Perhaps one of the most popular manga artists of all time, Akira Toriyama is a "hero" for many people across the globe for his well known manga sensation, Dragonball. Of course it is known that Dragonball spawned into something even bigger, the most renowned fighting manga series known as Dragonball Z.
Toriyama was born April 5th, 1955, in the Aichi region of Japan. Years later, he attended the "Prefectural Industrial High School" and graduated as a graphic designer. After graduating, Toriyama started work at an advertising company, but soon after, began making his own manga creations. His first printed manga appeared in a magazine called "Shuukan Shonen Jump" in 1978. It was a comic strip called "Wonder Island" which was set in a strange world with flying fish, and skateboarding monkeys.
In 1979, he had another strange manga published called "Highlight Island." It was about a boy named Kanta, who loved school food, but could not eat it due to dental problems.
The next manga to be released by Toriyama was a "progressive" manga, as we would hear in the politically correct society we have today, called "Tomato Girl Detective." This placed a female in the hero position, rather than a brave male. Although experiencing some success, his first true success did not come until 1980, when he published a manga called "Dr. Slump," once again placing a female in the lead role. It was once again a visit to the wacky wonderful world of Wonder Island. The manga was published for only five weeks until Toriyama was approached to make the manga series into a television series, to which Toriyama quickly agreed to. The manga lasted until 1986, two years after he made the manga that took its place, his famed manga known as Dragonball.
Dragonball was inspired by the Chinese legend "Journey to The West" as well as Jackie Chan movies. Dragonball, at it′s release in "Shuukan Shonen Jump" was not as popular as expected. Until the Budokai appeared in Dragonball, it was not a well accepted manga at all. Toriyama′s friend Torishima gave him the advice he needed, as told by Toriyama.
"Torishima told me one time: "Your main character is too quiet. That′s why it′s not so popular." With this, Toriyama brought back Kame Sen′nin, and introduced a new character Krillin, and turned Dragonball into a fighting anime. With these additions, the popularity of the manga increased exponentially.
The series sadly ended in 1989, leaving many fans disgruntled until a week later in which a follow-up series took its place. Dragonball Z took the anime world by storm, bringing 291 episodes (276 American Dubs), 13 movies, and two TV specials, becoming the most popular anime series of all time. The Series was dubbed into many languages, including English, Chinese, French, and Italian.
After Toriyama decided to finally end his Dragonball legacy in 1996. The end of another great show once again saddened fans, but high hopes were kept for Dragonball GT. The anticipation was met with discontent when the series turned out to be a seemingly non-fighting series, far from its action filled predecessors. Akira Toriyama, however, had no part in the writing of Dragonball GT; he was only an animation consultant. Toei Animation was in charge of the story line.
The series was getting terrible ratings, but towards the end of the series, Toei attempted to save it by going back to Dragonball Z style fighting roots. The attempt was too little too late although, the series only lasted 64 episodes.
Today, Akira is a 5′8" tall man who is sitting at home enjoying a good meal. To tell you the truth I′m not sure what his latest projects are but I do know two things. First off, Toriyama met in Japan with Fox executives to discuss creative plans for the Dragon Ball live-action movie. Toriyama had this to say, "Recent movies have surprised us by entering such territory that used to belong only to comics with wonderful technology and wisdom. As a big movie fan, I am truly looking forward to the movie version of Dragon Ball. I hope you will entertain millions and millions of people with the brand new Dragon Ball of a totally new dimension that surpasses my imagination."
