The world's first physical "Dragon Ball" specialty store, the DRAGON BALL STORE, officially opened its doors in mid-November at Tokyo Character Street in Tokyo Station. But right out of the gate, many fans in Japan were quick to point out the store's visual illustrations looked incredibly shoddy, totally missing that official "Dragon Ball" vibe.
Adding fuel to the fire, legendary former Weekly Shonen Jump Editor-in-Chief Kazuhiko Torishima didn't hold back. During a livestream on the YouTube channel "Yubo to Mashirito no KosoKoso Hoso Kyoku," he straight-up blasted the current official team for their lack of discipline, openly dissecting how the "DRAGON BALL STORE"'s quality issues even happened. Fans were, understandably, stunned.
The controversy actually kicked off a week before the "DRAGON BALL STORE" even opened. Netizens were already scrutinizing the official reveal of the stairwell design leading from B1 of Tokyo Character Street to the first-floor store entrance. The official team had hyped this as a "newly drawn" main visual for the store, showcasing various forms of Goku illustrations lining the stair railing.
Fans immediately roasted the artwork as incredibly crude, especially the Saiyan Goku poses, which they said completely lacked any dynamic beauty. The big question: How could the first-ever official store use such low-quality illustrations for its grand opening?
In his YouTube livestream, Torishima explained that back in the day, to prevent any shoddy merchandise from hitting shelves, he'd personally implore Toei Animation to "absolutely find artists with excellent skill and deep familiarity with the original work" for all licensed illustrations. Now, though, he feels that the current supervision process has completely broken down, almost like they've regressed to the "unstable quality era" of the franchise's early days.
He didn't stop there, launching into a full-on tirade: "This quality looks like they just grabbed whoever was free nearby to draw it, didn't it?" he scoffed. "Fans are being treated like ATMs; this is practically fraud." His blunt advice? "Official merchandise this crude? Please don't buy it." He even personally demonstrated Goku's Kamehameha pose, arguing that the official illustration completely botched Goku's original stance, calling the quality "truly terrible."
▼ The Kamehameha pose called out by Kazuhiko Torishima.
Fans were absolutely floored by his candidness. Torishima's tone was completely unreserved, giving many a satisfying "finally, someone said it!" feeling.
While these are Torishima's personal takes, plenty of fans echoed his sentiments, lamenting, "The official team is really letting us down with this." Others added, "They're basically just riding on the fans' love, aren't they?" and "Hearing this just makes it feel like the Dragon Ball merchandise market is being completely ruined."
Torishima also stressed that creators and the official team should, at the very least, prioritize the spirit of the work, rather than just fixating on cutting costs and ultimately disappointing the fans who've supported the franchise for so long.
If you're curious, you can check out the livestream video yourself, with the relevant discussion happening between 0:51:00 and 1:32:00. It's worth noting that while Kazuhiko Torishima was indeed the editor for "Dragon Ball" back in the day, eventually rising to Editor-in-Chief of Weekly Shonen Jump and a managing director at Shueisha, he's no longer with Shueisha. He currently serves as a director at another publisher, Hakusensha.
So, is the quality truly declining? Ultimately, it's probably consumer reactions that will send the clearest message to the official team.
via： togetter