one thing i've always understood as Akira Toriyama's influence on manga, even if just assumption on my part, was how his cartooning came to bear when he started writing pure action manga. when I think of his contemporaries I think of overblown special moves like Saint Seiya or the gory fist clusters of FotNS
to me it seemed what Toriyama brought to the table was the satisfaction of clarity in martial arts
when you read his fight scenes, which may have become notorious when animated for dragging on, there's no question about what's happening in the action
a clear kick to the jaw
a clean line of action on Yajirobe's slice
I first noticed this clarity pretty quickly early on in the General Tao fights during the red ribbon arc, where entire fight scenes playing out with these clear motions on the pages
Even as it got more detailed later on, the clarity stayed
clear hits on clear fight scenes
and dirtier but still completely legible lines of action
And when he started introducing the big over the top special moves we got the same thing quite often in DB: that simple visual clarity amplifying the excitement
i'm not super coherent on it right now, i'm not the biggest shonen action fan all the time and maybe Toriyama didn't introduce the world to visually clear and interesting fights in manga.
but when I see any action manga showing off clean fight choreography or sick ass lazer beams that show off clear shockwaves of destruction, i'll always be thinking of the GOAT
RIP Akira Toriyama
