Its not often people get a good look at where a mangakas career truly started and its even less often that a mangakas awful early works manage to be published the way the works of Akira Toriyama were in this package aptly titled Akira Toriyamas Manga Theatre. Akira Toriyama is someone any anime fan should know. Creator of mega hits Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball both of which have some of the longest individual TV anime runs in Dr Slump: Aralechan and Dragon Ball Z alongside smaller sleeper hits like Sand Land or Jaco The Galactic Patrolman. He has a career spanning decades that is probably one of the strongest singular runs a mangaka has ever had. It makes you wonder just how did he get his start? Did he ever write something bad or something that truly failed? He did. A lot of times. Thats the funny thing about this release a lot of the manga in it arent great in fact stuff like Wonder Island and its sequel are honestly terrible. Aimless meandering the type of comedy where you expect the creator to reflect years later thinking The first mistake I made was thinking this was funny and thats what makes this so interesting. To see someone as simply great as Akira Toriyama and see his many failures. To read about how his editor Torishima kept rejecting his works yet the pair persevered because Torishima saw a true greatness in Toriyama a style that could be refined if properly nurtured. This review is moreso focused on the little behind the scenes parts of the creation if you couldnt tell this is a part of the manga but a rather small part. Its all very inspiring in a way to see these more than humble beginnings how Toriyama didnt even plan on becoming a mangaka how he only submitted something to Jump to win a contest only to keep submitting stuff when he didnt win out of spite. A similar story is aired with Chobit another manga contained in the collection. Nobody read it and it bombed so he wrote a sequel driven by spite in some way. In short it gives a much more human air to these creatives. It lets you know that the guy who made the mega successful franchise one of the largest IPs in the world was a fuckup and a failure for good while. Obviously he had clear artistic talent but outside of that he still needed refinement you can read his earliest works and see how far away he is from the very clean comedic timing of even the earliest chapters of Dr. Slump and hes far away from the dramatics of Dragon Ball. Obviously the manga theatre isnt entirely preSlump works a portion of it was written during and after Dr. Slump as well as during and after Dragon Ball. Ill dedicate a section here to discuss two I think are of note those being Cashman and Go Go Ackman. Cashman is a joyous read upon reaching the third volume. I have to make it clear much of this release is incredibly early in his career and it constantly shows so reading something with Toriyamas more refined comedic timing is a godsend because Toriyama is a genuinely very funny guy. It shows a throughline of development that he did get better and made works to be truly proud of even if eveyrthing contained in here never released enough to fill up an entire volume on their own. Anyways the very simple premise of an alien disguised as a human trying to preserve justice while making cash on the side is one of those very snappy on the fly premises Toriyama would be known for. Its something so incredibly simple that it could be a one shot or a series running several dozen volumes. Sadly Cashman was only a handful of chapters but it all feels very smooth and natural even despite the abrupt conclusion it ends on a solid punchline. Go Go Ackman is similar in this regard another series that shows how slick Toriyama is at writing manga. Simple premises great execution and they run as long as he wants them to run or as long as the Jump readership wants them to run not saying any of these were cancelled though Toriyama is also known for being very fickle Sand Land just a demon kid gathering souls to get money. Stories can be fighting an angel or him getting the hots for a demon girl and I was honestly surprised to see it at the end of the manga theatre when I had seen the OVA I figured it wouldve been a two or three volume long manga but its a rather quaint few chapters. All in all this is a great release if youre interested more generally in Akira Toriyama. Its mostly a collection of his lowest points but the poststory behind the scenes stuff offers something to enjoy even during those. BONUS Heres my ranking of all stories contained within from worst to best. Worst Girl Detective Tomato Wonder Island 1 2 Todays Highlight Island Dub Peter 1 Dragon Boy Dragon Ball Prototype 1 The Elder Mr. Ho Adventure of Tongpoo Dragon Ball Prototype 2 Little Mamejiro Pola Roid ESCAPE Chobit 1 2 Karamaru and the Perfect Day Go Go Ackman Kennosukesama Cashman PINK Mad Matic Best