Akira Toriyama

Written by : Joaquin Vivanco Morán and Milton

Torres Cedeño.
Akira Toriyama (鳥山 明 Toriyama Akira, born April 5, 1955) is a Japanese manga artist and character
designer. He first achieved mainstream recognition for his highly successful manga series 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, Chrono Trigger and Blue Dragon. 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.
He earned the 1981 Shogakukan Manga Award for best shōnen or shōjo manga with Dr. Slump, and it went on to
sell over 35 million copies in Japan. It was adapted into a successful anime series, with a second anime created in
1997, 13 years after the manga ended. His next series, Dragon Ball, would become one of the most popular and
successful manga in the world. Having sold 250–300 million copies worldwide, it is the second best-selling manga
of all time and is considered to be one of the main reasons for the period when manga circulation was at its
highest in the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. Overseas, Dragon Ball's anime adaptations have been more successful
than the manga and are credited with boosting anime's popularity in the Western world. In 2019, Toriyama was
decorated a Chevalier of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to the arts.
Early life
Akira Toriyama was born in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. He has recalled 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.[1] 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"
  Career
Early work and success 1978–2000
Before becoming a manga artist, he worked at an advertising agency in Nagoya
designing posters for three years. After quitting his previous job, Toriyama entered the
manga industry by submitting a work to an amateur contest in a Jump magazine in order
to win the prize money While it did not win, Kazuhiko Torishima, who would later
become his editor, contacted him and gave him encouragement. His debut came later in
1978 with the story Wonder Island, which was published in Weekly Shōnen Jump.
However, he did not rise to popularity until the comedy series Dr. Slump, which was
serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1980 to 1984. It follows the adventures of a
perverted professor and his small but super-strong robot Arale. He began the series at
age 25 while living at home with his parents, but when the series ended in 1984 he was
a "manga superstar". In 1981, Dr. Slump earned him the Shogakukan Manga Award for
best shōnen or shōjo manga series of the year. A very successful anime adaptation aired
on TV from 1981 to 1986, with a remake series airing from 1997 to 1999. By 2008,
 Style
Toriyama admires Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy and was impressed by Walt Disney's One Hundred and
One Dalmatians, which he remembers for its high-quality animation.[4][46] Jackie Chan's early movies
also had a noticeable influence on his stories, particularly Chan's martial arts comedy film Drunken
Master.[4][47] Toriyama stated he was influenced by animator Toyoo Ashida and the anime television
series adaptation of his own Dragon Ball; from which he learned that separating colors instead of
blending them makes the art cleaner and coloring illustrations easier.[46] It was Toriyama's sound effects
in Mysterious Rain Jack that caught the eye of Kazuhiko Torishima, who explained that usually they are
written in katakana, but Toriyama used the Roman alphabet which he found refreshing.[48] In his opinion,
Torishima stated that Toriyama excels in black and white, utilizing black areas, as a result of not having
had the money to buy screentone when he started drawing manga.[48] He also described Toriyama as a
master of convenience and "sloppy, but in a good way". For instance, in Dragon Ball, destroying scenery
in the environment and giving Super Saiyans blonde hair were done in order to have less work in inking
and drawing. Torishima claimed that Toriyama draws what he finds interesting and is not mindful of what