ball was like asking to be defeated and somehow I managed to survive all of that."
Oda then brought up the fact Shonen Jump was feeling the effect of losing Akira Toriyama's Shonen series, and how it caused a sense of frustration for his start in the universe of the Grand Line:
"At the time, Jump had lost both Dragon Ball and Slam Dunk and was heading into a historical low. The cover of the Jump that contained the first chapter of One Piece was featured in a newspaper that had "Magazine will overshadow Jump" as one of its titles. Not that it's my fault or anything, but I remember feeling really frustrated."
Which Shonen do you prefer between One Piece and Dragon Ball? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of Shonen Jump.