I’ve long been a fan of renowned Japanese artist Akira Toriyama. Why? Primarily because I’m a Dragon Quest (aka Dragon Warrior) fan, and Toriyama handled the character design for those games. His simple-yet-charming monster and hero designs are top-notch, and the most recognizable in the industry. He’s also done work for other games, such as Chrono Trigger and Blue Dragon, but what originally made Toriyama’s career was groundbreaking work in manga…namely, his insanely popular series Dragon Ball.

So what’s the problem? I can’t stand Dragon Ball.

I love martial arts action, but I dunno…something about the innate cheesiness of the characters, names, and, well…everything about Dragon Ball just doesn’t do it for me. In a normal world, this wouldn’t be a problem; everyone’s got varying opinions, and that would be that. But no, it seems to be a requirement in this world that if you like Toriyama’s work, you must like all of his work. The appalled looks I’ve gotten at conventions and such when I frown upon Dragon Ball materials should speak for themselves, but I’ve also been flamed online for disliking the series. Scary, isn’t it? It’s not like I’m going out there and vehemently attacking Dragon Ball; far from it. I just don’t like it. I also do enjoy some of Toriyama’s other manga work, like COWA! and Sand Land. But for the rest of the anime/manga contingent, not liking Dragon Ball is tantamount to heresy. Anime/manga fanboys and fangirls tend to go off their rocker at the slightest provocation, anyway; the arrogance and ridiculousness of that entire subculture is absolutely frightening. (Hmm, I should write a separate post about that.) Seriously, get over it; I don’t have to like all of Toriyama’s work, so get off my back. It’s not a slam against the creator; just let me pick and choose.

The hell with the fanboys and fangirls. I’m off to play some Dragon Quest.