Dragon Ball Super: Broly: did Takao Koyama have any role?

Ever since Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018) was announced, with Broly being reworked under Akira Toriyama's watchful eye, I wondered what the original creator of the character thought about it. I acquired exclusive comments from Takao Koyama through a mutual friend. In them he says he had nothing to do with the new film, that Broly was the strongest being in the movies he wrote, and that he only hopes the new films do not damage the Broly he helped create.

Koyama has not done a public interview, so these answers were never publicized. Some of the questions were asked as early as August 2018. A caveat on the wording: some of his responses came through Google Translate and some through a translator, Stacey, so a few lines read roughly in English.

Who Takao Koyama is and why he matters to Dragon Ball Z

Koyama is a very important person in the history of Dragon Ball. He worked on the original Dragon Ball from episode 83 onward and then on all of Dragon Ball Z. His job was chief writer, or scenario writer. Even though the story came from Toriyama's manga, Koyama and his team of writers at Toei, including people like producer Kozo Morishita, adapted it for television. You can't adapt a manga for the screen without adding dialogue and scenes, and that, along with the filler scenes and filler arcs, was his job.

He is probably best known for writing the original 13 Dragon Ball Z movies, from Dead Zone with Garlic Jr. through to the film with Hirudegarn. He came up with the villains and storylines for those films. He wasn't the only one involved, but he was credited as the lead, and he is credited as the creator of Broly as well as the other movie villains. He is now retired, has not worked on Dragon Ball in many years and has no involvement with Dragon Ball Super.

To protect privacy, I'm calling the mutual friend who put the questions to him Tom. We are sticking only to his answers about Dragon Ball and nothing private, and we had permission to share them.

Koyama says he had no involvement with Gogeta or the new Dragon Ball movies

The earliest question came in August 2018. Tom asked Koyama whether Toriyama had requested permission to use Gogeta in the new movie. Koyama said no, because he has nothing to do with the new movies. I already knew he wasn't involved, and I wouldn't have asked about Gogeta in particular. At the time, Gogeta had only appeared in Dragon Ball Z movie 12, Fusion Reborn, but he is a character Toriyama created conceptually. Gogeta was never in the manga, yet we knew Goku knew the Metamoran fusion dance, so a fused Goku and Vegeta was a character that could exist in theory.

What the answer does confirm is that Koyama wasn't consulted. Toei and Shueisha have no reason to consult him anymore, because he isn't involved. Even though he created the movie characters, such as Cooler, they belong to Toei. That is different from Goku, Vegeta and the other characters from the original manga, which belong to Toriyama and Bird Studio. Toriyama helped with the movie designs, but those characters don't belong to Koyama and he has no creative control over them.

That means if Toei ever made more films bringing back movie characters like Bojack or Cooler, with or without Toriyama's pen, they could do it without asking Koyama's permission. I'm not saying they will. I already suspected this, but it's good to have some clarity.

Why Broly returned twice: Koyama couldn't top him

Koyama was also asked about the creative process behind the villains that came after Broly. He repeated something he had said before. The Dragon Ball Z movies were made every spring break and summer break for seven years straight, and it was difficult to come up with enemies for Goku every time, since each had to be stronger than the last. In his words, "I couldn't create any villains stronger than Broly," so Broly appeared two more times, once revived and once as a clone.

In other words, he hit something like writer's block after Broly. Bojack came after Broly, as did Janemba and Hirudegarn, and in my opinion the last two were very creative villains. He was still stumped, which is why Broly made three movie appearances.

It's easy to tell Koyama is a big fan of Broly. When Battle of Gods came out, he made a comment where he came across as unhappy that Beerus appeared and was so much stronger than Broly. Koyama is Broly's number one fan. That might spark some controversy, and some may wonder whether he has an ego about what he created. That's up to you. I don't know this man, but I respect the work he has done for Dragon Ball and the creative ideas he came up with. It's obvious he's a big fan of his creations.

Koyama on the scar myth: Broly was the strongest being in his films

Tom asked him about the fan theory that Broly lost to Goku in the first movie because of the scar on his chest. I debunked that back on September 10, 2018, going over several reasons why it's impossible for the scar to be how Goku won.

Koyama's reply: "At least for the Dragon Ball Z movies I wrote, Broly was the strongest being." He added that he has no concern regarding works he was not involved in creating, meaning Dragon Ball Super: Broly and what came after his time. At any rate, he said, Goku and friends defeated Broly, and then he ended his comment, saying he had work to do and asking people to continue supporting Dragon Ball.

What he is saying is that it was not the scar. Goku won because he took power from Vegeta, Gohan, Piccolo and Trunks. Broly was far stronger than Goku in that film, and without their power Goku would never have beaten him. Once they gave it to him, it was enough for Goku to land the shot that won. Coming from the writer of that film, this confirms I was right: the scar explanation was made up by fans and is not canon.

Koyama hadn't seen Dragon Ball Super: Broly and thinks it's a different character

In a later exchange, from June of the year before I shared these comments, Koyama was asked whether he had seen Dragon Ball Super: Broly. He said he wasn't watching it. He said he had an acute myocardial infarction on the day he went to the cinema. The translation says he did not get sick, but I think that may be a bad translation and he may have meant he did get sick, since that is something involving the heart. I'm not a doctor.

I find it strange that Toei apparently didn't send him a copy of the film. You'd think the man who created the character and worked on Dragon Ball for over a decade would get one, but I guess not.

He went on to say that, from his son's impression of the film, this Broly seems different from the one he created with producer Kozo Morishita, who worked on Dragon Ball Z and GT alongside him. The translated answer is rough, but he questions whether people are still afraid of Broly if he gets beaten too much, and says, "I think it's a different character." My reading is that he isn't thrilled about Broly losing a fourth time. Since he himself says it's a different character, though, the new Broly losing doesn't really count. And this is a writer who had Broly lose in all three of his films. The third was Bio-Broly, a clone, but still Broly in essence. So I get what he's saying, and in my interpretation he's suggesting his Broly was more fearsome. That's plausible, because the original Broly was nasty, the devil as he called himself, while the new one is a nice guy and not evil.

Koyama on Toriyama reusing Broly: "don't damage the image"

The last question was whether he gave Toriyama permission to create his own version of Broly. That had already been answered: he wouldn't need to, because Broly belongs to Toei and Shueisha now, not to him. He was also asked whether he would return to work on Dragon Ball Super, and the answer was no. I wouldn't have asked, since he's retired.

Koyama said he has nothing to do with the production of the Dragon Ball Super movie, so he is not interested in anything about it. His only hope is that the movies produced will not damage the image of the Broly they created. He also explained, through another rough translation, that when he first came up with Broly he submitted his proposal to Toriyama and asked him for the character design. Broly was Koyama's concept, but Toriyama drew him.

So Toriyama had a stake in the original Broly, and Koyama doesn't seem to mind him reusing the character because it was never entirely his. He just hopes they don't ruin him. My own view: the old Broly may have been tougher and probably a better villain, but the new Broly has a more interesting character. Koyama wasn't involved in the new film at all, not even with a phone call, according to what he says. Toriyama took the character on at the request of Shueisha because of how popular Broly is, and they are free to do that. I hope Koyama is able to see the film, because I want to know his thoughts.