Few people have affected contemporary manga and anime more than Akira Toriyama. Since the passing of the Dragon Ball creator last March, tributes to his influence, impact, and greatest have come in all shapes and sizes. Toyotarou, the artist who has been working with Toriyama since 2015 to produce Dragon Ball Super, offered one of the more endearing tributes.

Toyotarou’s homage to Toriyama was illustrated through his portrayal of Shu, a character from the manga Blue Dragon. The illustration appeared in the latest edition of “Toyotarou Tried To Draw”, a section of Dragon Ball’s official website where Toyatorou is provided space to sketch anything he wants, including characters from different Toriyama works or other images Toriyama had a hand in creating.

With the image, Toyotarou added a note explaining the details of his choice of Shu to sketch and the relationship or link it has with Toriyama. According to Toyotarou, Shu was originally created by Toriyama for the Blue Dragon video game. However, the video game was so popular that it spawned a manga that was subsequently published in V-Jump magazine, a sister publication of Weekly Shōnen Jump. A fan of V-Jump, Toyotarou was drawn to Blue Dragon.

Toyotarou’s Sketch Acknowledges More Than Just Toriyama’s Excellence

Toriyama Created the Characters for the Blue Dragon Video Game, Which Later Spawned a Manga

Outside, the hat-tip to Toriyama, by choosing to sketch Shu, Toyotarou also extends his deep appreciation for author Akatsuki Yamatoya and artist Noriko Otake’s Blue Dragon manga.

I have to put a word in for the manga version drawn by Noriko Otake! It was a really great read.

Blue Dragon follows the story of Shu – a naughty country kid who wants nothing more than to be a Knight Master’s apprentice, so he can get away from the village and travel the world. However, one day when his village is attacked by soldiers from the evil King Nene, Shu is unknowingly thrown into the center of an age-old conflict between the forces of good, known as the Warriors of Light, and the forces of evil, known as the Shadows of Darkness.

While helping save his village, Shu unlocks his “shadow power”, or the ability to turn his shadow into an all-powerful creature. Shu’s creature is a blue dragon, which rumor says is the oldest and most powerful of all shadows. Thus begins Shu’s epic quest to overthrow King Nene, save his village, and hopefully tame his blue dragon in the process.

Toyotarou Pays The Ultimate Compliment

According to Toyotarou, just as with the Blue Dragon video game, Toriyama was also involved in designing the characters in the manga as well. This leads to his further praise of manga:

So you can read it as though it were a Toriyama manga!

While the story may not immediately call Toriyama to mind, its vibe is reminiscent of Toriyama’s Sand Land, which also tells a tale of oppressed villages teaming up with monsters to save their community from an evil king. But what readers will immediately recognize are the similarities between Otake’s art style and Toriyama’s art style in Dragon Ball Z, particularly from the “Frieza” story arc forward. The similarities are especially evident in the facial expressions of the characters and the spiky hair of Goku and Shu.

The recognition from Toyotarou towards Blue Dragon is noteworthy, especially given its lack of popularity compared to more established titles that bear the fingerprints of AkiraToriyama, so fans of the legendary Dragon Ball author should follow Toyotarou’s suggestion and check out Blue Dragon too.