Minoru Okazaki

Minoru Okazaki's name runs quietly through the credits of the first wave of Akira Toriyama anime, but his fingerprints are everywhere on them. He served as a series director on Dr. Slump and Arale-chan, the hit that first taught Toei Animation how to translate Toriyama's elastic comedy and round-cheeked character designs into television, and then carried that experience straight into the original Dragon Ball. When Goku, Bulma, and the Dragon Balls themselves arrived on Japanese TVs, Okazaki was among the directors shaping how those episodes looked and moved, from the loose slapstick of the early hunt for the seven balls to the escalating tournament battles.

He stayed with Goku as the franchise leveled up, continuing into Dragon Ball Z, where the tone hardened and the fights grew into the planet-cracking confrontations the series is now famous for.

Okazaki was born on September 27, 1942, in Osaka. Originally drawn to live-action filmmaking, he moved to Tokyo and, through a junior high friend who had become an animator, found his way into the young anime industry. In 1964 he helped set up the production company Hatenapuro and debuted as a director on Mushi Production's Astro Boy, working on storyboards for Osamu Tezuka's pioneering series. From there he moved through much of the Toei and Tokyo Movie Shinsha scene, directing episodes of Lupin the 3rd, Tiger Mask, The Rose of Versailles, Hana no Ko Lunlun, Majokko Megu-chan, Mahou Shoujo Lalabel, and Gegege no Kitaro.

Inside the Toriyama sphere he also helmed the theatrical films Dr. Slump and Arale-chan: Hello! Wonder Island, Dr. Slump and Arale-chan: Hoyoyo, Great Round-the-World Race, Dragon Ball: Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle, and Dragon Ball: Mystical Adventure.

In 1998, Okazaki partnered with Hiroshi Wagatsuma to help found the animation studio SynergySP, giving himself a home base for later directing work on shows like the Dr. Slump remake, Martian Successor Nadesico: The Motion Picture, and Touch: Miss Lonely Yesterday. He has continued to take on episode direction and storyboard work into his later years, an elder statesman of a generation of anime professionals who learned their craft inside Tezuka's Mushi Production and carried those lessons forward.

For Dragon Ball fans, his legacy is the feel of the original series itself: the tempo of its gags, the weight of its tournament bouts, and the first visual language of a franchise that has never really stopped growing.