Akira Toriyama, creator of Dragon Ball, rumored to be near end of series [1]
December 9th, 1991
News has comes out of the world of Manga from Japan in particular as Akira Toriyama, famed writer, illustrator, and creator of the famous Dragon Ball series (which is now currently being serialized as Dragon Ball Z) is close to ending the series, with rumors circulating that only a handful of sagas remain before he is finished with Dragon Ball for the time being. Dragon Ball, currently in what is being recognized right now as the Androids Saga, doesn't seem close to being done but with +330 chapters out already, rumors are circulating that Toriyama will end the series before it can get to a bloated amount that dilutes how great his work has been. Now, the rumors are unsubstantiated at the moment and Toriyama himself has not given any comment proving or disproving these rumors, but these rumors have certainly caused a buzz in Japan and to a lesser extent, in Latin America and even in Europe and the United States.
As the rumor continues to circulate and the famed mangaka has refused to give a proper answer, everyone is wondering "What will come after Dragon Ball?"
"When I first read that rumor in the Newspapers, I didn't care too much. Was in the world of comics for a time? Yes, but I didn't understand manga too much in comparison and I had never watched an episode of Dragon Ball before. At the same time, we [SEGA] were holding licensing discussions with Archie, with Fleetway, and with Sirene about a potential Sonic comic book series for all three and were also in discussion with DIC Productions and DIC Animation City to make two Sonic cartoons, so it didn't seem, at least at the time, like a good idea to really care about Toriyama and Dragon Ball when Sonic was the thing I wanted to put all my effort into. Hours later, Shinobu Toyoda walks into my office, newspaper in hand, says 'Have you read this?' with the biggest smile on his face. I nodded but, of course, I didn't want to discuss this further. Fortunately, he didn't go on to talking about it and instead asked me why I wasn't ecstatic. I replied with 'Shinobu, I don't know who Akira Toriyama is, I haven't never read a chapter or watched an episode of Dragon Ball, I am not into manga, so this isn't a big deal to me, but I can respect Toriyama for what he's done for his industry.' A moment of silence followed before Toyoda replied with 'If I get you all the episodes of Dragon Ball, will you watch them and give me your thoughts on it? I'll even give you the Manga of what comes after the current episodes so you can keep up with the story.' I shrugged and made a motion for him to go ahead, I doubted that my mind would be changed but I was open to it. A week later, he arrived at my door with Dragon Ball in tow and handed it off to me and told me he would wait for what my opinions were on everything. I told him I would give him a call and begin to watch just to sate my curiosity and also see what all the buzz was about. When I finished, it had already been a week and a half and I was a fan. I called Shinobu and told him 'Do you think Toriyama will be open to speaking with me?' And well, the story from there is pretty clear." - Tom Kalinske (1944-2027), President of Sega America (1990-1998), in a segment of his interview for the 2015 Documentary Film "Blue Justice : How Sonic changed the Manga Industry"
"It was in the Middle of July of 1992 that I met with Kalinske-san. I was still working on Dragon Ball at the time, but I was getting close to finishing it, I know that much, but I didn't know what I wanted to do after it. When that rumor leaked, I tried to ignore it as much as possible but it kept itching at me that I would have nothing to do after that. Yes, I made Dragon Ball and am currently working on Dragon Ball Super and will forever be proud of them both and glad with the impact it has left on Manga as a whole, but I guess I just didn't want to be forgotten about. Then, I hear about the President of Sega America wanting to meet with me and I decide to listen to what he has to say. After all, its not everyday that the president of a video game and console company wanted to speak to a mangaka. The meeting was private and kept quiet from the public, but I'll let you in on the details today. When we first met, I thought he was going to discuss the idea of making a Dragon Ball game for the Sega consoles and I told him that while I was interested in such an offer, I didn't want the games to bomb and stain Dragon Ball's reputation. He assured me he wasn't here for that purpose and instead brought out a console, the Sega Genesis, and a cartridge of Sonic the Hedgehog from a bag he had on him and asked if I would be interested in playing the game. I had...heard about Sonic-kun for over a year at this point but he wasn't as big a hit in Japan as Mario was, so I didn't know much about him. American and European kids liked him, but I didn't have any strong feelings about him. Regardless, I told him yes and decided to play the game on and off while working on the rest of Z. I didn't expect much, some lukewarm enjoyment at best, but I found myself liking the world and idea of Sonic, though I felt the story and premise could be more fleshed out. I told Kalinske-san I had liked it and he asked if I would be interested in playing the sequel. I agreed and I became hooked on Sonic after the sequel. I asked Kalinske-san what he wanted and he said he wanted me to potentially do a Sonic Manga. I told him to wait until Dragon Ball was finished and then I would consider it. Of course, just because I said that, Kalinske-san kept on speaking to me about it periodically and eventually, around early or mid-1993, I agreed to do one and began to come up with character designs and story ideas for it. It was a long process and it wouldn't release until 1996 at the latest and late 1995 at the earliest due to my main focus being Dragon Ball. I didn't expect how big Sonic would get when I did its manga." - Akira Toriyama (1955-2024), Manga Artist and character designer for Dr. Slump (1980-1984), Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z (1985-1995), Origins of Sonic the Hedgehog (1995-2000), Sonic X (2000-2009), Sonic Prime (2009-2015), & Dragon Ball Super (2015-2024), in a segment of his interview for the 2015 Documentary Film "Blue Justice : How Sonic changed the Manga Industry"
