Akira Toriyama

Akira Toriyama was a legendary Japanese manga artist and character designer.

He is widely recognized as one of the most influential authors in the history of manga. His creative work helped drive manga circulation to massive peaks during the 1980s and 1990s. Toriyama's influence extended far beyond books into animation, video games, and even automotive design. Through his unique storytelling and visual style, he shaped global pop culture for decades. He remains a central figure in the history of Japanese media.

Toriyama's journey began in Kiyosu, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. As a child, he loved drawing animals and vehicles. He felt a deep connection to illustration after seeing the film One Hundred and One Dalmatians. He was also inspired by the manga Astro Boy by Osamu Tezuka. In elementary school, he noticed his classmates drew anime and manga because there was little other entertainment. Toriyama began to improve his skills by drawing portraits of his friends. Although he attended a high school for creative design, he preferred spending time with friends.

Before entering the manga industry, Toriyama worked at an advertising agency in Nagoya. He spent three years designing posters, but he found the routine difficult. He eventually quit and decided to try his luck in manga competitions. He submitted a parody of Star Wars to a magazine, but it was not eligible for the contest. His editor, Kazuhiko Torishima, encouraged him to keep going. This led to the publication of Wonder Island in 1978. Even though his early works like Wonder Island 2 were considered flops, Toriyama stayed stubborn. He drew approximately 500 pages of failed stories during a difficult year of learning.

Toriyama achieved mainstream success with the series Dr. Slump.

This manga followed a professor and a super-strong robot named Arale. It was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1980 to 1984. In 1981, the series won the Shogakukan Manga Award for best shōnen or shōjo series. The manga was a massive commercial success, selling over 35 million copies in Japan by 2008. The series also led to anime adaptations that occupied prime-time television slots for 18 years. This success established Toriyama as a household name.

His most famous contribution to the world was the Dragon Ball series.

It began as an adventure and gag manga before evolving into a martial arts fighting series. Toriyama wrote and illustrated the manga from 1984 to 1995. During this time, he produced 519 chapters collected into 42 volumes. Dragon Ball became one of the best-selling manga series of all time. It sold 260 million copies worldwide, including 159.5 million tankōbon copies in Japan alone. The series was a primary reason Weekly Shōnen Jump reached a record circulation of 6.53 million copies in 1995.

Toriyama's talent also flourished in the world of video games. He served as a character designer for many famous role-playing games (RPGs). He worked on the Dragon Quest series for Square Enix, a project he joined without knowing what an RPG was. He also designed characters for the Super Famicom game Chrono Trigger. Other notable projects included the fighting games Tobal No. 1 and Tobal 2. He even contributed to the Xbox 360 game Blue Dragon. His ability to create distinct, memorable characters made him a sought-after designer in the gaming industry.

Beyond books and games, Toriyama explored diverse creative fields. In 2005, he helped design a small electric car called the QVOLT. This one-person vehicle was part of the Choro-Q series and cost about 1,990,000 yen. He also worked on short crossover stories, such as Cross Epoch with Eiichiro Oda. His international impact was significant, as Dragon Ball anime helped boost the popularity of anime globally. In 2019, he was named a Chevalier of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Following his death, he was posthumously inducted into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame in October 2024.