Akira Toriyama

Akira Toriyama (鳥山 明, Toriyama Akira^?, Nagoya, April 5, 1955) is a Japanese mangaka and character designer. He is known for the works of him Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball, and acting as character designer for several popular video games such as the Dragon Quest saga, Chrono Trigger and Blue Dragon. Toriyama is considered one of the artists who changed the history of manga, as his works are highly influential and popular, particularly Dragon Ball and the Dragon Quest saga, which many manga artists cite as inspiration.

Biography

He entered an Advertising Agency before becoming a mangaka, where he was immediately hired by an advertising company in Nagoya; He worked there for 3 years, where he always had to wear a tie (something that made him uncomfortable), which took his interest away, apart from the bad relationship with his bosses, which led him to the decision to resign and dedicate himself for full manga. His mangaka life began with a post in Shūeisha's Shonen Jump. He would later create many other stories for that magazine and later collected in volumes. Toriyama became immensely popular in Japan and abroad thanks to his work Dragon Ball, which has been watched by more than three generations on a global scale, and it is Goku and his friends, he did not know what they would take great fame claims Akira Toriyama.

In Japan, however, he remains a public figure and still lives in Aichi with his wife, a Nagoya-born former shōjo manga artist named Yoshimi Kato (加藤 由美, Katō Yoshimi) whose artist pen name is Nachi Mikami (みかみ なち, Mikami Nachi), whom he married on May 2, 1982. As a result of this union, Toriyama and Kato have had two children; their firstborn, Sasuke Toriyama (鳥山佐助, Toriyama Sasuke), was born on April 23, 1987, and they later welcomed a daughter, Kikka Toriyama (鳥山キッカ, Toriyama Kikka), which was born in October 1990.

For Toriyama, fame has caused some problems. For example, whenever there are rumors that he will make an appearance in Tokyo, the governor's office is concerned that sometimes crowds of fans will gather near his house to watch him go out and even accompany him in a caravan to the airport; this phenomenon says a lot about Toriyama's popularity.

Despite his fame, in general, Toriyama does not like to expose himself in the mass media and it is very rare that a journalist has managed to interview him or take a picture of him for a foreign newspaper.

Work

After drawing the attention of his editor for the rest of his career, Kazuhiko Torishima, with works like Awawa World and Mysterious Rain Jack (which was a parody of Star Wars), managed to debut at a young age as a cartoonist in 1978, with the story Wonder Island, which was published in the weekly magazine Shonen Jump. From that moment he created a series of short stories such as Tomato (outline of what would later become Dr. Slump ) and Today's Highlight Island. All of them had a moderate acceptance among the fans, and thanks to this the author had the possibility of making his first series.

Anime and Manga

Dr. Slump, his first hit

The claim to fame came with Dr. Slump, which was published in the aforementioned magazine between 1980 and 1984. Thanks to it, he received the Manga Prize awarded by the Shōgakukan publishing house in 1981. The acceptance of the manga was massive and, less than a year after its appearance, on April 8, 1981, the first episode of the animated series was released. In total, 18 manga volumes were collected (40 in Spain, published by Planeta e Agostini) and the television series exceeded 240 episodes, reaching its end on February 19, 1986. Dr. Slump narrates the absurd adventures of Professor Senbei Norimaki and his creation, a robot in the shape of a 10-year-old girl named Arale, and other inhabitants of a strange place called Penguin Village.

World recognition with Dragon Ball

The series that would make Akira Toriyama go down in history inside and outside Japan, to the point of becoming the best-known manga in the world, was Dragon Ball. Toriyama, after writing Dr. Slump, had written a short story called Dragon Boy, Dragon Ball is the reworking of Dragon Boy and its plot consists of the adventures of Son Gokū and his friends, in the midst of the monumental search for the seven Dragon Balls, whose union can invoke the presence of the dragon god.

After Dragon Ball

Logo Dragon Ball Z.

