Ask John: What Other Anime has Akira Toriyama Created?

Question:
“Ikimarusama and Shinsukesama.” What info could u give me about this anime?

Answer:
As the creator of Dragonball, one of the world’s most popular anime titles, naturally Akira Toriyama is best known for his major works, and has a multitude of fan sites devoted to his work. Unfortunately, Toriyama’s major works often overshadow his more obscure projects. And with the nature of the internet and anime fan sites, when someone reveals an overlooked tidbit of juicy trivia, even if the information is wrong, it’s still copied verbatim on into infinity by hundreds of other fan sites. To clarify, it may be difficult to find precise information about “Ikimarusama and Shinsukesama” because that title is translated incorrectly. The proper title is “Kosukesama Rikimarusama: Konpeito no Ryu” (Kosuke and Rikimaru: Dragon of Konpei Island) as labeled on the official Japanese telephone card pictured here.

Besides Toriyama’s two most famous anime works, Dragonball and Dr. Slump, and his world famous character design work for the Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest video games, Toriyama has had direct involvement in several lesser known and obscure anime productions.

Toriyama’s adapted his Dragon Quest video game character designs for the 1989
Dragon Quest: Yuusha no Abel anime television series. Toriyama also reportedly served as producer on the 1991 Dragon Quest: Dai no Daiboken anime television series.

Although not well known outside of Japan, Toriyama’s Go! Go! Ackman manga series was adapted into four video games. Reportedly Go! Go! Ackman was also adapted into a short anime movie screened at one of V-Jump Magazine’s “V-Fair” events, but never released to home video.

Kosukesama Rikimarusama: Konpeito no Ryu was a 45 minute long anime TV special produced by JC Staff and broadcast on Japanese television in 1988. Similar to Dragonball, it was a martial arts adventure story featuring villains that could have stepped out of the Red Ribbon Army, typical Toriyama mecha, and a clone of Son Gohan’s Haiya Dragon. A copy of the rare Japanese VHS release is actually available for sale right now on Yahoo Japan Auctions.

The 1990 Toei Summer Movie Festival that hit Japanese theaters on July 7, 1990 was a triple bill of Akira Toriyama created anime. The headline film of the 3 movie presentation was the third Dragonball Z movie “Ultimate Decisive Battle Over Earth.” Theater goers that bought a single ticket were also treated to the 30 minute long “Pink Mizudorobo Amedorobo” (Pink Waterthief & Rainthief) movie and 20 minute long Kennosuke-sama movie, both adapted from short, self-contained Toriyama created manga stories.

Finally, although not created by Akira Toriyama, in 1995 Production IG created a 16 minute long Chrono Trigger anime titled, “Nuumamonjaa! Time & Space Adventures,” based on the character designs Toriyama drafted for the Chrono Trigger RPG. The short anime was reportedly only distributed at the Tokyo Game Show and was never released on commercial home video.

Thanks to GreatSaiyaman777 for his assistance with this article.