In 1988, Bandai introduced Dragon Ball fans to the Dragon Ball Carddass Series – the first official card collection created for Akira Toriyama's popular shounen manga. Now, the Akira Toriyama Archive has revealed a classic illustration of Goku created especially for one of the official Carddass guidebooks.
On April 12, the Archives introduced a drawing of Goku that appeared on the cover of the secret encyclopedia Carddass: Dragon Ball Z, which was sold in Japan in 1991. As detailed in the description Describing the image, Akira Toriyama used a combination of “perspective” and “fluid lines” to give Goku a more “dynamic” quality. The original cover also featured Goku's iconic nemesis, Frieza, looking at the Saiyan warrior with an irritated expression. Like previous uploads, the artwork will remain available on the official Dragon Ball website for 24 hours before being removed from the Archive.
Related
“Goku's old age is a big challenge”: Dragon Ball releases trial-and-error character sketches
The Akira Toriyama Archive released a series of concept sketches showing off the arduous process of creating Goku's final adult design.
The original Dragon Ball Carddass game was one of the first trading card collections released for the Dragon Ball franchise. Bandai first offered the dazzling holographic cards as vending machine prizes before deciding to build on the base game by creating additional expansions each subsequent year. In 2005, Bandai brought the game to life in a whole new way by releasing Data Carddass Dragon Ball Z, an arcade-only fighting game that transferred the general mechanics of Carddass to a game format. electronic. Like the 2006 sequel, Data Carddass Dragon Ball Z 2, these games were released only in Japan.
Dragon Ball's Carddass TCG outsells competitors like Yu Yu Hakusho & Saint Seiya
According to Takaaki Orihara, who has been the project lead for Dragon Ball Carddass since 1992, the game has become a huge hit with fans of both the Dragon Ball manga and anime. Orihara discussed this in detail in a 2021 interview, also available on Dragon Ball's website. “…Dragon Ball naturally works well as a Carddass series,” Orihara said. “By building your Carddass collection, you can have the opportunity to stay one step ahead of the anime by previewing upcoming characters and their stories. Additionally, Goku and all the other coolest characters will be released as super shiny prism cards, I'm sure the idea of pulling those is also one of the big selling points of the series. ” By the summer of 1995, Dragon Ball's Carddass series had sold more than 1.5 billion cards, far ahead of competitors like Yu Yu Hakusho and Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac.
Related
Dragon Ball once released official illustration work for the never-ending story feature
Nostalgia has bitten Dragon Ball fans with a reimagined piece of Akira Toriyama artwork, originally featured in an article about The NeverEnding Story.
2024 is a gloomy year for Akira Toriyama fans as the manga artist passed away after suffering an acute subdural hematoma last month. However, his legacy lives on thanks to the continued success of beloved franchises like Dragon Ball and Dragon Quest. The Dragon Ball Super manga written by Toriyama and illustrated by Toyotarou is currently suspended in V-Jump magazine. However, the series recently concluded its lengthy “Superhero” arc, concluding with the publication of Chapter 103. Additionally, Toei Animation's upcoming anime arc, Dragon Ball Daima, is still expected will premiere on air next fall.
Those interested in discovering more gems from Dragon Ball's past can visit the Toriyama Archives every day to enjoy more “rare, hard-to-find” works of art. Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball manga is now available in English on VIZ Media. Toei Animation's respective anime adaptations, including Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, and Dragon Ball Super, are currently available to stream on Hulu and Crunchyroll.
Source: Dragon Ball official website