Notice me, Senna-pai...
We love Dragon Ball. One of us loves racing. But at least both of us love cars. It’s not often these universes overlap. But thanks to a Reddit comment by ‘thefuckingswampking,’ (territory dispute with Shrek?) we learned there was some crossover, and it featured some titans of each respective industry.
Dragon Ball author Akira Toriyama is a big Motorsports fan and often wrote about F1 happenings weekly in the the publication 'Shonen Jump.' But that love eventually went both ways when McLaren-Honda became a sponsor of the magazine. The end result of this mutual fandom is some pretty special artwork from the man behind DBZ, including pieces depicting Goku driving the McLaren MP4/5.
What’s more – Toriyama got to sit down with a little known racer at the time - one Ayrton Senna – who drove the car pictured above. It’s hard to find a definitive source on this, but our limited research and the anecdotal evidence that Brazilians love Dragon Ball leads us to believe both Senna and Toriyama were fans of each other’s work.
Toriyama is also a pretty big gearhead himself, growing up around his dad’s auto shop where he gained an appreciation for all things mechanical. That love often slips in to his art and manga in the best possible way.
Does Akira Toriyama still follow Formula 1? Will Lewis Hamilton win a 7th championship title? Find out next time…
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