"I remember it, March 27th, 1993, clear as day. I was working in my office and thinking about how to help Kalinske-san with pitching the idea of the Sony partnership to the higher-ups in Japan and he comes walking to me and says 'He's on board!' The two of us cheered and whooped and hollered because we knew what this meant, we had just taken from Nintendo an excellent chance to market our product with one of Japan's greatest magakas. Of course, once we calmed down, I reminded him of the potential deal with Sony to work on the Saturn together and we both grew a little pale. It was then that Tom suddenly took on a small smiled and said..." - Shinobu Toyoda, Executive Vice President and COO of Sega of America (1989-2015) and Liaison between Sega of America and Sega of Japan (1990-2015), during his interview for the 2020 Documentary Film "Console Wars : How SEGA became King"
"...I told him I'd lie, sell to Nakayama and the rest of the board in Japan in a manner similar to how KFC was sold to Japan in the 70s. Toyoda called me crazy, said it wouldn't work, that it was two totally different circumstances, but decided to go along with it anyway. I wasn't a big fan of the Saturn, but Sega of Japan wanted it and they wanted Sonic to be popular in Japan. I could feel their jealousy and was a bit worried they might sabotage us because of that. The manga was going to be made by the same guy who made Dragon Ball, which meant that, at least initially, Sonic could be a big hit in Japan. When we arrived in Japan, both me and Toyoda were sweating bullets and our nervousness amped up in the board room as I pitched the idea of the partnership. Nakayama said he was doubtful of Sony's capabilities to make hardware and software, but he was considering on giving the partnership a chance. However, more minds needed to be changed, so then I said to them 'Toriyama said he'd do the Sonic Manga if the partnership happens. He thinks it would help Sonic's name here along with the manga and a possible anime that could be distributed by Sony.' The news about the proposed partnership was already out there, so they could assume Toriyama knew about it from that, but they had no idea that I had been meeting with Toriyama since 1991 and slowly pushing him to be on board with the idea and Toriyama had said he was interested with or without Sony, so that was a secret and a lie I had just told but to the board, that information meant everything. Toriyama could really fix Sega of Japan's problems and make Sonic a household name there like he did for Son Goku. It got quiet, then the group erupted into a discussion and Toyoda translated what he could hear before Nakayama stood up and said 'Kalinske-san, after careful consideration, I will hold a conversation with Ohga-san to discuss this potential partnership with him further. In the meantime, I want you to keep Toriyama on board and ask when Dragon Ball is finished.' I nodded and me and Shinobu left the room, letting out a huge sigh of relief when we did so. I don't know a lot about what was said at the meeting between Ohga and Nakayama, but it seemed they were on relatively good terms and that when Toriyama was brought up, Ohga wanted to be on board to distribute any possible anime that came out for the Sonic Manga that had his name attached. When I got the call by Nakayama giving me the green-light for the deal, I laughed to myself and said 'checkmate, Yamauchi.'" - Tom Kalinske, during his interview for the 2020 Documentary Film "Console Wars : How SEGA became King" [2]
SEGA and SONY announce partnership at CES; will work together on successor to the Genesis together
June 7th, 1993
Back in March, rumors began to fly in the media of a potential partnership between SEGA and SONY to work on the successor to the SEGA Genesis together. Much like the rumors about Akira Toriyama almost two years ago, these rumors were largely ignored and placed off the table, though strangely SEGA did pull out of licensing talks with Archie Comics, Fleetway, and other comic companies like them while also pushing the animated shows for Sonic. However, just recently at the most recent Summer Consumer Electronics Show that ran from the third to the sixth, both SEGA and SONY were close to one another and would eventually make an announcement that shocked many in thee global market. The Presidents of the American branches of both companies, Tom Kalinske of Sega and Michael Schulhof of Sony, announced that SEGA and SONY would be working together on the next big system that will compete with the SNES while Nintendo only stated that their intentions is to continue with the SNES for the time being. This new console has been announced as a successor to the relatively successful SEGA Genesis that released in the late 80s and that they hope it improved on the Genesis in every possible way. While both men refused to say whether or not it was the Playstation that SONY has been working on ever since 1991's CES, many believe that the partnership will inevitably produce said system. That is to say, excitement following the announcement has been through the roof and both fans and the media have begun to discuss what will be the specifics of this new gaming system, its name, and the ideas for it while others have theorized what would become of the partnership and what means for gaming in general.
