When we think about manga and anime in the present day, there are a host of legendary works that stand out and transcend the mediums. Two of the biggest examples are without question Dragon Ball and One Piece, and while these two works were created by different individuals, namely Akira Toriyama and Eiichiro Oda, respectively, the two works have a point of overlap.
This overlap actually comes from the legendary manga editor Kazuhiko Torishima, who is best known for being the editor of Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump (and a very close friend of the late Toriyama). During our recent trip to Comicon Napoli, we had the absolute luxury of being able to speak with Torishima, in a full interview you can read here, where the manga veteran told us about how he actually originally "said no to One Piece".
"You might not know, but when I was the chief editor, I said no to One Piece, to the manga version [Says Torishima-san firmly hammering the table with his fist]. But all my staff, the team, told me, no, no, no, we have to print it, print and support it. And after two hours, two-hour long discussion, I said, okay, we'll try. So if, and this is a big IF, if I was [EiichirÅ] Oda's editor, maybe One Piece was never around! [Laughs]. Or I would have forged Oda more, and maybe he had worked upon something more than just One Piece!"
So perhaps we have Torishima to thank for the immense success of One Piece, even if the Dragon Ball editor initially determined Oda's legendary work as not the right project for him. If you haven't already, be sure to read the full interview linked above, as we also speak with Torishima about the late Toriyama, how young manga creators are being shaped, and also how he looks at Dragon Quest and being a project that manages to bridge the gap between manga, anime, and video games.