Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater

Finally North America gets more manga from the greatest manga artist of all time! Europe has had these for years already, so why did it take so long here? All fans of old-school classic manga and Akira Toriyama need to buy this now. You should have already had it preordered! The short stories included were made in the first 16 years of his career, starting from before Dr. Slump and stopping just before he finished Dragon Ball, and it is fun to watch his art evolve and see elements that he would also include in those two series. I really enjoyed picking those out as I read. Most of the stories are comedy, but plenty have action-adventure type stuff as well. Their lengths and settings vary; from the "real world" to fantasy to sci-fi, and even two period pieces. There's also commentary from Toriyama on the creation of some of the manga which is a big plus, but I definitely wish there was more of it.It is a plus that Viz released this three-book series as a single hardcover. But it begs the question, "If you were able to change that, why didn't you also print the color pages in color?" Not a big deal, just a little odd if you're going for a deluxe-like package. What is a big deal tho... is that Viz censored the art by shading in the lips of two dark-skinned characters in the last two series. That is the only censorship that I noticed and it is quite obvious. Even more unforgivable is the fact that they do not tell buyers beforehand. Absolutely ridiculous that we still have to deal with censorship in 2021.

-This is a great collection of Toriyama's older works and a fun read. However, I'm disappointed with the censorship they continue to do to this man's artwork. For instance, anything involving black characters has their lips changed; either filled in with their surrounding skin color or just erased. Please let the artwork stand on its own, for what it is, and as a product of its time. Viz should be ashamed of themselves for continued efforts to censor art.-Also for those who are curious, while not considered censorship, this edition entirely removes all Japanese SFX and only shows English.

A collection of early works by arguably the greatest Mangaka of our time. Each story has a classic vibe that you’d expect from Toriyama-san and you can tell that a little of each story made it in to his more well known works such as “Dr.Slump” and “Dragon Ball Z”.

Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater is a compilation of one-shots and very brief series throughout Toriyama's career. Some of the one-shots predate Dr. Slump; others were written while Toriyama was working on Dragon Ball. This English edition of Manga Theater combines the three volumes originally published in Japan.Toriyama started as a gag humor mangaka, and pretty much all of these stories are comedic in intent. The quality of each story ranges from very funny to mediocre. The vast majority of the stories are more akin in tone to Dr Slump than Dragon Ball, but there are a few stories that are definitely obvious precursors to Dragon Ball. But it's easy to see why it took so long to localize: there is a lot of nudity (male and female). Toriyama frequently uses unabashed or inadvertent nudity as a humorous plot device. Given how much controversy this trope caused when localizing Dragon Ball, it's no wonder.Here is a complete list of the stories included:Wonder IslandWonder Island 2Tomato the Cutesy GumshoePola & RoidMad MaticChobitChobit 2Today's Highlight IslandEscapePinkDragon BoyThe Adventure of TongpooMr. HoYoung Master Ken'nosukeThe ElderLittle MamejiroKaramaru and the Perfect DaySoldier of Savings CashmanDub & PeterGo! Go! Ackman

AMAZING ART 10/10, black and white to be expected but still super great looking, cant wait to fully read it!! THANK YOU FOR RELEASING THIS IN ENGLISH IN USA, WE LOVE YOU AKIRA TORIYAMA!!!. maaaaan i got to go read more now LOL hope this review helped you pull the trigger on buying a copy of this amazing book

Great piece of Anime history from a legend. Great short stories. Recommend highly to any DBZ fan.

This was a gift for one of my best friends. I hope he loved it as much as I hated giving it away! Beautiful book, feels great to the touch… and honestly I might buy another

amazing book, waited years for something like this. my fave artist.