In other news, Dragon Ball creator was seen recently wearing a Sonic the Hedgehog hat and when asked why, he replied with "I think he's a fun character." While this statement is innocuous enough, fans will be fans and they have began to theorize that a Sonic the Hedgehog Manga made by the creator will be coming once Dragon Ball's run has come to an end...
[1] - This leak changes a lot of things and helps out Tom Kalinske quite a bit re:SONY partnership. A lot of Sega's problems otl were caused by SoJ being envious/jealous of the success of SoA & SoE. With Toriyama doing a Sonic Manga after Dragon Ball is finished, they believe Sonic will have a chance to do well as the Manga will boost interest in Sonic, which will lead to more people purchasing their consoles to see what Sonic is all about. This, while risky, prevents the jealousy they had OTL or at least prevents it for some time.
[2] - I don't know if this gamble would be successful or if Kalinske would be fired on the spot, but if successful, I imagine Tom would do well. Also, I don't know who was President of NoA at the time, Google didn't tell me. If anyone knows, feel free to tell me and I will change accordingly.
Of course, this will inevitably take some inspiration from @EternalMadness1997 's work, The Sega Generation (which I recommend you check out), but as the timeline diverges more and more, we get an entirely different pop culture and maybe even political scene, though I'm not sure if I want to touch on politics in this TL as well. So expect it to be tied close until the late 90s and go from there. So have fun reading this and all future updates everyone.
December 9th, 1991
News has comes out of the world of Manga from Japan in particular as Akira Toriyama, famed writer, illustrator, and creator of the famous Dragon Ball series (which is now currently being serialized as Dragon Ball Z) is close to ending the series, with rumors circulating that only a handful of sagas remain before he is finished with Dragon Ball for the time being. Dragon Ball, currently in what is being recognized right now as the Androids Saga, doesn't seem close to being done but with +330 chapters out already, rumors are circulating that Toriyama will end the series before it can get to a bloated amount that dilutes how great his work has been. Now, the rumors are unsubstantiated at the moment and Toriyama himself has not given any comment proving or disproving these rumors, but these rumors have certainly caused a buzz in Japan and to a lesser extent, in Latin America and even in Europe and the United States.
As the rumor continues to circulate and the famed mangaka has refused to give a proper answer, everyone is wondering "What will come after Dragon Ball?"
