Here is the biography of Akira Toriyama:
Akira Toriyama is a renowned Japanese manga writer, manga artist, and character designer for video games. Born in 1955, Toriyama has been a working artist since 1978. He is best known for creating the science fiction comedy series "Dr. Slump" (1980-1984) and the martial-arts-themed series "Dragon Ball" (1984-1995).
Toriyama's early life was marked by his fascination with manga and anime. He was inspired by the animated film "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" (1961) and the science fiction series "Astro Boy" (1952-1968). During his middle school years, he was increasingly fascinated with live-action film and television, and he was a fan of the tokusatsu series "Ultraman" (1966-1967) and kaiju films.
After attending a high school that focused on teaching creative design, Toriyama decided not to pursue a college education. He instead used his art skills to get hired at an advertising agency in Nagoya, where he spent several years designing posters. However, he grew tired of his job and quit at the age of 23 to pursue a career as a manga artist.
Toriyama's early attempts at creating manga were met with lukewarm response. However, he continued to submit one-shot stories for publication and eventually created his own artist's studio, Bird Studio. He started employing assistants to work on the background details of his stories.
In 1984, Toriyama concluded the "Dr. Slump" series and began working on "Dragon Ball", which would last for 11 years. The series gained popularity due to its large cast of colorful characters and exciting use of combat scenes. Toriyama reportedly used Jackie Chan's films as the main inspiration for the fighting scenes.
Despite his success with "Dragon Ball", Toriyama continued to submit one-shot stories for publication. He also began working as a character designer for video games, including the role-playing game "Dragon Quest" and the fighting games "Tobal No. 1" and "Tobal 2".
Toriyama's later work includes the animated film "Kosuke & Rikimaru: The Dragon of Konpei Island" (1988),the manga series "Cowa!" (1997-1998),"Kajika" (1998),and "Sand Land" (2000),and the crossover story "Cross Epoch" (2006). He also served as a character designer for the video game "Blue Dragon" (2006) and helped raise awareness for the victims of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
In recent years, Toriyama has worked on the animated film "Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods" (2013),the sequel manga "Dragon Ball Super" (2015-),and the animated film "Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F" (2015). He has continued to work on the film's sequels until 2022 and has also provided the scripts for the sequel manga.
Toriyama has been married to the retired manga artist Yoshimi Kato since 1982 and has two adult children. He works from his home studio in Kiyosu and has reportedly lived a reclusive life. He has never retired and seems to have no intention to do so.
Sadly, Akira Toriyama passed away on March 1, 2024, at the age of 68.
