Dragon Ball Characters and Concepts Akira Toriyama Forgot About

Key Takeaways

• Toriyama forgot about some major Dragon Ball characters like Broly and Tao Pai Pai.
• He even forgot less prominent characters like Launch and the anthropomorphic characters.
• Toriyama also missed details like Android 18’s hair color and the Super Saiyan 2 transformation.

Akira Toriyama has filled the world of Dragon Ball with so many unique and interesting characters, that you can’t blame a guy for forgetting a few, even if that guy made the series. Yes, Toriyama himself is famous for forgetting concepts, transformations, and even entire characters from his own creation.

In an interview, Toriyama attributes his forgetfulness when it came to Dragon Ball to the fact that he doesn’t take notes about the series. However, he intentionally avoids taking notes, reasoning that allowing himself to forget the old stuff will make it easier for new ideas to come. And there is some truth to that concept.

Forgotten Characters

Broly

Yes, Broly, the Legendary Super Saiyan himself, almost didn’t get a shot at becoming canon in the story for the simple reason that Toriyama forgot he even existed.

Toriyama posted a message on the official Dragon Ball Super: Broly movie website, which is now shut down, saying that although he did draw the designs for the old Broly, he had little involvement with the Dragon Ball Z movies starring him. Because he was uninvolved with the movie’s plot, he had forgotten about Broly’s existence until shortly before the conception of the Dragon Ball Super: Broly film. He rewatched the earlier Broly movies and decided to finally incorporate the Legendary Super Saiyan into the Dragon Ball canon. That message mentioned above was also posted by the official Toei Animation Facebook page if you want to take a gander.

Launch (Kinda)

If you heard Toriyama forgot about a peaceful dark-haired character who can turn into a violent blonde berserker at the flip of a switch, you’d probably assume that’s referring to Broly. Surprisingly, there’s another character who fits the bill, and that’s Launch from the original Dragon Ball series.

The story about Toriyama ignoring Launch is actually more complicated than just saying he forgot she existed because Toriyama actually intentionally wrote Launch’s character out of the story when Dragon Ball Z started. However, shortly after, Toriyama forgot that he had written her off and felt compelled to come up with an excuse as to why she was gone. Hence, Krillin mentioning that Launch had chased after Tien and was never seen again at the beginning of Z. So technically, Toriyama forgot that he hadn’t forgotten about Launch.

Tao Pai Pai

Even one of the biggest and most iconic villains from the original series isn’t safe from Toriyama’s memory loss. Tao Pai Pai, otherwise known as Mercenary Tao, is another character Toriyama forgot about, admitting to it in an interview with Eiichiro Oda, the creator of One Piece. Thankfully, Tao got one last hurrah during the Cell Saga, where he encountered the son of his greatest foe.

Goten

Okay, forgetting side characters and villains, even if they’re iconic to fans, is sort of understandable. However, forgetting the main character’s son is on another level. In a deleted Twitter post, Daiki Miki, a designer for Dragon Ball Online, recalls the story of him asking Toriyama for a drawing of Goten. Unfortunately, Toriyama had apparently forgotten who Goten was and asked if he could just draw a young Goku since that’s how Goten’s appearance was described to him. To be fair though, there are about five other characters throughout the series that also look exactly like Goku.

Anthropomorphic characters

Anthropomorphic characters were just about everywhere during the original Dragon Ball series and were still around during the beginning of Dragon Ball Z, but almost all disappeared soon after. In another interview, Toriyama admits that it was simply because he forgot to include them. However, he also implied that their disappearance could have also been due to the shift in tone of Dragon Ball Z, moving from the original series’ playful vibes to a more serious one. So even if he hadn’t forgotten about anthropomorphic characters, he might have slowly phased them out intentionally anyway.

Luckily, already-established anthropomorphic characters like Puar and Oolong get to stay. On some rare occasions, some characters did still make appearances, like how King Furry briefly showed up during the Cell Saga. However, now that Dragon Ball Daima has established itself as a show that’s more similar to the original series in terms of tone, maybe anthropomorphic characters can start appearing again.

Forgotten Details

Super Saiyan 2

In the interview mentioned earlier where he explains why he doesn’t take notes, Toriyama also mentions that he forgot about the Super Saiyan 2 transformation. He even got confused when people started saying Goku has a Super Saiyan 3 transformation. In his mind, Toriyama thought that the transformation where Goku’s hair grows to body length, and he loses his eyebrows was Super Saiyan 2, completely forgetting that Gohan had already achieved that form one whole saga ago.

Android 18’s Hair Color

This one isn’t as egregious but still makes for a funny story. While making the Battle of Gods film, Toriyama colored Android 18’s hair purple instead of yellow. His co-workers noticed the mistake though, and it was quickly corrected. It would have been nice to see everyone’s favorite android get a new look, even if just for a little while though.

The Pilaf Robot

In the same interview with Oda, where he admitted he forgot who Mercenary Tao was, Toriyama also reveals that he doesn’t remember the mechs Pilaf, Shu, and Mai piloted in Dragon Ball. This one is a little understandable though, as the Pilaf Machines were one of the earliest villains in the series, debuting in the anime in 1986.