The Dragon Ball series is the face of nostalgia in the anime community. Even if you haven’t watched a single episode of its expansive universe, any fan would know the iconic characters. From Goku to Frieza, Akira Toriyama has made some incredibly memorable characters.
This popularity, however, was its curse. A series should end when the author feels is the right time for it to conclude. For Akira Toriyama, it was the three-part Cell Saga. According to his editors, he didn’t wish to continue the Dragon Ball series beyond this arc.
Due to Dragon Ball’s popularity, Toriyama’s editorial team did not want to end the series with just the Cell Saga. Although the manga reached 400+ chapters already, they wanted to profit from the franchise, ignoring the mangaka’s intentions.
Toriyama’s editors confirmed he wanted to conclude it at the Cell Saga and only one editor backed him up
The Cell Saga was an epic three-part arc that focused on the emergence of Cell, a powerful android, who wished to achieve perfection and challenged the strongest warriors. The saga was the perfect point to conclude the Dragon Ball series as it showed immense growth for several characters, particularly Gohan.
It was the perfect arc too. Many fans loved it for its iconic fights, the emotional depth of Goku and Gohan’s father-son dynamic, and mainly the character development. Cell as a villain was considered one of the greatest in the franchise, design and intelligence-wise.
In an interview with the KosoKoso podcast on 22 February 2025, three of Dragon Ball’s former editors, Kazuhiko Torishima, Yu Kondo, and Fuyuto Takeda, spoke about the series. They confirmed that Akira Toriyama wished to conclude it as the Cell Saga but his editorial team wouldn’t listen.
❗️| We finally have confirmation that Toriyama wanted to end Dragon Ball with the Cell saga!
🧵2/n pic.twitter.com/5uIhBtwVcM
— Enomis (@Venixys) February 23, 2025
Among the entire team, only Takeda respected his wish and showed his utmost support. Since the continuation of the series was confirmed, he found ways to make Toriyama’s workload easier.
Toriyama should’ve never been pressured to continue Dragon Ball
Any author should be able to decide when or how their series will end without external pressure. What happened to Toriyama is entirely too common. Even fans agree that Dragon Ball should’ve ended in the Cell Saga, and the Magin Buu Saga felt inconsistent.
The popularity of Dragon Ball is palpable. Its influence is felt even today, with other legendary mangaka finding inspiration from it. However, exploiting its popularity had consequences we couldn’t predict. Toriyama couldn’t end the franchise the way he wished or see its conclusion.
If his editorial team had respected his autonomy and concluded it at the Cell Saga, the Dragon Ball franchise could’ve had the perfect conclusion. The only plus side is we got Dragon Ball Super and now, we have Dragon Ball DAIMA to look forward to.
After his passing, Toriyama’s Dragon Ball has ended and now others have taken over the mantle. Dragon Ball will likely never be over, just different.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
