| Akira Toriyama | |
|---|---|
| Born | Toriyama Akira (鳥山 明) April 5, 1955 Kiyosu, Aichi, Japan |
| Residence | Aichi Prefecture, Japan |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Occupation | Manga artist, game artist, artist, writer, character designer, art director |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Employer | Shueisha, Bird Studio |
| Known for | Dragon Ball, Dr. Slump |
| Influenced by | Osamu Tezuka, Walt Disney, Jackie Chan |
| Influenced | Yoshihiro Togashi, Eiichiro Oda, Masashi Kishimoto, Hiro Mashima, Tite Kubo |
| Spouse | Yoshimi[1] |
| Children | 2 |
Akira Toriyama (鳥山 明 Toriyama Akira, born April 5, 1955[2]) is a Japanese manga artist and game artist known mostly for his creation of Dragon Ball in 1984. Toriyama admires Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy and was impressed by Walt Disney's One Hundred and One Dalmatians, which he remembers for the great art.[2] Jackie Chan's early movies had a noticeable influence on Toriyama's stories.[3]
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He debuted in 1979 with the story Wonder Island, published in Weekly Shōnen Jump, and first gained popularity for the manga and anime series Dr. Slump, originally serialized weekly in Shōnen Jump from 1980 to 1984. In 1982, he won the Shogakukan Manga Award for Dr. Slump for best shōnen or shōjo manga series of the year.[4]
In 1984, Toriyama was responsible for developing Dragon Ball which was initially serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump. It became an instant accomplishment—primarily selling over 35,000,000 copies in Japan, Dragon Ball eventually became a record-breaking best seller with over 120,000,000 copies sold.[5] Aside from the Japanese fame, the series was equally successful internationally as well, including in Europe (1988), Canada (1996) and North America.
Toriyama is mostly acknowledged for his major hit Dragon Ball. This work was one of the linchpins for what is accepted as the "Golden Age of Jump". Its success encouraged Toriyama to continue working on Dragon Ball from 1984 to 1995. During that 11-year period, he produced 519 chapters, collected into 42 volumes. Each volume has an average of 200 pages. Moreover, the benefit of the manga led to three anime adaptations, numerous feature-length animated movies, several video games, and mega-merchandising. Though Toriyama had been planning to end Dragon Ball for a long time, his editors agreed to let him end the manga so he could "take some new steps in life," as he put it.[6] The third anime adaptation, Dragon Ball GT, was not based on his manga; however, Toriyama was still involved in the project by supervising its production, although in a limited way.[7] The Dragon Ball anime, including installments that followed, spawned over 500 episodes made in Japan, and are produced and licensed for North America and Australia by FUNimation.
Toriyama's clean line and design sense led to jobs designing characters for the phenomenally popular Dragon Quest series of role-playing video games (formerly called Dragon Warrior in North America). Toriyama has also served as the character designer for the Super Famicom RPG Chrono Trigger, the fighting game Tobal No. 1 for the PlayStation (as well as its sequel, Tobal 2, released only in Japan), and the Mistwalker Xbox 360 exclusive RPG Blue Dragon (and its anime adaptation).
His works after Dragon Ball tend to be short (100–200 page) stories, including Cowa!, Kajika, and Sand Land, as well as one-shots, like Neko Majin.
Toriyama worked on a one-shot called Cross Epoch, in cooperation with One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda. The story is a short crossover that presents characters from both One Piece and Dragon Ball respectively.
Toriyama's studio is called "Bird Studio", which is a play on his name, "tori" meaning "bird". Toriyama does almost all of the work in Bird Studio; his assistant does mostly backgrounds. The studio has not been very active over the last few years and has only done occasional one-shots.
In an interview conducted in 2007 with Shōnen Jump, Toriyama revealed that he does not consider what is to occur in proceeding chapters of his stories.[8]
In 2009, Toriyama was commissioned by Avex Trax to draw a portrait of pop singer Ayumi Hamasaki, it was printed on the CD of her single "Rule/Sparkle".
