Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater

Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater (Japanese: 鳥山明○作劇場, Hepburn: Toriyama Akira Marusaku Gekijō, lit. "Akira Toriyama's Blankpiece Theater") is a Japanese manga anthology consisting of three tankōbon volumes released between 1983 and 1997 that collect several one-shots written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. The stories were originally published in various Shueisha magazines between 1978 and 1994.
Four stories featured in the series – Pink, Young Master Ken'nosuke, Soldier of Savings Cashman, and Go! Go! Ackman – were adapted into short anime films. The three volumes were re-released with the suffix Kai (改, "updated" or "altered") added to the title as part of the Shueisha Jump Remix imprint between June 2003 and 2004. The Manga Theater series has been released in several European countries, including France and Italy. Viz Media licensed the anthology for North American release as a single hardcover volume on December 7, 2021.
The original Japanese title of the series translates to "Akira Toriyama's ____piece Theater", and Akira Toriyama wrote that readers can fill in the blank with whatever they want. In the second volume, the author revealed that while he has created a number of one-shots, he begs to get out of doing anything more than 15 pages, so their page-counts are lower than the standard amount and therefore it takes time to compile enough to fill a volume.
After quitting his previous job, 23-year old Toriyama entered the manga industry by submitting a work to a contest held by Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine in order to win the prize money. While it did not win, Kazuhiko Torishima, who would become his editor, contacted him and encouraged him to keep drawing. The result was Wonder Island (1978), which became Toriyama's first published work, although it came in last place. Wonder Island 2 includes parodies of Dirty Harry and Ultraman, in addition to kaiju and science fiction movies. Although Toriyama had planned to quit manga after getting paid, because Wonder Island 2 was also a "flop," he said his stubbornness would not let him and he continued to draw failed stories for a year; claiming around 500, including the published Today's Highlight Island. He said he learned a lot during this year and when Torishima told him to draw a female lead character, Toriyama hesitantly created Tomato the Cutesy Gumshoe (1979), which had some success. Feeling encouraged, he decided to draw another female lead and created Dr. Slump. Dr. Slump would later feature many characters similar to the ones seen in Today's Highlight Island.
Within roughly six months of creating the popular Dr. Slump in 1980, Toriyama wanted to end the series but his publisher Shueisha would only allow him to do so if he agreed to start another serial for them shortly after. So he worked with Torishima on several one-shots for Weekly Shōnen Jump and the monthly Fresh Jump, but none were particularly successful. In 1981, Toriyama was one of ten artists selected to create a 45-page work for Weekly Shōnen Jump's Reader's Choice contest. Used to doing 13 to 15-page chapters, he struggled with the deadline and so drew it all with an "autograph pen." Nonetheless, his manga Pola & Roid took first place. January 1982's Escape was created in two days and designed to resemble American comics. Toriyama was selected to participate in the Reader's Choice contest again in 1982 and submitted Mad Matic. In addition to his assistant Hisuwashi, he also utilized a mecha expert named Tanigami for the manga. It was inspired by the Australian film Mad Max 2, which was released the previous year. Toriyama said that Pink (1982) was created at a time when he was no longer afraid to draw girls, and wanted to experiment with the girlish side of the title character.
Selected to participate in Weekly Shōnen Jump's Reader's Choice contest for a third time, Toriyama had the bad luck of drawing the first slot and had to work over New Year's on 1983's Chobit. The title character was created based on the American television show I Dream of Jeannie. Angry that it was unpopular, he decided to try again and created Chobit 2 with his assistant Matsuyama. The sequel was influenced by Spaghetti Western films, which Toriyama enjoys. Torishima suggested that, as Toriyama enjoyed kung fu films, he should create a kung fu shōnen manga. The artist was inspired by Hong Kong martial arts films such as Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon (1973) and Jackie Chan's Drunken Master (1978). This led to the two-part Dragon Boy, published in the August and October 1983 issues of Fresh Jump. It follows a boy, adept at martial arts, who escorts a princess on a journey back to her home country. Toriyama's wife was fond of China and he used materials she had as reference, in addition to having her help draw the backgrounds. Dragon Boy was well-received and evolved to become the serial Dragon Ball in 1984. 1983's The Adventure of Tongpoo also features elements that would be included in Dragon Ball, such as "capsules."
Because Dragon Ball has a Chinese feel, Toriyama gave 1987's Young Master Ken'nosuke (1987) a Japanese jidaigeki setting. Toriyama said he created The Elder (1988) because he wanted to draw a Suzuki Jimny. Although he enjoys drawing old men, the author said that the car is the protagonist. 1988's Little Mamejiro was initially planned to be a sequel to Young Master Ken'nosuke, but ultimately turned into an original work. Toriyama blended jidaigeki and modern elements for the setting of 1989's Karamaru and the Perfect Day, which was created for the commemorative 1,050th issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump.
The first installment, Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater Vol. 1, was published on July 8, 1983. Re-released under the Shueisha Jump Remix imprint in June 2003.
The second installment, Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater Vol. 2, was published on March 10, 1988. Re-released under the Shueisha Jump Remix imprint in July 2003.
The third installment, Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater Vol. 3, was published on August 4, 1997. Re-released under the Shueisha Jump Remix imprint in June 2004.
Jonathon Greenall of Comic Book Resources wrote that Manga Theater proves there is far more to Akira Toriyama than Dragon Ball. "In fact, it displays how much range Toriyama has as he can create fascinating worlds and memorable characters within a few short pages." Greenall cited Pink as a highlight of the collection and described Wonder Island 2 as a "reference-packed romp full of pop-culture parodies".
Anime News Network had both Christopher Farris and Rebecca Silverman review the single volume English release of Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater. Giving it a 4.5 out of 5 rating, Farris wrote that while the different manga cover a "pretty wide net" as far as their content and appeal, most feature the comedic sensibilities that made Toriyama famous with Dr. Slump. He enjoyed seeing how the author's comedy evolved alongside his art and his anecdotes on creating the stories. Farris noted how impressed he was to see how strong Toriyama's comedy chops "always were" and at the "balance" he had achieved by the time of Go! Go! Ackman. Silverman gave the collection a 3 out of 5 rating and speculated that how much a reader enjoys the book is likely to be determined by how much they enjoy Toriyama's signature "goofy science-fiction, potty humor," and unintelligent characters. She explained that while he does all of that quite well, the works span a large period of his career but do not show an impressive range in terms of storytelling variety. Silverman criticized the female characters as poorly written and suggested the book be read in moderation because the stories and gags start to feel repetitive after a while.
In 2008, Shueisha released a two-volume bunkoban series of Toriyama's short works, entitled Akira Toriyama Mankanzenseki (鳥山明満漢全席, lit. "An Emperor's Feast of Akira Toriyama"). This version includes the two-chapter Alien X Peke (1996), published after the end of Dragon Ball, as well as the full-color seinen manga Lady Red (1987), which is read left-to-right. The second volume also includes The Anime and Me (1989), a full-color autobiographical strip from the first Dragon Ball Z Anime Special magazine, as well as a new afterword by the author. The first volume was published on August 8, 2008, and the second on September 18, 2008.
In 2014, a release collecting Toriyama's collaborations with Masakazu Katsura was published. Both Sachie-chan Good!! (2008) and Jiya (2009–10) were written by Toriyama and illustrated by Katsura. Katsura & Akira Short Stories (桂正和×鳥山明 共作短編集 カツラアキラ, Katsura Masakazu × Toriyama Akira Tomosaku Tanpenshū KatsuraAkira) was published on April 4, 2014 and includes an interview with the two authors.