Like the interplanetary travelers who battle in each episode, Dragon
Ball has leapt across oceans and continents to become one of the world's
most popular animated series. One of the many people behind the success
of the series is Takao Koyama, writer of episodes in the Dragon Ball and
Dragon Ball Z series, and all but one of the Dragon Ball movies. "Akira
Toriyama created the series and we have to go along with his story lines,
so I can't rewrite the script all over again," Koyama said. "Anime and
manga are different mediums and I have to apply different techniques to
make the manga stories into anime." The Dragon Ball Z series so familiar
to American fans through its Cartoon Network cablecast was the second of
the animated Dragon Ball series; Koyama said the original was a comedy,
while Z was the hard action series that followed.
The predecessor to Dragon Ball was Dr. Slump, a popular childrens'
show that some fans think was wilder and less inhibited than Dragon Ball.
Koyama also wrote Dr. Slump episodes. "After that one ended, everyone wanted
to see what would come next. Then came Dragon Ball and the popularity of
that skyrocketed. Dr. Slump lasted five years and Dragon Ball lasted ten.
We didn't think it was going to last as long and be as big a business back
then. I believe there is no border between worlds in animation. Things
that people find good in Japan, they find are good in American and around
the world."
Koyama also wrote episodes for Slayers, and enjoyed creating stories
for Naga and Lina Inverse. "Those characters are easier to write for because
they're so extreme. From a Japanese standard, they're so extreme that they
can't be from this planet." Naga and Lina show how anime roles changed
from the mostly-male lead cast of Dragon Ball. "The female roles are getting
stronger. One of the series I once worked on was Time Bokkan. When we remade
the series, The female was the No. 1 role and the guy was second to her.
And there's a title called Sailor Moon where they had five females fighting
evil. When you have strong women and a lot of weak guys, it's easy to write
an entertaining story."
