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Dragon Ball as a franchise is in a very delicate state at the moment after author Akira Toriyama died at age 68 on March 1, 2024. It is in the state especially after the Super manga was recently confirmed to go on hiatus after chapter 103 came out this week. While most fans want the best for the franchise, especially after Toriyama's passing, there is no denying that some of them don't trust Toyotaro's ability to carry on with the manga on his own.
Toyotaro is a very divisive figure in the Dragon Ball fandom, not because of his personality or professionalism, which have never been put into question. He is a divisive figure due to his qualities as an artist and storyteller.
While Toriyama had moments where his writing had questionable decisions, he was the author and the one who cemented the franchise as the colossus it is today. However, Toyotaro doesn't have the same credit with the fans, and some reasons for that are warranted while others not so much.
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Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the series. Any opinion expressed here belongs to the author and not Sportskeeda.
Explaining why Toyotaro is disliked by a portion of the Dragon Ball fandom
There are several reasons why Toyotaro is disliked by the fans, with one of the main reasons being the use of panels in the Super manga. Toriyama was often praised for his paneling in the original series. However, some fans have felt that Toyotaro lacks the dynamic and fluid approach his mentor had, making the experience of reading the sequel less exciting.
Another reason is the constant references to previous panels made by Toriyama in the original manga. This has led to some people criticizing Toyotaro by calling him lazy or at least attempting too much to pay tribute to the past. While it makes a lot of sense that he is a fan of the original series, some feel that he should attempt to write his own history within the franchise instead of making constant callbacks to the past.
This other point is contradictory to the previous one but there is a section of the fanbase that feels that Toyotaro's plots and narrative choices differ from the tone of the series as a whole. That was shown during the new material of Goten and Trunks he added during the Super Hero manga arc, with some fans claiming that it was boring and too slow. However, some leeway should be given when considering that he was adapting a movie storyline into the manga.
The case for Toyotaro moving forward
Fan criticism is all well and good as long as it comes from a place of respect, which has been mostly the case in the Dragon Ball community regarding Toyotaro's output. However, there is also a strong argument to be made to support him during this period of the franchise's history since there is a good chance that he is going to be in charge of the manga moving forward.
Toyotaro has been the illustrator of the Super manga since it made its debut in 2015 and has been sharing ideas and plot points with Toriyama ever since. So he has not only experience working on the manga but also has first-hand knowledge of the author's vision and way of doing things. It is certainly not going to be the same as Toriyama writing the stories since the latter understood his own series better than anyone, but it doesn't mean that the quality will suffer a massive decline.
Final thoughts
Toyotaro is disliked by a good percentage of the Dragon Ball for a variety of reasons but most people agree that they wish him the best moving forward with the franchise. It is a very difficult period for the series and most fans would like Toyotaro can respect and honor Toriyama's legacy by delivering great stories in the coming years.
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