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Akira Toriyama
Akira Toriyama
Nationality Japanese
Birthplace Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
Birthday April 5, 1955
Age 68
Professional Status
Occupation Mangaka
Game artist
Previous Editor(s) Kazuhiko Torishima
Assistants
  • Hisashi Tanaka
  • Takashi Matsuyama
Works

Akira Toriyama (鳥山 明, Toriyama Akira) was a Japanese manga and game artist. He first achieved mainstream recognition for his highly successful manga Dr. Slump, before going on to create Dragon Ball—his best-known work—and acting as a character designer for several popular video games such as the Dragon Quest series and Chrono Trigger.

On March 1st 2024, he passed away at the age of 68.[1]

Biography

Early life and education

Baby Toriyama

Akira Toriyama as a baby.

As an infant, Toriyama began to develop strange bumps on his head. As a result, he was operated upon to remove the bumps, resulting in scars across his head.[2] As a young boy, Toriyama recalls that when he was in elementary school all of his classmates drew, imitating anime and manga, as a result of not having many forms of entertainment.[3]

He believes that he began to advance above everyone else when he started drawing pictures of his friends, and after winning a prize at the local art studio for a picture of One Hundred and One Dalmatians, began to think "art was fun".[3] Toriyama has a love of cars and motorcycles, something he inherited from his father who used to race motorbikes and operated an auto repair business for a brief time.[4]

Manga career (1978-2013)

Return to Dragon Ball (2013-2015)

Awards and other activities

Personal life

Bibliography

Manga

Title Released Role
Awawa World 1977 author, artist
Mysterious Rain Jack 1978 author, artist
Wonder Island 1978 author, artist
Wonder Island 2 1978 author, artist
Today's Highlight Island 1979 author, artist
Tomato, Girl Detective 1979 author, artist
Dr. Slump 1980 author, artist
Pola & Roid 1981 author, artist
Escape 1981 author, artist
Dragon Ball 1984 author, artist
Cowa! 1997 author, artist
Kajika 1998 author, artist
Neko Majin 1999 author, artist
Sand Land 2000 author, artist
Jaco the Galactic Patrolman 2013 author, artist
Dragon Ball Super 2015 story

Guides

Title Released Role
Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 1: Complete Illustrations 1995 original story*
Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 2: Story Guide 1995 original story*
Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 3: TV Animation Part 1 1995 original story*
Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 4: World Guide 1995 original story*
Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 5: TV Animation Part 2 1995 original story*
Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 6: Movies & TV Specials 1995 original story*
Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 7: Dragon Ball Large Encyclopedia 1996 original story*
Dragon Ball Extra Daizenshuu: Carddass Perfect File Part 1 1996 original story*
Dragon Ball Extra Daizenshuu: Carddass Perfect File Part 2 1996 original story*
Dragon Ball Supplemental Daizenshuu: TV Animation Part 3 1996 original story*
Dragon Ball Volume "F" 2015 author
* Toriyama is credited as the author of all of the Daizenshuu. Despite this, he admittedly had very little involvement and left the work up to Shueisha — crediting them with such work in the introduction of most of the Daizenshuu.[5]

Filmography

Television

Title Released Role
Dr. Slump Arale-chan 1981 original story
Dragon Ball 1986 original story
Dragon Ball Z 1989 original story
Dragon Ball GT 1996 original story, concept art[6]
Dragon Ball Kai 2009 original story
Dragon Ball Super 2015 story, original story, character design[7]

Films

Title Released Role
Dragon Ball: The Legend of Shenron 1986 original story
Dragon Ball: The Sleeping Princess in the Devil's Castle 1987 original story
Dragon Ball: A Mystical Great Adventure 1988 original story
Dragon Ball Z: Return My Gohan!! 1989 original story
Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest Guy 1990 original story
Dragon Ball Z: A Super Decisive Battle for Earth 1990 original story
Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiyan Son Goku 1991 original story
Dragon Ball Z: The Incredible Strongest versus Strongest 1991 original story
Dragon Ball Z: Clash!! 10 Billion Powerful Warriors 1992 original story
Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Battle!! The Three Great Super Saiyans 1992 original story
Dragon Ball Z: Burn Up!! A Red-Hot, Raging, Super-Fierce Fight 1993 original story, character design
Dragon Ball Z: The Galaxy at the Brink!! The Super Incredible Guy 1993 original story
Dragon Ball Z: The Dangerous Duo! Super Warriors Can't Rest 1994 original story
Dragon Ball Z: Super Warrior Defeat!! I'm the One Who'll Win 1994 original story
Dragon Ball Z: The Rebirth of Fusion!! Goku and Vegeta 1995 original story
Dragon Ball Z: Dragon Fist Explosion!! If Goku Won't Do It, Who Will? 1995 original story
Dragon Ball: The Path to Ultimate Strength 1996 original story
Dragon Ball Z: God and God 2013 story, original story, character design
Dragon Ball Z: Revival of "F" 2015 story, original story, character design

Other Works

Video Games

Title Released Role
Dragon Ball: Shenron no Nazo 1986 designed the character Kuririan (クリリアン)
Dragon Quest 1986 character design
Chrono Trigger 1995 character and setting design
Tobal No. 1 1996 character design
Dragon Quest Monsters 1998 character design
Blue Dragon 2006 character design
Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow 2009 character design
Gaist Crusher 2013 designed the character Victory V Dragon (ビクトリー・V龍)
Template:Chō Soku Henkei Gyrozetter 2013 designed the character Beeman

Legacy

Toriyama is regarded as one of the artists that changed the history of manga, as his works are highly influential and popular, particularly Dragon Ball, which many manga artists cite as a source of inspiration.

Criticism

Despite the overwhelming popularity and success of his works, Toriyama has come under fire from many of his fans over his forgetfulness of details. In one instance, he was cited as admiting that he had forgotten about popular Part I character Lunch.[citation needed] More recently, however, Toriyama forgot the color of No. 18's hair for the movie Dragon Ball Z: God and God — originally coloring it purple, before correcting it to blonde.[8]

References

  1. Dragon Ball Offical's Tweet Regarding Akira Toriyama's Death
  2. Akira Toriyama, 1988
  3. 3.0 3.1 DRAGON BALL 大全集 6: MOVIES & TV SPECIALS (in Japanese). Shueisha. 1995. pp. 212–216.
  4. Dr. Slump volume 14, pape 145
  5. Toriyama's involvement with Daizneshuu
  6. Dragon Box GT DVD Box Set
  7. Dragon Ball Super animation credits
  8. Dragon Ball Volume "F"

See also

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