Akira
Toriyama was born in April 1955 in the outskirts of
Nagoya,
Japan. From a very young age, whenever Akira desired
something
that he was unable to obtain, he would constantly draw
the
object until he became tired with it. He had wanted a horse as
a
child, so he kept drawing horses until he no longer desired it.
This
became a good basis for him in his career as a mangaka, or
cartoonist
and the creator of Dragonball.
In 1974 he entered high school to study art specializing in
publicity.
In 1977 he decided to abandon this to enroll in cartoon
drawing.
Some time afterwards, he entered Shueisha, the biggest
manga
publisher in Japan, as a mangaka he started drawing as a
professional.
It was here where he published his first work as a
professional.
In December 1978, he published his first manga, Wonder
Island
in the popular Shonen Weekly Jump. It wasn't a big
success
but made him understand that there were people out
there
interested in his comics.
His first well known manga Dr. Slump, became popular very
quickly.
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, is joined by a cast of strange (but
funny)
neighbors and their children, and the occasional visit from
invading
aliens. After about eight years of Dr. Slump, Toriyama ended
the
series.
Shortly after Dr. Slump Akria created another hit series –
Dragonball.
He was inspired by the character Dragon Boy he had
invented
a few years earlier. Apart from the process of adapting his
own
manga into a successful TV series, Toriyama participated in the
production
of a unique animation movie lasting 50 minutes,
Ikimarusama
and Shinsukesama, in which he demonstrated how he
was
equally good at producing TV animes or animated cartoons as
he
was at drawing his own comics. It was a production where in the
humor
of Dragonball and the great action of DBZ were cleverly
combined.
However, it was by no means his best work in any
respect.
It is this originality that has made Akira Toriyama one of
today's
most demanded authors. All his cartoons have one thing in
common:
they all happen in the same world. All the characters meet
there.
This is why Arale from Dr. Slump meets Son Goku in one
episode.
Akira works "college" hours. His typical day goes as follows: He
gets
up at 12 noon, works with his assistant Matsuyama until 7pm,
eat
dinner, take the dog for a walk, exercise until 9. Then he
watches
TV and work at the same time until 11, takes a shower and
then
work until 4 am before going to sleep.
He enjoys working besides a television in the office as well as
at
home. Akira will often get quite distracted by certain programs, yet
he
feels desolate without it. Therefore, he had trained himself to only
periodically
glance briefly at the TV screen.
Along the way, Akira has also been hired to be the character
designer
of several video games, including the Dragon Warrior series
(available
in the US), Chrono Trigger, Tobal No.1, now his famous
characters
are being used in new Dragonball games to come out in
the
US soon.
Akira considers himself the "weaker" of the Mangakas, because
he
cannot handle cold weather at all. On one hand, he hates the
cold,
yet when the heaters are turned on his mind becomes unclear
and
groggy. But there is not much of a choice for him, however.
Because
of his strong dislike of the cold and winter, he wished that
he
could hibernate like the bear during winter. Fortunately, he can
always
immerse himself in the warm summer through setting nearly
100%
of the story either in the tropics or in the summer he is also
deathly
afraid of rats.
Like many of the Mangakas, Akira was no exception to the
mystique
of Walt Disney. He liked the characters so much that he
went
to Disneyland more than 6 times. He was deeply inspired by
the
magnificent portrayal of nature and wildlife in many of the Disney
animation.
Akira’s love of nature is reflected through Cyborg #16.
Toriyama is 174cm tall (that's about 5' 8 1/2"), 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.
