“When I was a child, there was a drawing class in the neighborhood. The kids would go there and draw pictures. I remember drawing 101 Dalmatians and getting a prize. That must have gotten into my head and made me what I am today” stated by Akira Toriyama. Just like everyone else, Akira Toriyama wanted to be someone in life, and it could have only happened by taking that first step forward in one direction to achieve that goal. For Akira, that step was to draw 101 Dalmatians and win a prize.
All of Akira Toriyama’s hopes and dreams revolved around wanted to become an artist. Akira Toriyama was born on April 5th, 1955, in Nagoya, Aichi Preference, Japan. As a child, Toriyama’s great influence of becoming an artist was due to Osamu Tezuka’s, Astro Boy and Walt Disney’s 101 Dalmatians. Toriyama worked at an advertising agency for about three years, but ended up quitting. His dream was to become a manga artist, and to publish his own work. Manga is a style of Japanese comic books and graphic novels, typically aimed at adults as well as children.
In 1978, Toriyama published Wonder Island in the weekly Shonen Jump, which was his first publish as a manga artist. Shonen Jump is a magazine that encourages manga artists to publish their work in the magazines. Akira Toriyama’s Wonder Island wasn’t that popular when it was released, but his soon to be Editor, Kazuhiko Torishima, encouraged him to publish it. Toriyama’s popularity flourished in his later years, and made him what he is today. After Akira Toriyama’s publishing of Wonder Island in the weekly Shonen Jump, he ended up created what is known as Dr. Slump.
The development of Dr. Slump is one of the many reasons why Akira Toriyama is so popular. Dr. Slump is about a man who builds the most “perfect” robot who ends up being a little girl that is named Arale Norimaki. The humans in the manga also co-exist with personified animals. Toriyama’s intention for this manga was to be humorous, and to have it act out as scatological humor. Dr. Slump consisted of 18 volumes, and was made into an anime series having a total of about 243 episodes. The animated series lasted about five years starting from, 1981 and ending 1986.
Although the anime series wasn’t created by Akira Toriyama himself, the series was still based off of his creations in the manga, and also giving him credit for the creation of Dr. Slump. Akira Toriyama soon started a new manga after Dr. Slump. This particular manga managed to make Toriyama’s popularity rise to the very top, and has sold over 150 million copies to date. As everyone knows, the Dragon Ball series has been a hit from the very start. The Dragon ball series began in 1984, and maintained for 11 years ending sometime in 1995. Like Dr.
Slump, Dragon ball had the same intentions of being scatological humor. Dragon ball consisted of 42 volumes, and having a total of 519 episodes, also known as, chapters. The first of the Dragon ball series begins with a boy named Son Goku, who ends up finding out his real identity. Along the way on his adventures, Son Goku meets new friend, and is on a mission to hunt down the Seven Dragon Balls to make any wish he wants. Akira Toriyama wanted the Dragon Ball series to be filled with action. His inspiration for the manga was from the movie, Drunken Master, a Jackie Chan Film.
Toriyama wanted to express the martial arts through Dragon Ball. The fighting in the Dragon Ball series is what made the manga so popular. Son Goku would fight a variety of foes that would be a threat against man kind and the earth. Akira Toriyama also wanted to include powers involved in the series, Powers such as the ability of flight, power blasts like the famous Kamehameha Blast that everyone tries to imitate one time in their life and many more. The manga became a fantasy world that many of the fans came to love.
Since Dragon ball became tremendously popular, Akira Toriyama decided he should create his own Studio where all of his production would come from. His Studio is called Bird Studios, Bird meaning Tori, because Akira Toriyama wanted the Studio to be named after him. Toriyama ended up making the Japanese version of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z animated series. Dragon Ball Z was the annotation of Dragon Ball, and was the more successful and popular version of the two. Dragon Ball Z began from chapter 195 to 519, and also concluding the canon Dragon Ball series.
However, Bird Studios brought animated movies of the Dragon Ball series that were supposed to be non-canon from the actual series. At this point in time, Akira Toriyama wanted it to be that way, and no one knows why it happened like this. Akira Toriyama tends to forget a lot about his work, and how everything is supposed to happen according to plan. He just admits that he forgets to include things, and because the Dragon Ball series is so massive, he has trouble finding where everything should fit when it comes to the timeline of the series.
Akira Toriyama also took in interest in developing animated characters for video games. He was the lead game character design for Dragon Quest in 1986, and 1995’s Chrono Trigger. Dragon quest made it overseas to the United States, but was renamed to Dragon Warrior for reasons unknown. All of Akira Toriyama’s hopes and dreams revolved around wanted to become an artist. As the games came overseas, so did the Dragon Ball series, and that’s what makes Akira Toriyama a brilliant artist.
His work is well known all over the world, and to be able to create a fantasy world just like Dragon Ball takes a great deal of time. Akira Toriyama deserves the fame and glory for his imaginative mind. Akira Toriyama is inspirational, and the detail that he puts in his work is amazing. For someone to start from one simple creation like the 101 Dalmatians, and to decide that he wants to become this extraordinary artist is absolutely astonishing. Akira Toriyama proved that anyone can follow their dreams of becoming an artist, but it only takes time and practice to master it.
