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You might know Akira Toriyama as the creator ofDragon Ball, but did you know that the legendary mangaka had a huge hand in the creation of one of the most used emojis? The emoji in question is the steaming hot pile of poo that everyone seems to love using.
Be it a shitty day, a trash argument, or a fun banter in general, the poop emoji can make any conversation better. But how exactly did Akira Toriyama go from creating Super Saiyan transformations to making a nasty emoji? The answer lies in his past works.
BeforeDragon Ball, Akira Toriyama was Busy Making Poop the Next ‘It’ Thing
Before becoming a worldwide icon with the inception ofDragon Ball,Akira ToriyamawroteDr. Slumpwhich ran from 1980-1983in Weekly Shonen Jump. The story follows the bizarre adventures of Arake Norimaki, or Arale-chan, who is a little girl robot. It is in this manga that Toriyama popularized poop byusing it as a running gag.
Before Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball, Akira Toriyama’s Most Famous Work was a Star Wars Parody with R2-D2, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker
While your experience with poop is a yellowish-brown waste that needs to be flushed immediately, its concept is quite different inDr. Slump. In the series, poop comes in several different colors, including bright yellow, pastel pink, and even turquoise. They resemble cupcake frosting and are sometimes portrayed as living entities.
Arale is obsessed with poking random poops that she finds on the ground, and her fascination stems from the fact that, as a robot, she herself cannot poop. InDr. Slump, poop serves as comic relief and is often paired with Arale. In fact, Toriyama even attempted to introduce the gag inDragon Ball‘s early chapters, as Mai is seen holding a poop on a stick as a reference toDr. Slump.There are several other similar poop references in theoriginalDragon Ballmanga/animethat you definitely need to find out.
Akira Toriyama’s Poop Gag inDr. SlumpInspired the Poop Emoji
When Google was looking to expand its presence in Asia (including Japan) in 2007, they wanted to develop an emoji. Google’s Japanese product manager convinced the manager of Gmail that the pile of poo emoji was the most useful one. A statistical analysis proved that the poop emoji was extremely popular among Japanese users.
Akira Toriyama’s Best Dragon Ball Decision Was Fought by His Editors That Backfired on Them Badly: ‘You want to go and change everything!’
Thus, Google doodle artistsRyan Germick and Susie Sahim were left in charge of putting a Google spin on the emoji.And guess who they drew inspiration from? You guessed it right; it was the character Poop-Boy from Akira Toriyama’sDr. Slumpmanga.
Poop-Boy is a pile of poop that was created by Senbei Norimaki, the creator of Arale. And no, Poop-Boy isn’t a new robot; he was actually shat out by Senbei. He has his own storyline in the manga and ends up befriending Bird-Poop-Boy and Manure-Boy (yes, they are exactly what they sound like). Poop-Boy is also seen inDragon Ball,where he watched Arale race the Gatchans before Goku and General Blue arrived at the Penguin Village.
Dr. SlumpandDragon Ballmanga are available to read on Viz Media.Dragon Ballanime can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
Aaheli Pradhan
Anime Content Writer
Articles Published :1556
Aaheli is an Anime Content Writer at FandomWire with 1300+ published articles. With five years of experience under her belt, she is a living, breathing encyclopedia for anime and manga. From Shonen and Shojo to the most niche anime, nothing escapes her radar. Her poisons of choice are Assassination Classroom, Gintama, Ouran High School Host Club and every Ghibli movie ever. She believes in living a slow life, surrounded by incomplete art projects and her beloved cats.
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Akira ToriyamaDr. SlumpDragon Ball
