The Most Infamous Vegeta Form Forced Dragon Ball to Focus on Just Two Metrics

Majin Vegeta remains one of those moments in Dragon Ball that still hits like a punch to the throat. Vegeta letting Babidi flip the switch during the Buu Saga? Wild then, iconic now. Dragon Ball Super artist Toyotarou recently broke down how he draws that version of Vegeta, and the way he talks about it says a lot about why the art still lands.

The vibe matters more than the veins

Toyotarou says the key to Majin Vegeta is not the muscles or the lightning. It is the temperament. He leans hard into the unhinged, bloodthirsty headspace, making sure that comes through in the eyes and the expression.

"Not to mention, his disposition becomes more unhinged and bloodthirsty, so while I was drawing, I tried to keep that in mind and made sure it came through with his expression."

He also points out that the most time-consuming part is the shading. Not because he wants it photoreal, but because Dragon Ball has a very specific look, and the right shadows carry that style. He aims for cooler and more impactful over straight realism. That checks out when you think about how the best DB art feels like it is about to punch through the page.

What he prioritizes visually

Two physical details are non-negotiable for him: the M on the forehead and those heavy black outlines around the eyes. Lock those in, push the expression, and you get back that original aura of menace and power that made Majin Vegeta so scary in the first place. Yes, that includes channeling the same energy from the self-sacrifice scene everyone still replays in their heads.

The recent art and where it showed up

Toyotarou shared a fresh Majin Vegeta illustration a few years back, and the official site followed with a special interview digging into how he built the look. That artwork also tied into Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle (the mobile game that hit iOS and Android in 2015). A collab piece popped up in March 2022, and it leaned darker on purpose to sell the sinister vibe. Mission accomplished.

His toolbox: analog bones, digital polish

Toyotarou has been at this a long time, and fans love his take because it nails the series DNA. Part of that is the way he mixes traditional and digital. He usually starts old-school and finishes on a computer, and he even explained the nuts and bolts of that setup.

"When I am doing a manga, I draw storyboards and sketches with a mechanical pencil, scan them, then print them in blue. Then it is time to ink them. The reason why I print them in blue is because that color does not show up in a scan, so I can skip the whole process of erasing unnecessary lines when I am finished inking and I am ready to scan the picture again."

After inking, he brings the page back into the computer and cleans it up digitally. For that Majin Vegeta illustration, though, he skipped the blue-print step and inked directly on the sketch, then pushed the darkness to hammer home the threat. You can feel the intent in the final image.

How Toyotarou usually builds a page

• Sketch with a mechanical pencil, then scan
• Print the sketch in blue so those lines vanish on the next scan
• Ink over the blue print without worrying about erasing
• Scan again and finish digitally for the final polish

Bottom line: Toyotarou talks like an artist obsessing over mood first, technique second, and that is why his Majin Vegeta hits. It is not just the M and the veins; it is the barely-contained violence in the eyes. Still one of the best heel turns the franchise ever pulled off.

Dragon Ball is streaming on Crunchyroll, in case you need to revisit the Buu Saga and remind yourself why that forehead M still makes people nervous.