Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball': Toriyama abandoned Gohan at the end of the series for this absurd reason
Goku’s son was destined to be the great protagonist of the final arc of the series, but his creator got tired of his plot and suddenly changed his mind.
With Goku already fully established after ‘Dragon Ball’ and the first plots of ‘Dragon Ball Z’, Akira Toriyama had in mind since practically the introduction of Gohan that Goku’s son would be the great protagonist of the second half of his work. He didn’t do it suddenly, but rather gave more and more prominence to the young Saiyan as the different arcs progressed, reaching its maximum expression during the Cell saga. And the denouement of the brutal fight against the perfect version of Cell had an absolutely overwhelming Gohan who, however, paid dearly for his arrogance when he saw himself superior to such a powerful villain.
Gohan and his abrupt change of course at the end of ‘Dragon Ball Z’.
Be that as it may, the years passed, and we reached the final arc of ‘Dragon Ball Z’ with the Majin Buu saga, a stage in which we already see a more adult Gohan who already goes to high school in the big city, where he also begins to act as a masked vigilante to take advantage of his powers. However, this new approach to Gohan, now as the main protagonist, did not last too long; and it was not because of the cold acceptance of the fans. It was Toriyama’s own doing.
Although this plot was fresh and recovered the adventurous tone of the beginning of the saga, many fans missed the classic approach of the last arcs, with brutal battles and absurd power escalations. Even so, Toriyama wanted to continue with this new direction, although for a short time? The three editors who worked with the mangaka in ‘Dragon Ball’, Kazuhiko Torishima, Yu Kondo, and Fuyuto Takeda, explained in an interview why Toriyama decided to leave Gohan in the background for the final stretch of the series.
The real reason is that Toriyama simply got tired of drawing scenes full of characters, especially during Gohan’s time in high school and in the big city as a superhero. That is why he turned the story around and returned to focus on action plots. So much so that Toriyama had no qualms about changing the focus of his saga abruptly, as had already happened on several occasions during its development.
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