A friend started showing me these funny “abridged” Dragonball Z episodes and now I’m on a bit of an Akira Toriyama bender. I actually have fond memories of watching DBZ after school every day, even when I was aware of how dumb and painfully slow the action was. It was basically a soap opera for children, but with more punching and planets blowing up.

Plus, Toriyama’s designs are pretty great, especially the clothes. At this point, Vegeta’s armor is pretty iconic, and I coveted Bulma’s future-eighties outfits as a kid. And when he sticks to light-hearted comedy comics like Dr. Slump, Toriyama’s a good storyteller, too.