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The first editor of the Dragon Ball manga has revealed that he thinks the franchise should have ended with the Frieza Arc. Kazuhiko Torishima, who worked closely with Akira Toriyama on the first half of the Dragon Ball manga, made the surprisingly frank comments in an interview that was recently broadcast on Japanese TV.

In a TV special celebrating the Japanese release of the movie Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’, Torishima was interviewed by Kendo Kobayashi, who asked him for his feelings about the franchise’s enduring popularity. Asked for his perspective on Dragon Ball, Torishima answered frankly:

Kobayashi: “Dragon Ball is something of a national phenomenon now. How do you feel about [the series] now, viewing it from a distance?

Torishima: “Well…I wonder when it should end.”

Kobayashi: “Yes, it would be difficult to do a finale. Have you ever thought specifically about when it should finish?”

Torishima: “Of course, it should have ended with the Frieza Saga.”

Or, to put it another way, Akira Toriyama shouldn’t have bothered writing the Cell and Buu Sagas that came after that. Torishima went on to say that he thinks if Dragon Ball had ended with the Frieza Saga, Toriyama could have gone on to write a third hit manga. As it was, he continued with Dragon Ball, without Torishima’s editorship, and hasn’t written another major series.

Although it was the anime and movies which made Dragon Ball a global phenomenon, in Japan it was the manga, which ran from 1984 to ’95 in Weekly Shonen Jump, that propelled the franchise to fame. Even now, Dragon Ball remains the second best-selling manga series in history. Torishima’s comments will be bittersweet for fans who agree that the manga series should have wrapped up earlier than it did, and no doubt a source of anger and irritation for those who feel otherwise.

Sources: Litera via Itai News
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