"When I first read that rumor in the Newspapers, I didn't care too much. Was in the world of comics for a time? Yes, but I didn't understand manga too much in comparison and I had never watched an episode of Dragon Ball before. At the same time, we [SEGA] were holding licensing discussions with Archie, with Fleetway, and with Sirene about a potential Sonic comic book series for all three and were also in discussion with DIC Productions and DIC Animation City to make two Sonic cartoons, so it didn't seem, at least at the time, like a good idea to really care about Toriyama and Dragon Ball when Sonic was the thing I wanted to put all my effort into. Hours later, Shinobu Toyoda walks into my office, newspaper in hand, says 'Have you read this?' with the biggest smile on his face. I nodded but, of course, I didn't want to discuss this further. Fortunately, he didn't go on to talking about it and instead asked me why I wasn't ecstatic. I replied with 'Shinobu, I don't know who Akira Toriyama is, I haven't never read a chapter or watched an episode of Dragon Ball, I am not into manga, so this isn't a big deal to me, but I can respect Toriyama for what he's done for his industry.' A moment of silence followed before Toyoda replied with 'If I get you all the episodes of Dragon Ball, will you watch them and give me your thoughts on it? I'll even give you the Manga of what comes after the current episodes so you can keep up with the story.' I shrugged and made a motion for him to go ahead, I doubted that my mind would be changed but I was open to it. A week later, he arrived at my door with Dragon Ball in tow and handed it off to me and told me he would wait for what my opinions were on everything. I told him I would give him a call and begin to watch just to sate my curiosity and also see what all the buzz was about. When I finished, it had already been a week and a half and I was a fan. I called Shinobu and told him 'Do you think Toriyama will be open to speaking with me?' And well, the story from there is pretty clear." - Tom Kalinske (1944-2027), President of Sega America (1990-1998), in a segment of his interview for the 2015 Documentary Film "Blue Justice : How Sonic changed the Manga Industry"
"It was in the Middle of July of 1992 that I met with Kalinske-san. I was still working on Dragon Ball at the time, but I was getting close to finishing it, I know that much, but I didn't know what I wanted to do after it. When that rumor leaked, I tried to ignore it as much as possible but it kept itching at me that I would have nothing to do after that. Yes, I made Dragon Ball and am currently working on Dragon Ball Super and will forever be proud of them both and glad with the impact it has left on Manga as a whole, but I guess I just didn't want to be forgotten about. Then, I hear about the President of Sega America wanting to meet with me and I decide to listen to what he has to say. After all, its not everyday that the president of a video game and console company wanted to speak to a mangaka. The meeting was private and kept quiet from the public, but I'll let you in on the details today. When we first met, I thought he was going to discuss the idea of making a Dragon Ball game for the Sega consoles and I told him that while I was interested in such an offer, I didn't want the games to bomb and stain Dragon Ball's reputation. He assured me he wasn't here for that purpose and instead brought out a console, the Sega Genesis, and a cartridge of Sonic the Hedgehog from a bag he had on him and asked if I would be interested in playing the game. I had...heard about Sonic-kun for over a year at this point but he wasn't as big a hit in Japan as Mario was, so I didn't know much about him. American and European kids liked him, but I didn't have any strong feelings about him. Regardless, I told him yes and decided to play the game on and off while working on the rest of Z. I didn't expect much, some lukewarm enjoyment at best, but I found myself liking the world and idea of Sonic, though I felt the story and premise could be more fleshed out. I told Kalinske-san I had liked it and he asked if I would be interested in playing the sequel. I agreed and I became hooked on Sonic after the sequel. I asked Kalinske-san what he wanted and he said he wanted me to potentially do a Sonic Manga. I told him to wait until Dragon Ball was finished and then I would consider it. Of course, just because I said that, Kalinske-san kept on speaking to me about it periodically and eventually, around early or mid-1993, I agreed to do one and began to come up with character designs and story ideas for it. It was a long process and it wouldn't release until 1996 at the latest and late 1995 at the earliest due to my main focus being Dragon Ball. I didn't expect how big Sonic would get when I did its manga." - Akira Toriyama (1955-2024), Manga Artist and character designer for Dr. Slump (1980-1984), Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z (1985-1995), Origins of Sonic the Hedgehog (1995-2000), Sonic X (2000-2009), Sonic Prime (2009-2015), & Dragon Ball Super (2015-2024), in a segment of his interview for the 2015 Documentary Film "Blue Justice : How Sonic changed the Manga Industry"
"I remember it, March 27th, 1993, clear as day. I was working in my office and thinking about how to help Kalinske-san with pitching the idea of the Sony partnership to the higher-ups in Japan and he comes walking to me and says 'He's on board!' The two of us cheered and whooped and hollered because we knew what this meant, we had just taken from Nintendo an excellent chance to market our product with one of Japan's greatest magakas. Of course, once we calmed down, I reminded him of the potential deal with Sony to work on the Saturn together and we both grew a little pale. It was then that Tom suddenly took on a small smiled and said..." - Shinobu Toyoda, Executive Vice President and COO of Sega of America (1989-2015) and Liaison between Sega of America and Sega of Japan (1990-2015), during his interview for the 2020 Documentary Film "Console Wars : How SEGA became King"
