AKIRA TORIYAMA
Akira Toriyama is now one of the most famous mangakas (or manga artist) in Japan and many parts of the world.
Akira Toriyama was born on April 5, 1955, in the Aichi District, Japan. He graduated from the "Prefectural Industrial High School" as a graphic designer, and he began his career as a mangaka at the age of 23 in the industry when he published is first manga in Shonen, in 1978.
It was "Wonder Island", the scene of a strange and absurb world, where creature such a fish swimming in air with water bottle on his back, skateboarding monkeys and Tarzan were common (Later in Dr.Slump, Senbei and Arale visited Wonder Island). Later in 1979, came "Today's Highlight Island", the adventures of Kanta, a young boy who loves the food at his school, but can't eat because of dental problems. Then came "Tomato Girl Detective", who placed a girl as a hero like "Dr.Slump" would do, in 1980.
He had several one-shots published before hitting the big time with Dr. Slump. This title was first well known for the weekly series, published in Shonen Jump, which became popular very quickly. A TV series of 243 episodes took air after the manga had been published only 5 weeks, something which had never happened before in Japan.
Dr. Slump is about a wacky scientist who creates a female android, Arale. Unfortunately, Arale was created with near-sightedness, and an extremely naive heart. Joined by a cast of strange (but funny) neighbours and their children, and the occasionally visit from invading aliens, Dr. Slump is a light-hearted series, with lots of toilet humour thrown in.
At the same time, Toriyama also published short stories, like "Pola & Roid", the winner of a Shonen Jump artist contest, in 1981. Other short stories will follow, such as "Escape" in 1982, "Chobit" and "Pink" in 1983 which were published in "Fresh Jump". Then, near the end of 1983, Toriyama begin a serie in two chapter, which will be unfinished : "Dragon Boy"; the story of a young boy who learn martial art and become really strong. Finally, in november 1984, begin "Dragon Ball", in the pages of Shonen Jump - immediate success.
After about eight years of Dr. Slump, Toriyama-sensei ended the series, and shortly after created yet another hit series - Dragon Ball, this manga ran for 10 years, and finally wrapped up in the spring of 1995, then came out DragonBallZ. He also made many short stories of this title through the years, and they have been collected into condensed into a few volumes. There other short stories were published at the same time as Dragon Ball, aimed at a more adult public like "Mamejirokun" and "Lady Red".
Dragon Ball was a manga series that started in 1984 by Akira Toriyama. It was published in the popular weekly manga Shonen Jump and later collected into 42 volumes. In 1986 the anime of the same name began. Each episode followed the story fairly accurately, adding and changing superfluous material to fill in time.
Son Goku is the main character of the story. He is a young boy who lives alone and practices martial arts. His life changes when he runs into a young girl named Bulma. Goku is a bit of a bumpkin and doesn't know about the legend of the Dragonballs, or anything about life really. Bulma says that there are seven Dragonballs, and when all are gathered, and the proper words are said, the Dragon Shenlon appears to give a wish. Bulma spots a Dragonball in Goku's house, which Goku thinks is his Grandpa's momento. Bulma convinces Goku to join her in her journey for the seven Dragonballs. Bulma wants to wish for a handsome boyfriend. Goku agrees to go because he wants to train and have fun. This is how Dragonball started.
Along the way, Akira Toriyama has also been hired to be the character designer of several home video games, including the Dragon Warrior series, Chrono Trigger, His latest involvement is the game Tobal No.1, a 3D fighter for the Sony Playstation.
Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump have both been animated as TV series, TV specials, and great movies. The movies have been released on video tape, but the TV series hasn't. "Toriyama" translates to "Bird mountain." This is the origin for the name of his studio "Bird Studio."
Toriyama-sensei is 174cm tall (that's about 5' 8 1/2", folks), and is a family man; he has two children, a son and a daughter, both of whom he can't help but spoil. He also has cat, which he adopted after he found it drenched in the rain.
As a young lad, whenever he wanted something really badly, he would start doodling the object, either until someone gets that certain object for him, or until he loses interest. This became a good basis for him in his career as a mangaka. (Anyone else want to start trying that, too?) Typically, when he's working, if none of his assistants are with him, he will turn on the TV to keep him company, though he claims he's not really paying attention to the TV.
It seems that I'm not alone to worship Toriyama, as he his known and loved world-wide.
Here is an except from a Protoculture Addicts magazine, who shows the high status Toriyama-sensei has reached as an artist in Japan :
Akira Toriyama is often referred to as the successor of Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion) who is credited with popularising manga in Japan and the one artist who best represents the world of manga. Toriyama followed his great success Dr.Slump, which sold 28,110,000 copies and spawned a 243-episode animated series which was rated number one in Japan, with an even greater phenomenon - Dragon Ball - which has sold over 109,300,000 copies (as of July 1995)!!
Dragon Ball has not only spawned almost 500 episodes of animated shows, but has created a merchandising frenzy with sales of 2.95$ billion in Dragon Ball-related merchandise!
Akira Toriyama has reached a status few artists can hope for. An Akira Toriyama exhibition has recently toured nine public art galleries and other venues, drawing over 3.3 million people. This is the second time in history that a Manga artist has achieved this level of notoriety (the first beign Osamu Tezuka and the exhibit was after his death). The National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo has made an unprecedented move by exhibiting a manga artist's work. The worlds of Akira Toriyama can be seen displayed with those of artists such as Monet and Miro.»
Created on 12/04/1999