If you are a fan of Dragon Ball Z, then you are already well aware of Masaski Sato’s work. The Japanese animator was a key member of the anime‘s creative team as Sato was an animator for Toei Animation. Starting with Dragon Ball, Sato was responsible for bringing characters like Goku and Nappa to life in the original anime and sequel series Dragon Ball Z. It’s been more than a decade since Sato has provided his unique art to the Dragon Ball franchise, but the animator still has a soft spot for the series. And, now, the artist is dishing details about his favorite Z-Fighters and reminiscing about his time on Dragon Ball Z.
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In a recent interview with Spain’s Hobby Consolas, Sato talked with the site about his heralded time working on Dragon Ball Z. It was there that Sato revealed his favorite Z-Fighter from the serious, and his choice will not be surprising to many fans.
“My favorite character is Goku, of course!” he said. “Especially because of all the scenes I’ve created about him.”
However, Sato did admit he had a special place in his heart for one of Dragon Ball Z‘s human heroes.
“I also like Tien Shin Han with his energy cannon. In the Z stage, during the battle against Vegeta and Nappa, although Tien had gained power, he was beaten by Nappa, cutting his arm cleanly. My feeling was, “Wow, this is Tien! What a great force!’”
“It was fun to create that scene and surprising for Tien to see the huge difference in strength between the Saiyans and others. Tien, despite everything, managed to hurt Nappa even a little. I would like to Tien appear more in the future of the series!”
During the interview, Sato was also asked about his co-workers and what it was like to animate the series with a slew of talented artist. While Sato admitted he never met creator Akira Toriyama, he did say he worked closely with chief animator Minoru Maeda.
“I met Mr. Maeda when he was a junior creator of characters while working on Touch and Dragon Ball,” Sato explained. The artist said it was intimidating to work under the influential animator because Maeda was so looked up to, but Sato said he would often grab drinks with his boss. However, both of them were very shocked to learn that Toriyama decided to kill off the warrior Yamcha. “At first I thought it was a joke, but Yamcha was really dead,” Sato explained.
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As for his future with Dragon Ball, Sato says he has no current plans to return to the franchise, but he would be interested in being part of Dragon Ball Super in some way. So, who knows? Maybe the artist will make a surprise comeback when the new anime debuts it upcoming ‘Universal Survival’ arc in spring 2017.
[H/T] Hobby Consolas