"...I told him I'd lie, sell to Nakayama and the rest of the board in Japan in a manner similar to how KFC was sold to Japan in the 70s. Toyoda called me crazy, said it wouldn't work, that it was two totally different circumstances, but decided to go along with it anyway. I wasn't a big fan of the Saturn, but Sega of Japan wanted it and they wanted Sonic to be popular in Japan. I could feel their jealousy and was a bit worried they might sabotage us because of that. The manga was going to be made by the same guy who made Dragon Ball, which meant that, at least initially, Sonic could be a big hit in Japan. When we arrived in Japan, both me and Toyoda were sweating bullets and our nervousness amped up in the board room as I pitched the idea of the partnership. Nakayama said he was doubtful of Sony's capabilities to make hardware and software, but he was considering on giving the partnership a chance. However, more minds needed to be changed, so then I said to them 'Toriyama said he'd do the Sonic Manga if the partnership happens. He thinks it would help Sonic's name here along with the manga and a possible anime that could be distributed by Sony.' The news about the proposed partnership was already out there, so they could assume Toriyama knew about it from that, but they had no idea that I had been meeting with Toriyama since 1991 and slowly pushing him to be on board with the idea and Toriyama had said he was interested with or without Sony, so that was a secret and a lie I had just told but to the board, that information meant everything. Toriyama could really fix Sega of Japan's problems and make Sonic a household name there like he did for Son Goku. It got quiet, then the group erupted into a discussion and Toyoda translated what he could hear before Nakayama stood up and said 'Kalinske-san, after careful consideration, I will hold a conversation with Ohga-san to discuss this potential partnership with him further. In the meantime, I want you to keep Toriyama on board and ask when Dragon Ball is finished.' I nodded and me and Shinobu left the room, letting out a huge sigh of relief when we did so. I don't know a lot about what was said at the meeting between Ohga and Nakayama, but it seemed they were on relatively good terms and that when Toriyama was brought up, Ohga wanted to be on board to distribute any possible anime that came out for the Sonic Manga that had his name attached. When I got the call by Nakayama giving me the green-light for the deal, I laughed to myself and said 'checkmate, Yamauchi.'" - Tom Kalinske, during his interview for the 2020 Documentary Film "Console Wars : How SEGA became King" [2]
SEGA and SONY announce partnership at CES; will work together on successor to the Genesis together
June 7th, 1993
Back in March, rumors began to fly in the media of a potential partnership between SEGA and SONY to work on the successor to the SEGA Genesis together. Much like the rumors about Akira Toriyama almost two years ago, these rumors were largely ignored and placed off the table, though strangely SEGA did pull out of licensing talks with Archie Comics, Fleetway, and other comic companies like them while also pushing the animated shows for Sonic. However, just recently at the most recent Summer Consumer Electronics Show that ran from the third to the sixth, both SEGA and SONY were close to one another and would eventually make an announcement that shocked many in thee global market. The Presidents of the American branches of both companies, Tom Kalinske of Sega and Michael Schulhof of Sony, announced that SEGA and SONY would be working together on the next big system that will compete with the SNES while Nintendo only stated that their intentions is to continue with the SNES for the time being. This new console has been announced as a successor to the relatively successful SEGA Genesis that released in the late 80s and that they hope it improved on the Genesis in every possible way. While both men refused to say whether or not it was the Playstation that SONY has been working on ever since 1991's CES, many believe that the partnership will inevitably produce said system. That is to say, excitement following the announcement has been through the roof and both fans and the media have begun to discuss what will be the specifics of this new gaming system, its name, and the ideas for it while others have theorized what would become of the partnership and what means for gaming in general.
In other news, Dragon Ball creator was seen recently wearing a Sonic the Hedgehog hat and when asked why, he replied with "I think he's a fun character." While this statement is innocuous enough, fans will be fans and they have began to theorize that a Sonic the Hedgehog Manga made by the creator will be coming once Dragon Ball's run has come to an end...
[1] - This leak changes a lot of things and helps out Tom Kalinske quite a bit re:SONY partnership. A lot of Sega's problems otl were caused by SoJ being envious/jealous of the success of SoA & SoE. With Toriyama doing a Sonic Manga after Dragon Ball is finished, they believe Sonic will have a chance to do well as the Manga will boost interest in Sonic, which will lead to more people purchasing their consoles to see what Sonic is all about. This, while risky, prevents the jealousy they had OTL or at least prevents it for some time.
[2] - I don't know if this gamble would be successful or if Kalinske would be fired on the spot, but if successful, I imagine Tom would do well. Also, I don't know who was President of NoA at the time, Google didn't tell me. If anyone knows, feel free to tell me and I will change accordingly.
Of course, this will inevitably take some inspiration from @EternalMadness1997 's work, The Sega Generation (which I recommend you check out), but as the timeline diverges more and more, we get an entirely different pop culture and maybe even political scene, though I'm not sure if I want to touch on politics in this TL as well. So expect it to be tied close until the late 90s and go from there. So have fun reading this and all future updates everyone.
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