Akira Toriyama collaborated with Shōnen Jump to create a video to raise awareness and support for those affected by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11.[9]
| Name | Year | Collected |
|---|---|---|
| Awawa World | 1977 | Unpublished |
| Mysterious Rain Jack | 1978 | Unpublished |
| Wonder Island | 1978–1979 | 2 One-shots |
| Today's Highlight Island | 1979 | One-shot |
| Tomato | 1979 | One-shot |
| Dr. Slump | 1980–1984 | 18 Tankōbon, reassembled into 9 aizoban in 1990, 9 bunkoban in 1995 and 15 kanzenban in 2006 |
| Escape | 1981 | One-shot |
| Pola & Roid | 1981 | One-shot |
| Pink | 1982 | One-shot |
| Mad Matic | 1982 | One-shot |
| Hetappi | 1982 | 1 Tankōbon, drawing lesson co-authored with Akira Sakuma |
| Chobit | 1983 | 2 One-shots (this is not to be confused with the later Chobits by Clamp) |
| Dragon Boy | 1983 | 2 One-shots |
| The Adventures of Tongpoo | 1983 | One-shot |
| Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater Vol.1 | 1983 | 1 Tankōbon |
| Dragon Ball | 1984–1995 | 42 Tankōbon, reassembled into 34 kanzenban in 2002 with an altered ending |
| Mr. Ho | 1986 | One-shot |
| Lady Red | 1987 | 4 One-shots |
| Kennosuke-sama | 1987 | One-shot |
| Sonchoh | 1987 | One-shot |
| Mamejiro | 1988 | One-shot |
| Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater Vol.2 | 1988 | 1 tankōbon |
| Karamaru | 1989 | One-shot |
| Wolf | 1990 | One-shot |
| Cashman Saving Soldier | 1991 | 3 One-shots - 1998, 1 tankōbon |
| Dub & Peter 1 | 1992 | 4 One-shots |
| Go!Go!Ackman | 1993 | 11 One-shots |
| Chotto Kaettekita Dr. Slump | 1994–1997 | 4 "Slim" tankōbon |
| Tokimecha | 1996 | One-shot |
| Alien X-Peke | 1997 | One-shot |
| Bubul | 1997 | One-shot |
| Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater Vol.3 | 1997 | 1 Tankōbon |
| Cowa! | 1997–1998 | 1 Tankōbon |
| Cashman Saving Soldier/New Cashman Saving Soldier | 1998 | 1 Tankōbon |
| Tahi Mahi | 1998 | 1 Tankōbon |
| Kajika | 1998 | 1 Tankōbon |
| Neko Majin | 1999–2005 | 5 One-shots, 1 tankōbon/kanzenban |
| Hyowtam | 2000 | One-shot, drawn entirely on a computer for E-Jump, a special edition of Weekly Shōnen Jump focusing on electronics. |
| Sand Land | 2000 | 1 Tankōbon |
| Bitch's Life | 2001 | 1 Illustration |
| Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen-mae Hashutsujo | 2006 | 1 Omake |
| Cross Epoch | 2006 | One-shot, with Eiichiro Oda |
| Dr. Mashirito Abale-chan (Dr.ましりとあばれちゃん) | 2007 | One-shot in Monthly Shōnen Jump |
| Sachi-chan Gū!! (さちえちゃんグー!!) | 2008 | One-shot in Jump SQ, art by Masakazu Katsura |
| Jiya | 2009–2010 | 3 chapters in Weekly Young Jump, art by Masakazu Katsura |
| Kintoki | 2010 | One-shot in Weekly Shōnen Jump |
Toriyama announced that his help with the making of the Blue Dragon anime may very well be his final assistance in anime. In his own words, he said:
The offer to direct an animated version of Blue Dragon came in February of last year [2006]. Studio Pierrot approached me regarding it. I knew that Sakaguchi had been working on assembling staff to produce a game, although at the time Blue Dragon hadn't yet been formally announced. According to the materials, it was to be a fantasy world like Lord of the Rings, with a detailed world view and story. This may be my final anime, I'm a little worried (about it). There's incredible pressure, but at the same time, there's a sense of accomplishment — that it's worth doing. Blue Dragon will be a masterpiece, not simply because I'm working hard on it, but because the staff is expecting nothing less.[10]
Blue Dragon began airing on TV Tokyo on April 7, 2007, featuring a different vocal cast than that used for the game. It is scheduled for 51 episodes. On April 16, 2007, Viz Media secured the license for the anime adaptation[11] and was originally set be released in both North America and Europe later on in the year, but that did not happen.[12] The anime premiered in the United States, on Cartoon Network, on March 28, 2008.[13]
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