Akira Toriyama
Akira Toriyama. A Japanese manga artist and character designer. I chose this specific artist because it’s the one that has had the greatest impact in my life. I started watching Dragon Ball when I was very young and since then I’ve discovered the artistic world. I started off by learning how to draw from my mother and then transitioned into doing drawings on my own. Iâve always used to draw characters from the dragon ball universe and other anime as well. Then I got more into how to design my own characters and what better option than to check on other designers’ work.
Akira has definitely inspired other designers from other anime and cartoons around the world to develop. He certainly inspired me. Masashi Kishimoto, another very known designer of the anime world, openly admits that the character Naruto is inspired by the hero of Dragon Ball, Goku. Kishimoto cites Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball series as one of his influences, noting that Goku, the protagonist, was a key factor when creating Naruto Uzumaki due to his energetic and mischievous personality. Dragon ball is the second best-selling manga of all time and is considered to be one of the main reasons for the period when manga circulation was at its highest in the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. He started the anime world for many people including myself. Something that strongly inspired akira to draw was his love for animals, and also the disney movies during his childhood. One of his favorite Disney movies is One hundred and one Dalmatians. He often reproduced the images he saw in the movie’s picture book and was very impressed by Disney’s skills in character design. He was also strongly influenced by Superman and the ancient myth of the Monkey King, who flew around on a cloud and had a magic staff.
Akira Toriyama (鳥山 æ, Toriyama Akira) was born April 5, 1955. Born in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. When he was younger he had no intention to design, 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. “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.” Thus, he got interested in this work. In 1974, he joined high school to study art, specializing in advertisement. But in 1977 he left it to enroll in âcartoon drawing.â Then he took up a job of designing posters in an advertising company in Nagoya. He worked there for 3 years. Later on quitting the job to become a manga artist. In an interview he said “I submitted a story to a monthly contest for amateur artists in Weekly Shonen Jump. It didn’t win, but afterwards, I was approached by one of the editors [Kazuhiko Torishima, now Weekly Shonen Jump Senior Director], and after I studied for about a year, I became a pro.” His first real debut came when he published his manga called “Wonder Island” in the Weekly Shonen Jump. Wonder Island soon evolved into Toriyama’s first hit “Dr. Slump” which ran from 1980 to 1984.
Speaking of his accomplishments, his first achieved mainstream recognition was his highly successful manga series Dr. Slump. He earned the 1981 Shogakukan Manga Award for best shÅnen or shÅjo manga with Dr. Slump, and it went on to sell over 35 million copies in Japan. It was adapted into a successful anime series, with a second anime created in 1997, 13 years after the manga ended. He then acted as a character designer for several popular video games such as the Dragon Quest series, Chrono Trigger and Blue Dragon. Not the most popular video games but have been very interesting in seeing how Akiraâs style has developed throughout the years. That’s when he made Dragon ball. A famous manga series that also developed into an anime. He also made Dragon ball Z, and Dragon ball Super. Dragon ball would become one of the most popular and successful manga in the world. Having sold 250â300 million copies worldwide, it is the second best-selling manga of all time and is considered to be one of the main reasons for the period when manga circulation was at its highest in the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. Toriyama is regarded as one of the artists that changed the history of comics, as his works are highly influential and popular, particularly Dragon Ball, which many comics artists cite as a source of inspiration. During the time he was active in making Dragon Ball, he produced 519 chapters that were collected into 42 volumes. Moreover, the success of the manga led to five anime adaptations, several animated movies, numerous video games, and mega-merchandising.
In my opinion I think that Akira is the father of anime and that will always have me going back to watch dragon ball. I really admire his work and style of character development. He started out by doing it for fun and now heâs one of the most famous anime creators of all time. So famous that even other anime designers use his work for inspiration.