In that same year of 1996, the company that made the anime, Toei Animation, tried to continue with the story, but Toriyama refused to produce any more Dragon Ball manga, so Toei Animation decided to to carry out an original series on its own as a sequel to Dragon Ball Z, although at the request of Toei Animation, Akira Toriyama helped in the beginning of the project with the design of the main characters and machines, three concept arts, and the design and title of the series. It is also the anime in which he has contributed the least. Thus began Dragon Ball GT , which was not as successful as previous versions (Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z).

Manga works that Toriyama produced after the end of the serialization of Dragon Ball have been short stories (between 100 and 200 pages), among which are Cowa!, Kajika, Sand Land, and Neko Majin, among others.

Later in 2008 he contributed with the original concept of the new OVA of Dragon Ball Z (Ossu! Kaette kita Son Gokū to nakamatachi!!) on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. He recently made the movie Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, which was released in theaters in March 2013, and a prequel manga to Dragon Ball called Ginga Patorōru Jako.

As with Battle of Gods, he made a great contribution in the movie Dragon Ball Z: Fukkatsu no F, released in Japan in 2015, film where he was in charge of the art, concept, script and story and of which Toriyama himself has said: "I will print to the film a story that I wanted for the Dragon Ball Manga, but that I could not do it, and now I have been given the opportunity".

Return to Dragon Ball with Dragon Ball Super

On April 28, 2015, the continuation of Dragon Ball was confirmed, located in the period of time that passes after the end of the Majin Buu saga and the end of Dragon Ball .

Whose story "would be" directed by Akira Toriyama, and given his age and purpose with the continuation, the drawing of its manga version and the script would be at the hands of Toyotaro, a cartoonist chosen by Toriyama to continue the franchise.

Dragon Ball Super anime

The Dragon Ball Super anime premiered by Toei Animation on Sunday, July 5, 2015 in Japan and ended on Sunday, March 25, 2018 in Japan, concluding with the end of the Tournament of Power arc. It came out a little later on June 18, 2015, and because of this, and because the anime (a new weekly episode) came out more frequently than the manga (the latter is monthly, meanwhile, it's published in V Jump), the The story first came from the anime and was later adapted into a manga, contrary to what is done with most anime.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly

Shortly after its completion, the new film that would continue the events of Dragon Ball Super, Dragon Ball Super Broly, was announced, written and supervised by Akira Toriyama and directed by Tatsuya Nagamine, director whose Toriyama personally chose for this film for his Talent in portraying the characters.

The film was released on November 14, 2018, being a box office and critical success, grossing $122 million.

The future of Dragon Ball Super

The Dragon Ball Super manga has been published monthly since 2015 by Akira Toriyama and Toyotaro and is still in publication.

Video Games

Toriyama's success has also led him to work on character designs for various video games. In particular, in the popular role-playing video game series Dragon Quest (mainly known in the United States as Dragon Warrior). He also designed the characters for the role-playing video game Chrono Trigger for Super Nintendo and Super Famicom and for the popular fighting game Tobal No. 1 for PlayStation and its sequel Tobal No. 2, which was only published in Japan. His last contribution was for the Xbox 360 console, where he contributed his art to the role-playing game Blue Dragon. In addition to the video game, he was also involved in the series of the same name. He did this after realizing that he really liked video games, as he mentioned in an interview with the famous Rolling Stones magazine.

Blue Dragon is the latest anime with designs by Akira Toriyama. It is based on the video game of the same name, and focuses on a world where shadows take on a life of their own. The protagonist of this story is a young man named Shu, whose shadow is Blue Dragon, which repeats the movements that the boy performs. Shu, somewhat pressured by Nene and his eagerness to destroy all things that oppose him, decides to start a journey in which he will live with other young people who also have shadows like him, who will become strong and understand many things about the world. in which he was.

Cross Epoch

One of Toriyama's last works was together with Eiichirō Oda (creator of One Piece), together they created a 20-page comic, in which characters from both series were found. The story is totally invented and does not have a singular world (it is a mixture of both), in other words, a story outside the temporal continuity of both series; the characters are always placed between two (one from each show) with each pair in a different job. Currently this material is not published outside of Japan by any publisher.

