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Before
Dragon Ball
Now, many people know
that Toriyama Akira made Dragon Ball, but that's basically some fans
know. There was a time where he did other mangas, even before Dr. Slump,
that are related to Dragon Ball and/or Journey to the West. (Note -
I got some help from my Japanese neighbors for translation on this.)
Dragon Boy
This is Toriyama-san's frist attempt to make a Dragon Ball manga. Instead
of Jump Weekly or Jump Montly, it was printed in a book comic called
Fresh Jump. The syndication was from August to October of 1983. The
"Goku" of this story is named "Tanton." He looks
like Bruce Lee and has wings coming out of his back. Although Goku and
Tanton differ in thier physical state, their mental state are exactly
alike. There were also shape shifting animals and monsters in the story,
much to the Chinese reference. There are round like objects, called
ronpao, that is very much similar to the dragon balls in Dragon Ball.
These are called dragon treasure, and when you hit them with ki, a small
dragon appears. There is a small picture that shows Tanton seeing a
girl take a bath. What I can read from the picture is:
Tanton: "O-oh man! You don't have a thing!"
Girl: "I don't
know if you are trying to be a moron or if you are trying to act really
cute. Why would a girl have a thing?"
Tonpuu's Great Adventure
Here is the second attempt at Dragon Ball called, "Topuu's Great Adventure."
The manga was published in the 52nd issue of 1983 in the Weekly Shounen
Jump. What Tonpuu does, is travel to differnt planets in space, which
is supposed to give the feel of science fiction, like Dragon Ball. Tonpuu
travels around space in search of different planets. The "Bulma"
of this story is Puramo. Also in this story, there is an invention with
the capability to store some large objects in a capsule. To open it
back up, you have to boil it in water for ten seconds. These capsules
were supposed to represend the hoi poi capsules of Dragon Ball.
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