■ Biography:

Akira Toriyama, who is this man? Why is his name on almost every Dragon Ball web site? It maybe due to the fact that he is the creator of the Dragon Ball series and is one the best manga artists who ever lived that he is widely known. Toriyama's work has always contained puns and satirizing human behavior, which have made his mangas some of the most popular works ever.

Well Akira Toriyama was born on April 5th, 1955 in the Aichi Prefecture of the Chubu region (near Tokyo in the outskirts of the Nagoya capitol), Japan. Not much of his childhood is known other than the fact that he enjoyed to doodle sketches while at school and was greatly inspired by Disney's 101 Dalmatians. Toriyama attended and graduated from the design department of the prefecture industrial high school in 1974. His first job after graduating was at an advertising design firm where he spent three years and in 1977 he became tired of the company and decided to take up drawing manga.

In December 1978, after many attempts he finally joined Shueisha, the biggest manga publisher in Japan, as a mangaka (cartoonist) where he started drawing as a professional. His first manga, a short story titled "Wonder Island," was published in the weekly comics periodical, Shuukan (Weekly) Shonen Jump. It wasn't a big success but the following year his first major work was published, Dr. Slump, a manga about a clumsy genius scientist who creates a girl android. Dr. Slump was a huge success selling over 35 million copies in Japan. Dr. Slump continued until 1984, the year that Dragon Ball started, and the animated TV serial of Dr. Slump was shown from 1981 to 1986. His Dragon Ball manga was a greater success in Japan becoming a record-breaking best seller with over 120 million copies sold. All of Toriyama's mangas happen to take place in the same world, Earth. Not because his characters just live there but because his characters from all his mangas co-exist. This is the main reason why Arale from Dr. Slump meets Goku in Penguin Village in one of the Dragon Ball episodes. Toriyama felt that the hectic schedule for weeklies weren't for him and was one of the reasons why he decided to stop working on the Dragon Ball manga. He wanted to draw manga at a more leisurely pace in order to have time for himself and his family. Despite the fact that he wanted time for himself, Toriyama is a very productive artist. He created his own studio (the Bird Studio) where he created many more stories dedicated to the young audience. Dragon Ball Z is Toriyama's only manga created for an older audience, mainly teenagers. What is most admirable of his work is that every idea he develops allows him to develop the next one.

Toriyama likes the countryside atmosphere and dislikes the cold temperature. This is one of the reasons why Goku's residence is in a rural setting and mostly all of the scenes in Dragon Ball are in a bright sunny day. In his free time he enjoys being with his family(his wife, son and daughter), building models, playing video games, and riding on motorcycles. He has had a great variety of pets over the years, including dogs (one of which was named in Dr. Slump as Turbo), cats, and birds. In November of 1997, he started taking care of tropical fish which he enjoyed doing (claiming his favorite one is a fish called the "kongou-fugu", a type of blow fish).

So, you going to tell me more about Toriyama and Dragon Ball?!

Toriyama was inspired by the character, "Dragon Boy," that he had invented a few years earlier in order to create the character of "Goku" in Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball itself is based on the Chinese epic journey, Journey to the West. Shortly after being developed, Dragon Ball became a popular manga that jumped to television airing from 1989 to 1995. After its great success, Dragon Ball's sequel, Dragon Ball Z, was unveiled airing from 1995 to 1996 in Japan. Being an even greater success, Dragon Ball Z ended and TOEI Animation asked to continue the series. Although Toriyama wasn't directly involved in the creation of Dragon Ball GT (Grand Tour), he was involved in supervising the whole development. Dragon Ball GT aired from 1996 to 1997 in Japan. Many of Dragon Ball's names were obtained from something in real life, for example, the "Kamehameha." The "Kamehameha" was named after a Hawaiian King who ruled in the years 1782 to 1819 and was also known as "The Great." His wife suggested that name.

Wow, tell me more!

Aside from Dragon Ball, Toriyama was also a part in a production team of an animation movie called, "Ikimarusama and Shinsukesama." This movie mixed humor and action and showed Toriyama's animating skills. Unfortunately, it wasn't some of his best work. Akira Toriyama tends to make appearances in his comics and series. Not as himself but rather as a robot. When he does make a body appearance in his mangas he is seen with a doctor's facemask. One of Toriyama's other mangas includes "Cowa" (which is slang form for "kowai", meaning scary). A manga whose main characters are two childlike creatures named, "Paifuu" and "Rodorigesu Ho-se." These two creatures live in mystical world where monsters are more frequent than humans. Another of his mangas is "Uchuujin Peke" (Alien X). It's slightly familiar to the beginning of Dragon Ball where an alien is sent to earth for invading it but ends up crash-landing. Another short manga is "Toki-mecha" (Time-Mechanism).

It's about a girl named Tai who meets a boy named Muu in a primitive time. She had created a time machine and became stranded in the past. Yet another of Toriyama's short mangas is "MajinMuraNo Bubul" (Bubul of the Goblin Village). It was made specifically for a contest in Jump magazine's Reader's Cup '97 where the readers would vote for their favorite one from the ones submitted. Guess what? Toriyama won first place! MajinMuraNo Bubul's main character is none other than Bubul, a small creature who lives in another dimension. There happens to be a portal that unites Earth and this other dimension allowing the creatures to roam freely. It just so happens that a bank robber finds this portal and meets Bubul.

Apart from mangas, Toriyama has worked on multiple games for the Game Boy, Super Famicom (Super Nintendo) in Japan and Playstation (with game developer, Square Soft). Some of the games include your various Dragon Ball video games, "Dragon Warrior", "Chrono Trigger" and "Tobal No. 1." "Tobal No. 1" is a 3-D polygon technology fighting game which features 360 degree game play. Working with video games has shown him the technical side of art that made him buy a Macintosh with a pen and an input pad. This computer technology helps him add color to his drawings even easier. I wonder if using this new technology was a factor for him winning the contest for his work, MajinMuraNo Bubul. I end this extended biography with a quote from Toriyama: "KonpuutaWa sugoi!" meaning "Computers are amazing!"

Where is he now?!

Today, Akira is a 5'8" tall man who is sitting at home enjoying a good meal. To tell you the truth i'm not sure what his latest projects are but I do know two things. First off, Toriyama met in Japan with Fox executives to discuss creative plans for the Dragon Ball live-action movie. Toriyama had this to say, "Recent movies have surprised us by entering such territory that used to belong only to comics with wonderful technology and wisdom. As a big movie fan, I am truly looking forward to the movie version of Dragon Ball. I hope you will entertain millions and millions of people with the brand new Dragon Ball of a totally new dimension that surpasses my imagination." Secondly, Toriyama showed up at Chelsea Piers, in the Skate Park in New York City where he drew a picture and gave it to youth of New York City and Communities In Schools of New York City.