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Akira Toriyama is my idol. Since I'm very young, I love to draw and has been inspired by many european cartoonist until I saw Dragon Ball. I fell in love with his brillant, unique and fabulous style of drawing. His style is unbelivable. He is completely different than most japanese Manga artists, and his style is easily recognisable. His drawing style evolved a lot since the days of Dr.Slump to now. I like both of the styles, but I have a preference for his more detailled style of the mid-Dragon Ball era (from book 17 to 35, it's fabulous). I love his "thin-line" drawings, his genius to create incredible battle scenes. Dragon Ball is an incredible graphic work of art!
Akira Toriyama was born on April 5, 1955, in the Aichi District, Japan. He graduated from the "Prefectural Industrial High School" as a graphic designer, and was working in th industry when he published is first manga in Shonen, in 1978. It was "Wonder Island", the scene of a strange and absurb world, where creature such a fish swimming in air with water bottle on his back, skateboarding monkeys and Tarzan were common (Later in Dr.Slump, Senbei and Arale visited Wonder Island). Later in 1979, came "Today's Highlight Island", the adventures of Kanta, a young boy who loves the food at his school, but can't eat because of dental problems. Then came "Tomato Girl Detective", who placed a girl as a hero like "Dr.Slump" would do, in 1980. "Dr.Slump" was his first great success, and the serie lasted since 1985. A TV serie of 243 episodes took air after the manga had been published only 5 weeks, something which had never happened before in Japan. At the same time, Toriyama also
published short stories, like "Pola & Roid", the winner of a Shonen Jump
artist contest, in 1981. Other short stories will follow, such as "Escape" in
1982, "Chobit" and "Pink" in 1983 which were published in "Fresh
Jump". Then, near the end of 1983, Toriyama begin a serie in two chapter, which will
be unfinished : "Dragon Boy"; the story of a young boy who learnmartial art and
become really strong (hum?). Finally, in november 1984, begin "Dragon Ball", in
the pages of Shonen Jump - immediate success. Other short stories were published at the
same time as Dragon Ball, and most of them can be found in the 2 Akira Toriyama
Sakugekijou books. Other ones were aimed at a more adult public like
"Mamejirokun" and "Lady Red" After the end of DB, Toriyama decided to
take a year off, to relax before beginning anew. All his fans all over the world cannot
wait to see his next manga! It seems that I'm not alone
to worship Toriyama, as he his known and loved world-wide. Here is an except from a
Protoculture Addicts magazine, who shows the high status Toriyama-sensei has reached as an
artist in Japan : Dragon Ball has not only spawned almost 500 episodes of animated shows, but has created a merchandising frenzy with sales of 2.95$ billion in Dragon Ball-related merchandise! Akira Toriyama has reached a status few artists can hope for. An Akira Troyama exhibition has recently toured nine public art galleries and other venues, drawing over 3.3 million people. This is the second time in history that a Manga artist has acheived this level of notoriety (the first beign Osamu Tezuka and the exhibit was after his death). The National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo has made an unprecendented move by exhibiting a manga artist's work. The workds of Akira Toriyama can be seen displayed with those of artists such as Monet and Miro.» Toriyama portray himself as a small wind-up robot, a man with a mask or a bird smoking cigarettes. He makes numerous appearances in Dr.Slump and a few (2) in Dragon Ball as a robot.
Akira Toriyama Sakugekijou 1-2 Akira Toriyama Manga Laboratory Dr.Slump 1- 18 Dragon Ball 1-42 Dabu and Peter 1 Go Go Ackman! New Dr.Slump
Dragon Quest Torneko Big Adventure Chrono Trigger Tobal N.1 Notice : Many of the Dragon Ball pictures you can find on the web are not directly from the hand of Toriyama, but from the animation studio of Dragon Ball Z, Toei Animation. Most of them are very faithful to the original drawings, but nothing beats the real thing. The most important items for any Toriyama-freak are the Dragon Ball coffee table books. See the Dragon Ball - The Manga section for more. And of course, all the Dragon Ball videogames. Akira Toriyama Info
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