Akira Toriyama

Akira Toriyama was born on April 5, 1955 in Nagoya, Japan. His early success began with Dr. Slump, followed by the creation of Dragon Ball in 1984, which became one of the best-selling manga series in history.

Toriyama first achieved mainstream recognition for creating the manga series Dr. Slump, for which he earned the 1981 Shogakukan Manga Award for best shōnen/shōjo. Dr. Slump went on to sell over 35 million copies in Japan. It was adapted into an anime, with a second series created in 1997, 13 years after the manga ended. From 1984 to 1995 he wrote and illustrated the Dragon Ball manga, serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump. It became one of the best-selling manga series of all time, with 260 million copies sold worldwide,[1][a][c] and is considered a key work in increasing manga circulation to its peak in the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. Overseas, Dragon Ball's anime adaptations have been more successful than the manga and similarly boosted anime's general popularity. Beside his manga works, Toriyama acted as a character designer for several video games such as the Dragon Quest series, Chrono Trigger, and Blue Dragon.

Dragon Ball expanded into anime, films, and games, influencing manga artists worldwide. Toriyama also designed characters for Dragon Quest and multiple multimedia projects.

After quitting his job at the age of 23 and asking his mother for money while unemployed, Toriyama entered the manga industry by submitting a work to an amateur contest in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine, which he had randomly picked up in a coffee shop.[11][15] The timing did not line up for that contest, but another manga magazine, Weekly Shōnen Jump, accepted submissions for their Newcomer Award every month. Kazuhiko Torishima, who would become his editor, read and enjoyed Toriyama's manga, but it was not eligible to compete because it was a parody of Star Wars instead of an original work. Torishima sent the artist a telegram and encouraged him to keep drawing and sending him manga.[15][16] This resulted in Wonder Island, which became Toriyama's first published work when it appeared in Weekly Shōnen Jump in 1978. It finished last place in the readers survey.[11][15] Toriyama later said that he had planned to quit manga after getting paid, but because Wonder Island 2 (1978) was also a "flop", his stubbornness would not let him and he continued to draw failed stories for a year; claiming around 500 pages' worth, including the published Today's Highlight Island (1979).[11] He said he learned a lot during this year and even had some fun. When Torishima told him to draw a female lead character, Toriyama hesitantly created 1979's Tomato the Cutesy Gumshoe, which had some success. Feeling encouraged, he decided to draw another female lead and created Dr. Slump.[11]

Below is his timeline and fact sheet for quick reference.