10 things you didn’t know about Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball

This post is also available in: Français (French) Deutsch (German)

Akira Toriyama is without doubt one of the best-known mangaka of all time. His magnum opus, Dragon Ball, has gone far beyond the realm of manga to become a multimedia intellectual property whose renown extends far beyond borders.

Akira Toriyama’s name precedes him, but he’s not really a fan of the limelight and gives very few interviews. Nevertheless, he has never hesitated to share aspects of his life with those in a position to do so.

Nevertheless, given its somewhat private nature, there are some interesting things about Akira Toriyama and his personal life that even the most assiduous fans may not know.

SOMMAIRE

10. Akira Toriyama was president of a manga club in high school.

Akira Toriyama didn’t decide to try his hand at becoming a manga author until later in life, only starting to draw comics at the age of 23. Yet his passion and love for manga has always been present.

This love began to manifest itself when Toriyama was president of his high school’s manga club. Although he didn’t realize it himself, Toriyama’s love of manga never left him, and only grew stronger with time.

9. Akira Toriyama is a video game designer

Akira Toriyama is best known as the creator of famous manga series such as Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump, but he has also been involved in other equally famous IPs. Perhaps equally influential is his work as the artistic designer of the Dragon Quest series and the classic game Chrono Trigger.

Dragon Quest is now considered a pioneer of console role-playing games, and this is largely thanks to Toriyama’s contribution to art and character design. As a game designer, he created what is perhaps the most iconic of all role-playing enemies: the slime.

8. Akira Toriyama has genuine respect for other manga artists

Akira Toriyama, himself a world-renowned manga artist, has a deep respect for those who do good work in his field. In fact, he’s one of the main reasons Bleach came into being .

Many who reach his level of success and fame could easily look down on others, but Toriyama is humble enough to appreciate the talent and creativity of his peers and contemporaries.

Akira Toriyama’s appreciation for other manga artists extends to his personal life, as he has a notoriously extensive collection of autographs from great manga artists. His collection includes such greats as Hisashi Eguchi and Yudetamango.

7. Akira Toriyama never planned to write a Shonen Battle manga

Akira Toriyama first worked as an illustrator for a design company and even did some lettering. However, he didn’t like the job at all and eventually quit.

Toriyama began drawing manga on his 23rd birthday and had originally planned to be a gag manga artist, which is evident in his comic dialogues and characteristic humor.

It was actually his publisher who suggested he try his hand at drawing a fighting manga, and he eventually gave in and gave it a go, despite his initial reluctance. It’s a good thing he did, because the world of shonen anime has never been the same since.

6. Akira Toriyama is a big fan of Jackie Chan

As a martial arts-based anime, Dragon Ball is clearly influenced by popular martial arts figures such as Bruce Lee. In fact, many have pointed out that Goku’s latest Ultra Instinct form is directly linked to Bruce Lee’s fighting philosophy.

However, humor is also an important aspect of Toriyama’s Dragon Ball series, so it’s not surprising that Jackie Chan had a big influence on him.

The feeling was certainly mutual. In the 1986 film My Lucky Stars, Jackie Chan even dressed up as Arele-Chan, the Dr. Slump character, as a tribute to Toriyama, and the two men later met up for a joint interview.

5. Akira Toriyama was initially interested in money

In the art world, many creators explain that they continue to express themselves solely for the love of their craft. While it’s true that he’s passionate about manga and anime, Akira Toriyama’s initial goals weren’t quite so pure.

In fact, Toriyama never intended to become a manga artist; he only decided to try because he needed money after quitting his job at the age of twenty. Fortunately, he had more than enough talent to make it happen.

4. Akira Toriyama’s early works were repeatedly rejected by publishers.

Success was rarely forthcoming, and despite the incredible popularity and influence of his works, Akira Toriyama faced many rejections early in his career.

He has had many works rejected by various publications, mainly because his work wasn’t always well suited to manga, given his background in drawing.

Toriyama claims to have drawn over 500 pages of unsuccessful stories before enjoying a small success with Tomatoe The Cutesy Gumshoe. Even after his first published stories, Toriyama had to continue learning from his audience in order to develop the well-honed style that would characterize his first truly successful series, Dr. Slump.

3. Akira Toriyama almost gave up before his success

Akira Toriyama was close to giving up even before his success as an artist took off. Since he’d only started drawing manga to make a quick buck, his original plan was to quit as soon as he got paid.

The only reason Akira Toriyama continued to draw manga is that he was stubborn after his first attempts were considered failures. His pride wouldn’t let him give up after that first failure, but his stubbornness paid off in the long run.

2. Dragon Ball had two early prototypes

Dragon Ball is by far Toriyama’s most famous work, but it wasn’t the first of its kind. Dragon Ball went through many prototypes, testing the concepts and character designs that would later become Dragon Ball icons.

The first is Dragon Boy, a two-chapter manga featuring a main character who looks a lot like a young Gohan with bat wings, and whose personality shares many similarities with that of Goku.

Shortly afterwards, The Adventure of Tongpoo was released, featuring a cyborg boy named Tongpoo and his teammate Plamo, a tall, machine-gun-wielding girl whose design would later be used to create Bulma in Dragon Ball.

1. Piccolo is Akira Toriyama’s favorite Dragon Ball character.

In an interview on the official Dragon Ball website promoting the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie, Akira Toriyama declared that his favorite character was none other than Piccolo.

This may come as a surprise to some fans, given that Goku is the series’ main character, and Toriyama has declared that Gohan has the greatest potential of all the characters in the series.

Nevertheless, as things stand, Piccolo remains at the top of Akira Toriyama’s list of favorite Dragon Ball characters. Given the central role Piccolo played in Super Hero, Toriyama seems to be finally giving his favorite character the love he deserves.

See also:

Si vous avez aimé cet articles, alors ceux-ci peuvent aussi vous interesser

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll to Top