Akira Toriyama

Toriyama married Yoshimi Kato on May 2, 1982. Earlier she worked as a manga artist under pen name ‘Nachi Mikami.’ Occasionally she helped Toriyama with his manga work. Their son was born in March 1987 and daughter was born in October 1990.

He is an animal lover and has had many pets since his childhood. He has a great liking for plastic models and has created many for ‘Fine Molds’ brand.

Toriyama was born on April 5, 1955, in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. His father owned an auto repair business and enjoyed motorbike racing. Toriyama has inherited the love for cars and motorbikes from his father.

As there were no means of entertainment during his school days, all his elementary school friends tried to draw anime and manga. He, too, followed the trend and then, his entry of ‘101 Dalmatians’ won him a prize at the local art studio. Thus, he got interested in this work.

In 1974, he joined high school to study art, specializing in publicity. But in 1977 he left it to enroll in ‘cartoon drawing.’ Then he took up a job of designing posters in an advertising company in Nagoya. He worked for 3 years before quitting the job to become a manga artist.

He entered his manga in an amateur contest of ‘Jump’ magazine. Though he didn’t win it, his work was noticed and appreciated by Kazuhiko Torishima, who later worked as the editor of Toriyama’s manga.

In 1978 Toriyama made his debut in the manga industry when his story ‘Wonder Island’ got published in the ‘Weekly Shōnen Jump.’ In 1979, he created his next manga, ‘Highlight Island.’

His 1980’s comedy series ‘Dr. Slump’ brought him a lot of appreciation and fame. The series was published from 1980 to 1984 in ‘Weekly Shōnen Jump.’ The story illustrates exploits of a professor and his robot, ‘Arale.’ This manga earned him the ‘Shogakukan Manga Award’ in 1981. ‘Dr. Slump’ has sold more than 35 million copies in Japan. It was adapted into an anime series, which was aired on TV from 1981 to 1986 with great success. Its remake series was shown from 1997 to 1999.

Toriyama’s manga series ‘Dragon Ball’ was first published in 1984 in the ‘Weekly Shōnen Jump’ and it immediately gained popularity and eminence. In Japan alone, its sale has crossed 156 million copies and is considered as the ‘most influential Shōnen manga.’ It boosted up the magazine’s circulation to 6.53 million in 1995.

’Dragon Ball’ was started as an adventure manga and then later it developed into a martial arts series. It ran successfully for 11 years from 1984 to 1995. Toriyama created altogether 519 chapters of the manga which were compiled in 42 volumes. This tremendously successful manga series was adapted into 5 anime and many animated movies as well as video games. (2 of these 5 anime were not based on the manga, but Toriyama himself had designed the characters.)

In 1981, he won ‘Shogakukan Manga Award’ for ‘Best Shōnen or Shōja Manga Series of the Year’ for his manga ‘Dr. Slump.’ In honor of his years of work, he was presented the ‘Prix Special 40th Anniversary Festival Award’ at France’s ‘Angoulōme International Comics Festival’ in 2013.

In March 2013, an exhibit ‘Akira Toriyama: The World of Dragon Ball’ was opened at the ‘Takashimaya Departmental Store’ in Nihonbashi. The exhibit, divided into seven detailed areas, attracted thousands of visitors. It travelled to two more cities, Osaka and Nagoya.