Dragon Ball Super: Toyotaro on the Moro arc and Granolah

At Jump Festa 2021, Toyotaro gave a special interview about the Dragon Ball Super manga. He answered questions about the Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc, also known as the Moro arc, and the then upcoming Granolah the Survivor arc. My main takeaway is that his answers support what I've argued for a long time: Toyotaro had gained much more creative power over the story he co-wrote with Akira Toriyama.

The interview came out after the Moro arc ended. At that point the next arc, built around a new character named Granolah, had only been teased. Toyotaro talked about how the Moro arc came together, picked his favorite character from it, and gave fans a hint of what the Granolah arc would bring.

Toyotaro said the Moro arc felt intimidating without an anime to follow

Asked for his thoughts now that the Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc had ended, Toyotaro compared it to the Universe Survival arc. He explained that this time the story was serialized without anyone knowing what it was about, so it felt intimidating, but that also made it fun to draw. He said it was created through much trial and error, adding: "I believe I was able to draw the very best story I am currently able to convey."

What he's describing in the first part of that answer is that there was no anime adaptation of Toriyama's draft while he drew the Moro arc. During the Tournament of Power, the Universe Survival arc, the anime finished before the manga caught up. The anime ended around March 2018, and the manga version of the Tournament of Power didn't conclude until November 2018. Toyotaro was months behind the anime back then.

With the Moro arc, he couldn't look at the anime and base his pages on it. It was all him, working from Toriyama's draft, Toriyama's notes and the information he came up with himself. That's why I think he found it intimidating. At the time of the interview there was no anime version of that arc. My expectation was that when the Dragon Ball Super anime returned, it would pick up with the Moro arc, which would make it more like a traditional anime adapted from a manga rather than the other way around.

Why I believe Toyotaro had become the main writer of the Moro arc

Here's how Dragon Ball Super works. Toriyama wrote a draft, and then Toyotaro and Toei took that draft and adapted it. Sometimes they add things. Vegito Blue wasn't in Toriyama's draft. The anime did it, and Toyotaro followed suit. Kale wasn't in Toriyama's draft either, and neither was Ribrianne's thin form, when she isn't the big version of the character. Those weren't original Toriyama ideas.

Toyotaro has been getting more and more power, and notice how he says he believes he drew the very best story he's currently able to convey. Much of the Moro arc was him. Toriyama obviously had his input and supervised the whole project, but the Moro arc was Toyotaro being allowed to stretch his wings and become more of a creative writer.

People push back on this by pointing out that the Viz edition of the manga says story by Toriyama. I spoke to somebody from Viz about that and shared screenshots of our conversation. The reason comes down to Shueisha's marketing strategy. Toriyama's name sold, so they kept him involved as much as possible and put his name on everything. The truth is that Toriyama did help with the Moro arc, and it was originally his idea, but Toyotaro filled in the details. That's why I call Toyotaro the main writer. With the new arc, Toriyama wrote the draft, so I expected things to shift a little.

Merus was Toyotaro's favorite Galactic Patrol character

Asked about his favorite character in the Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc, Toyotaro said a whole bunch of Galactic Patrolmen appeared this time and that he loves them all, even the nameless background characters. But Merus was number one. He said the concept behind the character was completely new, so Merus was tough to draw, and as a result he ended up empathizing with him, which is how Merus became his favorite.

I find that interesting, because the concept of an angel pretending to be a human hadn't been done in Dragon Ball before. The closest thing was Kami taking over a human at the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament. He's the fighter who beats up Yamcha and turns out to be Kami. I think the old English dub gave him a different name, because the dub had already given the name Shen to the Crane Hermit without realizing another character had that name. The early dub's scripts were a mess, with names invented without knowing they were already in use.

God taking over a man is a deep story when you think about it, almost like a New Testament type of thing, maybe a little homage from Toriyama. Merus is different. He's an angel disguising himself as a human, like The Preacher's Wife. That story has been told time and time again outside Dragon Ball, but it was the first time we'd seen it in Dragon Ball.

Toriyama wrote the original draft for the Granolah the Survivor arc

The last question was what readers could look forward to in the Granolah the Survivor arc. Toyotaro said the planning took him even longer than for the previous arc, but that it was worth it because Toriyama wrote a great original draft. That tells you right there that Toriyama wrote the draft.

These drafts are very simple. There isn't much to them. Toyotaro takes them and turns them into the manga. I expected the same thing to happen when the Granolah arc got adapted for anime: Toei Animation would take Toriyama's draft and probably take much of what Toyotaro put in, because he's gaining so much power in Dragon Ball.

He had almost become Toriyama's partner. I hesitate to say that, because Toriyama still pulled rank on him, but it comes off more like a partnership and a collaboration than some random person writing for Toriyama. Whether or not you like Toyotaro's writing, Toriyama respected him. That's why Toriyama writing the draft this time is interesting to me. I wondered whether it would have more comedy and how it would evolve the story. I think the Moro arc came out outstanding, and I think a big reason is that Toriyama gave Toyotaro more room to write.

Toyotaro promised twists and new revelations for Granolah

Toyotaro said he couldn't reveal what the story was about yet, but promised "there will be plenty of twists and new revelations to get everyone excited." That's exciting to me, because I have a couple of theories about who Granolah is, including one that could be a bombshell. I might be wrong. I'm still checking it for holes, because I want any theory I put forward to be well thought out and not something that can be debunked in two seconds.

He went on to say that the new twist could be a big clue and that "things are going to heat up hotter than ever before." That makes me think what I have in mind could be the case. Obviously it's marketing. They want us excited and hyped, and since it's Toyotaro's own work, of course he's going to say it'll be great. But I really do think Toyotaro believes it.

Granolah's colored design and my doubts about Toriyama's best work

Alongside the interview, a colored version of Granolah was shown, though there was no information about the character. They kept it very quiet. He has silvery hair like Merus, but his skin doesn't look colored the same way as Merus. Some people have said he might be an angel, and that's certainly a possibility. I've also heard people say he might be a Tuffle. There are probably a hundred different guesses, and I have one of my own. The colored image is useful for artists, because the manga is in black and white.

I look forward to seeing what happens with this arc, but I have doubts about the way it was hyped as Toriyama's best work, because in my opinion Toriyama was past his prime. I think his prime as a Dragon Ball writer ran from the Piccolo arc to about the Frieza saga, or maybe the Saiyan saga, since the Frieza saga has some issues. Those are my favorite arcs. Some people love the Cell saga or the Buu saga, and I love them too, but I think the Toriyama who wrote Dragon Ball and the Z portion isn't around anymore.

It doesn't have to be better than Dragon Ball Z. If this is the best arc of the Super era, from Battle of Gods onward, I'll be happy. I'll be happy if it's simply a good arc with good twists and turns and not too many logic holes. Goku is extremely powerful, and he may need an angel level opponent to challenge him. So maybe the theory that Granolah is an angel is true. But if so, who is he? I have an idea.