[Meeting…] Ackman

Today I am going to talk again about an Akira Toriyama character in this section, although once again, it is not related to dragon ball, but he is the protagonist of some short stories published during the nineties. After having presented Paifu and José Rodríguez, Kajika and Arale Norimaki, it is the turn of Ackman, protagonist of Go! Go! Ackman.

Ackman, the awakening of the demon

Ackman is a young demon (he is only about two centuries old), who after waking up from a nap decides that it is time to earn some money. How will he do it? Well, killing people, collecting their souls and selling them in hell, a task for which he will be helped by a small henchman named Godon, who is always at his side and is in charge of guarding the souls they get.

Despite being a demon, Ackman is not a completely evil being. He sometimes hesitates about killing one person or another and, before Godon's curious gaze, he justifies his doubts by claiming that some souls are worth more than others and that he is only interested in the most valuable ones.

The evil intentions of the young demon will be interrupted by an angel, who will try to avoid unnecessary deaths and, in the process, teach the demon a lesson. Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where the remedy is worse than the disease, since the angel's methods are so exaggerated that it will cause infinitely greater chaos than Ackman himself would do, and of course, all the souls of the victims of that destruction are appropriated by the young demon.

The angel's obsession with Ackman will be such that he will spy on him until he finds his weak point, women, since it seems that the young demon does not feel comfortable around attractive scantily clad women, something that the angel will decide to take advantage of, showing an absolute lack of morality and a blind belief that the end justifies the means.

Initially, Ackman sees the angel as a tough guy who never stops annoying him day after day, but after seeing the ineffectiveness of his methods (and his constant bad luck), he ends up considering him a source of income and fun, since the disasters he causes make him get souls easily and the hitmen he hires make Ackman have fun fighting them.

The bad boy becomes popular

Ackman is a character who has only appeared in a few short stories, but despite this he achieved great popularity. There is an anime with some of his stories and four video games (3 for Super Nintendo and 1 for Game Boy) in which we can control Ackman doing his devilish antics and collecting souls. Special mention for the third Super Nintendo title (Go Go Ackman 3) where you can also control the angel.

Conclusion and Recommendations

As a rule, Akira Toriyama constantly photocopies himself, we have seen many of the characters, situations and concepts of his short stories repeated more than once in others. That is why Ackman is an interesting character, because although in concept he has a certain resemblance to the son of the devil who appeared in Dr. Slump, both characters and their stories are different. You could say that to a certain extent, it is a breath of fresh air in the author's works.

Ackman's stories are short, original and funny, with some unexpected jokes that are sure to make you laugh wickedly. Ackman alone may be an ordinary character, but when his rival (the angel) comes into action, everything improves noticeably. In some ways, the angel is the most interesting character in the stories, but on his own he wouldn't be worth much. We could say that We are faced with Toriyama's version of Coyote and the Roadrunner, if you put the two characters together, you get the best of both.

Ackman's stories have been published in various compilations, such as Akira Toriyama Theater Manga 3 or the most recent and accessible, Akira Toriyama Mankan Zenseki.

If you liked their stories, I recommend that you take a look at the anime and video games.