• Goku and Luffy: heroes (the strongest of each program).
• Piccolo and Zoro: commanders of a ship (in which they are lost).
• Master Roshi and Sanji: a couple of desert marshals (the two most feminine characters of both animes).
• Vegeta, Trunks, Robin and Ussop: They are part of Vegeta pirates (only a group that seems to be totally bad).
• Bulma and Nami: space thiefs.
• Krilin and Chopper: drivers of a marine train (which Piccolo and Zoro thought to kidnap).
• Shenlong: dragon that fulfills wishes and friend of all the characters. It appears every year and is called by the spheres of the dragon.

Job List

Self-conclusive story manga (one volume)

Toriyama usually represents himself as a robot.

• Awawa World1977.
• Mysterious Rain Jack1977.
• Wonder Island1978.
• Wonder Island 21979.
• Here Highlight Island1979.
• A Detective Girl: Tomato1979.
• Mad Matic1982.
• Escape1982.
• Pink, the rain Jack story1982.
• Karamaru1989.
• The Adventures of Tongpoo1983.
• Mr. Ho1986.
• Lady Red1987.
• Lord Kennosuke1987.
• Sonchoh1988.
• Mamejiro1988.
• Tahi Mahi1998.
• Dragon Ball Fusions: The Manga!, 2016-2018.
• Despo Figther Z, 2018-2020.

Uncollected manga

• In the name of the great devil Piccolo1989.
• Hugely proud!: Vegeta the prince of the saiyajins1991.
• The Two Warriors of the Future: Gohan and Trunks1992.
• Oh! New gadgets super lovers, 2008.
• Dragon Ball Z: the Resurrection of F, 2015 next to Toyotaro. (Evening)
• Dragon Ball Xenovers 2: Manga2016, next to Toyotaro.
• Dragon Ball 30th anniversary Special Manga2016.

Short story manga

• Pola " Roid1981.
• Chobit1983.
• Dragon Boy1983.
• Cashman, the saver warrior1991.
• Go! Ackman1993-1994.
• Dub & Peter11993.
• Alien Peke1996.
• Cowa!1997-1998.
• Kajika1998.
• Nekomajin1999-2005.
• Sand Land, 2000.
• Cross Epoch2006-2007, together with Eiichiro Oda.
• The delicious island of Mr. UH2009.
• Jiya2009 by Masakazu Katsura.
• Kintoki: Toki of the Golden Eye Tribe, 2010.
• Ginga Patorōru Jako, 2013.
• Katsura Akira2014, along with Masakazu Katsura.

Serialization Sleeves

• Dr. Slump1980-1984
• Dragon Ball1984-1995
• Goku and his friends back!, 2008 (unique volume)
• Dragon Ball Super, 2015-In publication, next to Toyotaro.

Serialization spin-off manga

• Dragon Ball episode of Bardock2010-2011. (unique volume)
• Dragon Bal Heroes, 2010-In publication, together with Toyotaro.
• Dragon Ball Yamcha gaiden2016-2017 together with Young Lee.

Novels

• Dragon Ball Z: The Battle of the Gods, 2013.
• Dragon Ball Z: the Resurrection of F, 2015.
• Dragon Ball Super: Broly, 2018, next to Toyotaro.

Others

• Akira Toriyama manga theatre workshop volume 1, 1983.
• Akira Toriyama Theater Workshop volume 2, 1988.
• Akira Toriyama manga workshop1996.
• Akira Toriyama Theater Workshop volume 3, 1997.
• Tocchio, the AngelA children's book.

Video game character design

• Dragon Quest
• Tobal No. 1
• Tobal 2
• Chrono Trigger
• Dragon Ball
• Dragon Ball Z
• Blue Dragon
• Jump

TV Shows

• Apple Pop, the start sequence (the opening) of the children's program Put Kick (Songs of worship, 'Pon Kick'^?)It was done in 1999.

Other designs

• QVolt, a Q motor electric car.
• Janta, an original character from Jump Shop.
• Dragon Ball GT, a spin-off of the Dragon Ball sleeve that runs 20 years after the battle against Majin Boo and 10 years after the end of Dragon Ball Z.